BATON ROUGE - The LEO Shootings

"In Baton Rouge, tensions run high after officers shot" PBS NewsHour 7/17/2016

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was on high alert today after a deadly shooting that killed three law enforcement officers this morning.  The city has been tense ever since police officers shot and killed Alton Sterling, prompting protests throughout the country.  Reporter Charlie Whinham, from our affiliate Louisiana Public Broadcasting, joins us for more.

"Baton Rouge reels after Sunday’s ambush murders of three police officers" PBS NewsHour 7/18/2016

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Another city is mourning the fatal shootings of its police officers — this time three in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which exploded in protest earlier this month when white cops killed Alton Sterling, a black man, outside a convenience store.  The gunman, an ex-Marine, had expressed anger on social media.  Jeffrey Brown reports talks to Col.  Michael Edmonson, superintendent of the Louisiana State Police.

OPINION - Shields and Gerson 12/26/2014

"Shields and Gerson on cyber-attacks after Sony, Obama’s year ahead" PBS NewsHour 12/26/2014

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson join Judy Woodruff to discuss this week’s news, including the state of race relations in America in the wake of continuing protests and the killing of two New York police officers, what the hacking of Sony Pictures means for cyber-security in the future and the balance of power between Congress and the President.

RACE IN AMERICA - New York LEO Deaths

"De Blasio addresses criticism by NY police union – Part 1" PBS NewsHour 12/22/2014

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Tensions are high in New York after a fatal shooting of two cops over the weekend.  The attack sparked accusations by the police union against Mayor Bill de Blasio, leaving him on the defensive.  Gwen Ifill reports.

GWEN IFILL (NewsHour):  New York City was on edge today, after the fatal shootings of a pair of police officers.  The weekend attack sparked police union accusations against the mayor and left him on the defensive.

New Yorkers stopped all day to place flowers at the site in Brooklyn where two policemen were killed on Saturday.  And the murders dominated the day for New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, including at a luncheon for the city’s Police Athletic League.

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO, New York:  It was an attack on our democracy, it was an attack on our values, it was an attack on every single New Yorker, and we have to see it as such.  I think it’s time for everyone to put aside political debates, put aside protests, put aside all of the things that we will talk about in due time.

GWEN IFILL:  The two officers, Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, were shot as they sat in their cruiser on Saturday.  Their killer, 28-year-old Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who had a history of violence and apparent mental instability, shot his girlfriend Shaneka Thompson in Baltimore, before traveling to New York, shooting the officers, and then taking his own life.

Earlier, he posted social media references to the police killings of Eric Garner on Staten Island and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. On Instagram, he wrote:  “They take one of ours.  Let’s take two of theirs.”

Over the weekend, leaders of protests over the Garner and Brown cases, as well as their family members, condemned the killings of Ramos and Liu.

"New York police killings raise questions of cause and effect after weeks of protests – Part 2" PBS NewsHour 12/22/2014

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The murder of two New York City police officers has ignited a volley of blame and exposes the deep rifts dividing a city in mourning.  Gwen Ifill gets two perspectives from Patrick Colligan of the New Jersey State Policemen's Benevolent Association and Mark Levine of the New York City Council.

INJUSTICE - Bries History of 'Killer Cops'

"Darren Wilson Wasn’t the First:  A Short History of Killer Cops Let Off the Hook" by Flint Taylor, In These Times 11/24/2014

The Ferguson grand jury’s decision not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson for the killing of African-American teenager Michael Brown is heartless but unsurprising.  But it is important to place the case in context with the history of police violence investigations and prosecutions in high profile cases—and the systemic and racist police brutality that continues to plague the nation.  In doing so, there are lessons for the movement for justice in the Michael Brown case, as well as for those who are engaged in the broader struggle against law enforcement violence.

What follows, then, is a brief history of similar high profile cases where public outrage compelled the justice system to confront acts of racially motivated police violence—with, to say the least, less than satisfactory results.

