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ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. (WAVY) — The family of Andrew Brown Jr. along with Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II held a press briefing Saturday afternoon in Elizabeth City.

Rev. Barber is the president and senior lecturer of Repairers of the Breach and co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.

Brown’s family was joined by civil rights attorney Harry Daniels and Pasquotank County NAACP chapter president Keith Rivers.

42-year-old Andrew Brown Jr. was shot and killed by law enforcement during the execution of a search warrant Wednesday in Elizabeth City.

Watch the full briefing below:

During the press conference, Rivers asked for the resignation of Pasquotank County Sheriff Tommy Wooten for having not released the body camera footage of the incident.

Witnesses say Brown was shot as he was driving away.

On Friday, Sheriff Wooten told 10 On Your Side seven deputies are on administrative leave following the shooting.

Another three deputies have resigned since Wednesday, he added. One of them was nearing retirement. Those three deputies were not directly involved in the shooting.

The sheriff said the body camera video could be released within the next couple of days. The release of the body camera footage requires a court order, under North Carolina law.

City Council voted unanimously during the meeting to petition the Pasquotank County sheriff to release the body camera video. If the request is denied, the city attorney is directed to go to a superior court to request an order for release.

WAVY has also joined a media coalition to petition the court in Pasquotank to release the video.

During the press briefing Saturday, Sheriff Wooten and Chief Deputy Daniel Fogg released a recorded video on social media stating they have asked the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation whether releasing the video would interfere and undermine their investigation of the incident.

“Because we want transparency, we want the body camera footage made public,” said Wooten.

“Some people have falsely claimed that my office has the power to do so. That is not true. Only a judge can release the video.”

Once Sheriff Wooten said they have the confirmation from the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, they would then file a motion in court “hopefully” Monday to have the footage released.

The Pasquotank County Sheriff’s Office have also asked the North Carolina Sheriff’s Association to appoint an outside sheriff’s office to conduct an internal affairs investigation of everyone involved in the incident. This in addition to the investigation from the FBI and the local district attorney’s office.

Chief Deputy Fogg said the focused of the internal review is to see if there needs to be disciplinary actions taken following the incident.

“We will fully cooperate with the work of the outside investigator.”

At the end of the video, Sheriff Wooten addressed community members saying he understands their frustration, however, Wooten said they are following a process that ensures fairness for everyone involved.

“We ask for your patience and your support as we work to do the right thing.”

Source Article from https://www.wavy.com/news/north-carolina/family-of-andrew-brown-jr-holds-press-briefing-in-elizabeth-city/

WASHINGTON — After two years and 200 interviews, the Senate Intelligence Committee is approaching the end of its investigation into the 2016 election, having uncovered no direct evidence of a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia, according to both Democrats and Republicans on the committee.

But investigators disagree along party lines when it comes to the implications of a pattern of contacts they have documented between Trump associates and Russians — contacts that occurred before, during and after Russian intelligence operatives were seeking to help Donald Trump by leaking hacked Democratic emails and attacking his opponent, Hillary Clinton, on social media.

“If we write a report based upon the facts that we have, then we don’t have anything that would suggest there was collusion by the Trump campaign and Russia,” said Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, in an interview with CBS News last week.

Burr was careful to note that more facts may yet be uncovered, but he also made clear that the investigation was nearing an end.

“We know we’re getting to the bottom of the barrel because there’re not new questions that we’re searching for answers to,” Burr said.

Democratic Senate investigators who spoke to NBC News on condition of anonymity did not dispute Burr’s characterizations, but said they lacked context.

“We were never going find a contract signed in blood saying, ‘Hey Vlad, we’re going to collude,'” one Democratic aide said.

The series of contacts between Trump’s associates, his campaign officials, his children and various Russians suggest a campaign willing to accept help from a foreign adversary, the Democrats say.

By many counts, Trump and his associates had more than 100 contacts with Russians before the January 2017 presidential inauguration.

“Donald Trump Jr. made clear in his messages that he was willing to accept help from the Russians,” one Democratic Senate investigator said. “Trump publicly urged the Russians to find Clinton’s missing emails.”

Those facts are beyond dispute. But they also have been known for some time — and have not seemed to change Trump’s political standing.

Democrats and other Trump opponents have long believed that special counsel Robert Mueller and Congressional investigators would unearth new and more explosive evidence of Trump campaign coordination with Russians. Mueller may yet do so, although Justice Department and Congressional sources say they believe that he, too, is close to wrapping up his investigation.

House Republicans announced last year they had found no evidence of collusion, but their report came under immediate criticism as a highly partisan product that excluded Democrats. Now in power, House Democrats recently announced an expanded probe that will go beyond the 2016 election to examine whether any foreign government has undue financial influence on Trump or his family. And New York federal prosecutors are pursuing their own criminal inquiry related to hush-money payments to women. The investigations into Donald Trump, therefore, are far from over.

The Senate Intelligence Committee has been conducting the sole bipartisan inquiry, led by Burr and ranking Democrat Mark Warner of Virginia. The committee has sifted through some 300,000 documents, investigators tell NBC News, including classified intelligence shedding light on how the Russians communicated about their covert operation to interfere in the 2016 election.

U.S. intelligence agencies assess that the operation began as an effort to sow chaos and morphed into a plan to help Trump win. It included the hacking and leaking of embarrassing Democratic emails and the use of bots, trolls and fake accounts on social media to boost Trump, criticize Democrat Hillary Clinton and exacerbate political differences.

Predictably, Burr’s comments led Trump to tweet that he had been fully vindicated, which is not the case.

“Senator Richard Burr, The Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, just announced that after almost two years, more than two hundred interviews, and thousands of documents, they have found NO COLLUSION BETWEEN TRUMP AND RUSSIA!” Trump tweeted Sunday. “Is anybody really surprised by this?”

Democratic Senate investigators say it may take them six or seven months to write their final report once they are done with witness interviews. They say they have uncovered facts yet to be made public, and that they hope to make Americans more fully aware of the extent to which the Russians manipulated the U.S. presidential election with the help of some Trump officials, witting or unwitting.

The report, Democrats say, will not be good for Trump.

But they also made clear they haven’t found proof of their worst fear: That the president formed a corrupt pact with Russia to offer sanctions relief or other favorable treatment in return for Russian help in the election.

After it recently emerged in court documents that Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort shared campaign polling data with a man the FBI says is linked to Russian intelligence, Warner called that the most persuasive evidence yet of coordination.

“This appears as the closest we’ve seen yet to real, live, actual collusion,” he said on CNN.

No evidence has emerged, however, linking the transfer of polling data to Trump. Also unclear in court documents is Manafort’s motive for sharing the information. Facing more than a decade in prison for bank and tax fraud, he has not been accused by Mueller of any crimes related to the 2016 election.

Burr, in the CBS interview, said the motivations behind the Trump campaign’s interactions with Russians were in some cases impossible to discern.

“There’s an awful lot of connections of all these people,” he said. “They may not be connections that are tied to 2016 elections in the United States, but just the sheer fact that they have a relationship — it may be business. It may be Russian intelligence. It may be they’re all on the payroll of Oleg Deripaska,” he added, referring to a Russian oligarch tied to Putin who had business dealings with Manafort.

The final Senate report may not reach a conclusion on whether the contacts added up to collusion or coordination with Russia, Burr said.

Democrats told NBC News that’s a distinct possibility.

“What I’m telling you is that I’m going to present, as best we can, the facts to you and to the American people,” Burr told CBS. “And you’ll have to draw your own conclusion as to whether you think that, by whatever definition, that’s collusion.”

Source Article from https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/senate-has-uncovered-no-direct-evidence-conspiracy-between-trump-campaign-n970536

Liberal media members and pundits reacted angrily to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the federal moratorium on evictions, despite the Biden administration’s admitting weeks ago it had no legal standing to extend the moratorium.

The nation’s highest court voted Thursday in a 6-3 majority to overturn the moratorium, with the court’s three liberal-leaning justices dissenting. 

