Sources: Dragnet grabs 10,000 fugitives (in a week)

[Renew Deal]

Operation Falcon nets 162 accused or convicted of murder
Thursday, April 14, 2005 Posted: 10:57 AM EDT (1457 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- More than 10,000 fugitives from justice have been captured in a nationwide, weeklong dragnet, law enforcement sources said.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Marshals Service Director Ben Reyna are expected to announce the results of the unprecedented coast-to-coast sweep at a news conference Thursday afternoon.

Among the 10,340 people captured between April 4 and April 10 are 162 accused or convicted of murder, 638 wanted for armed robbery, 553 wanted for rape or sexual assault, 154 gang members and 106 unregistered sex offenders.

Some targets were considered especially dangerous. In one case, an armed man was found in a cave under a trap door in his kitchen floor.
<snip>

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/04/14/fugitive.arrests/index.html

This is great news.

[Roland99]

1. Good news, indeed.

[MADem]

2. I'm pleased these criminals are off the street

...but why did they have to have a "special program" to make these enforcement officers do their damn job?

And if you want to be paranoid, you have to wonder if it is a dry run for some other sorts of roundups, given the involvement of Al "Screw the Constitution" Gonzales!

Edit-failure to spell check!

[Renew Deal]

3. Cops are

underfunded in many places. There aren't many of them and they lose focus on day to day stuff. It happens in a lot of jobs, but it's especially difficult when you have limited funding.

[MADem]

11. I'm not downing on the po-lice, mind you

But why couldn't "our gubmint" be providing this sort of support and backup YEAR round? Will criminal rounding-up be relegated to Alberto's definition of "hunting season?"

It smells of showboating, at best, and I don't want to even think of what it stinks of, at worst.

[Karenina]

64. New recruits!

Plea bargain: Jail or military.

[jukes]

5. MADem

apsitively! this is some showboat propaganda shit; if they knew where to locate these very dangerous people, they shoulda been offa da street!

my tinfoil self also sees a test of mass containment/logistics plans.

[burn the bush]

12. my tinfoil hat is singing! I don't like this

I know it sounds great, but like many said, it also sounds suspicious. How could they round up that many without previous knowledge of their whereabouts. It they had previous knowledge of their whereabouts, then why weren't they picked up earlier?

It's definitely a propaganda move. I wonder if the people they rounded up are guilty or if its just 10,000 more people who are going to be held under the patriot act without charges being filed.

I'm suspicious. Something is up.

[hiley]

29. very suspicious

something is up it is devirsion again.
ones that are guilty good ones not I feel bad for them.Let offenders fall through cracks all the time so of course I am happy if they pick up real sex offender criminals
just like this dude who was abscounded from registering at the time he was in completely other state using his "kid" for Randall Terry !
People from dkos had to call the fucking cops and tell them to pick him up !
http://www3.fdle.state.fl.us/sexual_predators/OffenderFlyer.asp?keys=38964

The news is running with a story about His son begging to go Pinellas, Florida !

Lied and sent his son to be arrested . There is a widely circulated picture of him

and his 10 year old son and Scott his holding his BIBLE up in the air , what a bunch of

shit ! Scott Heldreth has been a longtime Operation Rescue/ Operation Save America

http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/split/documents/alawcomp.htm

Get a good look at him and then read how he is such a good christain

man and a huge LIAR and SEX OFFENDER


NC Child Among Those On Front Lines Of Protests In Schiavo Case

Deputies cuffed his hands behind his back and loaded him into a van with 14-year-old twin girls.


Pinellas Park, FL--- Scott Heldreth of North Carolina has been arrested numerous times for picketing abortion clinics and blocking sidewalks while praying.

Now his ten-year-old son, Josh, is following has followed in his footsteps.

snip------He asked his father to bring him to Pinellas Park, Florida, from Kannapolis, North Carolina, to join others supporting Bob and Mary Schindler's fight to restore their daughter's feeding tube.

Scott Heldreth is a veteran of the Operation Rescue and Operation Save America campaigns against abortion. He says he didn't intend to join this fight, until his son asked to be brought to Pinellas Park.
http://www.wfmynews2.com/news/local_state/local_article.aspx?storyid=38304

BTW! OMFG! emailed this station and sent them the links to who this hero really is , no correction

yet.
some testimony from Scott here
http://www.seo-blog.org/5755_omfg_rageagainstthegop_machine/archive/19371_the_msm_still_lazy_in_their_jobs_.html

How many real sex offenders will stay locked up or will they just be re-released again onto the streets to kidnap children ?
Look at Jessica L. from Florida now after her Father had to bury her body he is out looking with another Father for his missing daughter !
The killer of Jessica/ sex offender not bothered to be registered too just like Scott. Meantime thousands in fucking prison for smoking POT and various stupid Drug Charges. They get years and years not the sex offenders though they GET OUT !

