Teenage flash mob ransacks Nordstrom — Portland, OR

Portland police say a group of about 10 teens targeted a Nordstrom store Friday night in what was reported as a “flash mob theft.”

Police say the teens grabbed items from the store in the Lloyd Center mall, stashed them in bags and ran from the store.

The teens reportedly were all male, and roughly 13 to 19 years old. Employees say all were wearing hats and hooded sweatshirts, with their faces covered.

Police checking the nearby area recovered some of the stolen clothing. Officers expect to review the store’s surveillance video.

A group of teens staged a similar robbery last weekend in Southeast Portland, taking about $200 worth of candy, beer and other items from a gas station convenience store.

http://www.kgw.com/news/Portland-police-10-teens-grab-items-at-Nordstrom-147436555.html

•  17 April 2012  •  38 notes

Anarchists vandalize businesses and fight police — New York City, NY

Cops last night arrested three self-proclaimed anarchists who assaulted two police officers and terrorized patrons at an East Village coffee shop, authorities said.

The melee broke out at 8:45 p.m. when a gang of 25 authority-haters, some wearing masks, wielded 8-foot-long metal pipes and tried to smash the windows of the Starbucks at Astor Place and Lafayette Street, police said.

Coffee drinkers hid under tables during the fracas, cops said.

The group had just left the sixth annual anarchist book fair being held at a church off Washington Square Park.

They then took to the streets marching against traffic chanting, “F—- the NYPD!” “Cops are murderers!” and “All pigs must die!” authorities said.

In addition to the Starbucks vandalism, a group of about 150 were seen tipping garbage cans and spray-painting anarchist symbols on storefronts, sources said.

One sergeant spotted Eric Marchese, 24, smashing windows at several stores in the East Village, police sources said. He was charged with criminal mischief and disorderly conduct.

Two other protesters, Alexander Penley, 41, and Nicholas Thommen, 30, were slapped with several charges including assault, criminal possession of a weapon and inciting a riot.

At least two of the three ‘anarchists’ had records of prior arrests in other states, sources said.

Penley, 41, was arrested in Boise, Idaho for allegedly breaking into a US Military processing station.

He’d also been busted in California for burglary, in Oregon for resisting arrest and in Utah for pot possession.

Marchese, who has a New York taxi driver license, had been arrested in New Jersey for improper behavior.

An NYPD sergeant and lieutenant were treated for minor injuries following the incident.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/panic_as_anti_government_goons_smash_23aHRRaT5TKyArG1amxweI

•  16 April 2012  •  71 notes

Police chief shot to death days before retirement — Greenland, NH

A police chief from southeastern New Hampshire who planned to retire in a few days has been shot to death while trying to execute a search warrant, authorities said Friday.

Chief Michael Maloney of the police department in Greenland, a town of about 3,500, was killed in a shooting that wounded four other officers on Thursday night at a home in the community, said Attorney General Michael Delaney.

“This is a tragedy for our community,” he said. “Our law enforcement community is in mourning.”

Two suspects, a man and a woman, were found dead in the home after a long stand off, Delaney said. Investigators believe the deaths came from either a “murder-suicide” or a “double suicide,” he said.

Greenland is just south of the city of Portsmouth. Its police force has 10 members, the town says on its website.

During a news conference Friday, Delaney was asked why a police chief would be part of a dangerous mission so close to his retirement. He did not answer the question directly but said all the officers involved were part of a drug investigation.

The shootings come after a year in which U.S. cities saw an increase in officers killed.

The number of officers who died in the line of duty in 2011 increased 16% nationwide from last year, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

Last year, 177 officers were killed, compared with 153 in 2010, the organization said.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/13/us/new-hampshire-shooting/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

•  14 April 2012  •  8 notes

Police car shot up in Trayvon martin’s neighborhood — Sanford, FL

Six shots were fired into an empty police cruiser early today in the Florida neighborhood where black teenager Trayvon Martin was shot and killed as the mayor warned that the town has become a “kindling box.”

