Crime Newswire

Technology Helps Continued Fight to Bring Down American Crime Rates
Huffington Post (blog)
Despite frightening news reports we see on a nightly basis, crime rates around the world have been dropping for decades. Property crimes, for example, have fallen by more than 25 percent in the past two decades, despite years of recession and stagnant ...

Lowering crime rates using next century's technology has been an effort put forth by both public and private entities. Here are three examples of commonplace place items that have become excellent detectives. Drew Hendricks http://www.huffingtonpost.com/drew-hendricks/

In a ruling released Thursday, the Colorado Supreme Court reversed an order to close a hearing in the Jessica Ridgeway murder case to the public.... Andrea Rael http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrea rael/

6abc.com
Murder suspect wanted in New Jersey crime spree
6abc.com
Murder suspect wanted in New Jersey crime spree. Updated at 06:08 PM today. Zedrick Johnson. Tags: new jersey, burlington county, homicide, robbery, local/state. Comment Now; Email · Print · Report a typo. ShareThis via email, AIM, social bookmarking ...

and more »Google News

Police in three states are still hunting for a Range Rover whose occupants opened fire on another car on the Vegas Strip this morning and set off a deadly chain reaction. Cops don't know most of the details, but they say it started with a dispute of some kind in...

Regardless of whether or not Oscar Pistorius is guilty, something obviously went terribly wrong in his relationship with Reeva Steenkamp. Susan Saper Galamba http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-saper-galamba/

TIME
Former police Sgt. Drew Peterson gets 38 years for ex-wife's murder
CNN
(CNN) -- After years policing Illinois streets for criminals, Drew Peterson is now among them -- and will be for more than three decades, a judge ruled Thursday. Will County Judge Edward Burmila sentenced Peterson to 38 years in prison in the murder of ...
Judge sentences Drew Peterson to 38 years in prison for murderFox News
Drew Peterson Sentenced to 38 Years for MurderTIME
Drew Peterson Gets 38 Years For Murder Of Kathleen SavioCBS2 Chicago

all 149 news articles »

Statistics, quotes, citations and facts aside, there is a basic question that resides unspoken in our common humanity with regards to crime: that of punishment's efficacy. Molly Rowan Leach http://www.huffingtonpost.com/molly-rowan-leach/

Is UNNAMED DAD custodial? Or did this whack job merely have liberal visitation rights? I'm thinking he was custodial since the incident took place on a Monday night.

So who gave this control freak idiot custody? Someone who flips out over eyeliner? Who was the judge? Let's see names.

Hopefully, this poor girl will be able to stay with her mother from now on--but don't count on it. The FR people don't like mothers regaining custody....

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20130221/NEWS03/130221019/Police-Murfreesboro-father-girlfriend-beat-13-year-old-for-using-makeup

Police: Murfreesboro father, girlfriend beat 13-year-old for using makeup

Feb. 21, 2013 3:21 PM, | Written by Mark Bell

MURFREESBORO — A Murfreesboro father and his girlfriend are charged with beating his daughter early Tuesday morning after the girlfriend confronted the 13-year-old over the use of her makeup.

Both the girlfriend and father were charged with child abuse Tuesday by Murfreesboro Police Detective Tommy Roberts, who investigated the case referred to him by the Department of Children’s Services.

The detective wrote in arrest reports that his investigation showed that “(The girlfriend) had been out drinking with some friends,” Monday night into Tuesday morning.

She came home shortly before 3 a.m. Tuesday to discover her eyeliner had been tampered with, and got into an altercation with her boyfriend, according to Roberts’ reports.

Both the girlfriend and father woke the girl up around 3 a.m. to confront her about using the makeup without permission.

“Investigation further showed that the girlfriend struck the victim in the face multiple times,” Roberts reported. “Investigation showed that ... the father of the victim, failed to protect his daughter and even participated in the abuse, causing injury to her arms and kicking her in the leg and buttocks.”

