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Tag: Crime

  • NC Middle School Terrifies Kids with a Masked Gunman

    Imagine that you send your kid to school one day, only to hear that a masked man wielding a gun showed up. You’d assume the worst, right? After all, stories where people take guns into schools never end well. While such a situation happened at a Wayne County, NC school on Friday, no one was harmed–the mask was real, but the gun was fake and was being used to teach the sixth graders at Eastern Wayne Middle School a “lesson.”

    Apparently at a middle school in Wayne County, some employees think that getting a masked man with a gun to rob students is an appropriate way to teach them how to be aware of their surroundings. While some parents might think that’s an extreme way to teach kids a lesson, but not be too upset with it as long as they had a chance to opt their kids in or out, parents of Eastern Wayne Middle School students never had such an opportunity. Parents didn’t learn of the training exercise until after it was conducted.

    The school received quite a few phone calls from ticked off parents, which prompted school officials to send out a letter explaining the situation on Monday. The letter explains that the masked man with a toy gun was part of an “enrichment lesson on exhibiting good citizenship.” The letter goes on to say that after a staff member entered all of the sixth grade classrooms and pretended to rob them, their teachers explained that it was all play-acting.

    (image)

    School official Ken Derksen says that the exercise lacked sensitivity and admits that maybe having a masked man with a gun scare kids wasn’t the best way to teach the lesson. “It obviously did lack that sensitivity that was needed…all of our schools work very hard to promote a safe learning environment…in this situation, the exercise in its original intent was appropriate, but in how it was executed it obviously lacked judgment,” said Derksen, who is a Public Information Officer with the Wayne County Public Schools.

    Would you be outraged if your child were part of such a training exercise? Respond below.

    One parent of a child who has already graduated says that he thinks parents have “every right to be upset.” “I think after Sandy Hook less than a year ago and countless school shootings in recent years, it is quite understandable if these sixth graders were traumatized by the sight of a paid fake masked gunman entering the school,” said Clint Belue. “I think the parents have every right to be upset particularly since they had no knowledge beforehand about the paid fake gunman. Parents send their kids to school to learn, not to be terrorized by a paid fake gunman.”

    So far no action has been taken against the staff member who decided to dress as a masked gunman and scare the kids, but officials are looking into the situation to decide whether it warrants the person being suspended.

    Main image via WikiMedia Commons; Letter image via ABC11

  • Cal Ripken’s Mom Fends Off Man With Gun

    Cal Ripken’s Mom Fends Off Man With Gun

    Cal Ripken, Jr.’s 75-year-old mother was the victim of an attempted carjacking on Tuesday. Fortunately for Vi Ripken, she was able to think quickly under pressure and scared the would-be carjacker away.

    Vi says that she was approached by a man with a handgun in the parking lot of a bank on Tuesday afternoon. The mom of baseball’s Iron Man said that the man showed her his gun and demanded she turn over her keys. Instead of complying with the man’s demands, however, Vi pressed the panic button on her car key fob, and the man left.

    After notifying the bank of the attempted carjacking, Vi filed a police report and police had a suspect in custody less than three hours later, thanks to the man’s picture being captured by an ATM. Jesse Brown, 33, was charged with attempted armed robbery, attempted armed carjacking, possessing a dangerous weapon, first degree assault and several controlled substance related charges. He is being held without bond.

    Interestingly enough, this isn’t the first time that Cal Ripken, Jr.’s mom has had a gun on her over the past 18 months. In July 2012, Vi Ripken was taken from her home at gunpoint. She was returned around 24 hour later unharmed.

    After a year passed with no suspects, Cal offered up a $100,000 reward this past August for anyone who could offer up information leading to the arrest of his mom’s abductor, but police still never made any arrests in that case. Since the attempted armed carjacking came just several weeks after Cal offered a reward, some have wondered if the two crimes were connected, but police say that doesn’t appear to be the case.

    Cal Ripken, Jr. was known for being a pretty tough baseball player in his day, and it’s easy to see that he gets it from his mama.

    Image via The Baltimore Sun

  • Dry Ice Explosions: Arrest Made in LAX Ice Bomb Case

    Police have made an arrest in the dry ice explosion that caused a Los Angeles airport terminal to be shut down briefly. The dry ice bomb blast occurred Sunday night and other devices were later found. An LAX employee has been arrested in connection with the bombs.

    All ice bomb devices were found in restricted areas, which made officials believe that an airport worker was behind the blast. The hunch paid off, as it led to the arrest of 28-year-old Dicarlo Bennett, a Los Angeles International Airport employee, on Tuesday. According to the Facebook profile for Bennett, he was a former ramp supervisor for Servisair at LAX.

    “Police can confirm the arrest of a single suspect related to the two dry-ice incidents at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX),” Los Angeles Airport Police Chief Patrick Gannon said Tuesday night. Bennett is currently being held on a $1 million bail. So far no other employees have been arrested in the case.

    While some people were quick to assume that the dry ice bomb was an act of terrorism, LAPD Deputy Chief Michael Downing says that Bennett is a “prankster.” “He thought it was funny,” Downing said. “There is no terrorism here. This is one man involved who made very poor choices. There is nothing funny about what he did.”