Chicago

Over the past 45 years, Chicago has been a prime example of official indifference and cover-up when it comes to prosecuting the police for wanton brutality and torture.

On December 4, 1969, Black Panther leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark were slain in a police raid that implicated the Cook County State’s Attorney and the FBI’s Cointelpro program.  A public outcry led to a Federal Civil Rights investigation.  Despite finding that the raiding police fired more than 90 shots to one by the Panthers, the Grand Jury in 1970 did not indict, but rather issued a report that equally blamed the police perpetrators and the Panther victims.

Outrage at this decision led to the appointment of a Special Prosecutor who, in the face of extreme official resistance, obtained an indictment against the police and the State’s Attorneys who planned and executed the raid—not for murder and attempted murder, but rather for obstruction of justice.

The case came to trial in front of a politically connected judge who dismissed the case without even requiring that the charged officials put on a defense.  Again, the outrage, particularly in the African-American community was so extreme that the chief prosecutor, Edward V. Hanrahan, was voted out of office a week after the verdict was rendered in 1972.

The Jon Burge police torture scandal provides another stark example.  Evidence that had been unearthed over the years demonstrated that a crew of predominately white Chicago police detectives, led by Jon Burge, tortured at least 120 African-American men from 1972 to 1991.

Cook County State’s Attorney Richard M. Daley was tendered powerful evidence of this torture as early as 1982, but did not investigate or prosecute Burge and his men.  Daley’s office continued to use confessions tortured from the victims to send scores of them to prison—10 of whom went to death row, though they were later saved by a death penalty moratorium in 2000 and by a grant of clemency in 2003 by then-Governor George Ryan—during the next seven years.

In 1989, the local U.S. Attorneys’ office declined to prosecute, as did the Department of Justice in 1996 and Cook County State’s Attorney Richard Devine for the five years directly thereafter.  In 2001, due to continuing public pressure, a politically connected Special Prosecutor was appointed to investigate the torture.  But after a four year, $7 million investigation, he too refused to indict, instead issuing what is widely considered to be a whitewash report that absolved Daley, Devine, and numerous high Chicago police officials.

Finally, in 2008 the U.S. Attorney indicted Burge for perjury and obstruction of justice, and he was convicted in 2010, and sentenced to 4½ years in prison.  However, the U.S. Attorney has subsequently declined to prosecute Burge’s confederates for similar offenses.

New Orleans

Chicago is by no means an isolated example of how difficult it is to obtain justice for wanton police violence through the judicial system.  In New Orleans, a crew of white detectives responded to the killing of a white police officer in 1980 by terrorizing the black community of Algiers, killing four innocent people and torturing numerous others by “booking and bagging” them, beating suspects with telephone books and suffocating them with bags over their heads.

Seven officers were indicted by the Department of Justice for civil rights violations arising from the torture of one of the victims and three were convicted.  No officers were charged for the four killings or for the other acts of torture.

In 2005, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, an NOPD officer fatally shot an unarmed black man named Henry Glover, then several of his fellow officers burned his body to cover-up their crime.  NOPD officers also shot and killed two unarmed black men on the Danziger Bridge.

After state authorities botched their investigation, the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department indicted the officers involved in the two cases and obtained convictions of some of the main police actors.  However, the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit overturned the verdict in the Glover case, and the trial judge, citing government misconduct, took the extraordinary step of granting the convicted officers a new trial in the Danziger case.

New York

In 1997, an NYPD officer sexually assaulted a Haitian-American man named Abner Louima in a precinct station bathroom by shoving a broken broomstick up his rectum.  Louima’s attacker was subsequently charged with federal civil rights violations, while three of his police accomplices were charged with covering up the crimes.

After Louima’s attacker pleaded guilty, his accomplices were convicted, but the Second Circuit Court of Appeals overturned their convictions on the grounds that the lawyers who represented the officers had a conflict of interest.  After they were convicted a second time, the Appeals Court again overturned their convictions—this time on the basis that there was insufficient evidence of intent.

