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Guardian Unlimited writes:

The brothers were still in their beige school uniforms when their bodies were discovered in the brush on the outskirts of Caracas: three boys kidnapped on their way to school by men in police uniform and then murdered. According to relatives in Canada, the kidnappers had demanded a $4.5m (£2.6m) ransom for the safe return of the three boys, and had been in contact with the family to demand payment. A lawyer for the family told reporters that the Faddouls were in no position to pay that kind of sum. A teacher at the private school attended by the three boys, Nuestra Señora del Valle, told local television: “The whole school is in shock. “If policemen were really involved in the kidnapping and murder of these boys, it shows that our police force needs to be reformed urgently,” said Monsignor Roberto Lueckert, Archbishop of Caro.

Just read an article from Guardian Unlimited:

The vast majority of crime victims do not believe that prison reduces levels of offending, according to a major new report to be published tomorrow. It is based on an ICM survey of 1,000 crime victims which found that 62 per cent of victims do not believe prison reduces non-violent crime - the type of offences that makes up the vast majority of all crimes committed in Britain. More than half of crime victims said they were in favour of making offenders work in the community to stop them returning to crime. ‘What victims of crime are saying loud and clear is that we need more action on prevention to stop these crimes happening in the first place,’ Russell said.

Here’s a brief summary of an item from New York Times:

Wells told the police that when the lock was clicked closed, it seemed to set the timer on the bomb around his neck. Last Thursday, Mr. Wells walked into a PNC Bank two miles from the pizza shop where he worked, pulled up his shirt to show a bomb locked to his neck, and demanded money. Mr. Wells had told the police that a dark-skinned man attached the bomb to his neck, clicking it closed with a combination lock that seemed to set a timer. To the few people who seemed to know Mr. Wells in this aging industrial city of 103,000 along Lake Erie, the answer is clear: there is no way, they contend, the childlike Mr. Wells could have concocted, much less carried out, such an elaborate scheme. Mr. Wells dropped out of high school when he was a sophomore, seemed only modestly capable as a mechanic, did not own a computer and did not seem to know how to navigate the Internet. He was far from well off, but Mr. Wells showed little interest in money or possessions, living a spartan existence with few complaints, friends said. Though neighbors and investigators knew little about his early work history, it seems clear that Mr. Wells spent much of the past decade, and perhaps longer, delivering pizzas.

New York Times is a good read:

It was then that pioneering historians began to do what most historians had thought impossible: create crime statistics for eras that did not systematically keep crime data. America, where at least recently crime is higher in cities.'’ Some scholars argue that many of the prevailing theories about why crime rises and falls could be further upended as scholars use new computer models to estimate population figures for past eras more accurately. The theory that crime is determined by deterrence and law enforcement, by income inequality, by a high proportion of young men in a population, by the availability of weapons, by cities, most of those theories end up being wrong.'’ Historians have offered various explanations for the unexpected fall in the crime rate.

The latest scoop from New York Times.

He said about two-thirds of the redeployed Street Crime Unit officers would perform the same jobs in existing borough-based anticrime units, focusing, as they did before, on taking guns off the street. The move nonetheless effectively disbands the Street Crime Unit, whose plainclothes officers prowled the streets in search of criminals and which was widely credited with helping win the record declines in crime achieved in recent years. Yesterday, in addition to announcing that he will redeploy the Street Crime officers, Mr. Kelly said he also would move 150 detectives from the department’s Warrant Division and nearly 100 police officers — one each from the department’s 76 precincts and 20 from Housing and Transit Bureau commands — into the detective squads that investigate crimes in neighborhoods around the city.

Interesting article on Los Angeles Daily News.

After spending most of the decade re-creating the Civil War era and delving into the lives of Howard Hughes and Bob Dylan, New York’s Little Italy’s maestro of contemporary crime cinema, Martin Scorsese, is back on the mean streets. It’s all stuff that we associate with Scorsese’s New York masterpieces - “Mean Streets,” “Taxi Driver,” “Raging Bull” and “GoodFellas.” And most of the film’s interiors were filmed in Scorsese’s NYC comfort zone. To DiCaprio, who was on his third Scorsese feature in a row after “Gangs” and “The Aviator,” it didn’t matter when or where the film was set. And violence is part of most Scorsese films. Shut up.’ Damon adds, though, that some of what he learned from that raid found its way into “The Departed” - and that it’s that kind of verisimilitude that sets the violence of Scorsese movies apart from the bloody norm. Although “Gangs” certainly boasted a high casualty count, when Scorsese’s main focus is on period re-creation or some other topic, the films are usually criticized for not living up to his high artistic standards. “The violence in my films, I just - I tend to - I can’t defend it,” Scorsese ponders. It’s that understanding of the human condition - in all of its ugliness and occasionally, maybe, transcendence - that keeps the best in the business eager to work with Martin Scorsese.