The Biden administration previously admitted that it lacked the legal authority to extend the federal moratorium after it expired in July. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), however, issued a new moratorium that was set to expire in October.

SUPREME COURT STRIKES DOWN BIDEN ADMINISTRATION’S EVICTION MORATORIUM

Former President Donald Trump’s niece, Mary Trump, a regular at some liberal outlets, called for the court to be expanded to make the conservative-leaning members a “minority.” She described the six justices in favor of overturning the moratorium as “cruel” and “conscienceless.”

“This week alone, the Supreme Court has attacked Biden’s eviction moratorium while pushing for the reinstatement of Trump’s Remain in Mexico policy. At what point do Democrats wake up, smell the coffee, get spines <choose your metaphor> and rebalance this packed Supreme Court?” wrote left-wing MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan, before adding that any action taken would require Congress and Democrats to have “spines.”

PSAKI DISMISSED CONCERNS OVER LEGALITY OF BIDEN’S RENEWED EVICTION MORATORIUM

Other critics from the media also took to Twitter to slam the decision, with some, including former Secretary of Labor and cable regular Robert Reich, joining the call to expand the court, and others expressing outrage over the court making the decision amid a pandemic.

DEMOCRATS ATTACK SUPREME COURT FOR BLOCKING BIDEN EVICTION MORATORIUM

Some critics lamented there was still unspent money for rental relief, while others predicted chaos as “millions” could be evicted. One critic even referred to the court as committing “another evil.”

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Smaller landlords had been hit hardest by the pandemic with as many as 58% having tenets behind on rent, according to the National Association of Realtors. Smaller landlords are owed more than half of all back rent.

Fox Business’ Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/media/media-supreme-court-decision-joe-biden-eviction-moratorium

Nada más estrenar temporada, TVE ha sumado nueva polémica por un despido fulminante que ha sorprendido a muchos, incluida a la propia Mariló Montero. El economista Juan Ramón Rallo iba a estar al servicio de La mañana de La 1 de forma semanal, pero tal y como ha hecho constar en su red social y en una entrevista, sin previo aviso, y sin detallar la naturaleza de su cese laboral, se le ha hecho saber que su función en TVE ha terminado. Solamente había hecho una primera y ya única aparición en el espacio de Montero el pasado miércoles, y ha sido la propia presentadora quien se ha puesto en contacto con él para transmitirle no sólo la mala noticia, sino su disconformidad personal. 

El propio afectado ha sugerido que el motivo de su adiós drástico en TVE puede deberse a su carácter de libre pensador. Rallo aboga firmemente por la eliminación de impuestos y un menor peso de los servicios públicos. “Ya sabemos quién manda en la televisión de todos”, ha puesto en Twitter. Pero esto, también podría remontarse a mucho antes, pues en noviembre del año pasado, en su blog, expuso su opinión de una forma directa: “No existe ni un sólo motivo razonable para mantener abierta una sola televisión pública”. Y arengaba entonces por que echaran el cierre Canal 9 y las televisiones estatales. 

El economista ha reflexionado sobre su despido y ha llegado a la conclusión de que, a nivel personal, no le da ninguna importancia: “La suspensión de esta participación tiene, en sí misma, la importancia que merece: prácticamente ninguna”. Lo que sí le ocupa y preocupa es el hecho de que el Ente Público, la televisión de todos, no tenga cabida para voces e ideas liberales. 

Source Article from http://www.vanitatis.elconfidencial.com/cine-tv/2014-09-06/despido-fulminante-en-la-manana-de-marilo_186529/

A deadly tornado ripped through Arkansas and into part of Illinois on Friday night, leaving at least one person dead inside a nursing home, reports said.

At least 20 people were trapped inside the nursing home in Monette, Ark., after the twister struck. One person was reported killed, five others were injured, according to Marvin Day, the Craighead County judge.

The tornado struck the Monette Manor at around 8:15 p.m. and a search and rescue team was called shortly after to help those trapped in the building, Day told The Post.

Upon entering the building, first responders discovered one person dead and five others with serious injuries, he said.

The Amazon distribution center is partially collapsed after being hit by a tornado in Edwardsville. Ill.
AP

“The building has been cleared,” Day said.

Earlier reports said that two people had died in the nursing home. Officials were working early Saturday to relocate residents to a safer location.

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said in a tweet at around 9:30 that “a tornado has struck in Mississippi County” and “first responders are on the scene.”

The severe weather system moved north into Illinois and devastated an Amazon distribution center in Edwardsville, Ill.

Multiple workers were trapped inside the building after a “structural collapse,” according to Fox 2 in Illinois. Family members rushed to the site of the Amazon warehouse, hoping their loved ones were safe.

“He was on the phone with me while it was happening,” Aisha White told KMOV while waiting outside the building. “The tornado was hitting the back of the building, the trucks were coming in, I told him to jump out the truck and duck. We watched the building go up, stuff hitting the cars, I told him I was on my way.”

The tornado or series of twisters also reportedly touched in the towns of Mayfield and Benton, Kentucky.

At least 20 people were trapped inside the nursing home in Monette, Ark., after the twister struck.
FOX 8

According to WPSD-TV, the courthouse in Mayfield, Ky was completely destroyed or severely damaged.

The National Weather Service issued tornado warnings throughout the region as the deadly weather system continued its pace northward.

Source Article from https://nypost.com/2021/12/10/two-dead-after-tornado-rips-through-arkansas-part-of-illinois/

In our never-ending search for cheerful news, today we note that Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general says the Mueller probe is not a “witch hunt.”

On the downside, William Barr doesn’t seem to think the final Mueller report on Trump’s Russia ties should be made public. While the innate leakiness of Washington will overcome this problem, it’s still a bad attitude. We’ve been waiting so long for that report to actually come out, we’re in danger of forgetting everything Robert Mueller was supposed to investigate.

So let’s try to get back up to speed on all things Russia. Well, some. Pick the right answer:

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/01/16/opinion/collins-trump-russia-quiz.html

The Trump administration at first said there were no injuries from the attack on American troops but recanted a week later, noting that several had been evacuated for possible concussions.

Pentagon and military officials have pushed back on the notion that they withheld any information about the injuries, pointing out that the absence of visible wounds meant the Pentagon was not made aware until days later. They noted that the symptoms of concussions and traumatic brain injuries often take days or weeks to appear.

The ballistic missiles that hit the base in Iraq were launched by Iran in retaliation for the killing of a top Iranian general, Qassim Suleimani, by an American drone strike in Baghdad on Jan. 3.

To contend with the threat of Iranian ballistic missiles, which can travel more than a hundred miles and evade rudimentary defenses, the Pentagon is looking to move Patriot air defenses into Iraq.

But while both Mr. Esper and General Milley said they believe the weapons are necessary for American defenses, the Iraqi government is currently holding up the weapons’ deployment.

“That is one of the matters we have to work on and work through” with the Iraqi government, Mr. Esper said on Thursday.

There are roughly 5,000 American troops in Iraq.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/30/world/middleeast/iraq-iran-brain-injuries.html

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Wednesday removed 18 appointees named to U.S. military academy boards by Donald Trump in the final months of the Republican president’s term in office, according to the White House.

Cathy Russell, director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, sent letters to 18 people named to the boards of visitors for the Air Force Academy, Military Academy and Naval Academy calling on them to resign by close of business on Wednesday or face termination.

Among those Biden ousted are some high-profile Trump administration officials, including White House counselor Kellyanne Conway (Air Force Academy), press secretary Sean Spicer (Naval Academy), national security adviser H.R. McMaster (Military Academy) and Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought (Naval Academy).

White House press secretary Jen Psaki confirmed that the former Trump officials were asked to resign or face firing. It was not immediately clear if any of those asked to tender their resignations did so before a 6 p.m. deadline set by the White House.

“I will let others evaluate whether they think Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer and others were qualified, or not political, to serve on these boards,” Psaki said. “But the president’s qualification requirements are not your party registration. They are whether you’re qualified to serve and whether you are aligned with the values of this administration.”

