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  1. #21
    Moderator MRBAM's Avatar
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    Police 'like' wanted man's Facebook post

    FREELAND, Pa. — Police in one northeastern Pennsylvania town really "liked" this Facebook post.

    Officers in Freeland arrested 35-year-old Anthony Lescowitch on Monday night, less than two hours after he shared a wanted photo of himself and taunted police for not being able to find him, the (Wilkes-Barre) Times Leader reported Tuesday.

    Lescowitch shared the wanted bulletin minutes after Freeland police posted it on the department Facebook page Monday night, authorities said. He was being sought on assault-related charges.

    An officer pretending to be an attractive woman then messaged Lescowitch, according to police. Lescowitch refused the offer of a drink but eventually agreed to meet for a cigarette, and was arrested at the agreed-upon location.

    After the arrest, police posted this message: "CAPTURED!!!!!! SHARES OUR STATUS ON FACEBOOK ABOUT HIMSELF, CAPTURED 45 MINUTES LATER."

    Lescowitch, of Drifton, remained in the Luzerne County Jail Tuesday. Court records don't list a defense attorney for him, but show he faces a preliminary hearing Jan. 29 on charges including aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and disorderly conduct stemming from an incident July 14.

    http://news.msn.com/offbeat/police-l...-facebook-post

  2. #22
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Freeland Police Department's Facebook page
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  3. #23
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Anyone doubt that there is a need for the DP, look no further than the latest statistics on murdered Police Officers

    Number of police officers killed on job up 40 percent over last year


    Last week’s Las Vegas shootings that left five dead, including two on-duty police officers, coincides with a nationwide increase of officers killed in 2014.

    According to the Nationwide Law Enforcement Memorial Foundation, 63 officers have died on the job this year compared to 45 at the same time last year -- a 40 percent increase. Twenty-three of those deaths were due to firearm-related incidents, a 53 percent increase from the same time last year.

    Previously, the overall number of officer fatalities had been on a steady decline since 2011.

    “We’ve had some good years and right now we’re in a bad one,” said Richard Beary, vice president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. “In general, we’re seeing more violence in society and that violence in society leads to violence against police officers.”

    Beary, also the Chief of Police at the University of Central Florida, told FoxNews.com that central Florida is seeing an unusually violent year with two officers killed since February.

    “These officers had no idea somebody was going to kill cops and it’s a terrible situation and a tragedy,” Beary said.

    He added IACP is in favor of stronger background checks on people trying to purchase a gun. However, he acknowledged it is nearly impossible to predict or prevent officers’ deaths since many of the shooters have no respect for life.

    “One of the biggest challenges that all of us have is if somebody is set on taking their own life, they’re not afraid of taking another person's life,” Beary said. “I think that’s what we’re seeing in a lot of these cases, where they murder and then commit suicide.”

    That is exactly what happened earlier this week in Las Vegas, when Jerad and Amanda Miller shot and killed two Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officers in cold blood while they were on their lunch break.

    Igor Soldo and Alyn Beck were sitting in a pizza parlor when the shooters ambushed them. It was the first time in the department’s history that two officers were lost at the same time.

    The community is still coming to terms with their tragic deaths.

    This week, thousands attended a vigil to mourn the officers, who both leave behind wives and young children. The crowd gathered outside the restaurant where the officers were murdered.

    “They are some amazing people and to know they were intentionally gunned down, I’m having a hard time grasping it,” said Amber Ayers of Las Vegas.

    http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/06/15...ver-last-year/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  4. #24
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    FBI: Number of cops killed on duty rose in 2014

    Just as Mississippi began mourning two Hattiesburg police officers killed in the line of duty on Saturday evening, the FBI released preliminary data showing the number of cops killed in the line of duty to be on the rise.

    The FBI said 51 law enforcement officers were killed in the line of duty in 2014, an increase of 89 percent over the 27 killed in 2013. Between 1980 and 2014, an average of 64 police and other law enforcement officers were killed. According to the data.

    The 2013 figures were the lowest produced during that 35-year period.

