El Cajon, California Police Officer Shot Bicycle Rider Raymond Goodlow in the Face

     At ten in the morning, while on routine patrol in the San Diego County city of El Cajon, a police officer saw Raymond Goodlow riding his bicycle on the sidewalk in violation of the municipal code. It was Friday, April 19, 2013.

     From the police car, the officer told the homeless man to pull over and stop. Goodlow ignored the order and pedaled into a used car lot. The officer got out of the cruiser and chased Goodlow down on foot.

     What should have been a minor, routine police stop took an ominous turn when the officer instructed Goodlow to move his hand away from his waistband. When the cyclist failed to respond to the order, the officer shot him in the face.

     Paramedics rushed the bleeding man to a nearby trauma center where doctors diagnosed him with a non-life threatening gunshot wound.

    At the site of the shooting, among pieces of Goodlow's clothing that had been cut off by the emergency personnel, investigators found two knives. (I assume they belonged to Goodlow.) The officer who shot this man is on paid administrative leave pending an internal review of the shooting.

     Routine police-citizen encounters like this should not result in the use of deadly force. Because the officer feared that Goodlow was armed with a handgun, police investigators will probably classify the shooting as justified. But that doesn't mean deadly force was necessary in this case, or that the shooting reflects ideal police work. Because Raymond Goodlow was a transient without influence in the community, this police involved shooting will probably not raise much of a stir. 

Historic Dates in American Crime and Terrorism

     The crimes, trials, arrests, and acts of terrorism listed below generated heavy media coverage as well as public fear. Some of these events caused major changes in law enforcement. They also influenced American culture and the way we live our daily lives.

February 14, 1929:  Chicago's St. Valentines Day Massacre

March 1, 1932:  Lindbergh Kidnapping/Murder

April 3, 1936:  Execution of Bruno Richard Hauptmann for Lindbergh Murder

January 17, 1950:  The Great Brinks Robbery in Boston

July 4, 1954:  Murder of Dr. Sam Shepard's Wife Marilyn

November 30, 1957 to January 21, 1958:  Charles Starkweather/ Caril Ann Fugate murders

November 14, 1959:  Clutter Family Murders (Kansas)  that inspired Truman Capote's  In Cold Blood

November 22, 1963:  John F. Kennedy Assassination

April 7, 1967:  Henry Hill's Air France Kennedy Airport Heist that inspired Nicholas Pileggi's book Wiseguy and the Movie "Goodfellas"

April 4, 1968:  Martin Luther King, Jr. Assassination

June 6, 1968:  Robert Kennedy Assassination

August 9, 1969:  Charles Manson's Followers Kill Sharon Tate and Others

November 24, 1971:  D. B. Cooper's  Skyjacking of 727

May 28, 1972:  First Watergate Burglary in D. C.

January 4, 1974 to February 9, 1978:  Ted Bundy Serial Murders

July 29, 1976 to March 8, 1977:  Sam Berkowitz (Son of Sam) Murders

December 12, 1980:  John Lennon Murder

March 30, 1981:  Assassination Attempt on President Ronald Reagan

October 5, 1982:  31 Million Tylenol Bottles Recalled After 7 Poisoning Deaths

May 30, 1970 to March 30, 1987: Donald Harvey's Angel of Death Hospital Poisoning Spree

March 13, 1991:  Rodney King Police Beating

February 26, 1993:  First World Trade Center Bombing

April 19, 1993:  Deadly FBI Raid of Davidian Compound in Waco, Texas

June 12, 1994:  Murders of Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman

April 19, 1995:  Oklahoma City Federal Building Bombing

October 3, 1995:  O. J. Simpson Acquittal

April 3, 1996:  Unabomber Ted Kaczynski Arrest

December 25, 1996:  Murder of JonBenet Ramsey

April 20, 1999:  Columbine School Shootings

September 11, 2001:  Terrorist Attack on New York's Twin Towers

December 22, 2001: Richard Reid Shoe Bomber Case

August 1 to October 24, 2002:  D. C. Beltway Sniper Shootings

December 24, 2002:  Scott Peterson's Wife Laci Goes Missing

August 28, 2003: Brian Wells Murdered by "Pizza Bomber"

May 30, 2005:  Natalee Holloway Disappearance in Aruba

October 2, 2006:  Pennsylvania Amish School Shootings

April 16, 2007:  Virginia Tech Shootings

November 5, 2009:  Fort Hood (Texas) Shootings

January 8, 2011:  Shooting Spree Involving Gabrille Giffords

July 5, 2011:  Casey Anthony Murder Trial Acquittal

June 22, 2012:  Jerry Sandusky's Guilty Verdict in Penn State Child Molestations

July 20, 2012: Aurora, Colorado Theater Shootings

December 14, 2012:  Sandy Hook Elementary School Shootings in New Town, Connecticut

April 15, 2013:  Boston Marathon Bombings

Crime Bulletin: "Celebrity Swatting" in LA

     The term "swatting" pertains to a dangerous practical joke involving a false 911 report of a shooting that riggers a SWAT team response to the home of the prankster's victim. (Many of these 911 callers disguise the origins of their messages by using multiple computer servers and other high-tech tricks.) Swatting defendants are usually charged with filing a false police report, a misdemeanor offense that usually brings a fine and up to 90 days in jail.