    LAPD Chief Charlie Beck is in agreement and says it doesn’t matter what Bennett’s intentions were. “Whether you think this is a harmless prank or a way to disrupt operations at the airport, it won’t matter,” Beck said. “You will go to jail.”

    Bennett allegedly made the bombs by taking dry ice from a plane and placing the ice inside a plastic bottle. The dry ice explosion occurred in an employee restroom on Sunday night. Two other dry ice bombs were found on Sunday and Monday night, and neither exploded. No injuries were reported as a result of the dry ice bomb explosion, but in addition to the terminal being closed briefly, some flights were suspended until the LAPD bomb squad cleared the area.

    Watch the video below to see what a dry ice bomb looks like.

    Image via YouTube

  • Bank Robbers Google ‘What Happens If You Rob a Bank’ Because of Course They Did

    There’s a joke out there that most internet users would rather die that have their Google search history revealed to the public. Or, there’s a version where the final request from a dying man is “bro, please delete my search history.”

    But it’s not just death that requires a history flush. Robbing a bank should probably make you want to get rid of your past searches – especially if those searches literally include “what happens when you rob a bank?”

    Enter our three bank-robbing geniuses, Sarah J. McLoud, Robert W. Owens, 28, and Daniel M. Murphy, 30. On October 11th, they allegedly entered the Weymouth Bank at 10:45 am and robbed the place of an undetermined amount of cash.

    A few hours later, police were knocking down the door of McLoud and Owens’ place of residence, after spotting McLoud on the bank’s surveillance footage and recognizing her as the subject of an ongoing heroin distribution investigation.

    Once inside, the police found that the following, totally un-made-up searches had recently been performed on their computer:

    What happens if you rob a bank? What happens if you rob a house? What happens if you rob a drug dealer? and If you’re going to rob a bank.

    Google is a treasure trove of information, there’s no doubt about that. Apparently they failed to find the result about avoiding getting caught.

    Post by Weymouth Police Department.

    Although the Google searches were no doubt illuminating, it doesn’t seem like the police really needed them to convince themselves they’d found the right bank robbers.

    “Detectives recovered the clothing that McLoud was wearing during the bank robbery. They also recovered the cash that was taken from the bank robbery. Detectives also located a significant quantity of heroin packaged for sale,” says the Weymouth Police Department.

    So, it seems the Google searches were just icing on the heroin cake.

  • Facebook Brag Leads to Teens’ Arrest in Florida Bullying Case That Led to 12-Year-Old’s Suicide

    Facebook Brag Leads to Teens’ Arrest in Florida Bullying Case That Led to 12-Year-Old’s Suicide

    Two Florida teens have been arrested and charged with felony aggravated stalking in correlation with the suicide of 12-year-old Rebecca Sedwick, who jumped off a concrete silo last month. Authorities say that it was excessive bullying, both online and in-person, that led to her suicide.

    Two girls, a 12-year-old and a 14-year-old, have been arrested as the main actors in the ongoing torment that led to Sedwick’s suicide. Although more than a dozen girls are thought to have contributed to the bullying offensive that took place over the year before Sedwick’s death, the two girls that have been charged are thought to have been the ringleaders.

    “According to witnesses, including a boyfriend of [bully 2] who had previously been Rebecca’s boyfriend, [Bully 2] had several arguments with Rebecca via Facebook, as well as verbal confrontations at school. During the incidents, Rebecca was observed walking away from [Bully 2] and not engaging, leading witnesses to determine that Rebecca was being bullied by [Bully 2]. [Bully 2] also reportedly bullied anyone who was friends with Rebecca. For this reason, some children did not want to be friends with Rebecca, out of fear of being bullied by [Bully 2],” says the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.

    “Witnesses reported that [Bully 2] sent messages to Rebecca, calling her ugly, telling her to drink bleach and die, and telling Rebecca that she [Rebecca] should kill herself. [Bully 2] tried to instigate physical fights with Rebecca on more than one occasion.”

    The bullying led Sedwick to be hospitalized after slitting her wrists back in December of 2012. Days before she jumped to her death, Sedwick reportedly changed one of her online screennames to “That Dead Girl” and messaged a boy saying, “I’m jumping.”

    Hours later, Sedwick went to an abandoned concrete plants and jumped off a silo.

    According to the Orlando Sentinel, police decided that they had enough to charge the girls after the 14-year-old posted this on Facebook:

    Yes ik [I know] I bullied Rebecca nd she killed her self but IDGAF [I don’t give a (expletive)]

    “That post was the tipping point,” said Sheriff Grady Judd. “She forced this arrest.”

    Note: We’ve decided to withhold the names and images of the accused because of their extremely young age
    Image via Polk County sheriff’s Office, Facebook

  • Adrian Peterson’s Son Dies After Being Assaulted

    It has been reported that Minnesota Vikings player Adrian Peterson’s two-year-old son died in South Dakota today because of injuries related to child abuse. The child, whose name hasn’t been released, was hospitalized on Wednesday and died earlier Friday evening.