    The most dangerous type of call for officers appears to be domestic calls, as 11 died from their injuries during them last year, the FBI said. Next most dangerous were traffic stops and pursuits, followed by ambushes, and then deaths during investigations of suspicious persons. The FBI report said three officers were killed dealing with people with a mental illness in 2014.

    Attorney General Loretta Lynch released a statement Monday about the deaths of the two officers in Mississippi, which followed by a day the funeral of a New York City officer who was shot in the head while stopping a man suspected of carrying a handgun.

    Lynch said the loss of the two officers "is made even more tragic by the fact that, on the day they were killed this past Saturday, the country began observing Police Week - a time when we pause to remember and honor the more than 20,000 law enforcement officers who have been killed in the line of duty. The murder of these young men is a devastating reminder that the work our brave police officers perform every day is extremely dangerous, profoundly heroic, and deeply deserving of our unequivocal support."

    The FBI said in its report that the South was the deadliest region for cops in 2014, with 17 officers killed there. Additionally, 14 officers were killed in the West, eight officers in the Midwest, eight in the Northeast, and four in Puerto Rico.

    In addition to the cops killed in the line of duty, the FBI said 44 officers accidentally died in 2014 during the course of the work, in incidents ranging from traffic accidents to drowning to smoke inhalation.

    http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fbi-numb...-rose-in-2014/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  5. #25
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    More than 60 law enforcement officers fatally shot this year, 20 in ambushes, report finds

    Fox News

    More than 60 law enforcement officers have died in firearms-related incidents in 2016, marking a 68 percent increase since 2015, the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund reported.

    The organization found that Texas has seen the most fatalities this year with 18. So far, more than 130 officers have died nationwide.

    The worst single attack was in July, when a black military veteran killed five white officers at a protest in Dallas — the deadliest day for American law enforcement since Sept. 11, 2001. Ten days later, a former Marine killed three Baton Rouge, La., police officers.

    San Antonio Detective Benjamin Marconi was the 60th officer shot to death this year, compared with 41 in all of 2015, and the 20th to die in an ambush-style attack, compared with eight last year, Craig W. Floyd, president of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, said.

    An ambush-style attack
    does not necessarily involve someone lying in wait for police officers; it's any shooting designed to catch police off guard and put them at a disadvantage, Floyd said.

    "There usually is an element of surprise and concealment involved," he said, and it's unprovoked.

    Police have been killed while writing reports, like Marconi was, or eating in restaurants. They've responded to 911 calls, only to have people shoot them as they get out of their cars. And in the Dallas shooting, they were targeted by someone in a building.

    "In all the cases, the officers were essentially assassinated before they had any contact with the suspect or placed that suspect in jeopardy," said Nick Breul, the Memorial Fund's director of officer safety and wellness.

    This year's targeted killings are the most since 1995, Floyd said. In fact, Marconi's was the fourth targeted slaying of an officer this month: On Nov. 2, two Iowa officers were killed in separate but related attacks. And on Nov. 10, a Pennsylvania officer was targeted as he responded to a domestic disturbance.

    The attacks on police in Dallas and Baton Rouge came amid protests over the shootings of black men by white officers, and were carried out by black gunmen — but race is not always a motivating factor, Floyd said.

    In fact, he said, white men are responsible for most police slayings, and the majority of people shot and killed by police are white.

    Some officers have been killed by people who identify with the so-called sovereign citizen movement, whose adherents believe they're immune to most state and federal laws, including paying taxes and getting driver's licenses. Gavin Long, the Baton Rouge shooter, had filed documents last year declaring himself sovereign.

    The man who shot and killed the two Iowa officers earlier this month as they sat in their patrol cars had a history of contacts with police, including a recent confrontation with officers at a high school football game.

    Others have been mentally ill.

    "So much dialogue has centered around race relations, but there is a hatred in this country right now that's just gotten out of control," Floyd said. "There is a lack of respect for government in general, and the most visible and vulnerable symbol of government in America is patrolling our streets in marked cars."

    http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/12/27...ort-finds.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  6. #26
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    What a Trump presidency means for law enforcement

    By Scott G. Erickson
    Fox News

    The sweeping electoral victory of Donald Trump has unleashed a torrent of commentary over how, and to what degree, the iconic businessman’s election will influence a wide variety of public policy areas.

