'Crime Guns' From South on the Rise in New York City

Wall Street Journal

The stream of illegal guns from southern states being used in crimes in New York City has increased, despite efforts to stem the flow, officials said on Wednesday.

In 2011, 90% of the 2,433 traceable guns used in crimes came from out of state—a jump from 2010, when 86% of the 2,319 guns used in crimes originated outside of New York, according to Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives data cited by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

1st Murder in NYC in Nine Days

New York Post reports

The city broke a nine-day murder-free streak last night when a man was found dead in the basement of a Queens apartment complex, police said.

The 20-year-old victim, whose name was not released, had been shot in the head. 

He was found just after 6 p.m. in a building in the LeFrak City complex in Corona.

The slaying was the first in the city since Jan. 16, when Jennifer Rivera, 20, and her uncle, Jason Rivera, 30, were gunned down execution-style while sitting a parked car in The Bronx.

The nine days without murders came amid brutally low temperatures that cops say usually keeps criminals indoors — and homicides and other street crime to a minimum.

“Jack Frost is the policeman’s best friend,” quipped an NYPD source.

Last year saw just 414 homicides — a record chalked up to concentrating police operations in high-crime areas.

Even last year's record low number of murders averaged out to more than one a day. So, no murders for nine days is a big deal. Maybe this year will be another record low. The Post article attributes it to police procedures, but I can't help thinking that the gun laws have something to do with it too.

What do you think?  Please leave a comment.

2 Dead, Several Wounded Near the Empire State Building

The Wall Street Journal reports

A laid-off apparel designer allegedly gunned down a former co-worker outside the Empire State Building on Friday morning, prompting a confrontation with New York police that killed the shooter but left nine others wounded on a crowded rush-hour Manhattan sidewalk.

The bystanders were most likely wounded by police in the 9 a.m. incident in the shadow of one of the nation's most recognizable landmarks.

Dressed in an olive-green suit and tie and carrying a black bag, Mr. Johnson hid behind a van outside the firm's office, then approached Mr. Ercolino and shot him once in the head with a .45 caliber semiautomatic handgun. Mr. Johnson then stood over the body and shot several more times. 

Mr. Johnson walked "very calmly" away from the scene, said police spokesman Paul Browne, but was followed by two construction workers who called for help to two police officers posted at the front entrance of the Empire State Building. The officers confronted Mr. Johnson, who took out his gun and pointed it at them from a distance of about eight feet. 

"He had the gun out and he pointed it right at them," Mr. Kelly said, citing surveillance video. Officers "returned fire when he pointed the gun at them." The officers fired a total of 16 rounds, striking Mr. Johnson at least seven times and killing him.

He bought the Spanish-made .45 semiautomatic handgun legally in 1991 in Florida, but wasn't licensed to possess the weapon in New York City.

From eight feet away, those cops only hit the guy with half their shots? Isn't such poor marksmanship unacceptable? People who carry guns, whether in law enforcement or not, must be better trained than that. Don't you think?

What about the ease with which people can buy guns in Florida?  Is that a factor?  I say yes.  Buying guns legally should be strictly controlled.  Fewer unfit people would have them.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

I take this apology to mean that Mom thinks he meant to do it...

I have some concerns about the FBI getting very close to the line if not going over it occasionally when it comes to entrapment; I suppose those same concerns could apply here to the NYPD.  But it doesn't appear that anyone was goading this guy into doing something he wouldn't otherwise do, at least not so far.  That also struck me about the four Georgia Militia members who were arrested for planning to kill massive numbers of people.

There does seem to be a chronic problem with the qualifications of these people to function well, including well enough to carry out what they appear to have attempted.  However, I don't see how being good at trying to kill large numbers of innocent people exonerates someone from having a go at doing so.

But it does bring up again the issue of competency, as well as sanity, for weapons ownership.  In the case of the militia old farts, should there be some provision to remove firearms from the elderly when they become demonstrably senile?  Possibly by assessment of a physician for their mental status?  What about those who have problems with mental deficiency impairing the ability to reason.

From MSNBC and the AP:

Mother of bomb plot suspect apologizes to NYers

Jefferson Siegel  /  AP

Jose Pimentel, 27, right, represented by attorney Joseph Zablocki, left, is arraigned at Manhattan criminal court, Sunday, Nov. 20, 2011, in New York. Pimentel, 27, an "al-Qaida sympathizer" accused of plotting to bomb police and post offices in New York City as well as U.S. troops returning home, was charged with criminal possession of explosive devices with the intent to use in a terrorist manner. (AP Photo/Jefferson Siegel, Pool)

By JENNIFER PELTZ, TOM HAYS

updated 11/21/2011 9:12:42 PM ET

NEW YORK — The mother of a "lone wolf" accused of plotting to attack police stations and post offices with homemade bombs apologized to New Yorkers on Monday, even as questions arose about why federal authorities — who typically handle terrorism cases — declined to get involved in what city officials called a serious threat.