As always, great info from San Francisco Chronicle:

The number of hate crimes reported in California decreased by 5.5 percent last year to the lowest number in a decade, according to a report released Friday by Attorney General Bill Lockyer. There were 1,409 hate crime incidents reported in 2004, compared with 1, 491 in 2003, according to the Department of Justice report “Hate Crime in California 2004.” Although crimes against whites, gays and those of Arab or Middle Eastern decent dropped, hate crimes directed at African Americans, Hispanics and Asian/Pacific Islanders increased. Crimes against Asian/Pacific Islanders increased 8 percent to 69, and anti-Hispanic crimes jumped 34 percent from 103 in 2003 to 138 in 2004. Sexual orientation hate crimes decreased 22 percent from 337 in 2003 to 263 in 2004, and religion-motivated hate crimes dropped 6.8 percent.

USA Today writes:

PARIS French lawmakers on Thursday approved a bill making it a crime to deny that mass killings of Armenians in Turkey during and after World War I amounted to genocide. Deputies in France’s National Assembly voted 106-19 for the bill, which has prompted outrage in Turkey and embarrassed the French government. In Brussels, the European Commission warned soon after the vote that the bill - if approved by the French legislature’s other chamber and signed into law - would hamper reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia. Armenians say the killings were part of an organized campaign to force Armenians out of what is now eastern Turkey. The vote on the bill in Paris dominated front pages of most Turkish newspapers, with some reporting that thousands of Turks have promised to go to France and deny genocide in hopes of getting arrested if the bill passes. Turkey’s chief negotiator in European Union membership talks said Thursday that the French bill flew in the face of freedom of expression. He noted that the government of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan, who has sharply criticized the bill, had adopted a law that punishes the admission of a genocide with time in prison in Turkey. Chirac, during a visit to Armenia last month, said the bill “is more of a polemic than of legal reality” but he also urged Turkey to recognize “the genocide of Armenians” in order to join the European Union.

The latest scoop from FOX News.

The two attacked the boy after he tried to kiss a 12-year-old girl at an unsupervised house party Saturday night in suburban Spring, authorities said. County prosecutor Mike Trent said the boy also had high levels of toxins in his organs, indicating the attackers may have poured bleach inside the pipe used to sodomize him. Doctors believe the boy, who was in critical condition Friday, passed out quickly and was unconscious for most of the attack. If the two are convicted of aggravated sexual assault, jurors will be told during sentencing about the ethnic slurs used during the attack, Trent said. The boy’s last posting was Saturday, the day of the attack.

Go take a look at the latest from Times Online:

The study, based on a sample of more than 17,000 people, suggests that no fewer than 17m Britons were victims of crime, from assaults to burglaries and vandalism. It indicates that not only is there a ‘hidden’ and unreported crime wave, but also that crime is increasing. The study mirrors the government’s British Crime Survey (BCS), which is based on quarterly interviews with 10,000 people drawn from a panel of 38,000 householders. The government study found 27.8% of people were victims of crime. Statisticians believe the higher crime rate uncovered by the Experian study may be partly explained by a rise in crime since the last BCS in July 2002 and marginally more affluent interviewees.

I found an article on ABC News:

More Americans are worrying about crime, and many have experienced it but relatively few feel they know a great deal about how to prevent it, an ABCNEWS poll for Court TV has found. The poll found that women in particular are affected by fears about crime, with 66 percent saying crime worries affect their lives, compared to 47 percent of men. The rest, 43 percent, say crime worries don’t affect their lives all that much. There are a few possible reasons why crime worries are up, even though crime rates are down. Whatever the crime rate, there is a good deal of personal or family experience with some crimes. 36 percent express a great deal of worry about having a child abducted a result that probably reflects the enormity of that crime more than its likelihood. While women are more likely to say crime worries in general affect how they live, men and women don’t differ much when it comes to concern about the specific crimes mentioned above. Money can’t buy you happiness, but it might buy a sense of security: People in higher-income families worry less about specific crimes, perhaps because they live in more secure areas and have more money to spend on crime protection.

Updated news from Times Online.