    One area where President-elect Trump’s victory will no doubt resonate is within the domestic law enforcement community.

    Few professions or groups of individuals have been as assailed and maligned over the past few years as the American police officer. Detractors and critics have often painted our nation’s police officers as racist and brutal and the entire criminal justice system as systemically prejudiced.

    Innuendo and misinformation in the wake of controversy has become the standard response among many within the public discourse.

    Sadly, one area where law enforcement should have reasonably expected a basic sense of solidarity and support has been lacking as well.

    The Obama administration, from the White House down through the Department of Justice, has at times done more to undermine confidence in our basic law enforcement institutions than to uphold them — a latent sense of skepticism toward any and all actions on the part of law enforcement the norm.

    But with the election of Donald Trump to the presidency there is a palpable sense that things are going to change.

    Candidate-Trump was unabashed in his support for law enforcement at nearly every campaign stop, vocalizing and emphasizing his respect for the men and women who risk their lives to uphold the rule of law.

    And Trump’s commitment to the American police officer has not wavered since the election. His nomination of Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions to lead the Department of Justice sent an immediate and forceful sign of his intention to scale back activism within the DOJ.

    The election of Donald Trump portends other changes affecting the law enforcement community as well, notably:

    • Support from the White House

    This will likely be the most immediate change. Instead of the default criticism seen from the Obama administration, a Trump administration is likely to adopt a more even-handed approach in response to controversial police-related issues.

    Of course, when legitimate indiscretions or outright criminality among members of the police community occur they will no doubt be dealt with swiftly and justly; however, the default presumption of guilt against members of the law enforcement community should come to an end.

    • Respect for the prerogatives of state and local law enforcement

    Some on the ideological Left pine for a day when federal oversight of state and local law enforcement constitutes the norm rather than the exception.

    To be certain, in the limited instances where clear and identifiable patterns of police misconduct are uncovered, federal oversight may be the most appropriate remedy to ensure the rights of all Americans are respected; however, state and local law enforcement remedies are often highly idiosyncratic and the most effective solutions to local problems are often community-based.

    Under the Obama administration, DOJ investigations into state and local law enforcement and the pursuit of consent decrees have greatly exceeded those initiated by the preceding Bush and Clinton administrations.

    A Trump Justice Department headed by Senator Sessions may be inclined to scale back on federal incursions into state and local police issues, instead respecting the local democratic process.

    • An increase in morale

    The law enforcement community is battling not just a crisis in public relations but a crisis in morale as well. As such, recruiting, retention, and productivity efforts within law enforcement have become strained in ways unseen in decades.

    The Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. police departments, among many others, are experiencing critical staffing shortages and proactive police work in the city of Chicago — investigative stops were down 90 percent in early 2016 — highlight the dangerous byproduct of a decline in morale.

    Improving morale through an increase in community support, inspired by a greater sense of respect and admiration for law enforcement emanating from the top of government on down, can be an amazing catalyst for turning the tide in the profession.

    The American police officer is operating within what is arguably the most difficult and dangerous environment in a generation. No single event can provide immediate relief for the systemic obstacles facing the law enforcement community but the incoming Trump administration should provide a welcome start.

    http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2016/...forcement.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  7. #27
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    ‘The Only Good Cop is a Dead Cop,’ Says Alleged PA Cop-Killer

    A manhunt for the killer of a Pennsylvania state trooper who responded to a domestic disturbance before being shot has ended after an overnight search. The suspected cop-killer is dead.

    “The only good cop is a dead cop,” Jason Robinson, the 32-year-old alleged cop-killer posted on Facebook earlier this month, according to the Central Daily Times in State College, Pennsylvania. The post was reported to have been deleted from Facebook about 1 a.m. on Saturday morning. The post was said to include an image of a police cruiser that crashed and a photo of an injured police officer.