    A man the child’s mother was dating, Joseph Robert Patterson of Sioux Falls, was arrested and charged with assaulting an infant, charges that should be upgraded now that the child has passed. According to Argus Leader, the child was transported to the hospital after a 911 call came in reporting that he was “choking.”

    Officials say it was obvious the child’s injuries weren’t accidental and were the result of abuse. The Argus Leader said the death “involves blows, shaking or causing a child’s head to sustain impact with an object in a manner that causes bleeding or swelling on the brain. The crime is punishable by up to 25 years in prison.”

    “This is a private matter and I’m just going to ask you all to respect my privacy, and that’s all I’m going to say about the situation,” Peterson said after practice Friday before his son died.

    The Argus Leader also reports that this isn’t the first time Patterson has been arrested for assault. He was previously arrested for assaulting another woman and her three-year-old child in 2012. According to the three-year-old’s mom, Patterson spanked her three-year-old so hard that he needed ice for welts on his behind. The woman also said that Patterson threatened to kill her several times.

    Patterson was sentenced with a one-year term on both charges, but his jail sentence was suspended.

    Image via YouTube

  • Archaeologists Uncover Skeletal Victims of Ancient Raid

    NBC News reports that Swedish archaeologists have discovered a terrifying scene that is being called the “Swedish Pompeii.” An island off the Swedish coast named Öland held the remains of a 5th century fort, and after discovering the foundations of a house, the scientists discovered a horrific scene.

    Five people, all unearthed from the same ruined house, had been suddenly and brutally killed. As the digging continued, more bodies were discovered throughout the fort, which causes the researchers to believe that there may be hundreds of skeletons yet to be seen

    “It’s more of a frozen moment than you normally see in archaeology. It’s like Pompeii: Something terrible happened, and everything just stopped,” said Helene Wilhelmson, a researcher with a specialty in bones from Lund University. “There are so many bodies, it must have been a very violent and well-organized raid.”

    The skeletons date to a period referred to as the Migration Period, when Scandinavian tribes migrated to other parts of Europe and encroached on the declining Roman Empire, which split into Eastern and Western halves near beginning of the 4th century CE.

    The conditions of the skeletons puzzled the Swedish researchers because Scandinavian barbarian tribes generally cremated their dead; the few uncremated skeletons that have ever been recovered cause the archaeologists to ask questions about the conditions of the fort at Öland. Were there no survivors left to cremate the dead?

    The 2010 discovery of gold, gilded brooches (pictured above) at the site is also strange in the context of a violent raid. Wouldn’t raiders, who plundered for riches and gold, have taken them along with the rest of their loot?

    In any case, the archaeologists are using advanced 3-D modeling to recreate the crime scene. Nicolo Dell’Unto, an archaeologist from Lund University, said “[With] this specific site, I found extremely interesting the relation between the bodies and the reconstruction of the events. I want to [utilize these new techniques] to help us to understand these events in terms of what actually happened, minute-by-minute.”

    [Images via a YouTube video of the Lund University discovery]

  • FBI 2012 Crime Stats: Tennessee is Most Dangerous State

    24/7 Wall St.com did an analysis last week of the FBI’s recently released 2012 crime statistics, but before anyone starts hastily comparing states, it should be noted that the FBI does remind people not to compare state violence in rankings.

    “These rough rankings provide no insight into the numerous variables that mold crime in a particular town, city, county, state, tribal area, or region,” the FBI said at the end of their report. “Consequently, they lead to simplistic and/or incomplete analyses that often create misleading perceptions adversely affecting communities and their residents.”

    Because no system of ranking could fairly gauge the numerous unknown variables, and because crime is reported and measured in different ways by different states, Urban Institute senior fellow John Roman would also caution against comparing them. The trend of declining crime since the 1990s is not clearly traced to any one factor, though experts have suggested demography, higher incarceration, falling crack use and new social programs as reasons for the decline.

    But trends always have exceptions. Alaska, Delaware, and Maryland are states with a high level of education and a high income, yet they are found within the top 10 because of small urban areas with a high crime rate (the city of Baltimore comes to mind).

    The 24/7 Wall St analysis was calculated by using the FBI’s population estimates and comparing four types of violent crime per 100,000 residents: homicide, sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated assault. Income, poverty, and education statistics were also compared as the relationship between the uneducated, the impoverished, and rising crime rates has been followed for decades.

    Here are the top 10 most violent states in the U.S. based on their calculations. If you want to see the report for yourself, you can find it here. Included are explanations of each states’ crime rates and the factors that contributed.