As a result chief constables, led by Sir John Stevens, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, have been urging ministers to adopt tougher gun controls, which they say successfully took guns off the streets of New York. The rise of crack cocaine sold by Jamaican-based Yardie gangsters who routinely carry guns added to the rise in gun use and what police now call ‘black on black killings’. A month ago Sir Keith Povey, the Chief Inspector of Constabulary, warned David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, that the biggest menace facing police was the spread of gun crime often linked with the drug trade and in particular crack cocaine. After studying reports from chief constables around the country, Sir Keith said: ‘The issue of gun crime and its connections with the drugs trade, particularly crack cocaine, is beginning to overshadow other efforts being made to reduce crime and the fear of crime.’ He added: ‘The increasing number of drug-related firearms incidents, the rise in the use of crack cocaine and the turf wars being fought between drug dealers all combine to strike fear in the heart of the worst-affected communities.’ It was a message that Paul Scott-Lee, the new Chief Constable of the West Midlands, knew by heart. ‘Without tougher penalties against such offenders and heightened information from the public and others, the many people who carry guns will increase, each of them a walking assassin.’ Are government proposals enough to curb gun crime?

More information from USA Today:

Sudan said Tuesday it will try three Sudanese for crimes committed in Darfur, including a member of the country’s security forces who is being sought by an international war crimes court. Among the three men being tried is Ali Mohammed Ali Abd-al-Rahman, also known as Ali Kushayb, a member of the security forces who is one of two suspects sought by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. Last week, the ICC accused Kushayb and Ahmed Muhammed Harun, the former junior interior minister responsible for the western region of Darfur, of 51 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for alleged attacks against civilians in Darfur. Even though the ICC cannot prosecute individuals already on trial for the same crime in their own country, chief ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said that Sudan’s investigation of Kushayb does not “encompass the same conduct that is the subject of the case now before the (ICC).”

From USA Today.

The Community Oriented Policing Services program began in fiscal 1994 with the goal of putting 100,000 new police officers on the nation’s streets. Police departments across the USA say they have been forced to abandon community-oriented policing to control flare-ups in crime. But police officials say that officer shortages and sudden crime surges have forced agencies to resort to triage responses in crime “hot spots.” Budget problems and rising crime in some neighborhoods forced the Camden Police Department to close four neighborhood precincts that had allowed officers to respond more quickly to incidents across the city. Muhlhausen, a critic of community policing, says police chiefs are trying to “shake down” the government for more money.

You should check out CNN International:

Eric Rudolph is shown in this sketch at his Birmingham, Alabama, court appearance on Wednesday. ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) — Revealing his motives for the first time, Eric Robert Rudolph blames the death and violence behind the four bombings he’s confessed to in Georgia and Alabama on the legalization of abortion and “aberrant sexual behavior.” Rudolph issued a rambling 11-page statement Wednesday after pleading guilty in Alabama and Georgia, declaring: “Abortion is murder. Rudolph also bombed a lesbian nightclub in Atlanta in February 1997, an attack in which five people were wounded. Rudolph’s guilty pleas were heard in two courtrooms Wednesday, first in Birmingham, Alabama, then in Atlanta, Georgia. “You may not appreciate how much dynamite 250 pounds is until you realize that Rudolph’s bombs that caused so much devastation in Atlanta and Birmingham each contained only 5 pounds to 15 pounds of dynamite.” Although Rudolph did approach one friend six months after going into hiding, he had apparently surveilled the friend for weeks, Nahmias said.

Here’s a peek at the latest news from Washington Post:

Keep demanding solutions to crime, and, see that the race issue as you related it -criminal crimes may factually occur under racial predominance per-capita by African American criminals. The County in-fact enjoys relatively extremely less occurrence of excessive crime, which flows in Prince Georges County - Its not a black thing - Its criminal behavior that majorities currently refer to themselves in negative pejorative N-word. If people would come together on fighting crime instead of accusing people of being racist for trying to stop it the county, all counties would be a better, safer place.

You should check out Times Online:

IT’S Operation Design Out Crime. Following a series of international studies showing that environmental factors contribute to burglaries and muggings, gardai have launched a certificate programme to reward developers who use design devices that reduce crime and antisocial behaviour. Inspector Pat McCabe of the Garda’s crime prevention unit says there is now an officer in every division in the country qualified to check housing- development design. “We have a look at the plans and the site, and based on policing knowledge and a crime profile of a particular area, we make recommendations in relation to how crime can be designed out,” he said. Pearse Smyth, an architect for Boylan & Sons who received the garda certificate for a site at Mulladuff in Monaghan, said crime prevention officers have been trying to get a foot in the door of planning for a long time.