Several of those called on to resign pushed back. Conway jabbed at Biden and said, “I’m not resigning but you should.” She went on in a statement to call it a “disappointing but understandable” effort to distract from the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, a rise in COVID-19 cases and a disappointing August jobs report.

Vought on Twitter posted the letter he received from Russell and responded: “No. It’s a three year term.”

Jonathan Hiler, a Navy academy alumnus who served as director of legislative affairs for Vice President Mike Pence, said he was “not resigning.”

“As an alum and former naval officer, I believe developing leaders capable of defending our country’s interests at sea — USNA’s mission — is not something that should be consumed by partisan politics. Apparently, President Biden feels differently. @WhiteHouse,” Hiler posted on Twitter.

Spicer, who works for the conservative news channel Newsmax, in his own social media posting criticized Biden for trying to terminate Trump appointees instead of “focusing on the stranded Americans left in #Afghanistan.”

Later on Newsmax, Spicer accused Psaki of minimizing his military service and that of other veterans appointed by Trump to the boards. He said he intended to take legal action against the decision.


Source Article from https://www.denverpost.com/2021/09/08/biden-trump-military-academy-board-appointees/

The written summary of the leaders’ meeting issued by the White House indicated, without elaborating, that they had talked about that as well as Iran, Syria, Venezuela and Ukraine. The summary made no mention of election interference, nor did it say anything about two Americans who have been arrested by the Russian authorities on disputed charges.

Likewise, it said nothing about an international investigation this month that pointed to Russia in the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine, which killed all 298 people on board. International prosecutors have indicted three men with ties to Russian military and intelligence agencies in the destruction of the passenger jet and implicated, without charging, a senior aide to Mr. Putin.

Nor did the summary indicate that the leaders talked about Russia’s seizure of three Ukrainian ships and several sailors last November, events that prompted Mr. Trump to cancel a scheduled meeting with Mr. Putin, and which remains unresolved. When a reporter asked about the ships and sailors on Friday, the president said, “We haven’t discussed them.”

While Mr. Putin did not address the election issue with reporters on Friday, he scoffed at the idea of Russian involvement in an interview before flying to Osaka. He advanced the same line of argument that Mr. Trump does: that he won in 2016 because he was the candidate more in touch with Americans.

“Russia has been accused, and, strange as it may seem, it is still being accused, despite the Mueller report, of mythical interference in the U.S. election,” Mr. Putin told The Financial Times. “What happened in reality? Mr. Trump looked into his opponents’ attitude to him and saw changes in American society, and he took advantage of this.”

He complimented Mr. Trump’s political skill. “I do not accept many of his methods when it comes to addressing problems,” Mr. Putin said. “But do you know what I think? I think that he is a talented person. He knows very well what his voters expect from him.”

But Mr. Putin made clear he was frustrated that Mr. Trump had not agreed to extend the New Start treaty. “They keep silent, while the treaty expires in 2021,” he said. “If we do not begin talks now, it would be over because there would be no time even for formalities.”

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/28/us/politics/g20-summit-trump-putin.html

The plush neighborhood of Knightsbridge, a high-rent hub of deluxe retail and discreet diplomats, awoke Friday with one international curiosity fewer in its midst.

Julian Assange, the Australian bad boy and founder of WikiLeaks, had been dragged Thursday from the Ecuadoran Embassy, where he had entertained the likes of Lady Gaga and Pamela Anderson in the Victorian red-brick building a stone’s throw from Harrods, the luxury department store. He was arrested to face a hacking charge in the United States.

“We heard the helicopter overhead,” said James Smith, a local realtor. The scene outside the embassy was the dramatic climax of a seven-year diplomatic stalemate, as Ecuador revoked the anti-secrecy crusader’s asylum and turned him over to British authorities. 

Gone now are the demonstrators with “Free Assange” banners. But life goes on in Knightsbridge, Smith said. It’s not as if residents saw their notorious neighbor, holed up in the embassy since 2012. From his corner room, where he lived with his cat, an Internet star, and used a treadmill to stay in shape, Assange had become a fading fascination.

But his coming legal battle puts him back in the spotlight.

Half of Britons had no opinion on Ecuador’s decision to get rid of him, according to a YouGov poll. More than a third supported the move, and only one in seven wanted him to stay.

Now that Assange has lost his bolt-hole in Knightsbridge, the 47-year-old will battle extradition from a British jail. Shortly after his arrest, he was swiftly convicted Thursday of skipping bail in 2012, and he faces up to a year in prison for that offense. 

American prosecutors seek his extradition to face a federal charge of conspiring to hack into a Defense Department computer network in 2010. His attorney, Jennifer Robinson, warned that his arrest sets a “dangerous precedent” for press freedoms.

There are many questions. How long will the extradition process take? Likely years. Will Assange remain in prison as his case proceeds? Almost certainly. He will first be sentenced — probably six months to one year — for jumping bail. Finally, what about the cat? The Ecuadoran Embassy has not revealed what happened to the pet. An Italian newspaper suggested it was given to a friend months ago.

The issue of Assange’s extradition instantly exposed divisions within British politics, already riven by the deep divides over the country’s exit from the European Union, known as Brexit. 

Prime Minister Theresa May said his arrest showed that “no one is above the law,” while Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the opposition Labour Party, said the government should oppose Assange’s extradition. The left-wing leader said Assange was being targeted “for exposing evidence of atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan.” 

Labour’s spokeswoman for domestic affairs, Diane Abbott, said the request should be blocked on human rights grounds. She told the BBC that the U.S. government’s true motivation for prosecuting Assange was its “embarrassment of the things he’s revealed about the American military and security services.” 

Right-wing politician Nigel Farage, an ideological ally of President Trump, told the broadcaster on Friday that he had visited Assange once in the embassy, swatting away the suggestion that he was a conduit between Trump and WikiLeaks. The American president, who once said he loved WikiLeaks, professed Thursday to know nothing about the group. “He’s going to be extradited, and that’s the end of it,” Farage said. 

Assange’s fight against extradition could keep him jailed in Britain for years, as the case winds its way through legal challenges in multiple courts, experts said.

Because of the seriousness of the charge and the fact that Assange has already skipped bail once — when Sweden sought his extradition to answer allegations of sex crimes during a visit there — he will likely do battle from a prison cell.

His new life will not be as comfortable as the previous years in the Ecuadoran Embassy, where was free to drink wine, skateboard down the halls and receive guests. Until his exasperated hosts cut off his Internet, Assange was all over social media. In British prisons, mobile phones are prohibited and Internet access highly restricted. 

Assange’s lawyers vow they will fight the extradition order, from the Magistrates’ Court to the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court — and possibly to the European Court of Human Rights. 

Even if the United Kingdom manages to leave the European Union, the exit will almost certainly include a lengthy transition period, which could put Assange in front of E.U. judges.

 “It will be some years before a final decision is reached — at least a year and probably longer,” said Amy Jeffress, a former Justice Department legal attache in London. “My over and under would be three years.”

She said, “These cases can become very political in the U.K.”

One high-profile terrorism case dragged on for 13 years before the defendant was finally extradited to the United States. Assange’s previous battle against extradition to Sweden took 18 months. 

Daniel Sternberg, a barrister specializing in extradition law at Temple Gardens Chambers in London, said he expects Assange to mount a vigorous challenge, pressing “every conceivable point.”

He said the most relevant arguments would contest the forum of prosecution — reasoning that Assange’s physical location when he engaged in the conduct of which he stands accused is more relevant than the country targeted by his activities.

 Sternberg also said Assange’s legal team will likely rise fears of human rights violations, should the WikiLeaks founder be destined for a federal “supermax” prison, where some inmates spend 23 hours a day alone in a 7-by-12-foot concrete cell.

 “Although this indictment is relatively limited, his lawyers might argue that there could be other charges waiting in the wings,” Sternberg said.

Even if defense lawyers do not thwart American efforts to prosecute him, he said, they could significantly slow the proceedings. Before the extradition order can move forward, Assange must first serve the sentence he was handed for failing to surrender to British authorities.