    1. Tennessee
    > Violent crimes per 100,000: 643.6
    > Poverty rate: 17.9%
    > Pct. of population with bachelor’s degree or higher: 24.3%
    > Property crimes per 100,000: 3,371.4 (10th highest)

    2. Nevada
    > Violent crimes per 100,000: 607.6
    > Poverty rate: 16.4%
    > Pct. of population with bachelor’s degree or higher: 22.4%
    > Property crimes per 100,000: 2,809.4 (23rd highest)

    3. Alaska
    > Violent crimes per 100,000: 603.2
    > Poverty rate: 10.1%
    > Pct. of population with bachelor’s degree or higher: 28.0%
    > Property crimes per 100,000: 2,739.4 (24th lowest)

    4. New Mexico
    > Violent crimes per 100,000: 559.1
    > Poverty rate: 20.8%
    > Pct. of population with bachelor’s degree or higher: 26.1%
    > Property crimes per 100,000: 3,600.7 (4th highest)

    5. South Carolina
    > Violent crimes per 100,000: 558.8
    > Poverty rate: 18.3%
    > Pct. of population with bachelor’s degree or higher: 25.1%
    > Property crimes per 100,000: 3,822.2 (the highest)

    6. Delaware
    > Violent crimes per 100,000: 547.4
    > Poverty rate: 12.0%
    > Pct. of population with bachelor’s degree or higher: 29.5%
    > Property crimes per 100,000: 3,340.9 (13th highest)

    7. Louisiana
    > Violent crimes per 100,000: 496.9
    > Poverty rate: 19.9%
    > Pct. of population with bachelor’s degree or higher: 22%
    > Property crimes per 100,000: 3,540.6 (5th highest)

    8. Florida
    > Violent crimes per 100,000: 487.1
    > Poverty rate: 17.1%
    > Pct. of population with bachelor’s degree or higher: 26.8%
    > Property crimes per 100,000: 3,276.7 (15th highest)

    9. Maryland
    > Violent crimes per 100,000: 476.8
    > Poverty rate: 10.3%
    > Pct. of population with bachelor’s degree or higher: 36.9%
    > Property crimes per 100,000: 2,753.5 (25th lowest)

    10. Oklahoma
    > Violent crimes per 100,000: 469.3
    > Poverty rate: 17.2%
    > Pct. of population with bachelor’s degree or higher: 23.8%
    > Property crimes per 100,000: 3,401.0 (9th highest)

    [Image via Google Maps]

  • SUV Gang Assault: Third Biker is Arraigned, Flips Bird in Court

    A third motorcycle gang member involved in the vicious beating of an SUV driver was arraigned on Sunday. Reginald Chance, 37, was charged with several felonies, including gang assault in the first degree. Chance is the biker who is accused of smashing out a window on the SUV so the other bikers could get to the driver.

    Chance, a career criminal who has been arrested 21 times in the past, will remain in jail unless his family can come up with the $100,000 bond the judge set for him. The biker certainly didn’t seem too bothered by the charges he faces, as he took the opportunity to flip off reporters in court.

    Gregory Watts, Chance’s lawyer, issued a statement on his client’s part in the SUV gang assault and says that Chance was knocked off his motorcycle by the SUV driver, Alexian Lien, and simply went too far trying to identify the driver.

    “The law does permit someone who is a victim of an accident to at least attempt to get the identification of the motorist,” Watts said. “My client obviously overreacted in that manner, but he is not this thug assaulting someone who’s harmless, contrary to the public opinion that’s being put out there.”

    Watts further says that Chance didn’t participate in the assault. “My client obviously overreacted in smashing the window, but beyond that he was not a participant in any assault on the victim,” Watts said. Watts may think that all Chance did was “overreact,” but the district attorney in the case says that Chance’s role in the beating was pivotal.

    By smashing the window, Chance’s actions “set into motion a chain of events that resulted in the driver being dragged out of his vehicle and beaten” by others, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Samantha Turino said.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsZ0RrempoI

    The SUV gang assault occurred on September 29 when a group of bikers surrounded Lien and his family, forcing them to stop. The bikers then proceeded to bust out a window in Lien’s Range Rover and beat him in front of his wife and toddler. Police are still investigating the crime and are looking into claims that two off-duty police officers stood by and did nothing to intervene during the assault.

    Image via New York Post

  • Solitary Confinement: Dying Inmate, 71, Freed Four Decades Later

    After spending 41 years in solitary confinement for a murder he says he didn’t commit, Herman Wallace was freed on Tuesday. To add insult to injury, the 71-year-old Louisiana man has lung cancer and isn’t expected to live for more than a couple of months.

    Wallace is part of the Angola Three, a group of black men that are said to be victims of racial discrimination. The three men were placed in solitary confinement after being accused of murdering a white prison guard at Louisiana State Penitentiary, also called Angola Prison.

    Wallace and two other men–Robert Hillary King and Albert Woodfox–were sent to Angola Prison after being convicted of armed robbery in 1971. The next year, Wallace and Woodfox were accused of stabbing prison guard Brent Miller to death, and all three men were placed in solitary confinement. The men were only allowed out of their small cells for one hour per day to shower or exercise.

    The three men were reportedly part of a Black Panther group in Angola at the time of Miller’s murder. Even though no fingerprints were found on the knife used to kill Miller, the two men were found guilty, which many believe was race-related. The Angola Three was the subject of the documentary In the Land of the Free, which was narrated by Samuel L. Jackson. Amnesty International had the Angola Three on their list of political prisoners.

