In
one of the largest jewelry heists in history, robbers -- at least two wearing women's wigs and dresses -- relieved a Harry Winston boutique of $108 million worth of diamond rings, necklaces, and watches. Despite
criminal investigation teachings that robbers "have better things to do with their money than to buy an array of masks and disguises" and will opt for functional attire, many thieves express themselves creatively and impractically through costumery, dressing as
Dracula and Black Father Christmas, a tree, Greek prime ministers, clowns, and
ghosts, while others cover their faces with
duct tape, cookie dough, drywall, and baking-flour-and-ketchup. Minimalists just wear
men's underwear and
women's thongs on their heads.
posted by terranova
on Dec 6, 2008 -
29 comments
Tis the season for
Shoplifting, when the unemployed, teens, professionals, kleptos, and political shoplifters jack, rack, nick, and stroke holiday gifts. The
BBB anticipates a rise in light-fingered merchandising, but notes that on average, shoplifters get pinched only "once for every 48 times they steal." Retailers are
fighting back in
unusual ways.
Wal-Mart, the oft-target of political shoplifters,
aggressively guards its merchandise, while across the pond the
Dutch approach the problem with bemusement.
posted by terranova
on Nov 27, 2008 -
50 comments
McHenry and his "roommates" -- GOP Rep Patrick McHenry (NC), co-owner of a DC home with Scott G. Stewart, former chair of the College Republican Nat'l Cttee (and bilker of many senior citizens), received a DC home-ownership reduction improperly. McHenry's actual home in North Carolina was apparently also home to quite a collection of young men:
(convicted fraudulent voter) Michael Aaron Lay, Neil Everett Capano, Matthew Allen Hamilton, and
(multiple violations, including "death by vehicle") Jason Jent Deans. Also, McHenry's 04 consultant Ralph Gonzales was one of the men involved in a recent FL murder/suicide, and links to
Robert Drake, the killer (political work in NC and escort service connections), are still being documented. Stay tuned!
[more inside]
posted by amberglow
on Sep 28, 2007 -
67 comments
Why is Genarlow Wilson in Prison? Genarlow Wilson sits in prison despite being a good son, a good athlete and high school student with a 3.2 GPA. He never had any criminal trouble. On the day he was to sit for the SAT, at seventeen years old, his life changed forever. He was arrested. In Douglas County he was accused of inappropriate sexual acts at a New Year’s Eve party. A jury acquitted him of the allegation of Rape but convicted him of Aggravated Child Molestation for a voluntary act of oral sex with another teenager. He was 17, and she was 15.
On July 1st, the new Romeo and Juliet law went into effect in Georgia for any other teen that engages in consensual sexual acts. That change in the law means that no teen prosecuted for consensual oral sex could receive more than a 12 months sentence or be required to register as a sex offender. But since the law was not changed retroactively, Genarlow Wilson must serve his
mandatory sentence of 10 years in prison, without parole.
posted by b_thinky
on Jan 25, 2007 -
179 comments
Death sentence for online gamer SHANGHAI: A Shanghai online gamer who murdered another player because of a dispute over a "cyber-weapon" was given the death sentence with a two-year reprieve yesterday at Shanghai No 2 Intermediate People's Court.
Qiu Chengwei's death penalty will be commuted to life in prison if he behaves well in jail, and no other crimes relating to him are uncovered.
Not to condone the murder, but is cyber theft or isn't it? Acording to the DMCA if I download a song or movie from cyberspace I am commiting a crime. Yet if someone steals your item in a cyberworld and sells it for real world cash your left without recourse. I feel China had a chance to establish new law and balked.
(more inside)
posted by Trik
on Jun 8, 2005 -
124 comments
Damning leak for Blair / Bush! A leaked transcript of a senior British government meeting indicates that the Bush administration viewed war with Iraq as
"inevitable" as of July 2002, even though the rationale for war was
"thin" and that
"Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran." It further states that the desire to bring about regime change was
"not a legal base for military action", and that the only legitimate reason to declare war was with UNSCOM approval. Most disturbingly, it indicates that there were
"strategies for dealing with Libya and Iran. If the political context were right, people would support regime change."
posted by insomnia_lj
on May 1, 2005 -
139 comments
A year after the Abu Ghraib photos were widely circulated, and a few days after most of the low-ranking officers blamed were
let off,
Human Rights Watch releases a
report clearly implicating the entire chain of command, and strongly urges the investigation of Donald Rumsfeld and George Tenet. (Full report
here)
Just some bad eggs, eh?
posted by bumpkin
on Apr 23, 2005 -
32 comments
Now here's an interesting story. And well worth the read. It mentions some disturbing facts - he reloads and starts shooting again - but is still sympathetic to our hero. Of course if you compare it with
this...