The mother of Jose Pimentel spoke to reporters outside her upper Manhattan home the day after her son was arraigned in state court on terrorism-related charges.
"I didn't raise my son in that way," Carmen Sosa said. "I feel bad about this situation."
She also praised the New York Police Department, saying, "I think they handled it well."
Officials with the NYPD, which conducted the undercover investigation using a confidential informant and a bugged apartment, said the department had to move quickly because Pimentel was about to test a pipe bomb made out of match heads, nails and other ingredients bought at neighborhood hardware and discount stores.
Two law enforcement officials said Monday that the NYPD's Intelligence Division had sought to get the FBI involved at least twice as the investigation unfolded. Both times, the FBI concluded that Pimentel lacked the mental capacity to act on his own, they said.
The FBI thought Pimentel "didn't have the predisposition or the ability to do anything on his own," one of the officials said.

The officials were not authorized to speak about the case and spoke on condition of anonymity. The FBI's New York office and the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan both declined to comment on Monday.

Pimentel's lawyer, Joseph Zablocki, said his client was never a true threat.
"If the goal here is to be stopping terror ... I'm not sure that this is where we should be spending our resources," he said.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly defended the handling of the case Monday, saying the NYPD kept federal authorities in the loop "all along" before circumstances forced investigators to take swift measures using state charges.
"No question in my mind that we had to take this case down," Kelly said. "There was an imminent threat."
Added Kelly: "This is a classic case of what we've been talking about — the lone wolf, an individual, self-radicalized. This is the needle in the haystack problem we face as a country and as a city."
Authorities described Pimentel as an unemployed U.S. citizen and "al-Qaida sympathizer" who was born in the Dominican Republic. He had lived most of his life in Manhattan, aside from about five years in the upstate city of Schenectady, where authorities say he had an arrested for credit card fraud.
His mother said he was raised Roman Catholic. But he converted to Islam in 2004 and went by the name Muhammad Yusuf, authorities said.
Using a tip from police in Albany, the NYPD had been watching Pimentel using a confidential informant for the past year. Investigators learned that he was energized and motivated to carry out his plan by the Sept. 30 killing of al-Qaida's U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, police said.
Pimentel was under constant surveillance as he shopped for the pipe bomb materials. He also was overheard talking about attacking police patrol cars and postal facilities, killing soldiers returning home from abroad and bombing a police station in Bayonne, N.J., authorizes said.
The arrest marked the second time this year that the police department took the unusual step of working with a state prosecutor to bring a terrorism case. In May, two men were indicted on charges they told an NYPD undercover detective about their desire to attack synagogues.
A grand jury declined to indict Ahmed Ferhani and Mohamed Mamdouh on the most serious charge initially brought against them — a high-level terror conspiracy count that carried the potential for life in prison without parole. They were, however, indicted on lesser state terrorism and hate crime charges, including one punishable by up to 32 years behind bars.

Attorneys for Ferhani said hate crime charges and a rarely used state terrorism law were misapplied to what they have called a case of police entrapment.
State prosecutors insist that there's ample evidence that Pimentel went well beyond merely talking about terrorism — and that he was acting on his own initiative.
"The people whom we're prosecuting have well crossed that line," Adam Kaufmann, head of the district attorney's investigative division, said Monday. "They've gone from sort of espousing an idea to creating a plan to act upon it."
At an arraignment where Pimentel was ordered held without bail, prosecutors said investigators have "countless hours" of audio and video in this case. And in a criminal complaint, an intelligence division detective alleges Pimentel told him after the arrest that he was about an hour away from finishing the bomb and felt Islamic law obligates all Muslims to wage war against Americans to avenge U.S. military action in their homelands.
A former federal prosecutor praised the police and state prosecutors for going through with the investigation and charges.
"A person who puts out conspiratorial information and then takes steps to build a bomb should not be walking the streets of New York," whatever his mental state or his interactions with an informant, said Michael Wildes, a former assistant U.S. attorney in Brooklyn who worked on terrorism-related cases. "Considering the facts that have been revealed to the public, the decision was done well, in this instance, to go ahead with this case and for the FBI not to be the lead agency."

Publicly, NYPD and federal officials claim they have a strong working relationship. But behind the scenes, there has been tension ever since the department mounted its own aggressive anti-terrorism effort, including undercover investigations targeting potential homegrown threats.
The effort is needed, NYPD officials say, because the city remains a prime terrorist target a decade after the Sept. 11 attack. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said there have been at least 14 foiled plots against the city, including the latest suspected scheme.
The most serious threats came from Pakistani immigrant Faisal Shahzad, who tried to detonate a car bomb in Times Square in May 2010 and is now serving a life sentence, and Najibullah Zazi, who targeted the subway system a year earlier. Zazi pleaded guilty to federal terrorism charges and is awaiting sentencing.
___
Associated Press writers Colleen Long and Jim Fitzgerald contributed to this report.

Another Close Terrorism Call

 From MSNBC.com:

NYC mayor: Man arrrested in bomb plot

Bloomberg calls man a 'lone wolf'

BREAKING NEWS

NEW YORK — Mayor Michael Bloomberg says an al-Qaida sympathizer who plotted to bomb police and post offices in New York City has been arrested

Bloomberg announced Sunday the arrest of 27-year-old Jose Pimentel on numerous charges. He characterized Pimentel as a "lone wolf."

A source told WNBC's Shimon Prokupecz that the suspect had been under police surveilance since 2009. Pimentel was arrested Saturday. He is accused of having an explosive substance that he planned to use against others and property to terrorize the public.
The New York Police Department's Intelligence Division was involved in the arrest.
The Associated Press and WNBC contributed to this report.