In 1999, four officers from the NYPD’s Street Crimes Unit fired 41 shots at Amadou Diallo, a Guinean immigrant who was reaching for his wallet, hitting him 19 times.  The officers were indicted for second degree murder and the case was moved to upstate New York, where a jury acquitted the officers.

In July of this year, NYPD officers arrested an African-American man named Eric Garner, allegedly for selling untaxed cigarettes.  They put a prohibited chokehold on him, forced him to the ground face first with his hands behind his back, and shoved his face into the pavement, where he died a few minutes later of a heart attack.  The deadly assault, which was captured on videotape, is now under investigation by a Special Grand Jury empaneled by the District Attorney’s Office.

Los Angeles

Among the most notorious cases was the brutal 1991 beating of Rodney King by five LAPD officers.  A videotape captured most of the brutality and also showed several other officers standing by and doing nothing to stop the pummeling of a defenseless black man.

Four officers were charged at the state level with assault with a deadly weapon and use of excessive force.  The trial was moved to a predominantly white suburban county, and three of the officers were acquitted of all charges, while the fourth was acquitted of assault with a deadly weapon and other lesser charges.  But the jury failed to reach a verdict on his use of excessive force.

After an angry uprising in the Africa- American community of Los Angeles that left 53 dead and around 2,000 injured, the U.S. Justice Department indicted the four officers, and a federal jury convicted two of them, while acquitting the other two.

This past August, LAPD officers fatally shot an unarmed mentally ill African-American man named Ezell Ford, who witnesses said was shot in the back while lying on the ground.  Despite massive protests, there has been no grand jury investigation to date, the autopsy report is yet to be released, and the LAPD has not completed its investigation.

Oakland

In Oakland, California in the late 1990s, a unit of police officers dubbed the “Rough Riders” systematically beat, framed and planted narcotics on African Americans whom they claimed were dealing drugs.  Four of the “Riders” were indicted by the District Attorney’s Office, and the trial was moved to a suburban county.  The ringleader fled the country, and was tried in absentia.

After a year-long trial before a bitterly divided jury on which there were no blacks, the officers were acquitted of eight charges, and the jury was hung on the remaining 27 counts.  At the urging of then-Mayor Jerry Brown, the officers were not re-tried.

Also in Oakland, in the early morning hours of New Years Day, 2009, a BART officer shot and killed a young black man named Oscar Grant, who was lying face down, unarmed, in a busy transit station.  The shooting was videotaped, and led to militant protests in Oakland.

Another jury with no black members rejected the charge of murder and instead found the officer guilty of involuntary manslaughter.  As a result, Oscar Grant’s killer spent less than a year behind bars.  The Department of Justice subsequently opened a civil rights investigation, but no charges were brought.

Milwaukee

From 2007-2012 in Milwaukee, a unit of white police officers, spurred on by the Department’s CompStat program of aggressive policing, stopped and illegally body cavity searched more than 70 African-American men whom they claimed to be investigating for drug dealing.  In conducting these searches, most commonly performed on the street, the searching officer reached inside the men’s underwear, and probed their anuses and genitals.

After this highly illegal practice came to light, the unit’s ringleader, Michael Vagnini, was indicted by the Milwaukee County District Attorney on numerous counts of sexual assault, illegal searches, and official misconduct, while three of the other unit officers were also charged for participating in two of the searches.  The unit’s sergeant and several other members of the unit, all of whom were present for many of the searches, were not charged.

The charged officers were permitted to plead guilty to the lesser included offenses of official misconduct and illegal strip searches, with Vagnini receiving a 36-month sentence while the other three received sentences that totaled, collectively, less than a month in jail.  By pleading guilty, they also received promises that they would not be charged with federal civil rights violations.