[Newsjock]

4. Follow-up question from the press pool

How many "fugitives from justice" are captured during a typical week?

Of those, what percentage are ultimately found not guilty or are released without formal charges being filed?

Wait! Look! Over there! MICHAEL JACKSON!!

[OneBlueSky]

6. call me cynical, but I have to wonder how many of these fugitives . . .

aren't guilty of anything at all . . . always good to get real criminals off the streets, of course, but these days you really can't take anything at face value . . . particularly when it involves the Bush maladministration . . .

[Renew Deal]

7. We'll never know the conviction rate from this bunch

But I don't think we have a whole country full of corrupt cops.

[The White Tree]

14. Your cynicism is warranted

According to the article:

Officials insist the operation was strictly designed to carry out law enforcement objectives but acknowledge the scope of the operation was expected to prompt positive publicity.

In addition, one official said the operation, originally considered for later this spring, was timed in part to coincide with "Crime Victims Rights Week."

The one guy they mentioned as dangerous had a trap door "in his kitchen floor". Doesn't bring up images of Harrison Ford to me. So I would guess that they knew where most of these people would be and just went there and arrested them in order to create the publicity.

Kudos for the arrests but jeers to the "positive publicity" angle.

[benburch]

8. One hopes for faultless recordkeeping...

Better than the Florida Felons List, for example.

[Zorra]

9. Are these all felons, or did 7,000 pot smokers who failed to

appear in court for possession of a joint just get rounded up?

[0007]

41. ....or protesters against the WAR and folks that speak out

against junior and his asshole gang of thief's!

WHY NOW?

[annabanana]

10. hmmmmm...

Among the 10,340 people captured between April 4 and April 10 are 162 accused or convicted of murder, 638 wanted for armed robbery, 553 wanted for rape or sexual assault, 154 gang members and 106 unregistered sex offenders.

let's do some math...

if 1,613 are accused or convicted of
murder
armed robbery,
rape or sexual assault
gang membership
and
not registering as a sex offender

What the hell are the other 8,727 being detained for?!?!?

this. is. NOT. good.

[Laughing Mirror]

19. Moving violations?

Gonzales just couldn't bring himself to admit it.

One of these dangerous fugitives was found hiding under a trap door in his kitchen. Doesn't sound very dangerous to me.

[Jose Diablo]

20. "What the hell are the other 8,727 being detained for?!?!?"

Overdue library books, bench warrants for parking tickets, probably anybody on a want or hold list.

[0rganism]

26. Sedition, probably

"Watch what you say, watch what you do."

[Up2Late]

54. I think you're right, but hey, 16% guilty 84% Innocent.

That's about Average for these Jerks.

What's their average at GIMO? :banghead: :shrug:

[ooglymoogly]

65. if your figures are correct something smells to high heaven

practicing for a police state??????????murderers child molesters, robbers and thugs need to be behind bars that is the policeman's job. this fed dragnet just doesn't pass the smell test.

[MidwestTransplant]

13. Did the bust Chong again?

[BronxBoy]

61. Is he out? n/t

[rocktivity]

15. Ten thousand captures? This week's America's Most Wanted

may have to expand to an hour and a half.

:eyes:
rocknation

[DS1]

16. duped

[mogster]

17. My initial reeaction to hearing this was:

*shudder* :scared:

Who else was captured but the sex-offenders, murderers, rapists and the armed man found in a cave under a trap door in his kitchen floor?

That makes up for

638 +
553 +
154 +
106 =
1361
---------
10,340 -
1361 =
---------
8979
=====

What is the status on the 8979 others?

Edit: I see someone has posted this in the meantime ;-)

[Chico Man]

18. Right with you

Sounds like an Iraqi insurgency roundup to me.

[berni_mccoy]

21. This is a NON-STORY!

Drummed up by the admin to take attention away from other important issues.

Really, 3000 law enforcement officers arrest 10,000 fugitives in 1 week... that's not even 1 per day per officer. I'd be curious to know what the normal numbers are (like how many fugitives are captured each day through normal processes).

[berni_mccoy]

22. On Follow-up, MORE EVIDENCE OF A NON-STORY!!!

There are about 40,000 people arrested EVERY DAY in the U.S.

See these crime statistics: http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org/ojstatbb/ezaucr/asp/ucr_display.asp

Again, CNN is being a whore to this administration, and people need to distrust everything coming out of this administration's pie-hole!!