No one was injured in the 4:30 a.m. shooting at the Retreat at Twin Lakes in Sanford, Fla. Police removed the vehicle and have begun an investigation.

The shooting occurred as tensions continue in this small middle class city. One official told ABC News tension could soon reaching a boiling point. ABC News has learned that the emergency operation centers of three counties have been activated at Level II, the same level of preparedness used ahead of a hurricane.

“Are we a kindling box? Sure,” said Mayor Jeff Triplett. “But we’re working down a path and so far it’s been absolutely peaceful.”

He said noting the city hopes to hard to avoid conflict violence, even allowing protesters to blockade the police department Monday and shutting it down.

Martin, 17, was unarmed when he was shot by George Zimmerman, 28, a white Hispanic neighborhood watch captain on Feb. 26.

The shooting has spawned outrage in the black community with protests and demands that Zimmerman be arrested for murder.

But Zimmerman claims that the shooting had nothing to do with race, that he shot Martin in self defense after the teenager knocked him down, slammed his head into the ground and went for Zimmerman’s gun.

http://gma.yahoo.com/police-car-shot-trayvon-martins-neighborhood-184110824—abc-news-topstories.html

•  10 April 2012  •  54 notes

Clashes with riot police after man commits suicide — Athens, Greece

Protesters have clashed with riot police in Athens hours after a pensioner shot himself dead outside the Greek parliament.

The man, named in the Greek media as 77-year-old Dimitris Christoulas, killed himself in the city’s busy Syntagma Square on Wednesday morning.

In a suicide note reported by Greek media, he accused the government of reducing his pension to nothing.

Flowers have been laid at the spot where he died and tributes paid online.

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in the square outside parliament on Wednesday evening, the scene of many large protests in recent months.

Violence erupted, with petrol bombs hurled at police, who fired tear gas in response.

Depression and suicides are reported to have increased in Greece as the country introduces tough austerity measures to deal with huge debts.

‘Dignified end’

Mr Christoulas shot himself in the central square just before 09:00 local time (06:00 GMT), the Athens News reports.

He was said to be a retired chemist, with a wife and a daughter, who had sold his pharmacy in 1994.

In the alleged suicide note, found by police and reported by the Athens News, he said: “The government has annihilated all traces for my survival, which was based on a very dignified pension that I alone paid for 35 years with no help from the state.

“And since my advanced age does not allow me a way of dynamically reacting… I see no other solution than this dignified end to my life, so I don’t find myself fishing through garbage cans for my sustenance.”

Government spokesman Pantelis Kapsis called the suicide a “human tragedy” but said “the exact circumstances” were unknown.

Evangelos Venizelos, head of the socialist Pasok party that holds a majority in the coalition government, called on colleagues to refrain from “political commentary” and “show solidarity and togetherness”.

Antonis Samaras, head of the conservative New Democracy party, said politicians must do more to “help Greeks escape from despair”.

Drastic austerity measures have been imposed on Greece to meet the terms of a huge eurozone financial bailout needed to save the country from bankruptcy.

Thousands of civil service jobs have been cut, taxes raised and there have been reductions in pay, benefits and pensions.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17620421

•  4 April 2012  •  22 notes

Police officer stabbed by 12-year-old girl — New Orleans, LA

A New Orleans police officer is being treated for a stab wound after he was allegedly attacked in Algiers by a 12-year-old girl.

The officer was stabbed in the shoulder and is in the hospital. His injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.

Officials say around 5:45 p.m. a group of roughly 25 to 30 people starting fighting with each other at the Fischer Housing Development in Algiers.

Three officers who were working off duty detail for the housing development went to break up the fight, according to officials, at which point the 12-year-old girl stabbed one of the officers with a knife.

The girl was arrested, according to police, but it’s not clear what charges she’ll face. The commander is waiting to conduct a more thorough investigation before coming to a decision.

