Ohio lawmakers at odds over PTSD coverage for cops, firefighters

Cops and firefighters suffering from PTSD want the condition covered by Ohio’s workers’ compensation system — something the Ohio House included in the BWC budget bill but the Senate stripped out.

Now the House and Senate are at loggerheads over which version of the bill should become law.The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation is a state run insurance program for injured workers that pays their lost wages and medical expenses. It is funded by employer premiums and investment returns.READ MORE: 5 things to know about the Dayton region’s housing market Senators said they prefer to deal with the issue of covering post traumatic stress disorder as a standalone bill.“We were very disappointed to learn that the Ohio Senate removed the PTSD provision from the Ohio BWC budget,” said the Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio in a tweet. “We have been leading this effort to get first responders protected by this for years and the FOP of Ohio will not stop fighting for our members!”

Police and firefighters argue that they are exposed to trauma on the job but there is no help for them to cope with the mental toll that takes. Ohio has more than 30,000 police officers and firefighters.

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FOP says Baltimore Police Commissioner's crime fighting plan is nothing new

Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison has announced a new crime fighting strategy.  The commissioner says there will be an increased police presence and patrols in 120 of the city's most violent "micro-zones."

The Baltimore Police Union has issued a statement regarding the strategy, saying in part the micro-zones are nothing more than the regurgitation of past efforts.  At a news conference Tuesday, Harrison was asked about his thoughts about what the FOP said about his plan. "True leadership is defined by someone who can remain focused and not be dissuade by negative comments and opinions," said Harrison.  The FOP says this plan has an increased number of zones that previous plans and the shortage of officers with more zones to cover means a thinly-stretched Patrol Division.

Under Harrison’s plan, officers are required to patrol three times per shift in 120 of the city's most-violent "micro-zones" within their districts.  The two-block-by-two-block zones are where 30-to-40 percent of the city's serious violent crime occurred in the past five years.

As for how officers are expected to conduct the micro-zone patrol and respond to the an already high number of calls, the Commissioner says it's all part of good supervision that [they're] working and creating performance metrics and making sure supervisors are bought into the deployment strategy.

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Federal judge blocks ICE from making arrests inside Massachusetts courthouses

A federal judge in Massachusetts on Thursday blocked federal authorities from making civil immigration arrests inside the state's courthouses.

US District Judge Indira Talwani issued a preliminary injunction that blocks US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security "from civilly arresting parties, witnesses, and others attending Massachusetts courthouses on official business while they are going to, attending, or leaving the courthouse," according to the court order.

The order follows a lawsuit from Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan and Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins, the Committee for Public Counsel Services -- Massachusetts' public defender agency, and advocacy group Chelsea Collaborative. It also comes after a Massachusetts judge and a former court officer were accused in April of helping a twice-deported undocumented defendant elude immigration authorities by slipping out a rear courthouse door.

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Sanctuary cities could be banned in Michigan

Two Michigan senators have introduced legislation that would ban cities from adopting sanctuary city policies protecting immigrants in the United States illegally.

State Sens. Aric Nesbitt of Lawton and Tom Barrett of Charlotte, both Republicans, filed the bills on Wednesday. Nesbitt said he has a difficult time understanding while some local governments want to hinder enforcement of immigration laws.

“Local governments with sanctuary policies protect criminal illegal aliens instead of their own residents," he said. "This dangerous lawlessness must be stopped.”

Senate Bill 382 would amend state laws to prohibit a county from enacting a law or policy prohibiting local law enforcement from communicating or cooperating with immigration law enforcement.

Senate Bill 383 would do the same for cities, townships and villages.

Any local governmental body in Michigan with laws or policies in violation of the bills would have 60 days after the state law is enacted to change and get into compliance. The state could bring legal action against any governmental bodies refuse to comply.

“This is not only a public safety issue, but also an issue of allowing federal authorities to do their jobs,” said Barrett. “With this legislation we are sending a clear message to our local governments — follow the law."