    U.S. District Chief Judge Brian Jackson in Baton Rouge overturned Wallace’s murder conviction, saying that Wallace’s rights were violated because women were excluded from the jury.

    “The record in this case makes clear that Mr. Wallace’s grand jury was improperly chosen in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of ‘the equal protection of the laws’…and that the Louisiana courts, when presented with the opportunity to correct this error, failed to do so,” Jackson wrote in his ruling.

    Louisiana could start another case against Wallace, but that is unlikely since he doesn’t have long to live. “Nothing can be done for me medically within the standard care that (my oncologists) are authorized to provide,” Wallace said in a statement last month. “They recommended that I be admitted to hospice care to make my remaining days as comfortable as possible. I have been given two months to live.

    Wallace still maintains his innocence regarding Miller’s death. “I want the world to know that I am an innocent man and that Albert Woodfox is innocent as well,” he said. “The state may have stolen my life, but my spirit will continue to struggle along with Albert and the many comrades that have joined us along the way here in the belly of the beast.”

    Image via YouTube

  • “Silk Road”, The Online Black Market Seized by FBI

    “Silk Road”, The Online Black Market Seized by FBI

    Are you familiar with the Deep Web and Silk Road?

    Deep Web is not part of the surface web, which means you cannot access its content through search engines like Google or Yahoo. Therefore, obtaining a URL address from the dark corners of Deep Web is relatively hard to find.  Sites are only accessible by using anonymizing software like the Tor web browser. This is because Deep Web uses a non-traditional domain name system (DNS) for IP to web address translation; no .coms, no .orgs, just .onions – something your Firefox or Chrome browser won’t recognize.

    A lot of what goes on in Deep Web, stays in Deep Web – it’s unregulated, and exchanges are usually always anonymous and untraceable. On Deep Web, you can find everything from hiring an assassin, to child pornography, to selling you soul to Satan, it’s all there; the underbelly of underbellies.

    One of the websites on Deep Web is The Armory, an arms dealing website where you can buy everything for C4 by the bulk, to British passports, to M40 machine guns. Unfortunately (or fortunately), it was shut down back in February 2012 due to the lack of demand.

    What about drugs? Stop on by the anonymous market place known as the Silk Road – where every drug imaginable is bought and sold; 340 varieties including heroin, LSD, cannabis, cocaine, etc.

    Approximately 957,079 registered accounts and 9 million bitcoin ($1.8 billion) transactions later, Silk Road is finished. On October 1st, 2013, at the Glenn Park Library in San Francisco, the FBI arrested Ross William Ulbricht, the owner of Silk Road.

    Today, authorities seized the website, and Silk Road is no longer.

    According to a court filing by New York State prosecutors, Ulbricht, has been charged with one count each of money laundering, computer hacking conspiracy, and narcotics trafficking conspiracy, all of which Ulbricht intentionally and knowingly violated.

    FBI agents made 100 individual under cover purchases via the Silk Road, attaining Schedule I and II drugs like heroin, LSD, and cocaine.

    Since its inception in February 2011 until July 23rd, 2013, Silk Road generated $1.2 billion in revenue and $79.8 million in commissions. A report by Nicolas Christin found that Silk Road generated $92,000 a month in revenue.

     

    (Picture via Linkedin)

  • Bernie Kosar Blames Offensive Line During DUI Stop

    In either the saddest thing I’ve heard in quite some time or the most impressively creative, former Cleveland Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar has thrown his offensive line under the bus one final time for his inability to complete a field sobriety test.

    According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Kosar was pulled over early sunday on suspicion of driving under the influence. He was reportedly going 24 miles over the speed limit.

    According to a police report, Kosar failed a couple of routine DUI tests, including the alphabet recitation and the eye-tracking test.

    It was then that Kosar came up with the funniest/saddest/most creative excuse ever for getting out of a field sobriety test.

    From Cleveland.com:

    He was given several field sobriety tests, according to the report. He was asked to recite the alphabet, which he was unable to do, and was unable to smoothly pursue an object with his eyes, the report said.

    The officer asked Kosar if he had any problems that would prevent him from standing on one leg or walking and turning, and Kosar said he’s had several surgeries on his knees and ankles because his line couldn’t block, the report said.

    Ouch. Always the o-line’s fault, right?

    Kosar wound up refusing a breathalyzer, and as a result was arrested. He posted $500 bond, but his license has been suspended.

    Kosar played most of his career with the Cleveland Browns, but also had brief stints with the Dallas Cowboys and the Miami Dolphins. In his 12 years in the NFL, Kosar passed for 124 touchdowns and a total of 23,301 yards.

    Image via Facebook

  • ‘Revenge Porn’ Is Now Officially Banned in California

    With a stroke of Governor Jerry Brown’s pen, California has become the latest state to criminalize so-called “revenge porn.”

    We’ve been tracking the bill, SB 255, as it moved through the state’s legislature – passing committee back in June and finally passing the assembly unanimously last month. The law makes it illegal to “electronically distribute nude images of another person with the intent to cause serious emotional distress.”

