Archive for 'Crime'
Murder of Muslim Lawyer Angers Community
Posted on March 18, 2010, by Hanna Ingber Win, under Crime, International.
MUMBAI, India — When Shahid Azmi was 15, police gathered outside his home in a slum area of Mumbai. As he, his brothers and mother huddled inside between the bed and cupboards, his older brother Arif recalls, police stoned the home and fired shots over the windows.
Shahid had a front-row view of Mumbai’s 1993 riots in which mobs of Hindus burned down homes, destroyed businesses and killed hundreds of Muslims as police looked on. His brother said Shahid also saw officers storm a Muslim home in their Shivaji Nagar community, drag women out of the apartment and try to rape them in the street. He witnessed an officer tell a Muslim neighbor to run, only to get shot by another cop.
Another brother, Khalid, recounts Shahid’s life as he sits in Shahid’s former office in Mumbai’s middle-class suburb of Kurla. Shahid had become a lawyer, representing Muslim Indians he considered wrongly accused of terrorist charges.
Last month, three armed gunmen entered this office and shot Shahid dead at point-blank range. He was 32.
Continue reading at GlobalPost.
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24 Hours in Addis Ababa
Posted on August 30, 2009, by Hanna Ingber Win, under Crime, International.
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — I have been in Ethiopia for less than 24 hours and have had my first experience with armed robbery.
I was walking around an open-air market – in broad daylight – in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, with a friend who has lived here for over a year. The Merkato is considered the biggest open-air market in Africa. With the exception of an Ethiopian contemporary art gallery, it was the one thing in Addis I really wanted to see – mostly for the photo opportunities.
My friend and I, the only two white people there, spent the afternoon strolling through the market. She chatted with the men and young children calling after us. I took photos: men sitting on the street selling everything from sneakers to power cords to videogame controllers; Muslims lined up on their knees for the afternoon prayer; stalls selling bushels of leaves called chat that men chew as a stimulant; women in a variety of dress – some Ethiopian Orthodox Christians wearing white veils for church, Muslims in headscarves and some, presumably Somalis, in gowns that fully covered their bodies with only slits for their eyes. One wore a long black gown, fully covered, and as she walked, pretty silver high heels peaked out.
As we were on our way out of the market, two young guys ran up from behind us. One grabbed the digital camera out of my hand. The cord was wrapped around my wrist, so he had to tug. As I soon as I realized what was happening, I let go easily. Just in case.
Then I saw the other young man struggling with my friend for her clutch purse. She put up a decent fight, even running after him a little. Damn it, I thought as I watched my guy take off through the stalls, I should have put up a fight.
But the second guy pulled a knife out on my friend. As soon as she saw the knife, she dropped the purse and fell backwards on the ground. He ran off.
People gathered around, watching. No one ran after the guys or even asked if we were OK.
We quickly found a taxi and jetted away.
I have told a few Ethiopians about the incident, and the reaction has been the same: the Merkato is known for theft, but armed robbery? That is very rare here, they say. A fellow writer told me that armed robbery is almost unheard of in Ethiopia, and that the crime rate here for serious crimes is very low compared to other African countries. He also said that had we gone to the police (which we didn’t – how could they find these guys in a huge market?) – and they had arrested the men, the men would have gotten 10 years in prison.
I am in Ethiopia with the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), which will be taking me around the country to visit their maternal health sites. Today we will visit teenage girls who have fled their homes in rural villages due to child marriage and have resettled in the capital. Many now work under harsh conditions as maids for very low-income Ethiopian families. UNFPA helps educate the children and give them life skills.
People in Addis have been friendly; many men and children see a white woman and eagerly begin practicing their English. “You! You!” “Hello.” Or they shout out the Amharic words for “Foreigner!” and “White Face!”
The city is not exactly “attractive.” Tiny shops line the streets selling beer or snacks. And then out of nowhere, these huge, incredibly gaudy modern hotels pop up. Shack – shack – shack – huge gaudy hotel—shack – shack – shack. To be fair, I have only been here for 24 hours. Maybe the beautiful parts of the city are hiding.