"nothing to see here folks, keep moving right along!" Oh, and is "frought" a word?
posted by milkwood
on Apr 18, 2005 -
25 comments
Canadian authorities have arrested US President George W. Bush and charged him with offences under Canada's War Crimes Act. Says (Canadian Prime Minister) Paul Martin:
“This decision was not made lightly. But, it was also a decision that was impossible not to make. The United States is not outside the rule of law, and cannot expect to get an unlimited “free pass”. This decision puts a grave strain upon both our nations, and I urge calm and restraint from our American neighbours, as well as from Canadians. I have met with the cabinet, and with our colleagues in the House. This is a time of great crisis for us as a nation. But as people, we will survive this test. Earlier I enacted the Emergency War Powers Act. This is necessary to guarantee our domestic security. This is not a time for panic, for lawlessness, for anything other than a responsible and sobre focus on what lies immediately ahead.”
posted by 327.ca
on Nov 29, 2004 -
75 comments
Illegal RNC trashing Democratic registrations in Vegas -- Employees of a private voter registration company allege that hundreds, perhaps thousands of voters who may think they are registered will be rudely surprised on election day. The company claims hundreds of registration forms were thrown in the trash.
...
The out-of-state firm has been in Las Vegas for the past few months, registering voters. It employed up to 300 part-time workers and collected hundreds of registrations per day, but former employees of the company say that Voters Outreach of America only wanted Republican registrations.
Two former workers say they personally witnessed company supervisors rip up and trash registration forms signed by Democrats.
...
The company has been largely, if not entirely funded, by the Republican National Committee. Similar complaints have been received in Reno where the registrar has asked the FBI to investigate.
posted by amberglow
on Oct 12, 2004 -
165 comments
Policing Virtual Reality. Wired reports on
Sociolotron(NSFW). A MMORPG that allows gamers to rob, rape, and kill other players. Being a gamer, I understand that actions in an MMORPG aren't "real" but how far can you take it?
"Lord Foucault is an admitted rapist. He does it on impulse -- for the thrill of it and for the feeling of control he has over his female victims."
Is this any different than running around and killing dwarves?
posted by jopreacher
on Jun 29, 2004 -
50 comments
A 15 year old girl has been charged with several counts related to "child pornography" for sending out pictures of herself to several people she chatted with. As more and more teens use webcams for all sorts of things from keeping in touch with friends, getting strangers to buy them things from their wishlists and making some $$$ this has
caused a little discussion. As she did not "force" herself, how does this intersect with recent attempts to criminalize "virtual" child porn as both situations have at their heart whether the primary issue is coercion/harm or the concepts images themselves. At the risk of "Newsfiltering", I am interested in opinions from a less histrionic group (thats you) than
some others who are discussing it.
posted by soulhuntre
on Apr 3, 2004 -
77 comments
Hey! A thirteen year-old kid gets suspended for three days for using a DOS command to send a one-word message to all 80 computers on his school's network. Even more charming is that the computer teacher of his school apparently doesn't know much about the computicatin' machines.
posted by Ufez Jones
on Jan 9, 2004 -
72 comments
Our drunk-driving premier has refused to resign because it "was on personal time." What kind of standards does your state or province demand of its leaders? Do your politicians get to sleep around, drunk drive, snort coke, cheat on their taxes, and so on? (Or, rather more to the point,
are they allowed to continue in office once caught?)
posted by five fresh fish
on Jan 13, 2003 -
48 comments
The Overcrowding Police Belleville inspectors and armed police officers show up without search warrants to check for occupancy code violations, and ticket people who don't let them in -- a practice experts say is unconstitutional.
.....
Invite friends over, babysit your grandchildren or allow relatives to spend the night in Belleville and you risk an armed police officer turning up at your door to search your home and give you a ticket.
Enforcement teams consisting of a housing inspector and a police officer do not obtain search warrants before showing up to check for occupancy code violations, a Belleville News-Democrat investigation found.
posted by nofundy
on Dec 13, 2002 -
14 comments
Neighbour jailed for branding pedophile's genitals. A man attacks his two young nephews and his neighbours find out and burn him with a hot spatula as punishment. The neighbour is then imprisoned. I realise this is vigilante justice and on an intellectual level, it's wrong, but emotionally I'm finding it hard to muster much sympathy for people who attack kids and face a backlash like this. What are your reactions?
posted by Jubey
on Aug 29, 2002 -
45 comments
Coincidence? The man being questioned by police in relation to allegations that he took a £1,000,000 bribe during the takeover of Wessex Water (audited by Andersen and previously owned by Enron) is also on the board of the company whose track maintenance may have been responsible for the
Potters Bar Rail Crash.
Why am I not surprised to see so many of the same fingers in the same rotten pies.
posted by essexjan
on Aug 22, 2002 -
1 comment
A tale of two dumb-dumbs. This car enthusiast forum story really has me wondering who the dumb one is in this situation: the guy who got his car stolen, or the guy who stole the car.
Guy befriends another guy on the forum, starts talking, gives out his VIN, information on when he drives his car to work, and his address only to have the other forum-goer steal his car. Then, the brilliant car thief posts up parts from said stolen car on the EXACT SAME forum under a new name, then makes the mistake of logging in under his old name and posting a message in
his sale thread.