Pattern and Practice Investigations

These high profile cases represent only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to cases where racist police violence has not been subjected to equal justice under the law.

Recently, the Justice Department declined to prosecute Little Rock, Arkansas, officers who shot and killed Eugene Ellison, an elderly African American man who was walking out of his home with a cane in his hand, while there have been documented reports of unarmed black men recently being shot down by the police in Chicago; Houston; San Antonio; Beaver Creek, Ohio; and Sarasota, Florida.

In 1994, the United States Congress, recognizing that police misconduct and violence was systemic in many parts of the country, passed 42 U.S. Code Section 14141, which empowered the Justice Department to file suit against police departments alleging patterns and practices of unconstitutional conduct, and to obtain wide ranging court orders, consent decrees, and independent monitors in order to implement reforms to those practices.

Although understaffed, the Pattern and Practice Unit of the Justice Department has attacked systemic and discriminatory deficiencies in police hiring, supervision, and monitoring in numerous police departments over the past 20 years.   A particularly egregious act or series of acts of police violence often prompts the Unit to initiate an investigation, and its lawyers have obtained consent decrees or court orders in Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Steubenville, Ohio, New Orleans, Puerto Rico, Oakland, and Miami.

Last month, lawyers handling the Little Rock cases requested that the DOJ do a pattern and investigation of the LRPD, and the Unit is reportedly now investigating the practices of the Ferguson Police Department.  While these investigations are not a panacea, they offer a mechanism for exposing and reforming blatantly unconstitutional police practices, and have also demonstrated how pervasive the problem systemic police violence continues to be.

In light of this history, the pre-ordained failure of a biased local prosecutor to obtain an indictment against Darren Wilson should not surprise us.  But the movement for justice for Michael Brown has brought widespread attention to the nationwide problem of systemic and racist police violence and highlighted the movement that has come together to battle against it.

Just two weeks ago, the Brown case, along with the Burge torture cases, was presented to the United Nations Committee Against Torture in Geneva.  The movement should now turn its attention to the Department of Justice, demanding a federal civil rights indictment against Wilson a full scale pattern and practice investigation of the Ferguson Police Department, and, more broadly, an end to systemic and racist police violence.

As the history of the battle against racist police violence so pointedly teaches, the public outcry and agitation must continue not only in Ferguson but across the nation.  Because as Frederick Douglas rightly stated many years ago, power concedes nothing without a demand.

ESCONDIDO - Rookie Police Officer Murdered

"Body of Slain Escondido Cop Found, Husband Arrested" by R. Stickney and Laura McVicker, NBC 7 News 7/24/2014

A California man is in custody, accused in the death of his wife, who was a young mother and rookie Escondido Police officer.

According to Murrietta Police, Freddy Perez-Rodas told homicide investigators overnight that he killed Officer Laura Perez and burned their home in an attempt to cover up the crime.

Hours earlier, firefighters arrived at the couple’s home on Grand Oaks Court for a house fire.  It was just before 6:30 p.m. and fire crews found no victims inside the home.  When they responded to the fire, they did find Rodas, who reported that his wife was inside.

Fire investigators responded and "it was determined to be an arson immediately," said Murrietta Police Lt. Tony Conrad.

In addition to determining it was an arson, investigators discovered it was the same address connected to a missing person, 25-year-old Laura Perez.

Less than two hours later, homicide investigators arrested Perez-Rodas who had reported the house fire.

It was during questioning overnight that investigators learned the slain Escondido officer had been shot in the chest three times, her body moved to a storage locker in Moreno Valley.

Investigators were at All-Size Storage in Moreno Valley early Thursday morning and had closed off the business until 3 p.m.

Officials said that after Perez-Rodas led investigators to his wife’s body, he was booked on charges of murder, arson and child endangerment.

The couple has a 4-year-old child who was not injured, officials said.

Investigators also said they had recovered the weapon used in the alleged crime.

