"New Orleans officer convicted of lying; Charges centered on fatal shooting after Katrina" by Michael Kunzelman Associated Press / December 10, 2011
A New Orleans police officer was convicted yesterday of lying about the aftermath of a deadly shooting outside the city’s convention center following Hurricane Katrina, but a jury acquitted the officer’s partner of related charges.
What would be a surprise is a police officer telling the truth in AmeriKa.
Officer Ronald Mitchell, who shot and killed 45-year-old Danny Brumfield with a single shotgun blast in September 2005, was found guilty of one count of obstruction of justice and one count of perjury for lying when he said he left his patrol car after the shooting and checked for Brumfield’s pulse.
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The jury cleared Mitchell, 33, of two counts that charged him with lying about the shooting itself. Prosecutors alleged he had lied during a deposition in a civil lawsuit filed by Brumfield's widow when he claimed the man lunged at him with a "shiny object" before he shot him. Mitchell said he thought the object was a knife, but it turned out to be a pair of scissors.
Officer Ray Jones, who was driving the patrol car when Mitchell shot Brumfield, was acquitted of obstruction of justice and perjury charges. Prosecutors also claimed Jones lied about getting out of the car after the shooting.
Mitchell remains free on bond while he awaits a sentencing hearing set for March 7. He faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said.
Africa Brumfield, the victim's niece, said her family was pleased with the verdicts.
If they are happy who am I to say anything?
"Nobody issues out better justice than God, so we can live with that," she said of Mitchell's acquittals.
Mitchell and Jones weren't charged with the shooting itself. The prosecutor said Mitchell's description of the shooting didn't match the forensic evidence, but authorities couldn't be certain beyond a reasonable doubt whether the shooting was justified.
"I think it was a good result today, and I think the jury did a great job," Letten said.
Mitchell's attorney, Kerry Cuccia, thanked the jurors as they filed out of the courtroom and patted his client on his shoulder. Cuccia said he planned to appeal the convictions.
"We recognize the jury had a job to do and feel they worked very diligently though that," Cuccia said, adding that his client accepted the verdicts.
On Sept. 3, 2005, Mitchell and Jones were patrolling near the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, where thousands of residents were stranded for days after the storm, when Brumfield approached their vehicle.
Witnesses who testified during the trial gave conflicting accounts of the deadly encounter. When Brumfield tried to flag down the officers, he either jumped on the hood of the car Jones was driving or was struck by the vehicle and fell on the hood. One witness said Brumfield exchanged heated words with one of the officers, while another said they didn't say anything to each other....
The case against the officers is one of several Justice Department probes of alleged misconduct by New Orleans police officers following Katrina.
In December 2010, a federal jury convicted three officers and acquitted two others in the death of 31-year-old Henry Glover, who was shot and killed by an officer outside a strip mall before a different officer burned his body in a car.
In August, five current or former officers were convicted of civil rights violations stemming from deadly shootings of unarmed residents on a New Orleans bridge.
Five other former officers pleaded guilty to participating in a cover up that included a planted gun, fabricated witnesses and falsified reports.
Oh, that NEVER HAPPENS here in AmeriKa!
Related: Around AmeriKa: Loony Louisiana
Massachusetts Justice: Wrongful Convictions
Aren't you just ashamed, Massachusetts?
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Another shame:
"USDA announces $50m for restoring Gulf Coast river basins; Scheme targets pollution, would bolster wetlands" December 06, 2011|By Ramit Plushnick-Masti, Associated Press
HOUSTON - The Gulf of Mexico, long neglected and underfunded, is a vital part of the nation’s economy. More than 90 percent of the nation’s offshore oil and natural gas production originates in the Gulf and 13 of the top 20 ports by tonnage are in the region.
If the five coastal states were a country, it would rank seventh in global gross domestic product. In 2009, the Gulf Coast produced 30 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product.
While this committee has been assigned the task of identifying problems and pinpointing possible solutions, Congress has been considering a bill called the Restore Act that would allow most of the penalties BP would pay for fouling the waters to go back toward restoring the environment in the five Gulf states: Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, and Texas. The House is to hold hearings on the proposed bill later this week.
Related: Congress Neglects Gulf Gusher Restoration
The first project administered by the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service gives farmers and ranchers the finances they need to change their land or water use practices to help clean, conserve, and preserve the watersheds, said Harris Sherman, the USDA’s undersecretary for Natural Resources and Environment.
The USDA provides them with a “tool kit’’ of options for joining the program, he added.
The program - called the Gulf of Mexico Initiative - also requires matching funds from state, local, and nonprofit entities, and so the funds available could total some $90 million, Sherman said. Similar projects are underway elsewhere, and have reversed some damage to waterways.
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"Bluefin tuna likely OK after BP spill" December 05, 2011|Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Last year’s BP oil spill probably won’t push the troubled bluefin tuna population in the Gulf of Mexico over the edge as some scientists feared, a federal analysis shows.
So go ahead and have yourself a sandwich.
Of all the potential damage from the 172-million-gallon spill in April 2010, scientists had been most concerned about how it would harm an already overfished species of large tuna.
That’s because about one-fifth of the spawning habitat where the Gulf’s baby tuna were living was coated with oil, according to satellite images.
An analysis by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, using two different projections from computer models, says that, at most, the spill will result in a 4 percent reduction in future spawning of the fish, but probably far less.
This is the same NASA that lied about global warming results?
Yeah, thought so.
Bluefish tuna is considered one of the Gulf’s signature species. A summit that begins today in Houston will examine the Gulf’s health.
“It appears so far that the impact on the larval population is relatively small,’’ said Clay Porch, director of sustainable fisheries for NOAA’s Southeast Fisheries Science Center in Miami.
The agency’s analysis, which was mentioned in two pages of a 114-page government update on overall tuna health released in May, assumes that one in five baby tuna was killed or is unable to reproduce because that’s the spill’s size in the spawning area.
That 20 percent potential loss of year-old tuna translates to 4 percent of the overall tuna population in the future. Overall population figures also have to factor in the fact that, in general, many baby tuna at that age die naturally.
Yeah, the oil just disappeared and had nothing to do with it. Pfffft!
But that is probably way too high a figure, Porch said.
Instead of 20 percent of baby tuna being harmed, more recent analysis yet to be published said it should be 11 percent or maybe even 5 percent, he said. Those figures should be reduced more for the overall future population of tuna, nearer to 2 percent.
Maybe you can go take a swim and count them.
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Related: Gone Fishin' in the Gulf
Hungry now?
Related:
"Deal reached on new route for pipeline" Associated Press / November 15, 2011
TransCanada will move the route of its planned oil pipeline out of the environmentally sensitive Sandhills area of Nebraska, two company officials announced Monday night.
Speaking at a news conference at the Nebraska Capitol, the officials said TransCanada would agree to the new route, a move the company previously said wasn’t possible, as part of an effort to push through the proposed $7 billion project....
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Related: Obama Closes Canada Pipeline For Political Purposes