The Tennessean is not naming the suspects to protect the identity of the victim, who is a minor.

The girlfriend and father were interviewed by Roberts at MPD headquarters, while the victim was interviewed at a DCS facility.

Following his investigation, both were booked around 7:30 p.m. Tuesday into the Rutherford County Adult Detention Center.

Both made their $2,000 bond in less than two hours, jail records show.

DCS investigator April Dalton completed a child safety plan on the daughter, and the teen was placed into the custody of her biological mother, who resides in another county.

The girlfriend and father are scheduled to appear in court April 18. Neither could be reached for comment on this story.

Violent criminals are arrested, prosecuted, and are back out on the streets to commit more crime at a lightning fast pace. So where is the root of this problem? Bryan Wood http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bryan-wood/

The Inquisitr
Pussy Riot Reflects One Year On: I Have No Regrets
The Inquisitr
Pussy Riot member, Yekaterina Samutsevich, has spoken out one year after the band's arrest in Moscow, telling the Associated Press, “I have no regrets.” Huffington Post reports Samutsevich conducted an interview outside Moscow's Christ the Saviour ...

Daily Mail
This computer game is going to start a riot: Controversial new violence ...
Daily Mail
This isn't the first video game about rioting. Rockstar Games, the company that puts out controversial games like Manhunt and Grand Theft Auto, released a game called State Of Emergency in 2002 that caused a bit of controversy because it took place ...

Google News

Drew Peterson—the swaggering former suburban Chicago police officer who gained notoriety after his much-younger fourth wife vanished in 2007—was sentenced to 38 years in prison today for murdering his third wife. Illinois does not have the death penalty, and the 59-year-old Peterson had faced a maximum 60-year prison...

Wall Street Journal (blog)
France Calls for EU Rule on Meat Origin Label
Wall Street Journal (blog)
Corruption Currents, The Wall Street Journal's corruption blog, digs into the ever-present and ever-changing world of corporate corruption. It is a source of news, analysis and commentary for those who earn a living by finding corruption or by avoiding it.

and more »

WINTER PARK, Fla. -- Authorities say a university student in Florida stabbed a classmate with a screwdriver while uttering racial slurs during a statistics class.... AP http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tyler-kingkade/

ScienceBlog.com (blog)
Computers could help in riot responses
UPI.com
"As riots are rare events it is difficult to anticipate if and how they will evolve," study co-author Toby Davies said. "Consequently, one of the main strategic issues that arose for the police during the 2011 London riots concerned when and where to ...
City layout key to predicting riotsScienceBlog.com (blog)

all 2 news articles »

What a freaking nitwit.

Dad is identified as GANNON MENDEZ.

http://dailycaller.com/2013/02/20/father-allegedly-abused-son-after-rooting-for-ok-state-over-oklahoma/

Father allegedly abused son after rooting for OK-State over Oklahoma

6:25 PM 02/20/2013
 
KFOR Oklahoma City

PERKINS, Okla. – Police in Perkins investigate a disturbing case of child abuse.

A 41-year-old father in Perkins, right outside of Stillwater, is accused of repeatedly beating his son because the boy liked OU better than OSU.

The suspect has been charged with one count of child abuse in Payne county.

According to police, after a 9-year-old boy told a classmate in school that he roots for OU not OSU, the boy’s father, Gannon Mendez, then allegedly beat the boy at home with a wooden paddle.

CBS Local
Orie Melvin, Sister Found Guilty In Corruption Trial
CBS Local
PITTSBURGH (KDKA/AP) – The jury has found suspended state Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin and her sister, Janine Orie, guilty on all but one count in a campaign corruption trial. Both were found guilty on all counts except official oppression.
Pa. Supreme Court justice convicted of corruptionTimesonline.com
Supreme Court justice convicted of corruptionYork Dispatch
Justice Melvin convicted on most corruption chargesScranton Times-Tribune
Philadelphia Magazine (blog) -ABA Journal
all 27 news articles »Google News

WINTER PARK, Fla. -- Authorities say a university student in Florida stabbed a classmate with a screwdriver while uttering racial slurs during a statistics class.... AP http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-moye/

Excellent piece by Jacquielynn Floyd. Blunt talk about child abuse is a welcome change. Too often we just see a lot of hand wringing and moaning about "tragedy."