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Police Commissioner Richard Ross wonders if gunmen in Philadelphia are emboldened by a lack of consequences

After a weekend in which more people were shot in Philadelphia than in any other 48-hour stretch in at least three years, Police Commissioner Richard Ross questioned Monday whether gunmen are increasingly carrying illegal firearms because they believe they can avoid being held accountable even if arrested.

During a news conference at Police Headquarters, Ross, backed by three top deputies, said police have nearly doubled the number of gun arrests this year compared with the same point in 2015.

Ross said he believes the increased arrest totals suggest that “some of these guys think they’ve figured something out relative to consequences or lack thereof.”

He added: “If you feel there [are] no consequences” for illegally carrying guns, “there are many people who will disregard the law because they’re not worried about it. Not because we’re not arresting them; we have to see why these people are carrying them in the fashion that they are.”

The comments by the typically reserved commissioner followed the unusually violent weekend in the city. Still, Ross demurred on offering definitive reasons for the perceived decline in accountability.

Pressed on whether he was suggesting that District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office was being too light on accused gun criminals, Ross declined to say, adding that he did not know how many gun cases might be ending with a figurative slap on the wrist or if any individual office was responsible.

Krasner — sworn in last year on a pledge to curb mass incarceration — has drawn frequent criticism from the police union. Its leader, John McNesby, has accused him of having “great disdain” for law enforcement and siding with accused criminals over victims.

U.S. Attorney William M. McSwain also has been critical of Krasner, saying Philadelphia has “a full-blown public safety crisis” due to Krasner’s policies. McSwain said his office has increased violent-crime prosecutions as a result.

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Chicago FOP fires back at Mayor Lightfoot over reform measures

Chicago’s rank-and-file police union fired back against Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Friday with an open letter marking the latest volley in a rhetorical battle between the new mayor and her longtime political nemesis.

The Fraternal Order of Police slammed the “inflammatory and false allegations” they say Lightfoot has lobbed against the officers’ union, most recently during the City Council meeting on Wednesday when she said she’d sit down for contract negotiations with the FOP “any time you’re willing to move forward on reform and not block every single issue.”

Union leaders insisted they have “accepted reform” following the scathing 2016 Justice Department report on CPD policies, though their letter immediately goes on to note a potential federal consent decree was rejected by ex-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and then calls the ensuing decree agreed to by the city and state “a host of senseless policies and bureaucracy imposed upon our officers that will only handcuff the police.

“The measures have also been extraordinarily expensive to both the Lodge and the taxpayers with no real benefit,” reads the three-page letter, which is signed by vice presidents Patrick Murray and Martin Preib, as well as legal defense co-chair Robert Bartlett — but not FOP President Kevin Graham.

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Chicago FOP President Graham denounces mayor-repeated rumor as ‘wholly false and offensive’

Fraternal Order of Police President Kevin Graham on Monday branded as “wholly false” a “rumor” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she heard from a “credible” source and saw fit to repeat on the city’s cable channel: that the union told officers to “lay back” and “do nothing” over Memorial Day weekend.

“As the city ... endures another week of bloodshed primarily due to gang violence, Mayor Lightfoot’s decision to give voice to some supposed rumor ... is puzzling and alarming,” Graham wrote on the union’s Facebook page.

“Why would a mayor give voice to such claims without attempting to verify them first? Is this a sign of what is to come from her administration? Let us set the record straight: These rumors are wholly false and offensive.”

Lightfoot made the remarks during a May 30 interview with retiring host Ken Davis on CAN-TV’s, “Chicago’s Newsroom.”

“You know, there were rumors floating around about — and I didn’t verify this — but rumors floating around that they were telling their officers, ‘Don’t do anything. Over Memorial Day weekend, don’t intercede. If you see some criminal activity, just lay back, do nothing,’” she said then.

The new mayor’s decision to repeat the unverified rumor threatens to further undermine police morale that is already seriously low.

Chicago Police Department officers have been working under an expired contract for two years.

Former Mayor Rahm Emanuel punted contract negotiations to Lightfoot, who co-chaired the Task Force on Police Accountability that demanded changes to a police contract that, it claimed, “codifies the code of silence” — a code of silence that Emanuel famously acknowledged exists at CPD.