Laura Perez joined the Escondido Police Department in October 2013.  The department had a flag-lowering ceremony in her honor Thursday evening, and Escondido's police chief addressed the media.

Escondido Police Chief Craig Carter described Perez as "a wonderful officer who had a bright future."

"It's never an easy thing.  We're going to be one day at a time, " Carter said. "I'm encouraging officers to remember we're here for the victim, which in this case is Laura.  For every Laura, there's hundreds out there and we need to continue to do our job."

Escondido police also will be having a press conference at 1:30 p.m. Friday at the Escondido Police Fire and Headquarters in the community room.

NEW MEXICO - Another Albuquerque Police Shooting

"Albuquerque police shoot knife-wielding man" by RUSSELL CONTRERAS (AP), Seattle PI 5/23/2014

Facing increased scrutiny over its use of force, Albuquerque police shot and killed a man who authorities said slashed a good Samaritan's throat late Thursday, police announced at a briefing.

Deputy Chief William Roseman told reporters that the knife-wielding man was attacking a woman when the good Samaritan stepped in to help late Thursday and was stabbed.

"Officers attempted to talk to the offender and tried to have him drop the knife," Roseman said.  "As officers tried to deescalate the situation, the male offender began to advance on the officers."

Roseman said two officers shot and killed the man after he continued to move toward police.

The name of the suspect was not released.  Officials also have not released the names of the officers who fired their weapons.

In addition, police did not say how many times the man was shot nor if lapel camera footage of the shooting was available.

Roseman said the good Samaritan is in critical condition, while the woman has been treated and released.

It is the third fatal shooting by the Albuquerque Police Department since the U.S. Justice Department released a scathing review of the agency's use of force and the 40th police shooting since 2010.  The report also faulted Albuquerque police for officers' interaction with suspects who have mental illness and how the police SWAT team resolved conflicts.

The city has entered negotiations with the Justice Department over reforms and it could take months before the two sides outline an agreement.

In recent weeks, critics have stepped up the pressure on Albuquerque police by holding street protests and crowding City Council meetings to demand immediate reforms.

Earlier this month, angry demonstrators took over the regularly scheduled City Council meeting, chanting for the ouster of the Albuquerque Police Chief Gorden Ede, shouting at Council members and causing so much disruption that the panel's president adjourned the meeting.  Protesters tried to serve a "people's arrest warrant" on Chief Gorden Eden and then held a mock council meeting in the chambers.

Demonstrators were removed from the next meeting by police when some approached the podium and refused to speak to protest new Council rule changes on speech.

This week, councilors approved a measure that would require that future police chiefs hired by the city get confirmed by the Council.  The measure now goes before city voters in a referendum.

Critics say they are planning a June protest march.

AMERICA - Are We Living in George Orwell's '1984' Society

NOTE:  Chula Vista, CA, San Diego County, is the city just north of where I live (South San Diego).

George Orwell, novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four"

IMHO:  You do NOT have expectation of privacy in public areas, which includes streets and highways, nor should you.

"With power of facial recognition and high-tech surveillance, where to draw the line between safety and spying?" (Part-1) PBS NewsHour 4/25/2014

Excerpt

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  During the past year, we have learned a lot about the U.S. government’s surveillance program.

But those efforts are not limited to the National Security Agency.  Local law enforcement agencies are also gathering and mining unprecedented amounts of data.  Privacy advocates worry police can use this information to track anyone at any time without a warrant.

The Center for Investigative Reporting, in partnership with KQED San Francisco, has been looking into these new tools for fighting crime.

The center’s Amanda Pike has this report.

AMANDA PIKE, Center for Investigative Reporting:  Officer Rob Halverson of the Chula Vista Police Department is testing the technology that could change how police fight crime.

He’s on a call to verify the identity of a woman just arrested for possession of narcotics.  He doesn’t need to ask her name or check her I.D.  He just takes her picture.