Luckily, though, the modern hotel where I am staying has Internet access in my room, a big TV and a clean, comfortable bed. I will spend much of the week outside Addis, where I hear bedbugs prevail. I will get my rest in Addis, while I can.
Despite the fleas, the rest of the country should be very beautiful – thank goodness I brought a second camera.
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Back To Mapquest
Posted on December 14, 2008, by Hanna Ingber Win, under Crime.
My car was broken into this weekend. Glass everywhere. For a GPS system. Thoughts while sitting on the street, in the cold, waiting for two hours for police to come: Jerks. Violated. Pissed. Annoyed. Not excited about waiting for police, filling out report, dealing with GEICO, finding a glass repair shop on a Sunday night, buying a new GPS stysem because now I am dependent on it to get anywhere. At least I have something interesting to write on my Facebook status. But so not fun.
Update: Passers-by very sympathetic. One gave me suggestions for glass repair shops, and offered me cashews. The police eventually came, after I called three times. Not so sympathetic. They said no, they haven’t seen more theft because of the economy. Not yet anyway. GEICO was rather helpful and will be here tomorrow. I parked it in a garage over night. The garage man said they have seen a lot of these GPS-thefts. The kids who steal them sell them for five, ten dollars, according to the garage man. I would have given them five dollars. I didn’t even have the GPS visible, but the suction thing was on the windshield. The garage man said the kids see the charger and know it’s there. Oh Brooklyn.
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Fire and Naturalization Applications
Posted on August 12, 2008, by Hanna Ingber Win, under Crime, Immigration.
A couple more stories I did during my stint at the NY Sun:
U.S. to Process Applications for Citizenship More Quickly
Two Killed in Fire on Upper East Side
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Crime, Police Stories in NYC
Posted on August 7, 2008, by Hanna Ingber Win, under Crime.
I’ve been working at the New York Sun for the past couple weeks on their crime beat. Check out some of my recent stories here:
New York May Weigh Sex Offender Act
Civil Rights Lawyer Sues City Over Handcuffing of Girl, 10
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Woman Arrested for Airport “Joke” Responds
Posted on May 28, 2008, by Hanna Ingber Win, under Crime.
I wrote a post on April 22 highlighting the illegality of making a bomb joke at airports by discussing the arrest of a woman, Rosalinda Baez, for doing just that at JFK. A JetBlue flight attendant denied Baez access to the plane carrying her luggage, and she asked: “What if I had a bomb in my bag?” She was then arrested for falsely claiming there was a bomb in her suitcase. She has written in to this blog, explaining that she wasn’t joking at all:
I actually was NOT joking. I was asking a very serious security question after being denied boarding onto a flight I’d checked in for, with a bag, 96 minutes prior to departure. I was denied boarding because the gate agent decided to “close the flight early” (evidently to try and make a jump in the queue at JFK so that Jetblue wouldn’t miss it’s ‘on-time departure status’ quota). The agent closed that flight KNOWING that there was a bag on board for a passenger who had not yet boarded. I asked her: “Isn’t it a security risk to allow a bag to fly without a passenger? What if there was a bomb in the bag?”
As a frequent world traveler, it struck me as (more than) odd that policy in post-911, fear-mongering, check-in your shampoo unless if it’s even 3.1 OZ would ALLOW this OBVIOUS security flaw. It is LAW in over 19 developed nations to remove the bag of a passenger if said passenger does not board the flight. But, evidently NOT in the USA. And as a result, my life is being balanced by some over-zealous FBI agents who don’t want to allow the obvious question asked by me to become public question……….hmmmmm….
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‘Please, Please Stop’
Posted on May 19, 2008, by Hanna Ingber Win, under Crime, Immigration, International.
South Africans have killed at least 22 foreigners and terrorized many times more in the past week as a wave of xenophobia washes over the country. See photos here. Anger against immigrants is not new to South Africa, but the violence rarely reaches this level.
Nobel Peace laureate Desmond Tutu condemned the attacks: “Please stop. Please stop the violence now. This is not how we behave. These are our sisters and brothers. Please, please stop,” he said, as quoted in the Cape Times.