    Pennsylvania State Police officials confirmed that Robinson is dead following a massive overnight manhunt. The announcement did not state whether Robinson killed himself or if he was killed in an engagement with police, PennLive.com reported Saturday morning.

    Trooper Landon Weaver was shot and killed after responding with another trooper to a call regarding a “domestic-related incident,” the Central Daily Times reported. The incident took place early Friday evening. Details of the encounter remain sketchy at this time.

    The shooting took place at a residence in Juniata Township, about an hour east of Pittsburg. Weaver had been dispatched to the suspect’s mother’s house to investigate a call about a violation of an order of protection that had been placed on Robinson, PennLive.com reported Friday evening.

    Trooper Weaver was in his first year as a state trooper. He became a state police officer in December 2015 but did not graduate from the police academy until June. Officials reported he is the 97th member of the Pennsylvania State Police to be killed in the line of duty.

    The trooper was the 139th law enforcement officer to be killed in the line of duty this year, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page (ODMP). He is the 63rd officer this year to have been killed by gunfire. The State of Pennsylvania has suffered the loss of three other law enforcement officers this year, the ODMP reported.

    http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2016/...pa-cop-killer/
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  8. #28
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Law Enforcement Participates in U Drive. U Text. U Pay. Campaign to Stop Texting While Driving

    Starting September 5 through the end of the month, law enforcement agencies in North Dakota will participate in the statewide U Drive. U Text. U Pay. campaign in an effort to make our roads safer by enforcing the ban on texting while driving.

    Composing, reading or sending any electronic message or using a communications device to access the Internet while driving has been illegal in North Dakota for drivers of all ages since August 1, 2011, and is punishable with a fine of $100. The law applies to any driver of a vehicle in a traffic lane, even while stopped at a red light or in a construction zone.

    “It’s up to all of us to follow the law and drive distraction-free,” said Lt. Justin Blinsky of the Jamestown Police Department. “While we cannot control others, we can control ourselves and choose to focus more on the road than on anything else in or around our vehicles. It can mean the difference between life and death. Remember, U Drive. U Text. U Pay.”

    North Dakota recently expanded the texting while driving law to include distracted driving, which means any distraction that impairs the ability to safely operate the vehicle. If you’re distracted while driving and commit a traffic violation, the driver can be given a $100 citation for distracted driving. However, this enforcement period will strictly focus on texting while driving.

    According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 3,477 people nationwide were killed and an estimated 391,000 injured in motor vehicle crashes involving distracted drivers in 2015. This was a 9 percent increase in motor vehicle fatalities due to distracted driving compared to the previous year.

    Participating agencies during this heightened enforcement period include Burleigh, Morton, and Grand Forks County Sheriff’s Offices; along with Bismarck, Mandan, Fargo, NDSU, West Fargo, Jamestown, Valley City, Grand Forks, UND, Dickinson, Minot, Devils Lake and Watford City Police Departments.

    This is the fourth year of added enforcement funded by federal grant dollars administered by the North Dakota Department of Transportation. The texting enforcement patrols usually coordinate multiple vehicles and trained observers who may or may not be uniformed officers to observe texting while driving violations.

    Learn more about these and other traffic safety initiatives at dot.nd.gov, ndcodefortheroad.org or join the conversation on the Code for the Road Facebook or Twitter page.

    View memorials on the North Dakota Crash Memorial Wall of families who have lost a loved one due to a distracted driver at ndcodefortheroad.org/memorial.

    http://www.dunncountyextra.com/law-e...xting-driving/

  9. #29
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    A "coin flip": Nearly half of U.S. murders go unsolved as cases rise

    BY CHRIS HACKER, MATTHEW MOSK, JIM AXELROD, ANDREW BAST, DURRELL DAWSON
    CBS

    Police called Denita Williams in April and gave her the address of a gas station in their town of Jackson, Mississippi and asked how long it would take for her to get there.

    "When I pulled up, all I see is this crime tape," Williams told CBS News.

