Cuba says it has a right to grant asylum to US fugitives

Cuba says it has a right to grant asylum to US fugitives 
 

Cuba’s head of North American affairs, Josefina Vidal, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Havana, Cuba, Monday, Dec. 22, 2014. Cuba says it’s open to every one of U.S. President Barack Obama’s moves to improve relations between the two countries and strengthen private enterprise and civil society on the island.

HAVANA (AP) -- Cuba said Monday that it has a right to grant asylum to U.S. fugitives, the clearest sign yet that the communist government has no intention of extraditing America's most-wanted woman despite the warming of bilateral ties.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has urged President Barack Obama to demand the return of fugitive Joanne Chesimard before restoring full relations under a historic detente announced by Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro last week.

Chesimard was granted asylum by Fidel Castro after she escaped from the prison where she was serving a sentence for killing a New Jersey state trooper in 1973 during a gunbattle after being stopped on the New Jersey Turnpike.

Asked if returning fugitives was open to negotiation, Cuba's head of North American affairs, Josefina Vidal, told The Associated Press that "every nation has sovereign and legitimate rights to grant political asylum to people it considers to have been persecuted. ... That's a legitimate right."

"We've explained to the U.S. government in the past that there are some people living in Cuba to whom Cuba has legitimately granted political asylum," Vidal said.

"There's no extradition treaty in effect between Cuba and the U.S.," she added.

In a letter to the White House made public Sunday, Christie said Cuba's asylum for Chesimard, who has changed her name to Assata Shakur, was "an affront to every resident of our state, our country, and in particular, the men and women of the New Jersey State Police, who have tirelessly tried to bring this killer back to justice."

The first woman ever placed on the FBI's most-wanted terrorist list was living so openly in Havana that her number was listed in the phone book.

The FBI and the New Jersey State Police have offered a $2 million reward for information leading to Shakur's capture.

Bernadette Meehan, a spokeswoman for the White House's National Security Council, said the Obama administration will "continue to press in our engagement with the Cuban government for the return of U.S. fugitives in Cuba to pursue justice for the victims of their crimes."

Several infamous convicts and suspects in high-profile American cases live openly in Cuba, as are others convicted of less serious crimes. Among these are a woman convicted of killing a police officer four decades ago, a man sought for a 31-year-old armed robbery, airplane hijackers and dozens of people accused of Medicare and insurance fraud.

Cuba occasionally returns people convicted or suspected of committing crimes in the U.S., but it doesn't observe traditional extradition and refuses to send anyone back for a crime Havana considers political in nature, according to the State Department.

The Castro government's frequent position on returning fugitives has been to ask for the U.S. to return people wanted in Cuba.

"We've reminded the U.S. government that in its country they've given shelter to dozens and dozens of Cuban citizens," Vidal said. "Some of them accused of horrible crimes, some accused of terrorism, murder and kidnapping, and in every case the U.S. government has decided to welcome them."

In Cuba's first detailed public response to Obama's historic announcement last week, Vidal said Cuba is open to all of Obama's moves to improve relations and strengthen private enterprise and civil society on the island. That includes U.S. equipment to improve the Cuban Internet and U.S. exports to Cuba's new class of private business owners.

"Our president has said we welcome President Obama's decision to introduce the most significant changes in relations with Cuba in 54 years," Vidal said. "That includes the entire package."

Cuba has historically imposed heavy regulations on the Internet and private business as it has blamed the U.S. embargo for the problems of the island's stagnant economy.

Vidal said the U.S. has been to blame for Cuba's economic problems, which include crumbling infrastructure, low levels of foreign investment and rates of Internet access that are among the lowest in the world. The opening is an opportunity to show what the country can do unshackled, she said.

"Look back. When have you seen a negative response to the American government removing any type of restriction?" Vidal said. "What we say is, `Get rid of the excuse and put us to the test!'"

"We don't have any reason to reject anything that comes from the United States that's positive, and that are measures taken to loosen the blockade," she added.

Cuba is waiting to see exactly how the Obama administration will implement the changes, she said.

Obama's announcement included a very general list of reforms and left a series of open questions about how far the U.S. could go to create deeper economic ties with Cuba. The Commerce and Treasury departments are expected to begin publishing details of the new measures in coming weeks, changes that will include relaxation of the stringent rules governing American travel to Cuba.