OFFICER ROB HALVERSON, Chula Vista Police Department:  Just look here, please.

AMANDA PIKE:  His tablet uses facial recognition software to find the suspect’s mug shot and criminal history.

OFFICER ROB HALVERSON:  You can lie about your name.  You can lie about your date of birth.  You can lie about your address, but tattoos, birthmarks, scars don’t lie.

AMANDA PIKE:  Police have access to more data than ever before, raising questions about how that information is used and stored.  The tablet is part of a pilot program in San Diego County.

OFFICER ROB HALVERSON:  It’s been very helpful.  And some people just have to have the threat of, OK, you don’t want to tell us who you are?  We are just going to take a photo and we’re going to be able to compare.  And then when people kind of realize the technology we now have, they’re more likely to tell us their real name in that.

AMANDA PIKE:  More and more, police are using biometrics, biological markers from face scans and palm prints, in addition to fingerprints, to identify suspects.

"New surveillance techniques raise privacy concerns" (Part-2) PBS NewsHour 4/26/2014

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  A report from the Center for Investigative Reporting and KQED delves into a wide-scale surveillance system being developed for police forces.  How can the trade off between safety and privacy be negotiated as technology gets more and more sophisticated?

CALIFORNIA - Dorner Shooting Spree End-Game

"Investigation Continues on Former L.A. Policeman on Deadly Shooting Spree" (Part-1) PBS Newshour 2/13/2013

JEFFREY BROWN (Newshour):  The manhunt that kept Southern California on edge for more than a week appeared to be over today.  Still, the investigation continued in the Big Bear Lake area after the apparent demise of a former-policeman-turned-killer.

It came down to this cabin in the woods burning furiously as daylight waned Tuesday near Big Bear Lake.  Police said Christopher Dorner went in, but never came out.  Today, investigators said charred human remains were found inside, along with a driver's license in Dorner's name.

The fugitive former Los Angeles police officer was suspected of killing four people over the course of nine days.  He had vowed revenge for being fired from the force. Dorner disappeared in the Big Bear area on Friday, then suddenly reappeared yesterday.  He stole two cars and got into a running gunfight with game wardens.

LT. PATRICK FOY, California Department of Fish and Wildlife:  He rolled down his window and he opened fire on the two officers who were in the second Fish and Game patrol truck right behind him.  Ultimately, the officer who was driving that vehicle stopped and pulled out his patrol rifle and engaged probably 15 to 20 shots as Dorner was driving away.

JEFFREY BROWN:  The entire Big Bear area was cordoned off.  Schools were in lockdown mode, and San Bernardino police set up checkpoints and searched cars for Dorner or anyone who might be assisting him.

MAN:  We was really scared. Every -- as soon as that happens, I wake up every day like three or four or six times a night looking in the windows, looking at my gun, making sure I have bullets, you know, be prepared.

JEFFREY BROWN:  Dorner ultimately took refuge in the vacant cabin, where he got into another intense firefight with San Bernardino sheriff's deputies.  One was killed, and another wounded.

A short time later, the fire broke out after a SWAT team assaulted the building.  A single shot was heard, and then nothing.  Today, as tensions across the region eased, one of Dorner's earlier victims was laid to rest.  Riverside police officer Michael Crain's hearse was followed by a long procession of his law enforcement colleagues.

"After Dorner Police Standoff, Big Bear Community Feels Bittersweet Relief" (Part-2) PBS Newshour 2/13/2013

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The manhunt for ex-LA cop Christopher Dorner has allegedly ended in Big Bear Lake, Calif., where police suspect Dorner was killed in a fire.  Jeffrey Brown gets an update from Kate Mather who's been covering the story for the Los Angeles Times.

CALIFORNIA - Dorner Manhunt Update

"Christopher Dorner manhunt appears to be over as authorities work to ID body" CBS This Morning 2/13/2013

Excerpt

The sweeping manhunt for a fugitive ex-cop wanted in a deadly rampage appears to be over.