    Her son, Kenland Thompson, Jr., was shot and killed while putting air in his tires. He was 20 years old.

    "The coroner had already taken his body," she said. "He was already gone."

    Three months later, no one has been arrested for the murder of Kenland Thompson, Jr.

    "I gave them names," Williams said, describing how she told police she would help them investigate the case herself. "I felt like I was going crazy, giving them so much. They're not doing their job."

    Across a nation that is already in the grips of a rise in violent crime, murders are going unsolved at a historic pace, a CBS News investigation has found. A review of FBI statistics shows that the murder clearance rate — the share of cases each year that are solved, meaning police make an arrest or close the case due to other reasons — has fallen to its lowest point in more than half a century.

    "It's a 50-50 coin flip," says Thomas Hargrove, who runs the Murder Accountability Project, which tracks unsolved murders nationwide. "It's never been this bad. During the last seven months of 2020, most murders went unsolved. That's never happened before in America."

    Police are far less likely to solve a murder when the victim is Black or Hispanic, according to CBS News' analysis. In 2020, the murders of White victims were about 30% more likely to be solved than in cases with Hispanic victims, and about 50% more than when the victims were Black, the data show.

    In dozens of interviews across the country, police and criminal justice experts have offered a range of explanations for these trends. Some factors are evident when visiting communities such as Jackson, Mississippi, which has suffered from one of the nation's highest murder rates.

    In that city of about 160,000 people, the police department responded to 153 murders in the past year but has just eight homicide detectives to work that caseload. FBI guidelines suggest homicide detectives should be covering no more than five cases at a time.

    Police Chief James Davis said his department needs more of everything to keep up with the violence.

    "The whole system is backlogged," Davis said. "I could use more police officers. I could use more homicide detectives, but if the state is backed up, the court is backed up, we will still have the same problem by developing these cases that we're already doing."

    Police are also contending with a breakdown in trust between their officers and the communities they serve, a result of decades of tensions that spilled over during high-profile cases of police misconduct in recent years.

    That has made it harder for police to receive tips or obtain help from witnesses, said Danielle Outlaw, the commissioner of the Philadelphia Police Department. Outlaw told CBS News there is a history of "systemic inequities that contribute to the mistrust" in many communities most affected by crime.

    "We've gotten in our own way," Outlaw said, referring to past episodes of police misconduct. "It has to be a two-way street, as it is with any relationship."

    The challenge of closing murder cases is reflected in national statistics, but is especially acute in some locations, the CBS News review found.

    More Unsolved Murders

    In the late 1960s and 1970s, police reported solving about 7 out of every 10 murders. In 2020, they only solved about half.

    "I don't have any hope in the system"

    Some states have struggled with consistently low clearance rates, CBS News' analysis shows. From Maryland to Texas, from Michigan to California, families who buried loved ones too soon await justice, often going years without answers.

    Three-year-old Terrell Mayes, Jr. had celebrated Christmas with his family just one day before he was killed by a stray bullet, his life cut short as he fled up the stairs to safety inside his north Minneapolis home. More than 10 years later, his mother, Marsha Mayes, still grieves — and still longs for the day that her son's killer will be brought to justice.

    "I want the killer to know you can't run," Mayes said. "God knows everything."

    But she still knows little more than what she did more than a decade ago: that the person who killed her child hasn't been caught.

    During the 10 years since Terrell's murder, the Minneapolis Police Department recorded 418 homicides committed and only 221 solved — a clearance rate of about 53%, according to CBS News' analysis of FBI data.

    In Los Angeles, Barbara Pritchett-Hughes mourns her own loss. Her son Devon Hughes, 15, was caught in the crossfire outside of a church in 2007. His killer was caught just four days after the shooting and is in prison to this day.

    But nine years later, in 2016, another tragedy: her other son, DeAndre Hughes, was shot and killed just steps away from their front door.

    "Not again, not again," Barbara said she remembers thinking after she heard the news. "And I prayed, and I asked God to don't allow this to happen again."

    Barbara said she initially thought DeAndre's murder would be solved just as quickly as Devon's. But some six years later, she still doesn't know who's responsible.