Vidal said Cuba would only know how it would manage its end of the new relationship once the American government plan was clearer.

"We have to see how we are going to implement things," she said.

North Korea experiencing severe Internet outages

North Korea experiencing severe Internet outages 

 

A South Korean army soldier watches a TV news program showing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Dec. 22, 2014. North Korea hates the Hollywood film that revolves around the assassination of its beloved leader, but the country has had a long love affair with cinema - of its own particular styling.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- North Korea experienced sweeping and progressively worse Internet outages extending into Monday, with one computer expert saying the country's online access is "totally down." The White House and the State Department declined to say whether the U.S. government was responsible.

President Barack Obama said Friday the U.S. government expected to respond to the hacking of Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., which he described as an expensive act of "cyber vandalism" that he blamed on North Korea. Obama did not say how the U.S. might respond, and it was not immediately clear if the Internet connectivity problems represented the retribution. The U.S. government regards its offensive cyber operations as highly classified.

"We aren't going to discuss, you know, publicly operational details about the possible response options or comment on those kind of reports in anyway except to say that as we implement our responses, some will be seen, some may not be seen," State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said.

North Korea has forcefully denied it was responsible for hacking into Sony. But the country has for months condemned the "The Interview," a Sony satirical comedy about a plot to assassinate the North Korean leader. Sony canceled plans to release the movie after a group of hackers made terroristic threats against theaters that planned to show it.

North Korean diplomat Kim Song, asked Monday about the Internet attack, told The Associated Press: "I have no information."

Ivan Simonovic, the U.N. assistant secretary-general for human rights, told reporters he didn't want to speculate about the nature of the Internet outages but said he hoped it would be "thoroughly investigated."

Doug Madory, the director of Internet analysis at Dyn Research, an Internet performance company, said Monday the problems began over the weekend and grew progressively worse to the point that "North Korea's totally down."

North Korea is one of the least connected countries in the world. Few North Koreans have access to computers, and even those who do are typically able to connect only to a domestic intranet. Though North Korea is equipped for broadband Internet, only a small, approved segment of the population has any access to the World Wide Web. More than a million people, however, are now using mobile phones in North Korea. The network covers most major cities but users cannot call outside the country or receive calls from outside.

With the current outages, Madory said, "They have left the global Internet and they are gone until they come back."

Another Internet technology service, Arbor Networks, which protects companies against hacker attacks, said its monitoring detected denial-of-service attacks aimed at North Korea's infrastructure starting Saturday and persisting Monday. Such attacks transmit so much spurious data traffic to Internet equipment that it becomes overwhelmed, until the attacks stop or the spurious traffic can be filtered and discarded to allow normal connections to resume.

Given North Korea's limited connectivity and lack of Internet sophistication, it would be relatively simple for a band of hacktivists to shut down online access, and it should not be assumed that the U.S. government had any part, said Dan Holden, director of security research at Arbor Networks.

"Anyone of us that was upset because we couldn't watch the movie, you could do that. Their Internet is just not that sophisticated," Holden said.

Madory said one benign explanation for the problem might be that a router suffered a software glitch, though a cyber-attack involving North Korea's Internet service was also a possibility. Routing instabilities are not uncommon, but instead of getting better, as one might expect, "it's getting worse, getting progressively degraded," Madory said.

"This doesn't fit that profile," of an ordinary routing problem, he said. "This shows something getting progressively worse over time."

 

Killings of 2 New York officers trigger backlash

Killings of 2 New York officers trigger backlash 

Rev. Al Sharpton, center, speaks about Saturday's killings of two New York City police officers, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2014 during a news conference at the National Action Network headquarters, in New York. Behind him are, from left, Esaw Garner, widow of Eric Garner, attorney Michael Hardy, Gwen Carr, mother of Eric Garner, and attorney Jonathan Moore. Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who vowed online to shoot two "pigs" in retaliation for the police chokehold death of Eric Garner, ambushed two New York City officers in a patrol car Saturday and fatally shot them in broad daylight before running to a subway station and killing himself, authorities said.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Civil rights leaders Sunday condemned the ambush killings of two New York police officers and expressed fear that the backlash over the bloodshed could derail the protest movement that has grown out of the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner.