[Mnemosyne]

51. I see that it says total crimes per year

and divide by 365. But this is Total Crimes, not arrests. Am I missing something there?

snip>

Estimated arrests of all persons in the United States

1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
Coverage Indicator 69% 63% 65% 68% 71%
Total Crimes 14,533,500 14,363,600 13,986,000 13,703,200 13,750,30

[berni_mccoy]

52. The statistics are

"Estimated arrests of all persons in the United States"

And it's a collectoin of data about arrest statistics.

[Mnemosyne]

55. Yes it says that at the top, but to get the 40,000 per day

figure I don't see where this is figured from. If you divide Total CRIMES by 365 you get near the 40,000 that is being claimed, but no where is there anything stating that there are 40,000 ARRESTS per day, only the title of page. I snipped the entire top lines and the 40,000 ARRESTS per day is not there.

Check the link and read it more closely. Or look at the snip. Below the title. What is the PER DAY figure based upon??? Under total crimes divide 13,750,300 from 2002 by 365 and you get 37,672, but that is total crimes committed per day, NOT arrests per day.

I don't think I am missing anything here, but please show me exactly what figures are being used to reach the claim of 40,000 ARRESTS per day.
Thanks!

[berni_mccoy]

56. Sorry

These *are* arrests figures. Click on the Methods link on that page and then read carefully.

"The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program within the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) originally collected the data used in this work. Each year the FBI's UCR Program collects monthly counts of arrests from thousands of law enforcement agencies. "

[Mnemosyne]

62. Thank you, just what I was asking for!

[berni_mccoy]

58. In case you are still not convinced

NYC alone makes nearly 300 arrests a day.

Check out these statistics:

http://criminaljustice.state.ny.us/crimnet/ojsa/dispos/nyc.htm

In a week that's about 2000 arrests and that's 1/5th of what "Operation Falcon" is claiming. Again... this story is a total smoke screen.

[Mnemosyne]

63. Thanks berni, first post showed me what you were

trying to get thru thick head! Brainfrozen I guess. Thanks again.

[Up2Late]

53. Cool, when do the 2003 stats come out?

I'd love to see how much more the crime rate has gone up.

And what program do you have to use to view the download file?:shrug:

[hiley]

23. While ago Gonzales announced 10, 400 something arrests today

all I can find right now is the Media Advisory
sweep called Operation Falcon
Sex Offenders/ child
and so on...


*******MEDIA ADVISORY*******
ATTORNEY GENERAL ALBERTO R. GONZALES AND OTHER FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS TO HOLD PRESS CONFERENCE




WASHINGTON, DC - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and other federal, state, and local law enforcement officials will hold a press conference on THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 2005 at 2:00 P.M. EDT, announcing the results of Operation FALCON, the largest ever fugitive-hunting law enforcement mobilization in American history.

WHO: Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales

U.S. Marshals Director Benigno G. Renya

Other federal, state, and local law enforcement officials

WHAT: Press Conference

WHEN: THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 2005

2:00 P.M. EDT


snip----http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2005/April/05_ag_189.htm

[dbonds]

24. This type of 'roundup' has me worried.

My mind jumps back to descriptions of SS roundups.

[hiley]

25. me too what is the devirsion ?

are they really the criminals ?

[The Blue Knight]

28. If they're innocent, they won't be convicted.

Kudos to our law enforcement. Nice to see the streets cleaned up that much more.

[hiley]

36. You do not really believe that do you ?

"If they're innocent, they won't be convicted."
come on, what about people that are FRAMED ?

[left15]

42. Unless the are arresting the wrong person,

the term fugitive indicates they ARE in violation of the law, even if it is for missing a court date, missing a meeting with probation officer (in which case, they know exactly where they live)or other non-violent offences.

[lies and propaganda]

27. great news, but...

If it would have read 10000 terrorists were rounded up, I would have jumped up and down. But alas, just some dudes tht we probably should have had for quite some time.

Its just a big Gonzales handjob, imho.

[merh]

30. There aren't 10,000 terrorists in the usofa

:shrug:

[lies and propaganda]

32. i know, just fantasizing

There are 10000 somewhere, and were definitely making our fair share of them. :grr:

[merh]

33. True, how very true and so very sad.

:cry:

[hiley]

35. we sure are !

the government will make sure to keep the production line going.

[CarinKaryn]

31. I wonder how many of the 10k were "other than white"

and were busted just to provide some counterprogramming to the vigilantes on the border.

Just wondering.:evilgrin:

[hiley]

38. Something to try to find out

really, you know how it goes !

This administration is always using bait and switch and who better to use than brown and black people bush's "FAVS" !
and poor whites too.

[dchill]

34. He still wrote those torture memoes...

and this makes a great headline on msnbc.com on a day when the DOW loses 124 points...

[tinanator]

37. theyre lying

what a bunch of horseshit. When was the last time they told the truth anyway? Sometime in the last millennium I imagine.

