Tag: crime

Dozens of Troops Suspected of Advocating Overthrow of US Government, New Pentagon Extremism Report Says

An annual Pentagon report on extremism within the ranks reveals that 78 service members were suspected of advocating for the overthrow of the U.S. government and another 44 were suspected of engaging or supporting terrorism.

The report released Thursday by the Defense Department inspector general revealed that in fiscal 2023 there were 183 allegations of extremism across all the branches of military, broken down not only into efforts to overthrow the government and terrorism but also advocating for widespread discrimination or violence to achieve political goals.

The statistics indicate the military continues to grapple with extremism following its public denunciations and a stand-down across the services ordered by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in 2021. Furthermore, the numbers do not make it clear whether the military’s approach is working. In 2021, the year the data was first released to Congress, there were 270 allegations of extremist activities. In 2022, that figure dropped to 146 before rebounding over the past year.

The Army had the most allegations in fiscal 2023 with 130 soldiers suspected of participation in extremist activity. The Air Force suspected 29 airmen; the Navy and Marine Corps reported 10 service members each. For the first time, the inspector general also reported numbers for the Space Force as a separate entity from the other services — it suspected four Guardians of extremism.

The IG report also included instances of alleged criminal gang activity: There were 58 allegations of gang activity across the military.

However, the report did note that, out of all the suspected extremism and criminal gang activity, 68 of the total cases were investigated and cleared or deemed unsubstantiated.

Keep reading

Nevada Officials Approve Plan To Let People With Marijuana Convictions Become Police Officers

Nevada officials have officially adopted a proposal to amend hiring standards for police officers to allow job candidates who were previously disqualified for certain marijuana-related offenses to now be eligible for law enforcement positions.

After holding a public hearing on the reform in October, the state Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) voted to approve the change, revising regulations around hiring that currently prevent a person from becoming a peace officer if they have been convicted of an offense involving the unlawful use, sale or possession of a controlled substance.

The new language says the restriction doesn’t apply “to a person who has been convicted of an offense involving the unlawful use, sale, or possession of marijuana if the offense is not unlawful at the time the person submits an application for certification as a police officer.”

The commission said the change will expand the pool of eligible candidates for law enforcement positions and “aid agencies in the ability to fill much needed positions.” There will be no adverse effects from the reform, it says, nor additional costs to regulators.

Approval of the change, which was first proposed in May, does not mean that officers can use cannabis once employed, but it represents a significant policy change, especially given that the current rules are written in a way that explicitly emphasizes the no-tolerance policy for marijuana.

Keep reading

Bob Menendez’s gold bar stash includes bars reported stolen in armed robbery a decade ago

It turns out that some of the gold bars stashed by indicted Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) have a previous history in a separate crime, NBC New York reported on Monday. Specifically, four of the bars are tied to a New Jersey businessman now accused of bribing the senator, who reported them stolen in an armed robbery a decade before.

“The businessman, Fred Daibes, reported to police he was the victim of an armed robbery in 2013, and he asked police recover the gold bars stolen from him. In the 2013 robbery, Daibes reported $500,000 in cash and 22 gold bars were stolen, Edgewater police records show. Police later caught four suspects with the stolen goods,” reported Jonathan Dienst, Courtney Copenhagen, and Tom Winter. “To get his property back, Daibes signed “property release forms” certifying the gold bars belonged to him, the records show.”

Menendez and his wife were charged with accepting the gold bars, as well as cash and a luxury car, from Daibes and two other businessmen in return for rendering official acts. A superseding indictment by federal prosecutors further alleges Menendez and his wife also acted as unregistered foreign agents for the government of Egypt.

The two of them have denied all charges against them.

Keep reading

Arkansas football coach Benjamin Coney, 26, and his wife Emily Brinley, 25, are arrested after arranging sex with undercover cop posing as a girl because ‘my wife likes them young’

An Arkansas minor league football coach and his wife have been arrested after they tried to lure an underage girl to have sex with them and was caught by an undercover cop, authorities say.

Benjamin Coney, 26, and Emily Brinley, 25, were charged Monday with internet stalking of a child and conspiracy to commit rape.

Each are being held at the Benton County Jail on $200,000 bail.

According to the affidavit, the couple met with a person they thought was a child on an encrypted app. They set up a meeting place in Northwest Arkansas from their home in Comey, about 188 miles away.

When the couple arrived thinking they were going to meet their young victim, they instead met an undercover detective with the Benton County Sheriff’s Office. 

The duo was arrested and police found sexual ‘aids,’ cellphones and lube the their car, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette.

Keep reading

Las Vegas police search for suspect after 5 homeless people are shot, killing 1

Five homeless people were shot in Las Vegas, one of them fatally, and police say they are searching for a lone suspect

Las Vegas police search for suspect after 5 homeless people are shot, killing 1The Associated PressLAS VEGAS

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Five homeless people were shot in Las Vegas on Friday, one of them fatally, and police were searching for a lone suspect, authorities said.

The shooting occurred around 5:30 p.m. near a freeway overpass in the northeastern part of the city, according to Las Vegas police.

A police commander initially said two were killed, but Las Vegas Metro Police Department spokesperson Jason Johansson later said at a briefing that one man in his 50s was pronounced dead and another was in critical condition, while three others were in stable condition.

“Right now we are trying to figure out what exactly happened during the shooting, the information we have is kind of conflicting,” Johansson said.

Keep reading

LA man accused of murdering three homeless men AND fourth man during horrific ‘follow-home’ robbery in crime-ridden city

Los Angeles police have nabbed a man accused of killing three homeless men – and a fourth victim gunned down in his garage during a ‘follow-home’ robbery. 