In the raw hours following the killing of the officers, police union officials and politicians accused those who have protested the deaths of Garner and Brown of fanning anti-police fervor. Patrick Lynch, president of the Patrolman's Benevolent Association in New York, said there was "blood on the hands" of demonstrators and elected officials who have criticized police tactics.

The Garner and Brown families issued statements repudiating the officers' killings, while civil rights leaders took to the airwaves to try to put some distance between the movement and the crime.

"To link the criminal insanity of a lone gunman to the peaceful protests and aspirations of many people across the country, including the attorney general, the mayor and even the president, is simply not fair," NAACP President Cornell William Brooks said on CBS's "Face the Nation."

Brooks said the shootings were "certainly not a step forward" for the movement.

Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu were gunned down at close range in their patrol car in Brooklyn on Saturday by Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who then committed suicide. Before the attack, Brinsley, 28, wrote on an Instagram account: "I'm putting wings on pigs today. They take 1 of ours, let's take 2 of theirs."

He used the hashtags Shootthepolice RIPErivGardner (sic) RIPMikeBrown - references to two blacks who died at the hands of police. Garner died in a New York City officer's chokehold, and Brown was shot by an officer in Ferguson, Missouri. Grand juries decided not to bring charges against either officer.

In the wake of the ambush, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani lashed out at New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder. Speaking on Fox News, Giuliani said: 

"We've had four months of propaganda starting with the president that everybody should hate the police."

"They have created an atmosphere of severe, strong, anti-police hatred in certain communities, and for that, they should be ashamed of themselves," he said.

In a tweet, former New York Gov. George Pataki called the killings the "predictable outcome of divisive, anti-cop rhetoric of Attorney General Eric Holder and Bill De Blasio."

The accusations stoked fears that any gains made in the protest movement would be lost.

"We've been denouncing violence in our community," no matter who the target is, New York community activist Tony Herbert said. He said he worries that the shooting will be used to discredit the larger cause.

"It sullies the opportunity for us to make inroads to build the relationships we need to build to get the trust back," he said. "This hurts."

Similarly, the Rev. Al Sharpton, who has called for peaceful protests, condemned "eye-for-an-eye" violence and called it absurd to blame protesters or politicians for the officers' deaths.

"We are now under intense threat from those who are misguided - from those who are trying to blame everyone from civil rights leaders to the mayor rather than deal with an ugly spirit that all of us need to fight," he said.

Sharpton added: "There are those of us committed to nonviolence and making the system work. And there are those committed to anarchy and recklessness who could care less about the families of police or the families who have raised questions about police accountability."

Irene Sundiata Myers, a black woman who was selling roses and inspirational words Sunday on Harlem's Malcolm X Boulevard, said that because of Saturday's ambush, some officers might think twice about pulling the trigger on black men.

"It will change the attitude of police across the country in terms of how they go about killing black men, if they begin to think that there's a possibility that there will be a retribution," she said.

 

Tsarnaev appears in court for 1st time since 2013

Tsarnaev appears in court for 1st time since 2013 

In this courtroom sketch, Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is depicted sitting in federal court in Boston Thursday, Dec. 18, 2014, for a final hearing before his trial begins in January. Tsarnaev is charged with the April 2013 attack that killed three people and injured more than 260. He could face the death penalty if convicted.

BOSTON (AP) -- Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev returned to court Thursday for the first time since he was arraigned in July 2013, and he received a shout of encouragement from the mother-in-law of a man who was shot and killed while being questioned by law enforcement after the bombings.

Security was tight at the federal courthouse in Boston for Tsarnaev's final pretrial conference. Tensions ran high, and one bombing victim had a testy exchange with protesters outside.

During the brief court hearing, U.S. District Court George O'Toole Jr. made no rulings, saying he would rule in writing on pending motions, including the defense's latest push to move the trial out of Boston.

David Bruck, one of Tsarnaev's lawyers, told the judge that the defense plans to file a motion to delay the trial, which is now scheduled to begin on Jan. 5 with jury selection. Bruck did not say how long of a delay the defense will seek.

At one point, the mother-in-law of Ibragim Todashev called out to Tsarnaev in Russian in the courtroom. Elena Teyer said she told him: "We pray for you. Be strong, my son. We know you are innocent."