Graham has said his only meeting with Lightfoot was canceled and that the FOP was not included in Lightfoot’s public safety transition committee or in meetings she had to prepare for the expected summer surge in violent crime.

“We have attempted many times to meet with Mayor Lightfoot and to discuss with her common interests on a host of issues, particularly the evidence we have developed pointing to a pattern of false allegations of police misconduct that often end up in the federal courts and cost the taxpayers millions,” Graham wrote on Facebook, pointing to the two-year wait for a new contract.

“Despite all this, our officers continue to do their job with a clear sense of duty and professionalism. Our members and the citizens of Chicago deserve the same from Mayor Lightfoot.”

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Chicago Mayor Lightfoot smears police spreading unfounded anti-cop rumor

Mayor Lori Lightfoot discussed during a cable TV interview the spasm of violence over Memorial Day weekend when 41 people were shot and 7 killed.

In her remarks, Lightfoot sought to draw a connection between the weekend carnage and difficulties she is expected to encounter negotiating a new police contract with the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police, which represents thousands of rank-and-file officers.

“You know, there were rumors floating around about — and I didn’t verify this — but rumors floating around that they were telling their officers, ‘Don’t do anything. Over Memorial Day weekend, don’t intercede,’” Lightfoot said on CAN-TV’s “Chicago Newsroom” program. “‘If you see some criminal activity, just lay back, do nothing.’ I hope to God that wasn’t true because, man oh man, if that happened there’s going to be a reckoning.”

While we are not in the habit of delving into a claim prefaced as rumor, the suggestion from the newly minted mayor that union brass may have told cops not to police cried out for a closer look.

We weren’t alone in being taken aback by Lightfoot’s assertion. Moments after she leveled it, the show’s host, Ken Davis, asked the mayor whether she bought in to the rumor.

“Do you have any reason to believe that that happened?” Davis asked.

Without answering directly, Lightfoot contended past leadership of the police union had previously pushed for something similar.

“Leading into Labor Day in 2016 when we had this catastrophic level of violence, the then-(union) administration — which, there are some carryovers from that — put out a memo telling officers that they should not show up for work, that they shouldn’t do their job, that they shouldn’t be the police,” she said.

That exaggerates the record. According to an August 2016 Chicago Tribune story, the union called for officers not to accept overtime requests during Labor Day weekend — but it said nothing about the officers’ regularly assigned work, as Lightfoot suggested.

What’s more, that example does not back up the claim Lightfoot made about Memorial Day weekend, which she acknowledged was unverified but chose to publicly repeat nonetheless.

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New law dictates how CT police handle use-of-force incidents

After nearly three hours of questions by Republicans, the House passed police accountability legislation Wednesday that would change the way law enforcement and prosecutors release information after a serious use-of-force incident.

Two Democrats, Reps. John Hampton and Ronald Napoli Jr., joined Republicans in voting against the measure, which passed 86-60.SB 380 requires the release of body or dashboard camera video within 96 hours of an incident upon request.

It’s a massive change in the way most police departments release information.

The bill passed unanimously in the Senate a week ago. It reshapes the way police handle use-of-force incidents and fatalities by requiring certain details to be made public on request within a set period of time, and by prohibiting police from firing into fleeing vehicles.

In the House Wednesday, Republicans questioned Rep. Steve Stafstrom, D-Bridgeport, on nearly every aspect for nearly three hours, pointing out that certain provisions could hamstring officers during life-threatening situations.

“We shouldn’t be dictating what they can and cannot do to keep our communities safe,” Rep. J. P. Sredzinski, R-Monroe, said.

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Cincinnati FOP president says more officers needed on the streets

A day after shots were fired toward two Cincinnati Police officers, FOP President, Dan Hils says he’s concerned about officer safety on the streets.

Hils says the department is rank-heavy and preferred assignments have taken more officers off the street than he can ever remember. Right now, there are 1,003 uniform officers on the force. Hils says he continues to hear from more and more of them about unsafe conditions on the street.