Overnight, sheriff's deputies said charred remains were found inside a burned-out cabin near Big Bear Lake, Calif., east of Los Angeles.  It's not yet confirmed if the remains are those of Christopher Dorner.

The cabin went up in flames after an intense shootout.  Only CBS News captured the gunfight while it was happening.  CBS News correspondent Carter Evans was in the middle of it all.

Early Tuesday, two cleaning ladies at a condominium in Big Bear discovered a man they say looked like Dorner.  He took them hostage, tied them up and tried to escape, stealing a pair of vehicles along the way.  Now law enforcement officials are confident they got the right man.

Acting on reports of a carjacking, law enforcement officials quickly tracked the man accused of targeting police officers and their families.

"The suspect that stole the vehicle matched the description.  He crashed the car and then took off into the forest," San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon said.

As he barricaded himself in an empty cabin, the man believed to be Dorner fired a .50-caliber sniper rifle, shooting two deputies, killing one of them.

Following tactical teams, CBS News' crew was caught in the middle of a second firefight.

Asked how Evans was able to get so close to the firefight, he said he and his crew received a tip on where to find some police teams searching for Dorner and then heard the carjacking reports.

"At that point we started following those search teams, and they jumped out of their cars with their rifles drawn and started firing, and only then did we really realize what we rolled up on," Evans said.

At one point, the man believed to be Dorner tried to escape by throwing a smoke grenade at officers.  Police also deployed smoke grenades, setting up a screen so the wounded could be evacuated.

The resort town of Big Bear had been the focus of the manhunt since last Thursday, when a burned-out truck belonging to Dorner was found in the area, along with weapons, survival gear and a gas mask.  As the media descended on the town and SWAT teams searched door to door, police now believe Dorner was hiding in plain sight in an unoccupied condo just across the road from their command post.

On "CBS This Morning" Wednesday, CBS News senior correspondent John Miller, who once headed the Los Angeles Police Department's Major Crimes Division, reported that the cabin had apparently been empty for some time and it remained unclear whether Dorner had been hiding in it for hours or days.

CALIFORNIA - Massive Manhunt Saga

"Manhunt Continues for Fugitive Cop Wanted for Murder in California" PBS Newshour 2/11/2013

Excerpt

RAY SUAREZ (Newshour):  And we turn to the search for the ex-officer wanted in multiple killings in California.  Authorities have been given hundreds of tips for the suspect, who is still at large.  But he was charged today with the murder of a Riverside police officer and the attempted murder of other officers.

Those charges could bring the death penalty.  The manhunt was in its fifth day, as law enforcement agencies across Southern California kept looking for Christopher Dorner.  Authorities said they're hoping a $1 million dollar reward will yield new leads on Dorner's whereabouts.

MAYOR ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA, (D) Los Angeles:  Our dedication to catching this killer remains steadfast.

RAY SUAREZ:  Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced the reward yesterday.

CALIFORNIA - Cop on Shooting Spree, Massive Manhunt

"California Shooter May Have Named Victims in Online List" PBS Newshour 2/7/2013

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Ray Suarez talks with Frank Stoltze of Southern California Public Radio about the manhunt for Christopher Dorner, a former police officer believed to be on a deadly shooting spree.  Dorner is thought to have killed the daughter of a police officer and her boyfriend and may be stalking people he named in an online manifesto.

"Christopher Dorner's Manifesto, In Full" LAList

AMERICA - LEOs, the Price of Duty

"Even as Violent Crime Falls, Killing of Officers Rises" by MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT and JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN, New York Times 4/9/2012

Excerpt

As violent crime has decreased across the country, a disturbing trend has emerged: rising numbers of police officers are being killed.

According to statistics compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 72 officers were killed by perpetrators in 2011, a 25 percent increase from the previous year and a 75 percent increase from 2008.