Another woman was also wounded in the arm and was treated at an area hospital.

“It’s disappointing more than shocking to have someone that young feeling the need to arm themselves to participate in any type of disagreement, even when that escalates up to a fight, that’s the disappointing thing,” said Fourth District Commander Heather Kouts. 

It was originally reported that police arrested another woman in the incident, but the NOPD has recanted, saying whether that woman will face charges is also unclear at this time.

Police expect more arrests to follow.

http://www.wwltv.com/news/NOPD-officer-stabbed-in-Algiers-136345413.html

•  4 April 2012  •  2 notes

“At it’s most emblematic of the pervasiveness of relations of domination into the realm of the personal, one sees the ardent attempts of identity to allude to commonality when in fact there Is none. In my affirmation that I am indeed X, Y, And Z I open up the possibility for the equation of the dissimilar. You, also ascribing to the conceptual self-construction of X, Y, and Z, see myself reflected in your own gaze. Even at its most innocuous, this false-recognition is not neutral or merely one-dimensional in the sense that such recognition constitutes a representation – an affective signification which reduces my existence to bare life, that of my assumed predicates. Recognition can only happen amongst ethical intensities, not the constituents of mimesis.”

—

Applied Nonexistence, Ten Theses On Identity — http://appliednonexistence.org/?p=956

(via acommune)

(Source: c-o-m-m-u-n-e)

•  4 April 2012  •  4 notes

Thousands of dollars worth of damage at anti-police demo — Oakland, CA

A weekly Occupy Oakland anti-police march ended with thousands of dollars in damage Saturday night as vandals smashed windows and left behind spray-painted slogans on downtown Oakland buildings, police said.

No one was arrested, but investigators plan to use surveillance footage to identify the people who struck the City Center complex near 14th Street and Broadway.

Authorities said they found four broken windows and spray paint damage in City Center, which includes Starbucks, Patelco Credit Union and Quiznos. More paint vandalism was reported on the Clorox and Wells Fargo buildings, police said.

In recent weeks the antipolice marches had been fairly peaceful so officials have scaled back the number of officers present and were not able to make arrests Saturday.

The vandals, some of whom wore masks, damaged or destroyed property and then returned to the crowd of marchers, police said.

Occupy protesters have been staging the weekly demonstrations since violent clashes with police in the winter.

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_20303206/police-thousands-damage-after-occupy-oakland-antipolice-march

•  3 April 2012  •  16 notes

Multimillion dollar home set on fire — Jacksonville, FL

Investigators said they’re looking for an arsonist who set fire inside a multimillion dollar home in Beauclerc on Monday afternoon.

The home in the 2600 block of Beauclerc Road and on the St. Johns River sustained about $200,000 in damage. It’s owned by a prominent local doctor, Kenneth Sekine.

According to a report from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, the fire was set in some trash in the garage and spread into the attic. The rear door to the garage was kicked in, according to the report.

A jogger told police that before the house caught fire, he saw a fire burning in a garbage can near the garage. He said he also saw a man in his 30s wearing gray clothes and running from the front of the house to the back.

The police report says the home had been burglarized March 10.

No one was home at the time of the fire and there were no injuries.

http://www.news4jax.com/news/Arsonist-sought-in-multimillion-dollar-house-fire/-/475880/9721126/-/1sfnp7z/-/

•  3 April 2012  •  11 notes

About 40 motorists stop cars to pick up cash that fell from armored truck — Montgomery, MD

As many as 40 motorists stopped their cars and helped themselves to cash that fell out of an armored truck Friday morning along Interstate 270 in Montgomery County, according to authorities.

A total of $5,795 fell out of an unsecured door of the truck, said Maryland State Police Sgt. Mark Cummings. As of 12:45 p.m., only $100 had been turned in to authorities, Cummings said. State police are offering amnesty for anyone who returns the money to the Rockville Barracks at 7915 Montrose Road in Rockville.