On Saturday afternoon, Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore announced that the man arrested for the murders is 33-year-old Jerrid Joseph Powell.

He is also the prime suspect in the murder of Nicholas Simbolon – a father of two – which took place last Tuesday night in San Dimas.

Moore said the department suspects Powell was responsible for four murders in four days.

The suspect, who is a Los Angeles resident, is alleged to have shot three homeless men across the city from November 26 to November 29.

His vehicle was identified by the police in Beverly Hills last Wednesday. Upon conducting a traffic stop, authorities recovered the gun used in the murders – he was subsequently arrested.

On Saturday, Moore said: ‘Over the course of the investigation of our murders, we were able to identify the vehicle we believe is connected to our three homicides as being the same vehicle that Mr. Powell used in the murder of Mr. Simbolon.’

‘[We learned] that it was being held in custody of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department as evidence of their murder.

LA County Sheriff Robert Luna discussed the use of the controversial license plate reader system law enforcement officers sometimes use to identify suspicious vehicles.

‘We know there’s controversy out there about the usage of this system, but let me tell our community something. If we did not enter that plate into the system, this individual that we believe is responsible for at least four murders may have [still] been out there and reoffended,’ he said.

Keep reading

Inmate Who Shanked Derek Chauvin 22 Times Is Former FBI Informant Who Led Mexican Mafia Faction

A 52-year-old man who stabbed former police officer Derek Chauvin with an “improvised knife” is a former FBI informant, according to court documents filed on Dec. 1.

John Turscak stabbed Chauvin 22 times before being subdued by responding corrections officers. He later told them that he would have killed the man convicted for the murder of George Floyd (who had an elephant dose of fentanyl in his system and died ‘with’ Covid).

The stabbing occurred on Nov. 24 around 12:30 p.m., the day after Thanksgiving known commonly as Black Friday. Turscak waived his Miranda rights and told FBI agents that he ‘did not want to kill Chauvin, but had been thinking about attacking him for a month,’ taking the opportunity when both of them were in the law library at the Federal Correctional Institution Tucson.

“Turscak stated that his attack of [Mr. Chauvin] on Black Friday was symbolic with the Black Lives Matter Movement and the ‘black hand’ symbol associated with the Mexican Mafia criminal organization,” said prosecutors.

As the Epoch Times notes, Turscak was charged with four counts, including assault with a dangerous weapon and assault with intent to commit murder. He was moved after the stabbing to an adjacent federal penitentiary in Tucson, where he remained in custody Friday, inmate records show.

Mr. Turscak did not have a lawyer listed on the court docket.

A lawyer for Mr. Chauvin did not return an inquiry about the charges.

Federal officials have said an inmate at the Tuscon facility was stabbed on Nov. 24 and that the inmate was rushed to a hospital. They said they would not identify the inmate.

“For privacy and safety reasons, we are not providing the name of the victim or their medical status,” a Bureau of Prisons (BOP) spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email.

Minnesota officials had said that Mr. Chauvin was the inmate and that he was expected to survive.

Keep reading

Philadelphia lawmakers vote to ban ski masks in some public places, a move praised by police but panned by rights advocates

The Philadelphia City Council passed a bill Thursday that bans the use of ski masks in parks, schools, public transit or other city-owned buildings, a move they say will help law enforcement solve crimes but that civil rights advocates believe will criminalize people of color.

The bill, passed by a 13-2 vote, will fine offenders $250 for each offense, and up to $2,000 if a mask is worn during the commission of a crime.

Mayor Jim Kenney will sign it into law early next week, according to council member Anthony Phillips, who drafted the ordinance.

“The City of Philadelphia has been under siege with individuals who use ski masks to commit crimes. It’s caught onto not just young people, but young adults who have made this a particular thing to do,” Phillips told CNN. “The Philadelphia Police Department can’t tell who’s a criminal and not a criminal, which makes it difficult for crimes to be solved in Philadelphia.”

Sarah Peterson, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office, told CNN, “The administration will review the legislation, and in the meantime looks forward to our ongoing work with City Council on the urgent matter of ensuring public safety.”

The Covid-19 pandemic, which resulted in people wearing various face coverings including ski masks, “complicated policing” because mask mandates made it easier for criminals to conceal their identities, Philadelphia Police Department Deputy Commissioner Francis Healy said during a committee hearing in November.

“There was a time not so long ago when any average police officer would see a person donning a mask before entering a convenience store or a bank and they would believe a robbery was about to occur,” Healy said. “However, the pandemic changed that mindset where people were actually more fearful of people without masks than with masks.”

Although mask mandates are no longer required, some people continue to wear ski masks with the intention of concealing their identities when committing crimes, Healy says.

“Criminals have continued using masks to avoid capture and it remains problematic, so the department fully supports the intent and rationale behind this ordinance,” Healy said.

Keep reading

LA cops are hunting a SERIAL KILLER after three homeless people were shot dead by ‘hooded male suspect’ – as police warn locals to avoid sleeping outside alone at night

LAPD has warned that a potential serial killer could be on the loose after three homeless people were murdered in the past week. 

Police are asking the public’s assistance in identifying the suspect responsible for three murders that occurred on November 26, 27, and 29 around downtown and in South Los Angeles, California. 

The LAPD said the investigation is at the early stage, but noted similarities in those three killings. 

‘A single individual approached each one and shot and killed each one as they slept,’ LAPD Chief Michel Moore said. 

‘The suspect, hooded, targets lone, unsheltered individuals sleeping on the streets, shooting them before fleeing in a vehicle without any observed altercation’, LAPD reported during a Friday afternoon press conference. 

‘To the person responsible: We will find you, we will catch you and you will be held accountable,’ Mayor Karen Bass said. 

Keep reading