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| NEWS > 12 September 2009 |
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British police arrest outspoke
The British police arrested an outspoken advocate of fiery Islamic views Thursday just as the government closed ranks against an accusation that the country had become a "police state for Muslims."
The charge was leveled by Abu Bakr, a postgraduate student of political Islam from Birmingham, who was held for a week under counterterrorism laws then released without charge. "It's not a police state for everybody else, because these terror laws are designed specifically for Muslims and that's quite an open fact," he told the BBC.
Abu Bakr was one of nine people seized last w... Read more
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 Article sourced from
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St. Louis Post-Dispatch
12 September 2009
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
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St Louis Police Department, MO
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St. Louis cops must reveal ID
City cops must tell their bosses the identity of their informers after a St. Louis judge Friday allowed the department's investigation into allegations of police misconduct to proceed.
St. Louis Circuit Judge David Dowd sided with the department in a dispute with the St. Louis Police Officers Association about an investigation into the use of confidential informers.
Officials believe some cops lied to the court about their informers to get search warrants. Two have already admitted to using tips from informers who were in jail or dead at the time.
Last month, the union won a temporary restraining order keeping supervisors from disciplining officers who refused to reveal the identity of secret tipsters.
The organization said the investigation would jeopardize informers' lives, officers' careers and public safety.
"We'll use any legal means necessary to stop this," said Gary Weigert, president of the officers association. "This is very important to my membership."
Weigert said department leaders already have jeopardized one informer when they drove to his house and interviewed him after an officer revealed his identity.
"I don't know that people realize how dangerous it is to be an informant," Weigert said.
But Dowd agreed with the department's attorneys, who argued that the officers did not have authority to offer immunity to an informer. That privilege can only be extended with the approval of a supervisor.
Dowd also noted that evidence has shown at least two of the officers under investigation lied to
internal affairs when questioned. The officers gave two names as the identities of informers who turned out to be dead or in jail.
"There can be no informant's privilege where there is no informant," Dowd wrote. "And plainly, the privilege cannot properly be invoked by a police officer to prevent the Police Department from investigating allegations of misconduct."
Dowd denied a preliminary injunction Friday, which in effect dissolves the restraining order.
Police officers already have appealed.
The attorney for the association, Chet Pleban, filed a request Friday asking the eastern district of the Court of Appeals to consider this case. His motion was still pending.
Police officials declined to comment, referring reporters to their attorney, Priscilla Gunn.
Gunn said the department was pleased with the order and officials will continue now with their investigation. "It's the right thing," she said.
Department officials acknowledged in court filings that they believe "one or more" officers "have included false information in affidavits" for search warrants, and say the investigation is aimed at stopping "the concerns of police abuse and violation of civil rights."
Like other large police departments, including St. Louis County police, city officers are required to document the identities and history of informers, especially those who would be paid for their tips. City officials said they want to make sure cops are following the policy.
The association filed the suit on behalf of 20 unidentified officers and the association, just hours before one officer was scheduled to be questioned by internal affairs detectives.
Since December, five current or former St. Louis officers have been charged in state or federal court with crimes related to police misconduct.
Former Officer Stephen Conrad is scheduled to go to trial Monday in St. Louis Circuit Court on charges that he lied in a criminal case deposition, falsely accusing a man of trying to hit him with a car.
Officer Joseph Seper, 29, was charged in March with two misdemeanors for allegedly making a false report in a drive-by shooting case.
Three others, Bobby Lee Garrett, Vincent Carr and Leo Liston, were indicted in federal court last year on various charges, including stealing money and planting drugs. All have pleaded guilty and await sentencing.
Two other ex-cops, William Noonan and Shell Sharp, were accused during an internal affairs investigation of lying on affidavits they used to obtain search warrants. They allegedly claimed to get tips from confidential informers who were either dead or in jail.
Prosecutors said they have already dismissed nearly 100 cases and reviewed hundreds more that were connected to the officers who have been charged or accused of misconduct in the last year.
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