Later, in English, she yelled to the law enforcement officers escorting her out of the room: "Stop killing innocent people. Stop killing innocent boys."

Tsarnaev never flinched or acknowledged the shouts.

Three people were killed and more than 260 were injured when two bombs exploded near the finish line of the April 2013 marathon. Tsarnaev, who has pleaded not guilty to 30 federal charges, faces the possibility of the death penalty if he is convicted.

Tsarnaev, 21, wore a black sweater and gray trousers and had a scruffy beard and a curly hairstyle similar to the one seen in earlier photos. He smiled to his attorneys and one patted him on the arm.

The courtroom was packed with FBI agents, police who worked on the case and more than a dozen survivors and family members.

Outside the courthouse, a man who lost his right leg in the bombings had a testy exchange with a small group of protesters holding signs supporting Tsarnaev and questioning whether authorities have proof that he is responsible for the bombings.

Marc Fucarile held up his prosthetic leg and moved it back and forth toward the demonstrators, saying: "That's proof right there."

One of the demonstrators said to Fucarile: "You should care that they get the right guy."

Fucarile replied: "Get a life, lady. Go to work."

At his last court appearance 17 months ago, Tsarnaev still bore signs of the bloody standoff with police that led to his capture and the death of his older brother, Tamerlan. His left arm was in a cast, his face was swollen and he appeared to have a jaw injury. In court Thursday, he had no visible injuries.

Tsarnaev's trial is expected to last several months, and seating a jury alone could take several weeks to a month.

Judge O'Toole questioned Tsarnaev about whether he had waived his right to appear at previous hearings. Tsarnaev answered in a clear voice: "Yes, sir."

Asked by the judge if he believes his lawyers had acted in his best interests, he said: "Very much."

Earlier this month, Tsarnaev's lawyers argued anew that "emotionally charged" media coverage and the widespread impact of the attacks have made it impossible for him to get a fair trial in Massachusetts.

O'Toole had rejected Tsarnaev's first request in September to move the trial, ruling that defense lawyers had failed to show that extensive pretrial media coverage of the bombings had prejudiced the jury pool to the point that an impartial jury could not be chosen in Boston.

Tsarnaev's lawyers previously said the trial should be moved to Washington, D.C.

O'Toole also rejected a defense request that prosecutors turn over evidence about his older brother's possible participation in a 2011 triple killing in suburban Waltham.

In May 2013, the FBI and Massachusetts State Police were questioning Todashev about that killing when an FBI agent shot and killed the 27-year-old mixed martial arts fighter inside his Orlando, Florida, home.

Officials initially said Todashev had lunged at a state trooper with a knife but later said it was a pole. Todashev's family has disputed that account.

Prosecutors have said Todashev told authorities Tamerlan Tsarnaev participated in the Waltham triple slaying in which the victims' bodies were found with their throats slit and their bodies sprinkled with marijuana.

US, Cuba patch torn relations in historic accord

US, Cuba patch torn relations in historic accord

Alan Gross, waves as he and his wife Judy leave following his statement at his lawyer's office in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014. Gross was released from Cuba after 5 years in a Cuban prison.

  

WASHINGTON (AP) -- After a half-century of Cold War acrimony, the United States and Cuba moved on Wednesday to restore diplomatic relations - a historic shift that could revitalize the flow of money and people across the narrow waters that separate the two nations.

President Barack Obama's dramatic announcement in Washington - seconded by Cuban President Raul Castro in Havana - was accompanied by a quiet exchange of imprisoned spies and the celebratory release of American Alan Gross, a government contract worker who had been held in Cuba for five years.

The shift in U.S.-Cuba policy was the culmination of 18 months of secret talks between the longtime foes that included a series of meetings in Canada and the personal involvement of Pope Francis at the Vatican. It also marked an extraordinary undertaking by Obama without Congress' authorization as he charts the waning years of his presidency.

"These 50 years have shown that isolation has not worked," Obama declared at the White House. "It's time for a new approach."

Obama spoke as Castro was addressing his nation in Havana, where church bells rang and school teachers paused lessons to mark the news. Castro said that while the U.S. and Cuba remain at odds on many matters, "we should learn the art of living together in a civilized manner in spite of our differences."