The 2011 deaths were the first time that more officers were killed by suspects than car accidents, according to data compiled by the International Association of Chiefs of Police. The number was the highest in nearly two decades, excluding those who died in the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001 and the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995.

While a majority of officers were killed in smaller cities, 13 were killed in cities of 250,000 or more. New York City lost two officers last year. On Sunday, four were wounded by a gunman in Brooklyn, bringing to eight the number of officers shot in the city since December.

“We haven’t seen a period of this type of violence in a long time,” said Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly of the New York Police Department.

While the F.B.I. and other law enforcement officials cannot fully explain the reasons for the rise in officer homicides, they are clear about the devastating consequences.

“In this law enforcement job, when you pin this badge on and go out on calls, when you leave home, you ain’t got a promise that you will come back,” said Sheriff Ray Foster of Buchanan County, Va. Two of his deputies were killed in March 2011 and two wounded — one of them paralyzed — by a man with a high-powered rifle.

“That was 80 percent of my day shift,” he said.

After a spate of killings in early 2011, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. asked federal authorities to work with local police departments to try to come up with solutions to the problem.

The F.B.I., which has tracked officer deaths since 1937, paid for a study conducted by John Jay College that found that in many cases the officers were trying to arrest or stop a suspect who had previously been arrested for a violent crime.

That prompted the F.B.I. to change what information it will provide to local police departments, the officials said. Starting this year, when police officers stop a car and call its license plate into the F.B.I.’s database, they will be told whether the owner of the vehicle has a violent history. Through the first three months of this year, the number of police fatalities has dropped, though it is unclear why.

Some law enforcement officials believe that techniques pioneered by the New York Police Department over the past two decades and adopted by other departments may have put officers at greater risk by encouraging them to conduct more street stops and to seek out and confront suspects who seem likely to be armed. In New York and elsewhere, police officials moved more officers into crime-ridden areas.

“This technique has become more popular across the country as smaller departments have followed the larger cities and tried to prevent crime,” said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum. “Unlike several decades ago, there is this expectation that police matter and that police can make a difference.”

Commissioner Kelly said, “We try to put those officers where there is the most potential for violence.” However, he pointed out that most of the officers who have been shot in New York since December were not part of a proactive police deployment but were responding to emergencies.

AMERICA - A Hate Manual Behind LEO Attacks

"Investigators: White Power Guerrilla Manual Behind Attacks on Police" by Ryan Lenz, Southern Poverty Law Center 1/25/2011

Excerpt

Two men charged with attempting to kill police officers in Hemet, Calif., used what prosecutors are calling a white power “guerrilla warfare manual” to guide a nine-month campaign of terror and violence against the police department, its buildings and vehicles.

The anonymously written “White Resistance Manual” was posted on the website WhiteHonor.org and contained do-it-yourself guides that Nicholas John Smit and Steven Hansen used to build such guerrilla-styled weapons as zip guns and “Panji boards” – spiked boards rigged with trip wires, according to Daniel DeLimon, a prosecutor with the district attorney in Riverside, Calif. “It’s basically a guerrilla warfare manual instructing people on different types of weapons, on creating weapons, on police investigations, basically how to conduct covert urban operations,” DeLimon told HateWatch in a telephone interview.

The manual is not the first to provide extremists with the know-how to turn militant. Similar antigovernment paramilitary manuals were circulated among private militia groups in the 1990s, and directions to build pipe bombs or create the neurotoxin ricin periodically appear on extremist newsgroups. Still, this manual’s comprehensive approach prompted alarm in an area of southern California that DeLimon described as a “magnet” for white supremacist ideologues. “We see all different types of propaganda,” he said. “But I’ve never actually seen this manual.”

WhiteHonor.org has since been pulled offline, investigators say, and the manual appears to no longer be readily available on the Internet. Its existence came to light when The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, Calif., reported details of police search warrants that were unsealed in response to a request from the newspaper.