In a report by The Guardian, it has been revealed that a covert unit of Scotland Yard has been posing as activists and taking part in various protest groups. Even after being arrested and prosecuted, the undercover officers maintained their false identity as an activist while under oath.
“Revelations about the deployment of police spies in protest groups have provoked controversy this year, but the latest allegations may be the most damaging. Police chiefs now stand accused of authorising their undercover officers to give false identities in a deliberate manipulation of the legal system.”
An investigation by the Philadelphia Inquirer identified “more than a dozen school police officers who have been arrested on drug, assault, theft, and other charges in recent years – either before they were employed by the district or while they were on active duty.”
“In Philadelphia, officers undergo Federal Bureau of Investigation, child abuse, and state criminal background checks, said Andrew Rosen, of the district’s human resources office. But the district looks only at convictions when hiring – not arrests – and may still go ahead and employ the applicant if the crime isn’t cited as a disqualifier in the Pennsylvania School Code.”
The killer, a 72-year-old prisoner named Edward Harold Bell, told the Houston Chronicle in interviews and letters this summer that he killed 11 girls here in the 1970s, naming four of them and describing the rest. Though Bell previously confessed to two of the same crimes in 1989 letters authorities kept secret, he’s never been prosecuted for any of a string of unsolved serial killings of adolescent girls in the Houston area in the 1970s. The Chronicle stories have resulted in old homicide cases being re-opened, new information being offered, old evidence being retested and – for some families – the first solid leads in years in murder cases that have remained unsolved for decades.
In 1978, Edward Harold Bell shot and killed a man in front of the victim’s mother. He was subsequently sent to prison for murder. However, it wasn’t the first time he had killed, he claims. Bell, now in his 70′s, has confessed to the string of murders that occurred in the Houston area from 1971 to 1977.
“In disturbing letters sent to Harris and Galveston county prosecutors in 1998 – but kept secret for 13 years – Bell claimed to have killed seven girls, including two Galveston 15-year-olds shot as they stood tied up and half naked in the chilly waters of Turner Bayou, according to excerpts and descriptions of Bell’s letters obtained by the Houston Chronicle.”
This investigative report by A.J. Lagoe of WRIC TV-8 in Richmond, Va., calls into question the ability of some Petersburg police officers to accurately run radar. Digging deeper, Lagoe reveals that officers who were not certified to run radar were passing out speeding tickets. One specific instance involves an officer who openly admitted having no knowledge of how to run “tracking history,” which ensures the officer pulls over the correct vehicle. To view the video, click the link below.
Petersburg Ticket Investigation
In the series, “A Lethal Dose,” the Star Tribune addresses alarming facts about synthetic drugs. In part II, the Star Tribune reveals how simply it is to obtain these highly dangerous chemicals. All it takes is a credit card and the Internet. The substances are often marketed as harmless bath salts, herbal incense or research chemicals. To find out just how dangerous these drugs are, the Star Tribune ordered 30 different types “from dealers in the United States and overseas” with plans to have the drugs tested.
The majority of the packages arrived “mislabeled” and “some items came with deliberately misleading instructions on how they should be used.”
“The laboratory test results disturbed several drug experts who reviewed the findings for the newspaper. The packages contained an array of psychoactive stimulants, hallucinogens and cannabinoids. Also troubling: Concentration levels varied so much that a dose of one was many times more potent than the same dose of another — even when the products carried the same name, the experts said.”
In this 3-part series titled “Twisted Truth,” The News & Observer reporter J. Andrew Curliss investigates the questionable practices of Durham District Attorney Tracey Cline. This report reveals that Cline has purposefully withheld important information and evidence from the court.
“Cline’s conduct is under scrutiny for similar behavior in at least five cases …”
“In her quest to convict those accused of serious crimes, Cline has misstated facts to judges in other cases, a News & Observer investigation shows. She has not provided evidence favorable to defendants, as is required under the U.S. Constitution, state law and ethics rules that govern lawyers.”
Melissa Taylor, McClatchy, reports on the findings of a disturbing academic research study. “A group of law and statistics professors found that minorities in the military were twice as likely to be sentenced to death as their white counterparts, a statistic higher than is known to exist in most civilian court systems.” However, the authors of the study also stated that there is “no suggestion here that any participant in the military criminal justice system consciously and knowingly discriminated on the basis of the race of the accused or the victim”, despite the fact that there is “substantial evidence that many actors in the American criminal justice system are unconsciously influenced by the race of defendants and their victims.”
Voice of San Diego reporter Keegan Kyle, reveals several cases of misconduct by members of the San Diego police department. Former San Diego police office, Anthony Arevalos currently faces 21 felony charges. Several women have filed complaints against Arevalos, accusing the officer of sexually assaulted them or of offering sexual bribes in lieu of an arrest. Police investigated he first complaint in February, 2010. The investigation resulted in a recommendation that "prosecutors with the District Attorney's Office bring charges against one of their own." Charges were never filed, and the officer continued to patrol. Arevalos was fired this year after an internal investigation into another sexual harassment complaint. Since October, "11 internal or criminal investigations" have been admitted by the SDPD, causing "Police Chief Bill Lansdowne to acknowledge an internal problem," and "publicly apologize for the conduct of his officers."
In the latest installment of the series "Drugging Delinquents," by the Palm Beach Post, reporter Michael LaForgia reveals that several doctors who counsel and medicate minors in state custody have their own troubled pasts. Psychiatrists with various legal transgressions have been hired by Florida's Department of Juvenile Justice and work directly with jailed children. Dr. Gold Smith Dorval was hired in 2007 and had pleaded "no contest" to a felony theft charge in 2004. Another doctor, who worked for the DJJ from 2008-2011, was disciplined in 2002 for over-prescribing medication that eventually led to a patient's death.