From his British prison cell, Assange would have limited use of a landline telephone, on which he would be able to call previously approved numbers, Sternberg said. If he were given access to the Internet, it would be highly supervised, he said.

“The world will have to get used to hearing less of Assange, filtered by people who see him in prison or his lawyers,” Sternberg said.

Opponents of extradition point to a decision in 2012 by May, who was home secretary at the time, to refuse to hand over Scottish computer hacker Gary McKinnon to the American criminal justice system. May cited medical reports indicating that McKinnon risked becoming a danger to himself if he stood trial in the United States. 

But the man who now holds that post in the government, Sajid Javid, suggested that his thinking about Assange’s case was different. In the House of Commons on Thursday, he excoriated the Labour Party for defending Assange and echoed the prime minister’s judgment. “There’s no one in this country that is above the law,” he said.

Meanwhile, prosecutors in Sweden said Thursday that they have received a request to reopen an investigation into Assange’s conduct from an attorney for a woman who accuses him of rape. The investigation was closed in 2017 but can be renewed at any time before August 2020. 

Prosecutors said they had not been alerted to Assange’s arrest and learned of the developments in his case from media reports. 

When Sweden’s director of public prosecutions, Marianne Ny, closed the probe two years ago, saying she could not proceed while Assange enjoyed safe haven in the Ecuadoran Embassy, she noted that it would be possible to resume the process if he were expelled. 

The investigation involves a 2010 complaint from a woman who says she met Assange at a WikiLeaks conference in Stockholm. She alleges that he engaged in nonconsensual unprotected sex with her — accusations that he denies.

If Sweden asks for Assange’s extradition, it will be up to Britain to decide in which order it heeds the requests, if at all, from the United States and Sweden. 

Ellen Nakashima in Washington contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/julian-assange-expelled-from-his-embassy-perch-will-fight-extradition-from-jail/2019/04/12/d388584c-5cb2-11e9-98d4-844088d135f2_story.html

Police are investigating a possible sighting of ‘person of interest’ Brian Laundrie after receiving a report that someone resembling the fiancé of missing van-lifer Gabby Petito was spotted in a wooded area 500 miles from his Florida home on Tuesday. 

Sam Bass told police that he spotted a man who bore a resemblance to Laundrie while he set up his deer camera in the wilderness in Baker, Florida in Okaloosa County early on Monday morning.

But the local sheriff’s office said that it followed up on the report and ‘no one – and nothing – of note was located.’ 

‘The OCSO did its due diligence in response to this report and is wrapping up an extensive search that took place in this area to include nearby farmlands,’ the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post.

‘No one – and nothing – of note was located. The individual referenced in the post below has no known ties to our area.’  

The photo image provided to police by Bass shows a man with a backpack as he is walking through the woods in the Florida Panhandle.

The man appears to have the same physical features as Laundrie, including a slim build and a bald head.

There does not appear to be any resemblance between the backpack worn by the man spotted on Monday and that worn by Laundrie when he and his fiancee were stopped by police in Utah on August 12.

The backpack worn by the unidentified man appears to be light-colored while Laundrie was seen wearing a dark-colored REI Co-op Stuff Travel Pack when he and Petito were stopped by police in Moab, Utah last month. 

Sam Bass told police that he spotted a man (above) who bore a resemblance to Brian Laundrie while he set up his deer camera in the wilderness in Baker, Florida early on Monday morning

The photo image provided to police by Bass shows a man with a backpack as he is walking through the woods. The man appears to have the same physical features as Laundrie, including a slim build and a bald head

There does not appear to be any resemblance between the backpack worn by the man spotted on Monday (left) and that worn by Laundrie when he and his fiancee were stopped by police in Utah on August 12 (right). The backpack worn by the unidentified man appears to be light-colored while Laundrie was seen wearing a dark-colored REI Co-op Stuff Travel Pack when he and Petito were stopped by police in Moab, Utah last month

Laundrie is being sought for questioning by federal and local authorities in the disappearance of Long Island van-lifer Gabby Petito (pictured)

‘I’m not saying this is the guy but whoever was on my trail camera this morning in Baker, Fl strongly fits the description of Brian Laundrie, authorites have been contacted but people in the North West Florida area be on the look out,’ Bass wrote on his Facebook page on Tuesday

The alleged sighting took place some 500 miles from Laundrie’s North Port, Florida home. North Port Police on Tuesday resumed a search for Laundrie at the Carlton Reserve, a swampy region where he is last believed to have visited before his disappearance last week

‘I’m not saying this is the guy but whoever was on my trail camera this morning in Baker, Fl strongly fits the description of Brian Laundrie, authorities have been contacted but people in the North West Florida area be on the look out,’ Bass wrote on his Facebook page on Tuesday. 

The OCSO released a statement on Tuesday which read: ‘Yes we wanted to let you know we are aware of this report and are actively checking it out.

‘There is no confirmation of this information. Obviously we will keep everyone in the loop if and when there is anything to report.’  

Gabby Petito, 22, is pictured with her boyfriend Brian Laundrie, 23, in a YouTube video made to document their ‘van life’ trip

Petito was last seen alive on August 24 leaving a hotel with Laundrie in Salt Lake City, Utah, during the couple’s cross-country campervan trip

The pair had been travelling on a cross-country trip together since July 2, when they left New York. Petito was reported missing on September 11

Multiple sightings of Laundrie have been reported in recent days but it is not clear if any have been confirmed. 

Multiple people have reported sightings of a man fitting Laundrie’s description in the Mobile, Alabama area, with many posting about their suspicions online.

The city is more than 600 miles northwest of his home in North Port, Florida

Mobile County Sheriff’s Office Captain Paul Burch told Fox 10 News he does not believe Laundrie had any connections to the area.

Rumors of Laundrie’s whereabouts have since flooded social media, with some speculating he may have been a body which was found in a dumpster outside of a Walmart in Mobile over the weekend.

But police on Monday said they have been investigating the reports, but none have turned up anything of substance.

The body in the dumpster, they said, belonged to an unidentified homeless man. 

Authorities renewed their search on Tuesday of a swampy preserve area near Laundrie’s home.

Police in North Port, Florida, said Tuesday morning that investigators have returned to the Carlton Reserve to look for Laundrie, 23.

Investigators searched the 24,000-acre Florida nature preserve over the weekend without success.

Florida police have deployed ATVs and drones to a snake and alligator-infested swampland as they resumed their search for van-life woman Gabby Petito’s boyfriend Brian Laundrie

Cops in ATVs were seen heading into the 25,000 acre Carlton Reserve in Florida to search for Laundrie on Tuesday 

Four ATVs were seen heading to the swampy area in this photo, as part of the huge search operation to try and find Laundrie 

North Port Police shared these images showing officers sending drones operated by remote controls up in the air 

They focused on the area after Laundrie’s parents told police he may have gone there. 

Florida police deployed ATVs and drones to the snake and alligator-infested swampland. 

Commander Joe Fussell said on the video: ‘The terrain is very difficult. Essentially 75 per cent of it is under water.

‘And other areas that are dry, we’re trying to clear. So we’re expecting to get wet by the end of the day and check the entire area for Brian Laundrie.’

He also revealed the searchers ‘have multiple drone operators that have been sent out in numerous teams.

‘We also have drones that operate as higher altitude that has more advanced technology to zoom in and to see areas that are difficult to access on foot or in wheeled vehicles as well.’  

The body believed to be that of Petito was discovered at a Wyoming national park on Sunday.

On Monday, the FBI went to Laundrie’s parents’ home in North Port and removed several boxes and towed away a car neighbors said Laundrie’s mother typically used.

Police announced Tuesday its officers had returned to the ‘vast and unforgiving’ Carlton Reserve to continue the search

More than 50 searchers from at least eight law enforcement agencies led by the FBI are using huge swamp-busting amphibious vehicles, ATVs, bloodhounds, other K9s and drones

Laundrie and Petito had been living with his parents at the North Port home before the road trip on which she died.

