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BOSTON - In Massachusetts, he is a twice-convicted murderer who vanished after escaping from prison. In Illinois, he is a poet and anti-war protester devoted to his local Unitarian church. The two lives of Norman Porter crumbled in Chicago on Tuesday, when undercover police investigators arrested the man who 20 years ago fled from justice here and built a new life in Chicago. "He had us all fooled," said C.J. Laity, who knew Porter from poetry readings. "I've known him for many, many years. Obviously, I didn't know him as well as I thought." Porter waived extradition at a hearing...

POMONA - Calling her husband's killer an ignorant coward, an angry Heidi Steiner wiped away tears and asked a judge to send the teen to prison for life. Steiner's wish was granted when Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Philip Gutierrez on Thursday sentenced 16-year-old Valentino Mitchell Arenas to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He received an additional 25-years-to-life sentence for using a firearm. "My family needs this part of the nightmare to end today," said Steiner, wife of slain California Highway Patrol Officer Thomas Steiner. "We need the peace of mind to know he will spend...

French politicians and activists seeking a new trial and freedom for convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal were welcomed in a Friday rally at City Hall and given replicas of the Liberty Bell. Mjenzi Traylor, the city's first deputy director of commerce, told the crowd of about 150 that he was there to "make certain that we are receiving the message that you would like for us to deliver to Mayor Street." Maureen Faulkner, the widow of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner, later called that greeting an "absolute outrage." Abu-Jamal was convicted of murdering Faulkner in 1981. "This man stood over...

SAN JUAN IXTAYOPAN, Mexico - One day after a mob killed two federal police officers, believing they were kidnappers, the residents of this town were still angry. And unapologetic."We'll keep taking justice in our hands if in 20 days police don't end kidnappings, robberies and police corruption," said one indignant homemaker, who like nearly everyone here asked not to be identified.'snip'"We support the killings," said one man, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "Police here are all corrupt."

Relatives and friends knew them as two kind men devoted to each other in a long-term, monogamous relationship. But from the privacy of their home, however, Kelly Ray Jones cruised online chatrooms as FTLBAREBACK, looking for sex partners and child...

BY JAMES TARANTOThursday, August 26, 2004 5:27 p.m. EDT Cop Killers for KerryWell, maybe not quite for Kerry, but against Bush anyway. Mumia Abu-Jamal, the murderer of Philadelphia policeman Daniel Faulkner and a hero of the extreme left and the French, has an article in Workers World, the newspaper of the eponymous "independent Marxist" party, in which he declares that "President Bush's cowboy-style diplomacy, and the slick way he promised to govern one way only to actually govern another, has grated on people, until many just want to see him quietly pass into retirement."But Abu-Jamal is skeptical of Kerry's...

 

State prison officials have sent a warning to a large number of New Jersey urban police forces, saying their officers could become targets of attacks by violent street gangs. Department of Corrections investigators say the Bloods street gang is taking an "aggressive posture toward law enforcement" and has called for an "uprising" in New Jersey's largest cities and in the jails, according to internal documents distributed by prison officials to authorities around the state. In response, the State Police will host a meeting Monday to discuss the threat with local police officials, including those from cities where the threat seems...

Officer Isaac Espinoza was the first police officer gunned down in the line of duty in San Francisco in nearly a decade, and police want his accused killer to face the death penalty (search) for the crime. But the city's new District Attorney Kamala Harris search) has said no to the death penalty in this case. "Based on a long and extensive thought and analysis of the death penalty in the state and the city, based on all of those factors that decision has been made," Harris said. Harris ran for office on an anti-death penalty platform, but police say...

Gunmen order police to pray, then kill 5 of them 05.04.2004 KARACHI - At least 10 gunmen stormed into a police station in the southern Pakistan city of Karachi last night, killing five policemen and wounding one after demanding that the officers recite Islamic verses. The attackers escaped by car after the attack, about 5km from the international airport. Karachi is Pakistan's largest city and the scene of frequent religious violence. The assault, one of the boldest on Karachi's police in years, comes as tension is running high following a deadly raid by thousands of Pakistani troops on 400 to...

As the Senate considers legislation to prohibit abusive lawsuits against Second Amendment rights, Sen. Ted Kennedy is offering an amendment to ban ammunition. Kennedy claims that he is aiming at "cop-killer" bullets, but he appears to be badly misinformed on the issue. There never has been any such thing as a "cop-killer" bullet. The issue is a fiction, invented for purposes of politics, not public safety. In any case, since 1986, federal law has prohibited the rare types of handgun ammunition that have unusual abilities to penetrate body armor. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives reports that current...

LOS ANGELES -- A small but growing number of people from Los Angeles have figured out how to kill someone in cold blood and dodge the law. Team Four Reports finds out how in this exclusive report. A small but growing number of people from Los Angeles have figured out how to kill someone in cold blood and dodge the law. Team Four Reports finds out how in this exclusive report. "All my dreams, all our promises were ripped away," said Terri March. Last April, when March kissed her husband, David, an L.A. county sheriff's deputy, goodbye, she had no...

<p>When the San Francisco outpost of an independent media Web site landed on the front pages Tuesday, it was not exactly the kind of publicity that the site's organizers had hoped for.</p> <p>Police were saying a murder suspect had bragged of his violent act on the site.</p>

Mexican policy under attack By Ryan Oliver Staff Writer Law enforcement officials and local politicians on Thursday said they would begin taking aggressive steps -- possibly including lawsuits -- against Mexico, which is refusing to extradite hundreds of California's most violent fugitives. Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca was among several officials and lawmakers who have recently pledged to attack Mexico's extradition policy head-on. "We have to find every tool to beat back this policy," Baca said. State Assemblyman Keith Richman, R-Granada Hills, is hoping Washington will be able to step in, and on Monday he filed a resolution calling...

"Free All Political Prisoners" NYC Councilman Urges By Herb Boyd TBWT National Editor Article Dated 5/31/2002 New York City -- Nothing will scatter members of the mainstream media and elected politicians as fast as the words "political prisoners." Not so, councilman Charles Barron. The audacious freshman council member from Brooklyn made an even bolder move than his recent initiatives Tuesday afternoon when he stood on the City Hall steps and promised that he would be introducing a resolution to free all political prisoners. "We are here today because I am introducing a resolution which condemns the criminalization of political activity...

<p>Jurors delivered a stunning compromise verdict yesterday in the execution-like slaying of Aliquippa police officer James Naim, convicting one suspect of third-degree murder and acquitting the other of all charges.</p> <p>They found Jamie M. Brown, 24, guilty of a reduced murder charge, even though Naim was shot twice in the head at close range as he walked his beat.</p>

  A Militia Watchdog Law Enforcement Advisory Flashpoint America: Surviving a Traffic Stop Confrontation with an Anti-Government Extremist by Mark Pitcavage It is late at night and the rain beats down on the windshield of your patrol car. A Chevy Blazer speeds by, dousing your vehicle with a spray of fine mist. As the wipers clear your view, you notice that something is strange about that Blazer. The rear license plate had a lot of funny writing on it. They were obviously not plates from your state, but they didn’t seem to be plates from any other state you’d ever...