     While the law doesn't treat swatting as a serious offense, the crime involves the potential that a police officer or an occupant of the target dwelling could get shot.  SWAT raids are tense, hair-trigger operations that frequently go wrong. If a SWAT officer is accidentally shot and killed during a raid caused by a swatter, the offender cannot be charged under the felony-murder doctrine because the underlying crime is a misdemeanor.

     Last year in Los Angeles, several celebrities were targeted by these 911 pranksters. Victims of the so-called celebrity swattings included Justin Bieber, Tom Cruise, Simon Cowell, Ashton Kutcher, and the Kardashian family. In 2013, swatters victimized Russell Brand, Sean Combs, Selena Gomez, Clint Eastwood, Ryan Seacrest, and Justin Timberlake. Nationwide, the police have reported more than 400 of these 911 abuses. (On a less serious note, a 911 caller in Girard, Pennsylvania recently asked the emergency dispatcher to divorce her from her husband. The woman was charged with disorderly conduct.)

     In April 2013, the media relations spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department announced that the agency would no longer issue press releases regarding celebrity swatting cases. Police administrators believe that the publication of these incidents has produced copycat offenses. The media spokesperson, in further justifying the news blackout, expressed concern over how this reportage intruded on the celebrity victims' privacy. (Celebrities, by choice, are not private people. They are however, rich and wield a lot of influence in southern California.)

     On April 9, 2013, a California state Senate committee unanimously approved a bill to require people convicted of swatting pay for the cost of the police response. (Some of these SWAT deployments cost up to $10,000.) The Senate bill also imposes a stiffer sentence for convicted swatters. Under the proposed legislation, an offender will receive a minimum of 120 days in the county jail. (These local politicians are either unaware of California's shortage of jail space, or are simply grandstanding for attention and votes.)

   

     

Criminal Justice Quote: The Effect of Prison Overcrowding

Cramped quarters and a lack of privacy can lead to a heightened level of tension in correction facilities. In turn, as tension grows the incidence of violence against staff and fellow inmates increase. With minimum staffing and growing supervision responsibilities, corrections officers and inmates are more vulnerable.

Matthew T. Mangino, attorney and columnist 

Crime Bulletin: Fear of Terrorism Outweighs Fear of Crime

     A recent study by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland reveals that Americans are more concerned about a terrorist attack than being victims of violent crime. The prevailing view expressed in this study is that terrorists will find a way to carry out major attacks no matter what the government does to prevent such assaults. This reality regarding the threat of terrorism is illustrated by the Boston Marathon Bombings.

     Notwithstanding the recent carnage in Boston, Americans are at a much higher risk of crime victimization than terrorism. That of course is subject to change. 

Crime Bulletin: Angel of Death Doctor and Her Team accused of Murdering Seven ICU Patients in Brazil

     During the past seven years, at Hospital Evangelico in the city of Curtiba in the south of Brazil, 1,700 intensive care patients have died. These patients were under the care of Dr. Virginia Helena Soares deSouza and her ICU team of three doctors, three nurses, and a physiotherapist. Dr. deSouza and members of her staff have been charged with murdering seven critically ill patients between 2006 and 2013.

     According to homicide investigators, Dr. deSouza ordered members of her medical team to kill these patients in a variety of ways. Some patients died of asphyxia when their oxygen levels were reduced. Others were either given muscle-relaxing drugs or simply had their plugs pulled. The authorities believe these patients were murdered to free up hospital beds.

     Dr. deSouza and her seven assistants have each been charged with aggravated first degree murder. According to the authorities in charge of the homicide investigation, detectives have identified an additional twenty suspicious ICU deaths, and will be reviewing another 300 cases.

     Dr. deSouza, a 56-year-old widow, has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Following her arrest in February 2013, she posted bail and was released.

     When all is said and done, this case could end up being one of the worst angel of death serial murder sprees in Brazilian history. 