    Here’s the actual text of the new law:

    …[A]ny person who photographs or records by any means the image of another, identifiable person without with his or her consent who is in a state of full or partial undress in any area in which the person being photographed or recorded has a reasonable expectation of privacy, and subsequently distributes the image taken, where the distribution of the image would cause a reasonable person to suffer serious emotional distress with the intent to cause serious emotional distress, and the other person suffers serious emotional distress would constitute disorderly conduct subject to that same punishment.

    When the law refers to the “same punishment,” it means the penalty for those who use a concealed camera to take compromising photos of others without their consent. In fact, this new anti-revenge porn provision was build into section 653.2 of the code, which houses California’s “Peeping Tom” laws.

    “I want to thank Governor Brown for recognizing that this bill was needed. Until now, there was no tool for law enforcement to protect victims,” says Cannella. “Too many have had their lives upended because of an action of another that they trusted.”

    The bill contained an “urgency clause,” so it went into effect the moment Gov. Brown signed it. Now, posting revenge porn images of an ex online could net an offender six months in jail and/or a $1,000 fine on their first offense.

    California follows in New Jersey’s footsteps, who also has anti-revenge porn laws on the books.

    Image via Thinkstock

  • UC Berkeley Explosion Leaves 4 with Minor Burns

    The LA Times reported yesterday that an explosion devastated UC Berkeley’s campus, sending four to the hospital with burns. The main campus was evacuated as a precaution.

    “It was dark. It was pretty scary. We just wanted to get out of there,” one student, sophomore Jesse Kay, said. Another student, 19-year-old Jay Reddy, was in electrical engineering class when the power went out. “We had to figure out how to get out of the building,” he said.

    When the outage happened around 6:30 pm on Monday evening, a campus staff member and several students reported hearing a boom and seeing flames as several buildings lost power. 20 people needed to be rescued from elevators in the affected building.

    Twitter was abuzz with reactions and images of the incident:

    Officials have stated that they believe the power outage is related to a recently discovered vandalism: an off-campus electrical station saw its copper wiring ripped out.

    Dan Mogulof, the spokesman for UC Berkeley, said to reporters “We have a strong suspicion that what happened is related to vandalism discovered last week. The damage they caused may have been far more extensive than we originally thought.”

    The blast area was apparently two stories high, two road lanes wide, and sent at least one manhole cover flying. The explosion happened as engineers were attempting to restore power.

    “Something happened here that surprised the expert… Somebody attacked our system. Somebody stole key parts of our system,” Mogulof continued. “[Classes] aren’t going to happen and people aren’t going to come back here until we’re sure we have a safe situation.”

    [Image via Twitter]

  • Bernie Madoff Accountant Charged with Fraud

    NBC News reported this week that Paul Konigsberg, an attorney and accountant, was charged yesterday with falsifying records and related securities connected to the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme. Konigsberg is the only non-Madoff family member who owned a controlling interest in the investment fund.

    The indictment released by the District Attorney for the Southern District of New York almost reached 20 pages, and claimed “Madoff directed many of his clients – including some of his most important customers, in whose accounts Madoff executed the most glaringly fraudulent transactions — to use Paul Koningsberg, the defendant, as their accountant.” Konigsberg’s duties included backdating trades and bank statements as part of keeping bogus records to cover up the fraud.

    U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, speaking on the case, said that “As alleged, Paul Konigsberg threw aside his ethical duties as an accountant in favor of his role as a false bookkeeper, which included allegedly participating in a scheme of back-dating client account statements to show fictitious trades and conjuring profits and losses of millions of dollars. With today’s indictment, he will be made to answer for his alleged conduct as yet another player on Madoff’s team.”

    Meanwhile, the AP reported via the CS Monitor that Konigsberg’s lawyer, Reed Brodsky, is taking a different approach to his client’s defense. Brodsky insists that Konigsberg was just another victim of a “one-time high-flying financier” whose profits were so dirty, his jail sentence matches that of serial sexual murderers. “He and his family lost over $10 million,” Brodsky said. “Mr. Konigsberg was no different [than any of Madoff’s other victims].”

    On the prosecutor’s bench, Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Schwartz said of Konigsberg’s role that he was the “accountant of choice” for deep-pocketed Madoff clients. Konigsberg was paid $15,000 to $25,000 a month to backdate trades for years to deepen the fraud. The prosecutor also alleged that one of Madoff’s oldest clients worked directly with Konigsberg as he deposited and withdrew billions while benefiting from the fraudulent trading.

    The Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme was broken up in late 2008 and early 2009. Madoff’s sons turned him into the FBI, and on March 12, 2009, he pled guilty to 11 federal charges and admitted his role in maintaining the largest Ponzi scheme in human history thus far.

    [Image via this WSJ YouTube video about the Madoff Scandal]

  • Car Thief Says He Was Just GTA’in IRL, Actively Tries to Ruin Everything for Everyone

    I’m sure you think that the reason some talking facelifts on CNN continues to blame much of our nation’s violent steak on video games is that they are idiots. I bet you think that every time someone proceeds to word vomit out something about Grand Theft Auto ruining America on Fox News – well, that’s just because they don’t really want to tackle the real issues. Because tackling real issues is hard. It’s really, really hard.