“No questions will be asked,” Cummings said.

One reason so many people may have scooped up cash is that the armored truck had continued down the road, and they may have considered it lost or abandoned money, Cummings said. The bills fell out in two plastic bags, which broke apart when they hit the road, he said.

The Associated Press reported that attorney Heather Kelly, driving on Interstate 270 to her office in Frederick, saw two bags of currency and people frantically trying to collect the money.

“It was in the traffic lanes and on the shoulders and just generally kind of like a snow globe of cash,” she told AP.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/crime-scene/post/motorists-scoop-up-armored-car-cash/2012/03/23/gIQAn6Y9VS_blog.html

•  2 April 2012  •  5 notes

Man allegedly attempts to set cop on fire — Randolph, MA

Police say a man in Massachusetts is in big trouble with the law for allegedly trying to set an officer on fire. Officers say 54-year-old Raphael Theophile, is charged with arson, assault to murder and assault with a dangerous weapon, after he doused a policeman in gasoline. Theophile’s family says the man suffers from mental illness.

From the 911 calls, it was clear something went very wrong even before this Randolph duplex went up in flames.

Part of the call goes like this:
Operator: “911, what is your emergency?”
Caller: “Someone is trying to use fire in the house - he has gas and he turned it on and there’s fire in the house. (indecipherable)”

Randolph police responded, trying to help the man they believed was trapped inside. Instead, that person tried to harm Officer Mark L’Italien. He says, “So I just put one foot in, just seeing if I could see anyone in there, because the people outside were saying there was still someone inside. So I was just seeing if I could even go inside and at that time, I just saw a hand with like a white bucket, something white, that’s all I saw, and then I get just showered with gas.”

Covered in gas, he and another officer immediately left the home. Investigators say the man inside, 54-year-old Raphael Theophile then confronted more officers on his back porch. This time, he had two knives. He was eventually arrested.

Investigators say Theophile set fire to five different spots inside his home. As his family removes what they can, they say Theophile was recently treated for mental illness and believe he didn’t receive the proper attention. His brother-in-law Jaude Louis says, “He was working but he was stressed out, you know.”

As for Officer L’Italien, he is OK. He showered and returned to work later that night.

Theophile was being held without bail pending his arraignment Monday on the charges.

http://www.todaysthv.com/news/article/203923/288/Mass-man-allegedly-tries-to-set-police-officer-on-fire

•  2 April 2012

Thieves ransack church of thousands of dollars worth of electronics — Beaconsfield, Montreal, Canada

No place is sacred it appears, after thieves broke into two Beaconsfield churches, in one case leaving the congregation with $5,000 in repairs and carting off thousands of dollars of electronic equipment belonging to several non-profit groups that operated services in the church.

A 40-inch flat screen TV, a Wii, laptops, computers, a Bluray player, iPods and an iPad were among the objects stolen from Beaconsfield United Church on Woodside Rd. some time overnight March 15 to 16, said Montreal police community relations officer Roberto Del Papa at Station 1 in Kirkland.

It appears a motion-detector was removed at the rear of the church by the suspects so they could avoid being seen, Del Papa said.

And another church, Briarwood Presbyterian Church on Beaconsfield Blvd., was also targeted March 14 to 15, likely by the same suspect(s), but in that case, thieves only got away with an old computer, Del Papa said.

“It’s shameful,” said Cindy Casey, a coordinator of programs at Beaconsfield United. “No place is sacred.”

Casey said the equipment that was stolen from Beaconsfield United belonged to several different groups that rented space in the church building. Among them: a preschool; a Christian youth association; a gay and lesbian outreach group; and the West Montreal Readaption Centre for the intellectually handicapped.

Casey said parishioners are often reminded to remove their car keys from their coat pockets if they hang their coats in the cloakroom during the church service and not to leave purses in the pews. But the break-in is a new low. “Some people will do anything,” said Casey.