Christopher Knight: Maine's North Pond Hermit Burglary Case

     In 1986, a year after Christopher T. Knight graduated from Lawrence High School in Fairfield, Maine, he took to the woods where he lived as a hermit for 27 years. From his Kennebec County campsite in the central part of the state, the so-called North Pond Hermit managed to survive in the wilderness without hunting, fishing, or foraging for food, clothing, or shelter. He stole what he needed from camps and cottages around the town of Rome. To avoid detection, Knight never started a fire. He stole propane to cook and keep warm on stolen propane stoves.

     Christopher Knight lived in a tent covered by tarps suspended between two trees. He slept in a LL Bean sleeping bag on a raised, homemade bed. In addition to his propane heating and cooking stoves, he had a battery-operated radio with an antenna that ran up a tree. Over the years the hermit burglar had stolen shovels, rakes, Nintendo Game Boys, a battery-operated TV set, coolers, coffee pots, and all of his clothing. He didn't even buy his own toilet paper.

     On April 4, 2013, Knight stole $283 worth of food from the Pine Tree Camp for Children with Disabilities located near the village of Rome. Knight had broken into this camp fifty times. On this occasion, however, he got caught when he activated a surveillance camera sensor that had been installed by a game warden. State troopers arrested Knight later that day at his campsite.

     Charged with one count of burglary and a single count of theft, Knight is in the Kennebec County Jail under $5,000 cash bond. Police officers have dismantled and hauled-off the hermit's campsite. The job required two pickup trucks, and will probably lead to more burglary charges.

     While Knight's long suffering burglary victims should be happy he's in custody, the North Pond Hermit will probably become, in the eyes of many, some kind of folk hero. You know, a real-life Robin Hood who steals from the rich and gives to himself.

     In this unusual case, I'm having trouble figuring out how a man in the woods got away with 1,000 burglaries over a period of 27 years. One would think that hunters and game wardens had stumbled upon his campsite many times. Others must have seen him walking on roads around Rome. In the world of crime, I can't image any burglar not getting caught well before his 1000th break-in. I'm guessing that Mr. Knight's activities and location were known by a number people who chose not to turn him in.  

UPDATE

     On April 13, 2013, a man who doesn't known the hermit burglar, showed up at the Kennebec County Jail and offered to pay his $5,000 bond. (Charged with additional burglaries, the authorities have raised Knight's bail to $250,000.) A woman has called the jail with a marriage proposal. It won't be long until literary agents, movie producers, and reality TV executives arrive at the jail with proposals of their own.  

Criminal Justice Quote: The Root Cause of Pathological Violence In America

In the United States, 26.2 percent of Americans ages 28 years and older suffer from some form of diagnosable mental disorder....In 2012, nearly 312.8 million people were living in the Untied States with only an estimated 412 psychiatric hospitals....These numbers are very alarming [because] there are not enough mental facilities to cover half of the population diagnosed with a mental health disorder. Many with depression, anxiety, and other...disorders do not seek medical attention because of lack of knowledge, embarrassment, or [lack of money]. (No wonder there are so many murder-suicides, spree shootings, spree knifings, hostage situations and police involved shootings.)

Ashley Chapman, The Guardian Express 

Criminal Justice Quote: Fudging Crime Statistics

As [New York City mayor] Michael Bloomberg made the rounds last spring touting the Big Apple as "the safest big city in America," an internal NYPD report confirmed that more than a dozen crime reports had been manipulated--including felonies downgraded and incident reports deep-sixed--to lower the [city's] crime rate. As punishment for exposing the tampering and corruption, the whistle-blowing officer, Adrian Schoolcraft, who secretly taped the manipulation, was suspended and forced into a psych ward.

Michelle Malkin, Journalist

Crime Bulletin: Serbian War Veteran Murders Thirteen in Village Shooting Spree

     A 60-year-old veteran of the 1991-1995 Serb-Croat War named Ljubisa Bogdanovic went on a early morning house-by-house killing spree in the Serbian village of Ivanca 25 miles southeast of Belgrade. Between five and five-thirty on the Morning of April 9, 2013, Mr. Bogdanovic, using a 9 mm pistol, shot and killed thirteen people. He murdered them as they slept in their beds, in five separate dwellings. His victims included six women and a 2-year-old toddler.

     Bogdanovic began his deadly rampage by killing his son. Before being taken into custody, the spree-killer shot himself and his wife. Both survived their wounds but are in critical condition.

     According to the police, Bogdanovic was a "quiet" man with no history of mental illness. He had a government permit to own the murder weapon.

     In 2007, a Serbian villager with a hunting rifle shot nine people to death. The Bogdanovic murder spree is the deadliest shooting incident in Serbia since the end of the Balkan Wars.

UPDATE

     On April 11, 2013, Bogdanovic and his wife Javorka died from their gunshot wounds.