    Nope. The reason we can’t have nice things is this guy.

    I’m talking about Zachary Burgess, 20, of Hoover, Alabama. After attempting to steal a car with a female passenger still inside, he proceeded to tell Baton Rouge police that he was just GTA’in brahs.

    From WBRZ:

    Investigators said Burgess hopped into a car after its owner parked at the bar and got out, and took off while the female passenger was still inside. Police said Burgess hit several other cars before the passenger managed to escape. They said witnesses stopped Burgess and held him at the scene until officers could arrive.

    Investigators said Burgess told them he wanted to see what it would be like to play the video game “Grand Theft Auto” in real life.

    In a studio hallway, right now, someone from an organization with the word “concerned” in its name is getting fitted with a microphone. They’re looking in the mirror, making sure their hair and makeup check out. They are furiously tugging on the bottom of their jacket, making sure their upper half looks presentable. They nervously shuffle a few index cards.

    In five minutes, they will come on national television and use Zachary Burgess as proof – proof that the real problems in this country all begin with your kid and an Xbox controller.

    Goddamnit, Zach.

    Image via East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office

  • Danville Pawn Shop Shooting: A Triple Homicide

    The Lexington Herald-Leader reported today that a 9-year-old boy called police from the ABC Gold and Games pawn shop in Danville, Kentucky shortly after 9 a.m. Apparently, somebody had entered the shop with the intention of robbing it, and ended up shooting three people dead.

    Boyle County coroner Don Hamner identified two of the victims as Michael and Angela Hockensmith. Michael co-owned the pawn shop and was responsible for overseeing its daily operation while his wife occasionally assisted him. The unnamed third male victim will remain unidentified until his family has been notified, but he was reported to be from Richmond.

    Danville Police chief Tony Gray said, “The child reported what he called a robbery, and said three people had been shot… The door was locked from the inside, and we had to force entry by breaking glass into the business.” The police found the nine-year-old and a 20-month-old girl, reported to be the Hockensmiths’ kids.

    Investigators spent all of Friday morning looking for the shooter, and nearby Centre College found itself locked down due to its proximity to the murders. But the police presence was so high that by noon, the lockdown had ended.

    Businesses in the nearby area reported that although its a shameful tragedy because it happened in their backyard, they don’t feel particularly threatened based on proximity. Jim Gage of James Cigar Co., said, “I come to this business every day and I’ve always felt secure here and I still feel secure here… [as disturbing as] a triple murder across the street [is] I still do not feel insecure.”

    Steve Divine, who’s wife Lee Ann reported recently became a co-owner of the pawn shop with Hockensmith, said that Hockensmith was a manager before he became an owner, and that the Hockensmiths were a church-going Christian family who attended Mitchellsburg Baptist Church in Boyle County.

    “They were just wonderful Christian people. You can’t find nicer people. They were good parents, wonderful friends, very generous… Everything was looking up for this young family,” Lee Ann Divine said.

    [Image via this YouTube news report including an interview with Centre College’s communication’s director]

  • Violent Crime Rose Slightly in 2012, Says FBI

    As Americans sort through the emotional wreckage of the recent Navy Yard shooting, the FBI quietly this week released crime statistics for 2012. While property crimes saw a decrease for the 10th year in a row, violent crime unfortunately saw a small uptick.

    The FBI released the statistics in its yearly Crime in the United States report, compiled from data provided by law enforcement agencies through the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) system. The bureau estimates that overall violent crime rose 0.7% over 2011 throughout the U.S., or around 386.9 crimes per 100,000 Americans (1,214,462 total). Property crime, which is more prevalent, fell to only 2,859.2 crimes per 100,000 Americans, a 0.9% drop from 2011 (8,975,438 total).

    Though violent crime didn’t rise significantly as a whole, the extremely violent crimes of murder and aggravated assault each increased 1.1% over their 2011 numbers. The arrest rate for murder in 2012 was 3.5 per 100,000 Americans, while the arrest rate for robbery that same year was 33.1 per 100,000 Americans. Splitting the U.S. into four general territories (West, Midwest, South, and Northeast), the southern U.S. states accounted for over 40% of all violent crimes in the U.S.

    For property crimes, burglaries in particular were down 3.7% from 2011, while car theft rose a slight 0.6%. Arrest rates for burglary sat at 90.7 per 100,000 Americans during 2012, while the arrest rate for vehicle theft was 21.9 per 100,000 Americans. The overall arrest rate for property crime was 123.9 per 100,000 Americans in 2012. The FBI estimates that property crime in 2012 took a collective $15.5 billion from its victims.

  • Google Street View Car Hits 3 Vehicles In Reportedly Attempted Hit And Run

    Wow. Just wow.