The violence has been targeted at refugees and immigrants who fled Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Somalia and other African nations to find safety and jobs in their new home. But South Africa itself has been struggling with 40 percent unemployment and rampant crime. Marketplace reporter Gretchen Wilson has a powerful story on how the violence is tied to the country’s economic problems.
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Workplace Raid Nets Americans
Posted on April 25, 2008, by Hanna Ingber Win, under Crime, Immigration.
A group of U.S. citizens and greencard holders are pissed off after immigration agents - on a raid for undocumented workers - entered their job site, blocked the exits, didn’t let them use their cellphones and detained them for 45 minutes. A civil rights lawyer, Peter Schey, filed 114 federal claims for damages on their behalf yesterday.
The raid, which took place February 7 at Micro Solutions Enterprises in Van Nuys, California, led to the arrest of 138 undocumented immigrants.
Putting aside the immigration issue, and whether workplace raids are effective, humane or good public policy, the rights of the U.S. citizens and greencard holders caught up in the raids poses a fascinating debate. Should all citizens and permanent residents, if they have not committed a crime, be allowed to go to work, do their job and mind their own business free of nuisance? Do law-abiding citizens have a right to work in peace and quiet? A right to not have to provide identification, be harassed by federal agents or explain their immigration status? A right to not be searched or detained for no reason? Isn’t that the point of the fourth amendment?
Or is working in peace and quiet a privilege that ICE agents can take away if necessary? Maybe upholding immigration law is more important than the right to some privacy at the office.
Schey said the raid violated his clients’ fourth amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure and was therefore unconstitutional. Listen to a discussion with Schey on KPCC Patt Morrison today. (I intern for the show.)
Schey said 300 people were detained and kept in a state of fear and confusion. “People were told they could not use the bathroom. People were told they could not use their cellphones,” he said. “In essence, they were locked down until they were questioned by ICE agents regarding their status and their citizenship.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the search was fair because the agents had a warrant and followed all the rules. Steven Camarota, the director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, said there are plenty of circumstances in which people not accused of a crime are affected by law enforcement activities. For example, if an officer storms into your friend’s house during a drug bust, and you just happen to be over visiting, you can’t simply get up and leave. He said to Patt Morrison: “If you are in a home, if you are in a business, in which dozens of people all around you are violating the law, and they come in with a legitimate warrant signed by a judge, they are going to detain you. “
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LAX Can Search Your Laptop, No Reason Needed
Posted on April 22, 2008, by Hanna Ingber Win, under Crime.
A U.S. federal appeals court ruled yesterday that customs officers can search your laptop at the airport for absolutely no reason. No need for suspicious activity. You don’t even have to make a bomb joke (see below). Even if you look and act as innocent as a child, your laptop, cell phone and Blackberry are all fair game.
After a case involving a customs official finding porn on the laptop of a man from Orange County, California, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco decided that customs officers don’t need reasonable suspicion to search your personal and electronic belongings coming over border checkpoints.
Officers randomly searched Michael Arnold’s laptop at LAX on July 17, 2005, and found folders with child pornography. Arnold faces charges of possessing and transporting child porn and attempting to engage in illicit sexual conduct abroad with a minor, according to the ruling.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that evidence is not needed to search at a border in order to protect the country’s “territorial integrity,” and airports count as borders. Therefore, the appeals court decided, a laptop is no different from a suitcase and can be searched at an international border.
If a police officer pulled over Arnold while driving, and Arnold looked and acted completely normal, the officer would have no right to search Arnold’s trunk. If the officer found child porn or drugs in the trunk, he would have a hard time using it as evidence against Arnold in court.
And yet, put Arnold in an airport, and all the rules change.
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Bomb Jokes at Airport Continued
Posted on April 22, 2008, by Hanna Ingber Win, under Crime.
A couple days after I wrote about the illegality of making a joke about a bomb at an airport, the Associated Press reported on a woman arrested at JFK airport for doing just that.
When the woman was not allowed to board, she allegedly asked a JetBlue flight attendant, “What if I had a bomb in my bag?” The woman, Rosalinda Baez, has been accused of falsely claiming there was a bomb in her suitcase.
Maybe if she had read my blog, she wouldn’t have gotten into so much trouble. Let this be a lesson.