    In 2020, the Los Angeles Police Department reported a clearance rate of about 55% — slightly better than the national average. But that clearance rate masks a deeper problem: like in many cities, police are less likely to solve the murders of Black victims.

    Between 2016 and 2020, the average clearance rate for Black homicide victims in Los Angeles was just 45%, according to CBS News' analysis of data submitted by the LAPD to the FBI. For White victims, it was 70%.

    The LAPD recorded 351 homicides in 2020 — 36% more than the previous year. Chief Michael Moore pointed to that spike, along with the pandemic, as explanations for the city's clearance rate. He also cited a lack of community trust in police that prevents potential witnesses from coming forward.

    "The solving of a crime, a homicide particularly, is dependent on community trusting police," Moore said.

    The city of Los Angeles is now offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of DeAndre's killer. Barbara implores anyone from the community to come forward.

    "Tell, because if this was your loved one you would want someone to tell," she said.

    An incomplete picture?

    In Chicago, police don't report clearance data through the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program, so CBS News submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for Chicago Police Department (CPD) data. In 2020, that data showed, the department's murder clearance rate was about 44% — 16% less than the national average.

    But that doesn't show the whole picture. The CPD data distinguished between cases that were cleared because a suspect was arrested and charged, and those cleared for other reasons. Those cases — so-called "exceptionally cleared" murders — are closed even though a suspect wasn't prosecuted.

    Exceptional clearances are supposed to be rare — reserved for unusual cases such as when police identify the suspect, but that suspect is dead, Hargrove said. That's not the case in Chicago, where, in 2020, half of the homicide cases police closed were exceptionally cleared.

    One of those exceptionally cleared cases was that of Diego Villada, who, in April 2017, was murdered in an alley in broad daylight on the city's Northwest Side after being jumped by two men. His sister, Anna Villada, watched it happen.

    "One of the dudes told Diego, 'Start running, because this is the day that you die,'" Anna said.

    Diego tried to get away but was shot in the head. Anna tried desperately to save him, but it was too late. He died in the hospital two days later.

    Anna said she made direct eye contact with Diego's killer immediately after the shooting and described him to police. The man she identified was arrested the same day, but wasn't charged due to lack of evidence, according to spokespeople from both CPD and the Cook County State's Attorney's Office.

    Police exceptionally cleared his murder case due to that lack of evidence exactly four years after he was killed, on April 1, 2021.

    Without those exceptionally cleared cases like Diego's, CPD's 2021 murder clearance rate was just 24%, CBS News' analysis shows.

    In other words, three out of four killers in Chicago are still on the street. This lack of accountability perpetuates the cycle of violence, according to Arthur Lurigio, who teaches criminal justice at Loyola University Chicago.

    "When 70% of homicide homicides don't lead to an arrest, that's a critical mass of survivors of homicide victims that are never going to experience the justice that they deserve," Lurigio said. "So, they bury their child and have to live with it for the rest of their lives, feeling that there's been no closure on the matter."

    In Baltimore, a federal prosecutor hopes to tackle the problem through a partnership headquartered in a nondescript warehouse in a secure location. There, a collaboration of more than 20 local, state and federal agencies work together investigating Baltimore's most brazen drug syndicates, and a special intelligence unit identifies connections among the city's hundreds of uncleared murders.

    The intelligence unit hopes to follow the "Al Capone strategy" of convicting murder suspects for other crimes being pursued by the interagency partnership. Former acting U.S. Attorney Jonathan Lenzner used that model in 2021, when his office indicted 15 members of a Baltimore gang on charges related to racketeering and drug conspiracy. Prosecutors linked them to unclosed cases involving 18 murders and 27 attempted murders.

    "There are homicides and non-fatal shootings occurring all across the city, [and] we have a map which shows where each of these shootings has occurred. And at times, unfortunately, and somewhat tragically, that map can look like the constellations on a clear, starry night," Lenzner said.

    https://www.cbsnews.com/news/unsolve...ut-punishment/
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

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