ALABAMA COPS INVESTIGATE POSSIBLE LAUNDRIE SIGHTINGS 

Multiple people have reported sightings of a man fitting Brian Laundrie’s description in the Mobile, Alabama area 

Multiple people have reported sightings of a man fitting Laundrie’s description in the Mobile, Alabama area, with many posting about their suspicions online.

The city is more than 600 miles northwest of his home in North Port, Florida

Mobile County Sheriff’s Office Captain Paul Burch told FOX 10 News he does not believe Laundrie had any connections to the area.

Rumors of Laundrie’s whereabouts have since flooded social media, with some speculating he may have been a body which was found in a dumpster outside of a Walmart in Mobile over the weekend.

But police on Monday said they have been investigating the reports, but none have turned up anything of substance.

The body in the dumpster, they said, belonged to an unidentified homeless man.

The young couple had set out in July in a converted van to visit national parks in the West. 

They got into a fight along the way, and Laundrie was alone when he returned in the van to his parents’ home on September 1, police said.

In Wyoming, the FBI announced on Sunday that agents had discovered a body on the edge of Grand Teton National Park, which the couple had visited. 

No details on the cause of death were released. An autopsy was set for Tuesday.

‘Full forensic identification has not been completed to confirm 100% that we found Gabby, but her family has been notified,’ FBI agent Charles Jones said.

Laundrie has been named a person of interest in the case, but his whereabouts in recent days were unknown.

Petito’s father, Joseph, posted on social media an image of a broken heart above a picture of his daughter, with the message: ‘She touched the world.’ 

Petito was last seen alive August 24 leaving a motel in Salt Lake City in Utah with Laundrie during the cross-country campervan trip that she and Laundrie had set out on back in early July. 

She was then last heard from the next day when she called her mom.

Laundrie arrived back in North Port alone on September 1 in their van and Petito was reported missing September 11 by her family. 

Laundrie refused to cooperate with investigators or tell them when he had last seen his girlfriend and was named a person of interest in her disappearance last Wednesday – four days before a body was discovered.

Laundrie’s parents then made the stunning revelation Friday that he too had vanished and that they had not seen him since Tuesday – when he allegedly left their home with a backpack saying he was heading to the reserve. 

On Monday, a dramatic FBI raid was executed on the Laundrie family home and the 23-year-old’s silver Ford Mustang convertible was seized by authorities.   

Steven Berolino, an attorney for the family, told ABC7 the family went looking for Laundrie on Wednesday and found the Mustang, which had a police note on it demanding that the vehicle be removed from the area.

The family initially left the car there so Laundrie could drive it back, but they returned on Thursday to retrieve it, according to Bertolino.  

Gabby’s transit van was filmed by a Youtuber on August 27th at the Spread Creek campsite, and the remains were found not far from where the van was photographed

DailyMail.com exclusively found the location where Gabby’s transit van was filmed by a Youtuber on August 27th at the Spread Creek campsite

The undeveloped campground is popular with tourists though it has no water or trash service. Above, a sign points to the area

The memorial is placed near to where authorities found a body believed to belong to Gabby Petito, 22

A memorial of stones arranged in a cross pattern was spotted Monday evening at the Spread Creek Dispersed Campsite east of the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming

North Port Police Public Information Officer Josh Taylor said Tuesday morning search teams were up against the elements as they returned to the nature reserve to continue the ‘dangerous work’ to track down Laundrie.

Taylor said heavy rains the day before has left much of the swampland ‘waist-deep in water’.

‘Carlton Reserve is a vast and unforgiving location at times. It is currently waist-deep in water in many areas,’ he said. 

‘This is dangerous work for the search crews as they are wading through gator and snake infested swamps and flooded hiking and biking trails.’ 

As well as local police and the FBI, other agencies involved in the search include Florida Wildlife Commission, Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office, Lee County Sheriff’s Office, Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office, Sarasota Police Department and Venice Police Department.

The search began on Saturday, starting at the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park which is linked to the Carlton Reserve.  

But the focus has now switched to covering the area closer to the city of Venice, along with adjoining lands, said Taylor. 

It is not clear whether authorities have receive intel directing them to this part of the reserve. 

Sarasota County Sheriff’s Deputies and FBI Agents are seen at the Carlton Reserve Tuesday morning amid the search

The nature reserve is about five miles from the home in North Port that Laundrie shared with his parents and Petito

North Port Police Public Information Officer Josh Taylor said Tuesday morning search teams were up against the elements as they returned to the nature reserve to continue the ‘dangerous work’ to track down Laundrie

‘A weekend ground search and aerial search Monday of the 25,000-acre preserve has yet to yield any answers, but we must press on,’ said Taylor. 

North Port Police tweeted photos of searchers assembling for a briefing early Tuesday, announcing the efforts are: ‘By land. By air.’

Photos show teams driving buggies through dense foliage and police officers using remotes to operate drones going up into the air.

Dozens of law enforcement vehicles were also seen at the entrance to the nature reserve. 

The reserve is currently closed until further notice while the search is ongoing. 

The renewed search follows the Laundrie’s home being busted by around 25 law enforcement officers Monday, the majority FBI agents wearing bulletproof vests and wielding drawn weapons.

Dailymail.com was up close to the action, just feet away as the FBI swooped on the single-story house – with shouts of ‘search warrant, search warrant’ clearly heard and the area declared a crime scene.

An FBI team in tactical gear – carrying a battering ram, a blast shield and with weapons drawn – lined up along the wall close to the front door. 

Seconds later other agents swiftly led Laundrie’s parents Christopher Laundrie, 62, and wife Roberta, 55, out of the home and into a waiting black Dodge Caravan minivan.

The FBI team outside then swarmed into the house, followed by other agents, some wielding rifles while other agents checked outside areas.

At one point, it appeared they might be looking for Laundrie. Five agents – one with a blast shield – surrounded a lid-topped storage before the lid was carefully lifted and an agent deliberately pointed his pistol down inside. 

After 10 minutes the Laundries were allowed back in their home, looking solemn and with their heads down. They were not handcuffed.

The couple’s camper van top, which was sat on stilts on their driveway, was also searched – before Laundrie’s Ford Mustang was towed away for forensic examination.

Agents spent five hours meticulously going through the property before leaving with boxes and boxes of evidence. 

Over in Wyoming, a makeshift memorial of white stones arranged in a cross was seen Monday evening in the spot where the human remains are thought to have been discovered at the weekend.  

The spot with the stone crosses is just east of Grand Teton National Park where law enforcement had been searching for Petito. It is not clear when the memorial was arranged.  

Source Article from https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10014097/Cops-actively-investigating-possible-sighting-Brian-Laundrie-500-miles-afrom-home.html

New York Attorney General Letitia James joined a group of 17 attorneys general across the country in writing a letter to President Joe Biden expressing concern over the treatment of Haitian nationals attempting to illegally cross the southern border.

“I have seen the devastating and disturbing photos of border patrol officers on horseback using whips to corral Haitian refugees seeking asylum, and it’s clear that they have not been shown the humanity and concern they are owed,” James, a Democrat, said in a statement Friday.

TOM COTTON ON ‘AMERICA’S NEWSROOM’: ‘DISGRACEFUL’ FOR BIDEN TO BLAME BORDER PATROL FOR HIS FAILURES

“We are a nation built by immigrants, and we cannot be callous and cruel towards individuals fleeing natural disaster, political instability, extreme poverty, and violence in their home country,” James added. “I stand with my fellow attorneys general in urging the Biden Administration to end the mistreatment of Haitians at the border and demonstrate the morality and compassion that they deserve.”

Several prominent Democrats and liberal groups across the country have expressed outrage over photographs of horseback Border Patrol agents rounding up fleeing illegal immigrants from Haiti at the southern border and claimed that the agents were “whipping” the migrants.

“This is beyond repulsive,” MSNBC anchor Joy Reid tweeted in response to the viral images. “Are these images from 2021 or 1851??”