“They have different instances where they didn’t have the manpower, and it made them feel their safety was being jeopardized,” said Hils.

Hils hopes to continue to gather more information before sitting down with top brass and the city manager.

“Right now, I have more anecdotal stories than I have hard evidence,” said Hils.

On Monday, two officers, both riding solo, responded to a call to break up an unruly dice game in Evanston. Seconds after arriving, they found themselves chasing two teens, one of which police believed fired several shots in the vicinity of the officers.

“It’s the summertime, things get busy. We have a lot of training and we have summer vacations. So, that’s where we feel the pinch and that’s where our folks out there are feeling a little too alone sometimes,” said Hils.

Recently retired police Lt. Bill Nastold also has concerns for officer safety after serving nearly 30 years with CPD.

“The biggest thing is the gun violence,” said Nastold. “An attack on a law enforcement officer is an attack on everybody. These men and women are being attacked; we have to worry about our safety because they are the ones providing it.”

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Police union boss says bail reform would turn NYC into ‘The Purge'

New York City will descend into lawless free-for-all for criminals — similar to the movie “The Purge” — when the new bail reform goes into effect, a police union official said.

“New York state is becoming a revolving door for criminals,” SBA President Ed Mullins said on 970 AM Sunday morning to John Catsimatidis. “Law enforcement is going to be out there holding this bag of crap when it starts. The judges are going to get the blame when they start releasing people back into the streets.

“Basically what we got is a free-for-all. There was a movie The Purge, this is the beginning of it.”

The elimination of cash bail has come under fire from law enforcement in the city. District Attorneys from the five boroughs — as well as NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill — have all come out against the reform saying it puts the public at risk.

Mullins echoed those sentiments Sunday, calling the bill “dangerous to police officers and the citizens they are out there to protect.”

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COOPERATION BETWEEN ICE AND LOCAL POLICE CRITICAL TO COMBAT MS-13

On May 26, 2019 the local radio station in New York, 1010 WINS reported, Nassau police union: Dozens more detectives needed to combat MS-13.  

That report began with this excerpt:

 

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – Two days after the body of a suspected MS-13 victim was discovered at Massapequa Preserve, Nassau PBA president James McDermott says gang units in the county are understaffed and ill-equipped to deal with the violent gang.

 

“Our gang unit is undermanned and not provided with the necessary resources to deal with this threat,” he said Sunday, speaking near the location where the body was discovered Friday.

 

The remains are believed to be from one of a number of people murdered by MS-13 several years ago.

 

In any battle, more “boots on the ground” can help to insure victory.  Where the battle is against transnational criminals, it would be most helpful if those “boots” were worn by ICE agents.

 

What was not discussed in this article is how ICE agents can be of a huge assistance in effectively combatting MS-13 and other transnational gangs and how sanctuary policies have the exact opposite impact.

 

Indeed, effective immigration law enforcement can support law and assist enforcement efforts to combat gangs, human trafficking, prostitution drug trafficking and other serious crimes.

 

Years ago INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) agents worked in close cooperation with the NYPD.  Back then I frequently participated in joint operations with the NYPD to shut down houses of prostitution.  Many of the clients and prostitutes of these brothels were illegal aliens. 

 

The police would arrest the prostitutes and their clients and we would lodge detainers or simply take them into custody.  The word on the street was that illegal aliens might find themselves being deported by the INS agents.  Business dropped and many of these locations were permanently shuttered.

 

Additionally, many times the prostitutes would cooperate with our efforts to identify human traffickers so that we could target the pernicious traffickers and ultimately dismantle their operations and bring them to justice.

 

It is obvious that ICE agents are empowered to arrest illegal aliens on administrative charges that result in the deportation of illegal aliens from the United States.

 

To this point, immigration anarchists frequently refer to immigration laws as “civil laws” minimizing the true importance of our nation’s immigration laws and the actual authority that ICE agents have.

 

What is seldom, if ever discussed, is that there are also criminal laws that are a part of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and violations of these laws carry serious prison sentences.

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