A desktop computer that was stolen belonged to the West Montreal Readaption Centre, she said, it was a crucial tool for a young woman, one of eight intellectually handicapped West Islanders who frequented the church-based outreach centre.

Casey said the church and the various organizations all have insurance that will cover losses but, the break-in has created extra work for everyone and left many unsettled.

In the case of the church, she said, the windows that were broken during the break-in are now being replaced and, the 20 or so door locks throughout the building are all being changed.

“We will have to get keys to all the people who should have keys,” she said.

The investigation into the break-ins continue, police said.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Thieves+break+into+churches/6369913/story.html

•  1 April 2012  •  7 notes

Protesters attack police & vehicles over police mistreatment — Chengdu & Guangdong, China

Protests against abusive law enforcement personnel flared into riots in two southern China cities last week, with mobs confronting armed police and smashing police vehicles, according to residents.

In Chengdu in Sichuan province, street mobs besieged authorities who mistreated a street vendor, while in Huaiji in Guangdong province, onlookers attacked police officers after police vehicles involved in a car chase hit two bystanders.

A mob of street vendors, students, and local residents surrounded several urban management officers in the Sichuan capital on Friday, after they beat a sugarcane seller and his three-year-old child in the street.

They were angry at the urban management officers’ treatment of the vendors, according to a college student.

“They get a salary from the government, but they abuse their power by attacking vendors. I am infuriated by this,” he said.

China’s urban management officers are a parapolice force that deals with low-level crime and disorder, including clearing away unlicensed street vendors. But some complain that the officers verbally and physically abuse street vendors in the process.

When police officers came to the aid of the urban management officers, they were confronted by the mob.

Photos of the riot posted online showed a large mob surrounding several police vehicles and a car that had been overturned.

The confrontation lasted about two hours before police fled the scene with the urban management officers. 

Another Chengdu resident said, “The urban management officers should exercise their power responsibly, maintaining civilized language and dignified conduct.”

Staff reached by telephone on Monday at the Chengdu Urban Administrative and Law Enforcement Bureau, which oversees urban management officers, declined to discuss the incident.

“No, I cannot reveal anything to you now, as the incident is still under investigation,” he said.

Guangdong

In the other incident, a police car hit two bystanders while pursuing a motorcyclist without a valid license plate in Huaiji, enraging hundreds and igniting a riot.

When the onlookers forced the police car to a halt, police officers got out of the vehicle and attacked an old man, making the crowd more furious, reports said.

The crowd attacked the officers and smashed their car and other police cars at the scene.

Authorities detained more than a dozen protesters.

A police officer with Huaiji county public security bureau confirmed the incident on Monday.

“Yes, it was serious. The mob blocked the road for several hours, smashing our cars.”

“We went to the scene to ask them to leave, but they didn’t obey,” the officer said.

Several protesters were wounded in the incident, local residents said.

http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/mobs-03262012180650.html

•  1 April 2012  •  2 notes

Laptops and iPads stolen from SUV on Mitt Romney’s campaign — San Diego, CA

Laptops and iPads containing sensitive information about Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney’s campaign were stolen from an SUV in San Diego last week.

The electronics were stolen last Friday from a rental car parked car in San Diego, the Romney campaign confirmed Tuesday. The items belonged to two Romney campaign staffers. The thefts were first reported by KGTV, a local San Diego TV station.

Two laptops, two iPads and two handheld radios were taken.

Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul called the incident an “unfortunate inconvenience” but said the campaign wasn’t worried about the release of any sensitive information. She said the campaign didn’t suspect the items were stolen for political reasons.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/laptops-ipads-stolen-from-romney-staffers-aide-not-worried-about-release-of-sensitive-info/2012/03/27/gIQA2qdNfS_story.html

•  31 March 2012  •  14 notes

Funeral arrangements are pending.

http://www.officer.com/news/10658046/fla-corrections-officer-stabbed-to-death-by-inmate

•  31 March 2012  •  2 notes