President Biden pledged that the agents responsible would “pay” for their actions, and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Friday that those involved were contributing to “systemic racism.”

BIDEN WARNS MOUNTED BORDER PATROL AGENTS CHARGING MIGRANTS IN DEL RIO SECTOR: ‘THOSE PEOPLE WILL PAY’

Border Patrol officials and the photographer who took the picture have firmly rejected the characterization that agents were “whipping” the migrants. 

“I’ve never seen them whip anyone,” Paul Ratje, the man who took the controversial photos, said, explaining that the “whips” in question were actually the reins of the horse. “He was swinging it, but it can be misconstrued when you’re looking at the picture.”

Brandon Judd, head of the National Border Patrol Council, also defended the agents. 

“Nobody was struck by a rein. Not one person was struck by a rein. Not one person was run over by those horses,” Judd told Fox News. “They used the tactics they were trained to use, to do the job [Biden] sent them out to do — these are executive branch employees. He sent them out there to do the job, and now he’s criticizing them because his base wants them to.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Fox News did not immediately receive a response after reaching out to the office of Attorney General James.

A camp of up to 15,000 illegal immigrants, many of them Haitian, had gathered under the Del Rio Bridge in Texas over the past couple weeks but have now been dispersed both back into Haiti and into the United States. An estimated two out of three migrants in the camp have been released into the United States with notices to self-report to ICE offices.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/letitia-james-joins-total-of-17-attorneys-general-in-letter-to-biden-on-haitian-migrants

Hagedorn, who was elected to the House in 2018, was diagnosed with Stage 4 kidney cancer in 2019 and began receiving care at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., according to KSTP, a St. Paul, Minn., television station.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/02/18/rep-jim-hagedorn-dies/

Anthony Sanders slid on a fluorescent orange “Security” vest, tucked his pistol under the waistband of his jeans and planted his feet at the front entrance to the Masjid Al-Mu’minun mosque in Atlanta during Friday afternoon prayers. 

Sanders closely watched each person who walked in, looking for “shaky” behavior, big bags or clothing that didn’t match the warm weather. Three other men monitored each car pulling into the front parking lot. A fourth man stood sentry inside, watching live security camera footage from many different angles. 

Sanders and his crew were being extra cautious following Friday’s mass shootings at a pair of mosques in New Zealand, a massacre that claimed the lives of 49 people and injured dozens more. Police have taken three people into custody. One has been charged with murder, an unidentified man who left behind a white nationalist manifesto that rails against immigrants and Muslims. 

>> RELATED | “My heart breaks”: Atlantans, world leaders condemn attacks on New Zealand mosques

“It’s unfortunate that when these things happen that we have to become more aware — more conscious — of security. But, I mean, New Zealand? Nothing happens there,” Sanders, a private security guard who volunteers at the mosque, said of his shock. 

At a news conference inside Sanders’ mosque Friday, the Georgia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations called on local police to send patrol cars out to guard local Muslim houses of worship. Atlanta and Gwinnett County police confirmed they would help. 

“We have our officers conducting directed patrols around city mosques and asking them to be on heightened alert for suspicious activity,” Atlanta police spokesman Carlos Campos said. “Additionally, our Homeland Security Unit is monitoring the events out of New Zealand.”

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Gwinnett police responded similarly.

“In response to the incident in New Zealand, we have increased patrols at all mosques in Gwinnett County,” said Cpl. Michele Pihera, a Gwinnett police spokeswoman. “We hope to bring some measure of comfort to those who visit these places of worship during this difficult time.”  

Since 2005, there has been a rise in anti-mosque incidents, including acts of vandalism, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. In Georgia, for example, there have been nearly a dozen incidents.  

In the summer of 2017, for instance, a man made several threatening phone calls to the Islamic Society of Augusta, including threats to blow up the mosque and hurt members. The man later pleaded guilty.  

Centers of faith are by nature open and welcoming to anyone who wants to visit, and that makes them vulnerable, said Glen Evans, president of ChurchSecurityTrainer.com in Dayton, Ohio, which advises faith leaders on how to protect their members.  

“Most people who want to cause harm understand this about the faith community,” Evans said. “They all share one common footprint — they were generally welcoming places with generally nonviolent people. It’s what we call a soft target.”  

When people hear screaming or shooting, they should be able to lock down an area without having to get permission from a pastor, imam or rabbi, Evans said. Those few seconds or minutes could save lives before police arrive, he added. There is a movement to station armed people inside places of worship, including specially trained members, private security guards and off-duty police officers, Evans said.  

Sulaimaan Hamed, the imam at Atlanta Masjid of Al-Islam, said armed personnel protect his mosque.  

“Georgia is a state that respects our Second Amendment, as do I,” he said. “We do have armed security who are licensed — who are trained — to protect those who come to worship God.”  

>> MORE | President Trump on New Zealand shootings: “We stand ready to help”

Furqan Muhammad, the imam at Masjid Al-Mu’minun, pointed to his mosque’s longstanding security plans, saying: “The best time to prepare for war is at peace.”  

“Our faith teaches us to believe in God, to believe in Allah,” he said, “but tie your camel.”  

Inside his mosque Friday, Abdulkarim Muhammad sat at a desk near the entrance, toggling between watching surveillance video footage inside the building and greeting everyone who walked down the hallway toward him. 

A Marine veteran and grandfather, Muhammad peered inside a visitor’s black duffel bag. When another visitor in an Atlanta Braves ball cap reached out to shake his hand, Muhammad politely refused, saying he didn’t want to be distracted from his important duty. Meanwhile, he urged people to turn off their cellphones before they joined the Friday afternoon prayers.  

Muhammad said he believes Allah will protect him, though he remains vigilant.  

“Pray as well as watch,” he said. “I am always alert.”

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Source Article from https://www.ajc.com/lifestyles/atlanta-muslims-urged-step-security-after-new-zealand-attacks/lyDkyFdG4lEYWeEU0YJbyI/

¿Qué tuvo que pasar para que en Venezuela haya tantos homicidios?

El olor que produce la morgue de Caracas se siente incluso a las afueras del edificio.

Es un lugar reconocido por los caraqueños, situado en una zona residencial de clase media, Bello Monte. Hasta el viernes pasado, al edificio ingresaron 205 cadáveres en lo que va de 2014.

Entre ellos, el cuerpo del hijo de una mujer que habló con BBC Mundo en la sala de espera.

“Entraron a la casa unos policías buscando a unos malandros y al no encontrarlos me lo mataron”, asegura mientras se tapa la boca con un pañuelo para evitar el olor.

“Acá hay que tenerle miedo a los delincuentes y al gobierno”, dice.

Su hijo -de quien pidió no revelar su identidad- deja huérfana a una niña de 6 años, al igual que la ex Miss Venezuela y actriz Mónica Spear, quien fue asesinada junto a su esposo hace dos semanas ante la presencia de Maya, su hija de 5 años.

¿Qué opinan los venezolanos sobre las causas de la violencia?

Tras el asesinato de la ex Miss Venezuela y actriz Mónica Spear, el debate sobre la violencia que estremece a Venezuela se reavivó. Pero , ¿qué piensan los venezolanos?

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La inseguridad es un fenómeno cotidiano en Venezuela. Pero el crimen de la estrella de televisión reavivó el debate sobre la violencia que estremece a este país hace años.

El presidente Nicolás Maduro reconoció la semana pasada, por primera vez en 14 años de revolución bolivariana, “la deuda (del gobierno) con el pueblo en crear un esquema de seguridad pública”.

El mandatario venezolano además emprendió una nueva campaña para “pacificar el país”: estudia cambiar el Código Penal, llamó al diálogo con la oposición e identificó, una vez más, a la televisión y las telenovelas como un catalizador de la violencia criminal.

Escalada

Por donde quiera que se mire, la violencia en Venezuela es extraordinaria.

Si uno ve las cifras del gobierno, que hablan de 39 homicidios por cada 100.000 habitantes en 2013, encuentra a un país más violento que Colombia y México, naciones azotadas por la violencia durante décadas.