Obama's plans for remaking U.S. relations with Cuba are sweeping: He aims to expand economic ties, open an embassy in Havana, send high-ranking U.S. officials including Secretary of State John Kerry to visit and review Cuba's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism. The U.S. also is easing restrictions on travel to Cuba, including for family visits, official government business and educational activities. But tourist travel remains banned.

Obama and Castro spoke by telephone Tuesday for nearly an hour, the first presidential-level call between their nations' leaders since the 1959 Cuban revolution and the approval of a U.S. economic embargo on the communist island that sits just 90 miles off coast of Florida. The two men are also expected to meet at a regional summit in Panama next spring.

Obama did not rule out traveling to Cuba before his presidency ends, telling ABC News: "I don't have any current plans to visit Cuba, but let's see how things evolve."

Despite Obama's declaration, the Cuba embargo was passed by Congress, and only lawmakers can revoke it. That appears unlikely to happen soon given the largely negative response to Obama's actions from Republicans who will take full control of Capitol Hill in January.

"Relations with the Castro regime should not be revisited, let alone normalized, until the Cuban people enjoy freedom - and not one second sooner," said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. "There is no `new course' here, only another in a long line of mindless concessions to a dictatorship that brutalizes its people and schemes with our enemies."

The response from around the world was far more welcoming, particularly in Latin America, where the U.S. policy toward Cuba has been despised.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro called Obama's action "a gesture that was courageous and historically necessary."

The Vatican said Pope Francis "welcomed the historic decision taken by the governments of the United States of America and Cuba to establish diplomatic relations, with the aim of overcoming, in the interest of the citizens of both countries, the difficulties which have marked their recent history."

In Cuba, a sense of euphoria spread through Havana as people gathered around televisions to watch the Obama and Castro announcements.

"For the Cuban people, I think this is like a shot of oxygen, a wish come true, because with this, we have overcome our differences," said Carlos Gonzalez, a 32-year-old information technology specialist.

Half a century ago, the U.S. recognized Fidel Castro's new government soon after his rebels took power from dictator Fulgencio Batista. But before long things began to sour as Cuba deepened its relationship with the Soviet Union. In 1961 the U.S. broke diplomatic relations, and then came the failed U.S.-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion meant to topple Castro. A year later a U.S. blockade forced removal of Soviet nuclear missiles from Cuba in a standoff that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.

Since then, the number of Americans who see Cuba as a serious threat has declined. A 1983 CNN/Time poll found 29 percent considered Cuba a very serious threat. That dipped to 13 percent in 1994 and 12 percent in 1997.

Under the changes announced Wednesday, licensed American travelers to Cuba will be able to return to the U.S. with $400 in Cuban goods, including tobacco and alcohol products worth less than $100 combined. 

This means the long-standing ban on importing Cuban cigars is over, although there are still limits.

Early in his presidency, Obama allowed unlimited family visits by Cuban-Americans.

The financial impact on Cuba is unclear, though some American businesses welcomed the prospect of expanding into a new market. Tom Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said his organization stands "ready to assist as the Cuban people work to unleash the power of free enterprise to improve their lives."

 

While Obama has long spoken of his desire to open ties with Cuba, the 2009 imprisonment of Gross, an American government subcontractor, became a major obstacle. Gross was detained while working to set up Internet access for the U.S. Agency for International Development, which does work promoting democracy in the communist country.

Cuba considers USAID's programs illegal attempts by the U.S. to undermine its government, and Gross was tried and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Last spring, Obama secretly authorized two of his senior advisers to hold exploratory conversations with Cuba about securing Gross' release. Over a series of nine clandestine meetings in Canada and the Vatican, the talks expanded to include broader discussions of normalizing relations.

Pope Francis raised the issue with Obama when the U.S. president visited the Vatican in March. And in early summer, the pontiff sent separate letters to Obama and Castro urging them to end their decades-long freeze.

The details of the prisoner releases and policy changes were largely finalized during a meeting at the Vatican last fall.

Wednesday morning, Gross boarded a U.S. government plane and flew out of Cuba, accompanied by his 

wife and three U.S. lawmakers. Waiting for him on board were big bowls of popcorn and a corned beef sandwich on rye.