Updated news from Washington Post.

LONDON — Hezbollah militants broke international law by firing thousands of rockets into Israel and killing dozens of civilians during the recent conflict with Israel, Amnesty International charged Thursday. Although Hezbollah denies targeting Israeli civilians, it fired inaccurate rockets packed with thousands of metal ball bearings to maximize harm to noncombatants, Amnesty said. Amnesty plans to publish additional reports studying whether Hezbollah contributed to civilian deaths in Lebanon by purposely hiding among civilians, said Nicole Choueiry, a spokesman for Amnesty in Britain.

You should check out New York Times:

Stewart on charges of conspiracy, securities fraud and obstruction of justice, accusing her of lying to government investigators about her 2001 sale of shares in ImClone, a biotechnology company. At the core of the Stewart debate is whether prosecutors are abusing their discretion when they charge people with lying to them, even though no charge is brought against the defendant on the suspected crime that triggered the investigation. Stewart with insider trading.) The complaint charges that they concocted a story that she had decided to sell the stock if it fell below $60. Stewart can be charged with lying to prosecutors or to other government officials, even if she was not under oath, under a little-known federal law that lawyers call 1001, for its section number in the United States criminal code.

ABC News is a good read:

Though both crime rates and the perceived severity of the problem are on the wane, crime remains a top public priority. June 7 The public has grown less pessimistic about the severity of the nations crime problem, mirroring a decline in actual crime rates in recent years. The FBI last month reported that crime has fallen in each of the last eight years, the longest stretch of declining crime rates on record. Though both crime rates and the perceived severity of the problem are on the wane, crime remains a top public priority. Indeed, among those who perceive a crime problem nationally, 82 percent say their assessment is based on crime reports theyve seen in the news.

You should check out New York Times:

ROME, Oct. 22 - Organized crime represents the biggest segment of the Italian economy, accounting for more than $127 billion in receipts, according to a report issued Monday. “From the weaving factories, to tourism to business and personal services, from farming to public contracts to real estate and finance, the criminal presence is consolidated in every economic activity,” the 86-page report said. Usury represents the most lucrative activity by organized crime, with syndicates taking in $43 billion while racketeering brings in $14 billion, the report estimated. The report says 80 percent of the businesses in the Sicilian cities of Catania and Palermo regularly pay protection money, known as “pizzo.”

Interesting article on Guardian Unlimited.

The IRA is gathering intelligence and some of its members are still engaged in criminality but the group overall is making progress towards a peaceful transformation, a report said today. The report by the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) also said security sources claimed that some IRA members still had access to firearms. The IMC claims about weapons opened up a row with the body responsible for overseeing the IRA’s decommissioning of weapons, the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD). In its conclusion, the IMC said the IRA was in a period of evolution but some members continued to be involved in assaults and organised crime, including money laundering and smuggling. Monitors clash The IMC report said security sources had told the four-member commission that some handguns had allegedly been retained by a number of IRA members for personal protection and “area defence”. Intelligence gathering The IMC’s claim that the IRA continues to gather intelligence may have the most significant bearing on next week’s talks about resuming power-sharing, given that the collapse of the assembly was prompted by a spying row. In today’s report, the IMC said the IRA continued to gather information on individuals and groups, including members of the security forces, and had “no intention” of stopping. Commissioners said smaller dissident republican groups, such as the Continuity IRA and the Real IRA, have been responsible for hoax devices targeting the police or military.

Christian Science Monitor has an interesting article:

In a strongly worded warning to the leaders of both the militant group Hizbullah and Israel, United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Louise Arbour threatened the “perpetrators of wanton violence against civilians in the current Middle East conflict with liability for war crimes.” “Attacking civilian areas indiscriminately is a serious violation of international humanitarian law and can constitute a war crime,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, director of the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch. The ICRC also reminded Israel that under international law, its air-and-sea blockade of Lebanon must not prevent ” food stuffs and other essentials ” from reaching the civilian populations. “Since Israeli attacks against Lebanon’s civilian infrastructure and population centers clearly go beyond legitimate self-defense, the United States is legally obliged to suspend arms transfers to Israel,” Zunes told IPS. Ireland On-line also reports that Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni rejected the criticism that Israel’s actions were “disproportionate,” saying that Israel offensive was not just a reaction the Hizbullah raids, but to the broader question of Hizbullah’s threat to Israel’s security. In a direct swipe at the international community, in particular the US, which said that Israel was acting in self-defense, Mr. Siniora said “said, “Is this what the international community calls the right of self-defense?