Pero si uno se remite a las cifras del independiente Observatorio Venezolano de Violencia (OVV), que estima 79 muertos por cada 100.000 habitantes el año pasado, ve a un país que parece estar en una guerra civil. Aunque no sea el caso.

En 1999, año en que el fallecido Hugo Chávez llegó al poder, la cifra oficial era de 19 homicidios por cada 100.000 personas. Y eso, para los estándares de la Organización Mundial de la Salud, ya se trataba de una sociedad que vivía una “epidemia de violencia”.

En el origen del fenómeno, más allá del debatible argumento de las telenovelas, está una mezcla de factores que van desde la crisis del sistema judicial y penitenciario hasta la enorme cantidad de armas que circulan en el país.

Las protestas contra la inseguridad se han repetido en Caracas.

Cuándo

La historia reciente de Venezuela sufrió un sacudón en 1983, cuando el entonces estable y confiable bolívar padeció una drástica devaluación que marcó el inicio de un largo periodo de inestabilidad económica.

“Se detuvo el sueño de los pobres de transformarse de rurales a urbanos y se trancó la movilidad social que antes había funcionado bien”, le explica a BBC Mundo el activista social Jesús Torrealba.

Seis años después, el desencanto con la clase política y la frustración social, entre otras cosas, condujeron a un estallido social conocido como el Caracazo, una serie de jornadas de saqueos a comercios y represión policial y militar.

Es un error conceptual pensar que la policía resuelve los homicidios.

Elsie Rosales, Universidad Central de Venezuela

Muchos sitúan en ese contexto el inicio de la violencia actual. Sin embargo, en parte basados en el continuo crecimiento de las cifras de homicidios, otros estiman que el fenómeno se agravó desde el comienzo de la llamada revolución bolivariana.

Política social

Chávez, un militar que antes de ser elegido presidente en 1998 había intentado tomar el poder a través de las armas en dos ocasiones, implementó una política social con la que quiso erradicar la delincuencia.

Se basaba en la premisa sociológica, y manejada por algunos criminólogos, de que los delincuentes son víctimas de una sociedad excluyente producto del capitalismo.

“Esa idea explica la actitud reticente de Chávez a meterse con la inseguridad, porque para él implicaba cambiar la política social”, le dice a BBC Mundo Elsie Rosales, directora de postgrado de la facultad de Derecho de la Universidad Central de Venezuela.

Según índices de Naciones Unidas, Venezuela es un país líder en erradicación de la pobreza y la desigualdad. Y eso desmiente, según algunos, la teoría manejada por varias corrientes académicas -y por Chávez- de que a menos pobres menos delincuencia.

Policía

Muchos culpan a Chávez y su retórica guerrerista de ser la causa de la violencia.

Durante su gobierno, de 1999 a 2013, Chávez llevó a cabo una reforma amplia de la policía y un plan para desarmar a la población a través de la Comisión de Desarme, creada en 2011.

En general, las diferentes reformas a la policía buscaban instituir un modelo civil que respetara los derechos humanos y tuviera procedimientos y mando que no dependieran de las Fuerzas Armadas, como ha sido tradicionalmente.

Los críticos del gobierno dicen que las reformas solo debilitaron a la policía y la supeditaron aún más al estamento militar, que en teoría no es el encargado de la seguridad urbana.

“Chávez desarticuló los cuerpos policiales, donde nombró personas cuya única virtud es la lealtad política”, le dice a BBC Mundo el criminólogo Marco Tarre. “Tuvo 12 ministros del Interior e implementó 21 planes diferentes de seguridad que no estuvieron diseñados para atacar los problemas de fondo, sino para presentar ofertas electorales y poner pañitos calientes”, apunta.

Parte de las medidas que se le reprochan a Chávez es haber intervenido -o “desarticulado”- los sistemas policiales de algunas de las jurisdicciones que estaban en manos de políticos opositores, como ocurrió en Miranda, donde gobierna el opositor y excandidato presidencial Henrique Capriles.

Maduro ha dicho que quiere “desarmar a los venezolanos”, pero los resultados están por verse.

El gobierno justificó las intervenciones porque los esquemas policiales supuestamente no funcionaban, violaban los derechos humanos o estaban involucrados en redes delincuenciales.

Incluso Chávez, cuando lanzaba en 2012 uno de sus planes contra la inseguridad, aseguró que el 80% de la policía no hacía patrullaje.

“En la calle, si tú deprimes a un actor, otros se fortalecen”, dice el activista Torrealba. Y eso, según él, fue lo que pasó con la policía y la delincuencia en los barrios marginales (un estilo de favelas), donde se cometen siete de cada 10 homicidios.

Elsie Rosales recuerda el caso de Miranda, que es el estado donde más homicidios ocurren, después del Distrito Capital de Caracas. Y concluye que “es un error conceptual pensar que la policía resuelve los homicidios”. Según ella, el control de la violencia no solo es cuestión de vigilancia, sino de atacar una problemática más amplia de orden social y cultural.

Desarme

Desde 1999, Venezuela se convirtió en el primer importador de armas en América Latina y, tras la adopción de la Constitución Bolivariana ese mismo año, el control comercial de éstas quedó en manos del Estado.

Según cifras oficiales, ocho de cada diez homicidios -que generalmente se producen por robo- se cometen con armas de fuego. Amnistía Internacional calcula que existen 6 millones en el país de 29 millones de habitantes, aunque otras fuentes, incluyendo las oficiales, estiman que son muchas más.

Pese a los planes de desarme, los analistas concuerdan en que conseguir un arma en un barrio popular es fácil y barato.

“El plan desarme se planteó como una respuesta a esa situación”, le dice a BBC Mundo Jesús Machado, de la fundación jesuita de investigación Centro Gumilla y exmiembro de la Comisión de Desarme. “Pero hoy no se sabe cuáles fueron los resultados”.

Algo que Keymer Ávila, criminólogo de la Universidad Central de Venezuela, extiende: “No se sabe de dónde salen las armas, cómo se producen y cómo se adquieren”.

Controlar la circulación de las armas, pues, parece ser una tarea pendiente del gobierno.

Y ante esa situación, Roberto Briceño, director del OVV, se pregunta: “¿Cómo va a hacer eficiente un plan de desarme cuando la consigna de la milicia bolivariana es ‘el pueblo en armas’?”.

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Lea también: Venezuela le declara la guerra a las armas

Retórica de Chávez

La cárcel de Sabaneta está controlada por un estilo de caudillo llamado Edwin Ramón Soto Nava.

Muchos creen, como Briceño, que la retórica de Chávez, en la que parecía justificar la violencia y exculpar a los “malandros”, es una de las causas de la situación que vive Venezuela actualmente.

En una famosa alocución pública en su primer año de gobierno, Chávez le preguntó de manera retórica a la entonces presidenta de la Corte Suprema de Justicia, Cecilia Sosa, si ella robaría en caso de que sus hijos tuviesen hambre.

“La doctrina del ‘Si yo fuera pobre, yo robaría’ glorificó el ataque a la propiedad del otro”, le dice a BBC Mundo Alfredo Romero, director del Foro Penal Venezolano, un grupo de defensa de derechos humanos.

Pero Machado, del Centro Gumilla, no comparte la idea de que esa supuesta incitación a la violencia de Chávez haya fomentado el crimen, porque “presupone que hay una obediencia absoluta de la gente a los funcionarios en el poder”.

El fallecido presidente solía recordar con orgullo su condición de “soldado” y, para muchos, difundió un “romanticismo guerrerista” que aupó grupos armados, como el Movimiento Tupamaro de Venezuela, que defienden el uso de la violencia para fines políticos.

El barrio caraqueño 23 de Enero, donde se encuentra el mausoleo con los restos de Chávez y una polémica plaza en honor al líder guerrillero colombiano Manuel Marulanda, está controlado por los Tupamaros y se considera una zona donde la policía no entra.