We've reported on dad TOMMY JAMES WHITE JR. before--who apparently had some sort of visitation, as the mother was reportedly married to someone else.

 http://www.dallasnews.com/news/columnists/jacquielynn-floyd/20130220-does-accused-father-weep-for-dead-baby--or-for-himself.ece

Does accused father weep for dead baby — or for himself?

Jacquielynn Floyd

Published: 20 February 2013 10:13 PM

Tommy James White Jr. must have partied hard last Thursday night. By his own admission, he woke up early Friday with a hangover and a skull-busting headache.

The baby was crying.

What happened next, said the 20-year-old White — in a series of blubbering, self-pitying jailhouse interviews this week — was that he “held” and “rocked” and “bounced” his 5-week-old daughter, trying to calm her down.

“I’ve never hurt anyone,” he sobbed. “I was just rocking her, holding her.”

Babies, of course, don’t die from being rocked and held. They do die from being choked, punched or shaken so violently that their brains scramble like eggs inside their fragile skulls.

Police think something along those lines happened to Spencer Claire White, who was unconscious and not breathing when other family members came home after leaving her for only a half-hour in her father’s care.

Garland police say White’s girlfriend and another relative went to a store about 5 a.m. Friday to buy the baby a pacifier. When they returned, Spencer — who, at five weeks, was about the age at which many babies exhibit their first toothless smile — was still and unresponsive.

She died Friday night at Children’s Medical Center Dallas.

Perhaps White, now in the Dallas County Jail on a capital murder charge, really was “just rocking her,” as he demonstrated for the television cameras, miming a person carefully supporting a watermelon.

Or maybe he just accidentally “squeezed her too tight,” as he indicated by mimicking a wide receiver cradling a football to his chest.

Then there’s the possibility that he couldn’t hold his temper for 30 minutes of routine child care and throttled the baby to stop her crying.

If that’s what happened, White is an intemperate monster, but he’s a monster with a lot of company.

During its first year of life, an infant in the U.S. runs a higher risk of being a homicide victim than at any other childhood age under 17.

Documented statistics show that more than one-fifth of all injury-related deaths of young babies are deliberate homicides.

Experts believe that that number may be seriously underreported, with homicides often mistaken as accidents or sudden infant death syndrome.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an infant killed in its first week of life is most likely to be the victim of his or her mother. Researchers speculate the motive may often be “a mother trying to hide the pregnancy and birth.”

After its first week of life and until its first birthday, an infant is more likely to be killed by an adult male — usually a father or stepfather.

A CDC report says this secondary spike in homicide risk occurs at about six to eight weeks, which “may reflect the peak in the daily duration of crying among normal infants.”

Babies cry. Why in the world do immature adults who lack the patience and self-control to cope with that irrefutable reality become parents?

It puzzles me to no end that people don’t picket the jailhouse and burn up the phone lines in their outrage over cases like this.

I can’t understand why they’re not down at the state Legislature right now, demanding better child-welfare and public-education and birth-control programs.

We’ll have to wait for a definitive medical examiner’s report to determine exactly what killed Spencer White, but court documents filed by Garland police say her father “admitted to numerous assaults on the child.”

If whatever killed her was not only a beating, but the last in a series of beatings, then this child’s short life was an unimaginable torment.

White, of course, is entitled to his version of events. As he piteously wailed to the TV stations, “They’ll give me the death penalty, and I’m innocent.”

Even if he’s guilty, he might as well dry his tears and calm down. If his case ever comes to that, it will be at the end of an exhaustive legal process that takes years to complete.

It’ll be a lot longer than five weeks.