[berni_mccoy]

43. They aren't lying

Why lie about sub-par numbers... see my post above at
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1394279&mesg_id=1394712

The federal gov't arrests about 40,000 people PER DAY. 10,000 in a week is nothing to brag about.

[tinanator]

49. the story is framed in such a way

that its bullshit, as you have probably already pointed out. Lots of things are lies, including omission. They polish a turd and call it a trophy.

[frictionlessO]

59. and that Stat pretty much says it all.... look over here! No, over there!

Wait a moment.... now spin.

[cap]

39. wait, wait, dont tell me...

are they cutting federal assistance to local law enforcement again?

What's going on with the COPS program these days?

[EFerrari]

40. Bingo!

I'm going to go fish, but I'm pretty sure you're right. "We're doing so well, who needs FUNDING?"

[Up2Late]

44. 10,000 Fugitives Rounded Up in (U.S.) Dragnet (Reuters)

(I guess the prisons were getting empty, or is this supposed to send us a message?)

10,000 Fugitives Rounded Up in Dragnet

Thu Apr 14, 2005 05:14 PM ET

By Deborah Charles

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. law enforcement officials captured more than 10,000 fugitives around the country in a week-long drive to round up some of the most violent criminals who had previously evaded justice. U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said on Thursday a total of 10,340 fugitives were captured by an operation led by the U.S. Marshals Service between April 4 and April 10 -- about 10 times as many fugitives who were arrested the same period a year ago. "Fugitives belong behind bars, and the arrests of 10,340 fugitives translates into safer communities," said Ben Reyna, director of the U.S. Marshals Service.

Operation FALCON, which stands for "federal and local cops organized nationally," marked the first time the marshals teamed up with state and local law enforcement in a concentrated, nation-wide effort to round up fugitives. Previous coordinated roundups were on a regional basis and did not involve as many officers or agencies.

Officials said they did not have figures for how many federal, state and local fugitives still remained at large. But Gonzales said there was an "endless list" of fugitives. "There clearly are bad guys out on the streets that need to be rounded up," he said. "This was a very successful effort," he said. "More needs to be done, we understand that." Gonzales said the 3,100 law enforcement officers who were on the street for the operation focused primarily on the most violent offenders who are wanted in their jurisdictions.

Top priority was given to arrest those involved in homicides, sexual assaults, gang-related crimes, kidnappings and major drug offenses. More than 70 percent of those nabbed during the operation had prior arrest records for violent crimes. Continued ...

[htuttle]

45. On CBS news, they asked the obvious question:

"If they had their addresses, why did they wait to pick them up?"

to which the response was:

"Oh, we pickup these people all the time. This was just the first time we did so many on the same day"

Oh.

But they denied it was a PR ploy...

[NCexperiment]

46. I had to wonder myself...

They are bragging about all the bad guys and throwing out numbers, but the numbers for all the crimes they mention is about 1000 (for murder, rape, assault, etc). What are the other 9000 people going to jail for?

[knowbody0]

47. diversion

[FloridaPat]

48. Gee, if it was that easy to arrest wanted criminals, why wasn't it done

centuries ago. But that's only 3.3 criminals to each law enforcement officer. Couple of more weeks and we should have no criminals on the street - just in congress and the White House.

[berni_mccoy]

50. Total Smoke Screen

See my post above:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1394279&mesg_id=1394712

The federal gov't arrests about 40,000 people PER DAY. 10,000 in a week is nothing to brag about.

[cyberpj]

60. Perhaps THIS is what they're actually going for?:

But while the marshals reeled off their list of accomplishments, they also admitted that they were hampered because there is no complete, central depository in the United States for all warrants.

That is why it is difficult to keep track of how many fugitives were on the loose around the country. It also makes it difficult to disseminate information on wanted fugitives, in case they are detained for another reason outside the jurisdiction in which they are wanted.

"At some point it would be very important to get all warrants into (the national database)," said Bob Finan, the marshals' assistant director for investigations.

© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.

[tanyev]

57. Shameless showboating.

"Operation Falcon", indeed. Isn't that heroic? I wonder how long Alberto worked on that name?

I worked in a county where they occasionally had roundups to go after people with outstanding traffic tickets, bad checks, etc.--minor offenses which did fall by the wayside because the police were generally too busy dealing with the more serious stuff.

If you have warrants for people who committed sexual and violent crimes and you know where these people are, shouldn't you go arrest them immediately and not wait for a publicity stunt like this? I saw this story on the news this morning and was struck that they had video footage of the arrest of someone they said had committed violent sexual crimes. Uh, so instead of bringing him in right away, you waited until you had the round up and someone to videotape your heroic actions? I hope he didn't attack anybody else in all that time they left him on the street.

Alberto must be getting advice from KKKarl.