“La frontera entre el hampa política y el hampa común se volvió difusa”, dice Torrealba. “Un policía que arresta a un paramilitar armado en Venezuela se arriesga a que lo despidan”.

El activista incluso recuerda que en Venezuela hay grupos al margen de la ley que defienden al gobierno, aunque Chávez les pidió someterse al sistema legal y les advirtió, en varias ocasiones, que no necesitaba de su apoyo.

¿Indiferencia?

A Chávez también se le culpa de ignorar el fenómeno de la violencia.

“Nunca el gobierno ha asumido que el problema exista e incluso ha dicho que es mentira”, afirma Romero.

De hecho, hay quienes creen que esa supuesta indiferencia tiene una funcionalidad política, según explica Jesús Torrealba: “Los críticos más radicales ven su política como una forma de control social para que se vaya la clase media alta”, que es donde está el grueso de los ciudadanos que adversan al gobierno.

Si bien siempre ha sido de sus preocupaciones principales, los venezolanos no culpan al gobierno de la inseguridad, según encuestas de Datanálisis, sino a la familia y al desempleo.

Los venezolanos salieron a las calles a protestar contra la violencia tras la muerte de Spear.

Y esto, señala el sociólogo David Smilde, “crea incentivos para los líderes de ignorar el tema porque cuando lo asumen, lo vuelven de su propiedad ante los ojos de la gente y pueden sufrir las consecuencias si no logran mejorar la situación”.

Observadores vinculados a la oposición consideran que dentro de la estrategia de “ignorar” el problema está la acusación constante a los medios de comunicación privados de “magnificar el fenómeno” y hacer un “show con la muerte”, una denuncia que reapareció a raíz del caso de Mónica Spear.

El gobierno afirma que la televisión, las telenovelas y personajes como Spiderman incitan a la violencia. Esta semana, como parte de la reacción oficial al caso Spear, se creó un Comité Promotor de la Nueva Televisión con el objetivo de armar “un modelo televisivo formador de valores humanos y hacedor de paz”.

Machado, del Centro Gumilla, califica de “tremendistas” las afirmaciones que acusan al gobierno de ignorar la violencia: “Lo que ha habido es ineficiencia, pero no una orden expresa de no hacer nada”.

Impunidad

Esa ineficiencia la analiza la organización no gubernamental The World Justice Project, con sede en Washington, en su informe sobre el estado de los sistemas de justicia de 97 países. En su índice de justicia criminal Venezuela está de último.

“El ministerio de Prisiones no resuelve nada ni ha habido una integración del sistema policial y judicial y penitenciario”, dice Marcos Tarre.

Al hacer un análisis del número de detenciones y asesinatos de los últimos diez años, el OVV estima que el 92% de los casos de homicidio en Venezuela quedan impunes.

Briceño opina que “ha habido una destrucción institucional que quebró el pacto social, las normas y las leyes como reguladores de la vida social, e impuso la violencia como único método eficiente para obtener las metas”.

En 1998, según la misma organización, se detuvieron 110 sospechosos por cada 100 homicidios, mientras que actualmente hay nueve arrestos por cada 100 asesinatos, un comportamiento inverso al registrado por el número de asesinatos.

Chávez creó las milicias bolivarianas, un estilo de ejército de civiles, exmilitares y voluntarios.

Pero otros especialistas, como la criminóloga Elsie Rosales, no comparten que las detenciones puedan ser un elemento para comparar la impunidad de aquellos años con la de ahora, porque el marco legal es completamente distinto.

Sin embargo, la profesora admite que “el sistema penal tiene distorsiones”.

Una de ellas es la crisis que sufren las cárceles del país, que están sobrepobladas y son ellas mismas -a veces controladas por los propios reclusos- un foco de violencia.

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Lea también: El caudillo de la cárcel más peligrosa

La incapacidad del sistema de castigar a quienes delinquen en Venezuela parece permitir que un simple robo se convierta en una tragedia como la que vivió Maya, la hija de Spear y Thomas Henry Berry.

En el caso de la ex Miss Venezuela hay dos elementos inusuales: que la víctima era famosa y que los presuntos culpables fueron arrestados de manera eficaz.

De resto, todos los detalles del homicidio hablan de un trágico y hasta ahora imparable fenómeno que afecta a los venezolanos todos los días.

Así como ocurrió el lunes pasado, cuando asaltantes en el estado de Aragua interceptaron a Rafael Darío Adarme, le robaron y lo mataron a tiros. Y su hija, que como Maya tiene 5 años, fue testigo del asesinato.

Source Article from http://www.bbc.co.uk/mundo/noticias/2014/01/140115_venezuela_violencia_causas_monica_spear_dp.shtml

Progressives may be getting most of the media attention, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., seems committed to keeping this small yet vocal group within the House Democratic caucus in check.

In a recent New York Times interview, Pelosi indicated she believes that Democrats’ road to success in 2020 will be paved down the middle, and not the far-left lane of political ideology.

I believe Pelosi is right.

PELOSI: TRUMP NEEDS TO LOSE SO DECISIVELY IN 2020 THAT HE WON’T CHALLENGE THE RESULTS

Pelosi is a pragmatist, while still holding her firm onto her principles. She is clear in her criticism of President Trump and his administration.

Yet Pelosi stops short of giving in to the calls for impeachment. She knows impeachment is both a futile exercise and bad politics for many Democrats in competitive areas across the country.

The speaker has declined to support both the Green New Deal and “Medicare-for-all.” But she has presented more realistic policy alternatives that also aim to improve the environment and health care.

Yet Pelosi stops short of giving in to the calls for impeachment. She knows impeachment is both a futile exercise and bad politics for many Democrats in competitive areas across the country.

Pelosi’s leadership role was challenged twice by fellow Democrats who voiced concerns that the veteran lawmaker was too old, too out of touch and too much part of the coastal elite to lead House Democrats now.

At one point, I was part of that chorus of Democrats who raised concerns about Pelosi and advocated for a new generation to take over the reins.

But Pelosi has shown by her actions as speaker the second time around that she is one of the few Democrats skilled and savvy enough to take on President Trump. She understands that in order to hold onto the majority, House Democrats cannot be saddled by controversial votes that could alienate the electorate back home.

Pelosi’s approach is the right one to win both the House of Representatives and the White House. Democrats cannot win without bringing Trump supporters back into the fold.

It’s hard to convince a Trump voter to have an open mind if all that Democrats stand for is attacking or impeaching Trump. Independent voters are also key to any campaign’s success. Embracing far-left policies could also alienate this key voter block.

It is hard to tell if enough House members and candidates, or Democratic presidential hopefuls, will heed the sage advice Pelosi is giving. If they don’t, it could spell doom in 2020.

In her New York Times interview, Pelosi did not just say that Democrats need to “own the center-left” and the “mainstream” to win. She also said Democrats need to follow this formula to win big in the next election because she fears that President Trump will not accept the outcome if Democrats do not win decisively.

This is a striking statement, mostly because there are indications it is true. President Trump has a pattern of indicating that he is skeptical about election outcomes, especially if they are close.

In 2016, Trump remarkably said he would accept the results of the presidential election if he won. Over the last several years, Trump has made a variety of statements undermining the integrity of the electoral process and planting seeds about possible voter fraud in the minds of the American people.

For example, Trump tweeted about ballots supposedly being foraged in Florida after the gubernatorial and Senate races were too close to call.  Even before Election Day, the president was tweeting about the possibility of illegal voting occurring in the midterms.

So it’s no wonder that Pelosi was concerned that Trump would have challenged a Democratic House majority if it were achieved by a slim margin.

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I am both saddened and angered that our political system is so dysfunctional that the outcome of duly administered elections – the backbone of our representative democracy –  can be so easily undermined or dismissed that winning an election is not enough.

We’re now told you have to win big to prove you deserve to be there. I wonder what George W. Bush and Al Gore would think.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE BY CAPRI CAFARO

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/capri-cafaro-nancy-pelosi-is-spot-on-about-trump-in-2020-and-the-democratic-party