An amusing read to say the least.
posted by PWA_BadBoy
on Jul 11, 2002 -
10 comments
"Four years after father's dragging death, Ross Byrd speaks about his change of heart over executions." James Byrd Jr., was tied to the back of a pickup with logging chain, then dragged along a Texas country road until his body fell apart. White supremacist John W. King was one of two men sentenced to death for Byrd's murder. "On Wednesday, Ross Byrd traveled to the state prison in Huntsville to lead a 24-hour fast and prayer vigil on King's behalf. 'When I heard King had exhausted his appeals, I began thinking, `How can this help me or solve my pain?' and I realized it couldn't,' Byrd said."
So much for retribution. Instead of yet another senseless execution (this next to be performed with 18-gauge intravenous needle in lieu of logging chain), ponder a possible healing...a rebirth...crystallizing from the son of a murdered black man saving the life of his father's racist killer.
posted by fold_and_mutilate
on Jul 5, 2002 -
57 comments
Study Shows Building Prisons Did Not Prevent Repeat Crimes (New York Times link--you know the drill)
The rate at which inmates released from state prisons commit new crimes rose from 1983 to 1994, a time when the number of people behind bars doubled, according to a Justice Department study released yesterday.
The report found that 67 percent of inmates released from state prisons in 1994 committed at least one serious new crime within three years. That is 5 percent higher than among inmates released in 1983.
Criminologists generally agree that the prison-building binge of the last 25 years, in which the number of Americans incarcerated quadrupled to almost two million, has helped reduce the crime rate simply by keeping criminals off the streets. There has been more debate about whether longer sentences and the increase in the number of prisoners have also helped to deter people from committing crimes. The new report, some crime experts say, suggests that the answer is no. (More inside)
posted by y2karl
on Jun 2, 2002 -
22 comments
"The Texas conveyor belt of death rolls on. Against international law, three Texas inmates face imminent execution for murders committed when they were children. Since 1998, Texas has killed five child offenders - people who were under 18 at the time of the crimes. If Napoleon Beazley, TJ Jones and Toronto Patterson are put to death on 28 May, 8 August, and 28 August respectively, Texas will have executed as many child offenders in a four-month period as Iran, the next worst perpetrator outside the USA, has carried out in the whole of the past decade."
Ha! Yet another area where them loser Axis of Evil® fellas ain't up to the standards of the good ol' U.$. of A.
posted by fold_and_mutilate
on May 20, 2002 -
124 comments
Japanese Devils is a documentary featuring 14 veterans of the Imperial Army testifying to their brutal participation in Japan's 15-year war against China. Director Matsui Minoru presents a powerful historical record of these soldiers' individual crimes, helping to break Japan's long silence about its wartime atrocities in China.
Please also see
Iris Chang's "The Rape of Nanking'' and be aware that the Japanese government is
still whitewashing their brutal WWII history via
school textbooks. We must understand the truth of history so that we are not doomed to repeat it.
posted by gen
on Apr 4, 2002 -
5 comments
Interview with an Ol Dirty Bastard. This is the first interview with ODB I have seen since he was thrown in the slammer. ODB's first two releases were crazy brilliant and full of life. Now he sits in one of the worst prisons around, depressed and unmedicated, for parole violation. Reading this, do you think the court succeeded in breaking his spirit? Is he doomed to flame out when he gets out? Is it wrong that his new cd seems made without his input, and is weak compared to his amazing first two? Would you want to get out of prison and find someone made a book out of your throw off writings? Finally, do you like ODB?
posted by zenhues
on Mar 28, 2002 -
28 comments
The male, heterosexual victims of spousal abuse. "Blood streamed down my face. Internal injuries dislocated my ribs. Lacerations and multiple abrasions marked my back and groin. My attacker had no injuries. I told the officer that I wanted the crime report to note my injuries and the names of witnesses. He responded, 'We ain't takin' a report from you, buddy.'" The officer refused to take Stanley seriously because he was a man who had been beaten by his wife.
posted by moz
on Mar 28, 2002 -
82 comments
Speaking of bibles, a man gets
2 years in prison in China for smuggling them to an underground Christian organization. Nothing like religious tolerance.
posted by catatonic
on Jan 28, 2002 -
85 comments
Arrest in Trenton NJ. Looks like the Feds may be onto something in the anthrax investigation. Makes you wonder why this rapidly slipped to the back pages on Yahoo, though...
posted by shagoth
on Nov 3, 2001 -
7 comments
The Old Man Woman and the Sea Jailcell The son of Ernest Hemmingway, Dr. Gregory Hemingway, died on Monday from natural causes in his private jailcell at the Miami-Dade Women's Detention Center. No, not a typo there: Gregory, who occassionally also went as "Gloria", had been arrested on relatively minor charges ... emerging naked from a state park in the Florida Keys.
posted by bclark
on Oct 5, 2001 -
16 comments
You loose, but it's not your fault.
I wonder if a winter edition of monopoly will come out because of this.
posted by tiaka
on Aug 21, 2001 -
18 comments