    A Google Street View car driver apparently hit two buses and a truck, and tried to flee the scene. The incident happened in Bogor, Indonesia, and there is photographic evidence of a wrecked Street View car. Gizmodo shares these two photos that were posted to Indonesian forum:

    Street View

    Street View hit and run

    The police, as reported by local media, indicated that the driver hit one bus, panicked, and tried to flee the scene, only to then hit another bus and a truck. Yes, that’s a total of three vehicles. It’s unclear if anyone was hurt.

    The BBC shares statements from the police and from Google:

    “We take incidents like this very seriously. We’re working closely with local authorities to address the situation.”

    Perhaps Google needs to use the Trike and Trekker more often.

    Of course, the whole thing is forcing people to remember an incident from earlier this year where an image on Street View appeared to show a donkey that had been run over. Google took to its Google Maps blog to deny this. Google said that while it looked like its car might have been involved in a hit and run, it suggested that the donkey was just “lying in the path – perhaps enjoying a dust bath – before moving safely aside as our car drove past.”

    Google claimed that the donkey was “alive and well.”

    No blog post has been made so far about this new incident.

    In case you’re wondering if it’s a publicity stunt to show that self-driving cars are safer than regular cars (as if a Street View car is a “regular” car), don’t worry, Google has had an accident with one of those too. Granted, a human was driving.

    Images: kaskus.co.id (via Gizmodo)

  • Camp 22 Inmates Disappear: People Gone from Gulag

    In a further development on the Korean peninsula of the worst possible kind, the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea has launched a new effort to report on the conditions in North Korea’s prison camps.

    Unfortunately, their discoveries of the chilling variety: drawing on interviews with defected guards and former prisoners on the run as refugees, two prison camps have been closed.

    While the closure of prison camps would typically be thought of as a positive development, in North Korea’s case, it is indicative of possible genocide. In Camp 22 located in North Hamgyong province (one of two camps that closed), over 30,000 prisoners were held before 2012; at the end of that year when it closed, it held only 3,000 prisoners.

    Where did they all go? They certainly weren’t released; report author David Hawk said of the number that if it is “even remotely accurate, this is an atrocity requiring much closer investigation.”

    An NBC News report about the camps has food shortages blamed for the low numbers, implying many of the prisoners were starved to death. Defectors have said that about 8,000 prisoners were transferred.

    Satellite activity tracked by the HRNK has shown that collective farming and mining has decreased significantly in recent years compared with previous images, perhaps indicative of the dwindling prisoner population.

    The HRNK report is brief, albeit difficult to read: “The North Korean regime isolates, banishes, punishes and executes those suspected of being disloyal to the regime. They are deemed ‘wrong-thinkers,’ ‘wrong-doers,’ or those who have acquired ‘wrong-knowledge’ or have engaged in ‘wrong-associations.’ Up to 130,000 are known to be held in the kwan-li-so penal labor colonies where they are relentlessly subjected to malnutrition, forced labor, and to other cruel and unusual punishment. Thousands upon thousands more are forcibly held in other detention facilities. North Korea denies access to the camps to outsiders, whether human rights investigators, scholars, or international media and severely restricts the circulation of information across its borders.”

    If you’re interested in learning more about the camps, particularly Camp 22, a series of YouTube videos featuring interviews with a former guard are available, but be warned about the disturbing nature of the stories and accompanying images.

    [Image via one of the aforementioned YouTube videos]

  • Dollar Counterfeiting: Peru is #1 Worldwide Producer

    In a heavily reprinted AP story out of Lima, a 13-year-old boy was arrested during a raid on a large counterfeiting operation. The boy was caught with almost three quarters of a million in fake dollars and euros; this led to the revelation that Peruvian counterfeiters were finishing each bill by hand.

    The Secret Service claims that, through cheap criminal labor, counterfeiting gangs in Peru have overtaken Columbia as the number one producer of bogus bills in the world. The Service has had to open its fourth permanent office in Latin America to counter the Peruvian counterfeiters; over 50 individuals have since been arrested for counterfeiting.

    The Secret Service estimates the amount of fake money seized from Peruvian counterfeiters at $103 million, and the Peruvian counterfeiting process is often more convincing because they finish each bill by hand. Speaking about one of the seized notes, a Secret Service officer from the U.S. Embassy (who spoke on a condition of anonymity) said that the bill was “a very good note… they [Peruvian counterfeiters] use offset, huge machines that are used for regular printing of newspapers or flyers… [then] once a note is printed they throw five people [at it] and do little things, little touches that add to the quality.”

    The Peruvian bills go just about everywhere, including the States, Argentina, Ecuador, and Venezuela. The United States gets counterfeit $100’s, while the rest of the nations get the fake $10’s and $20’s. The chief of the Peruvian police fraud division, Col. Segundo Portocarrero, has said that Peru became attractive to counterfeiters with the United States’ constant interference with Colombian politics through drug interdiction.

    “[Counterfeiting] is more profitable than cocaine,” one of the investigators working for Portocarrero said, an ironic statement considering that Peru has possibly also overtaken Colombia as a cocaine producer.

    If you want to know more, like how Peruvian counterfeiters create their fake income, click here for the NBC News reprint of the AP story.

    [Image via a Youtube video about funny money]