"This is game changing," Gross declared in brief, emotional remarks later in Washington. He flashed a broad grin with missing teeth - lost during his imprisonment - after taking an admiring glance at the American flags posted behind him and taking note that his release came on the first day of Hanukkah.

The two nations also released spies that they were holding.

The Castro government released a Cuban spy who had spent nearly 20 years in prison after working for the United States and accessing closely held intelligence information at the highest levels of the Cuban government. U.S. officials said the spy was responsible for some of the most important counterintelligence prosecutions that the United States has pursed in recent decades, including convicted Cuban spies Ana 

Belen Montes, Walter Kendall Myers and Gwendolyn Myers and a group known as the Cuban Five.

In exchange for the spy's release, the U.S. freed the three remaining members of the Cuban Five who were jailed in Florida. The men, who are hailed as heroes in Cuba, were part of the "Wasp Network" sent by Cuba's then-President Fidel Castro to spy in South Florida.

Two of the five were previously released after finishing their sentences.

U.S. officials said Cuba was taking some steps as part of the agreement to address its human rights issues, including freeing 53 political prisoners and allowing greater Internet access on the island.

Obama said he continued to have serious concerns about Cuba's human rights record but did not believe the current American policy had been advancing efforts to change the government's behavior.

"I do not believe we can keep doing the same thing for over five decades and expect a different result," he said.

 

Sydney cafe siege ends; 3 dead, including gunman

Sydney cafe siege ends; 3 dead, including gunman 

A hostage runs to armed tactical response police officers for safety after she escaped from a cafe under siege at Martin Place in the central business district of Sydney, Australia, Monday, Dec. 15, 2014. New South Wales state police would not say what was happening inside the cafe or whether hostages were being held. But television footage shot through the cafe's windows showed several people with their arms in the air.

SYDNEY (AP) -- The deadly siege began in the most incongruous of ways, on a sunny Monday morning inside a cheerful cafe in the heart of Australia's largest city. An Iranian-born gunman burst in, took 17 people hostage, and forced some to hold a flag with an Islamic declaration of faith above the shop window's festive inscription of "Merry Christmas."

It ended after midnight with a barrage of gunfire that left two hostages and the gunman dead, four others wounded, and a nation that has long prided itself on its peace rocked to its core.

After waiting 16 hours, police stormed the Lindt Chocolat Cafe early Tuesday when they heard gunfire inside, said New South Wales state police Commissioner Andrew Scipione.

A loud bang rang out, several hostages ran from the building and police swooped in amid heavy gunfire, shouts and flashes. A police bomb disposal robot also was sent into the building, but no explosives were found.

"They made the call because they believed that at that time, if they didn't enter, there would have been many more lives lost," Scipione said.

The gunman was identified as 50-year-old Man Haron Monis, who once was prosecuted for sending offensive letters to families of Australian troops killed in Afghanistan.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Monis had "a long history of violent crime, infatuation with extremism and mental instability."

Scipione wouldn't say whether the two hostages who were killed - a 34-year-old man and a 38-year-old woman - were caught in crossfire, or shot by their captor.

One of the victims was Sydney lawyer and mother-of-three Katrina Dawson.

"Katrina was one of our best and brightest barristers who will be greatly missed by her colleagues and friends" Jane Needham, president of the New South Wales Bar Association, said in a statement.

The other victim was identified in Australian media as the manager of the cafe, Tori Johnson.

Deputy Police Commissioner Catherine Burn said three women were treated in hospital for gunshot wounds and were in stable condition. A police officer was treated for shotgun pellet wounds and discharged, she said.

Burn said another two women were treated for "health and welfare purposes." Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported that those women were pregnant.

Burn said police do not know what had motivated Monis. She declined to detail his demands.

"This is a man who had serious history of criminal offences and a history of violence. This was a man that we do believe had some extremist views and we also believe that he was unstable," Burn told reporters.

She confirmed that Monis was free on bail when he died. Police were investigating whether he was the registered owner of the shotgun that he used.

Monis was convicted and sentenced last year to 300 hours of community service for sending what a judge called "grossly offensive" letters to families of soldiers killed in Afghanistan between 2007 and 2009.

At the time, Monis said his letters were "flowers of advice," adding: "Always, I stand behind my beliefs."

Monis later was charged with being an accessory to the murder of his ex-wife. Earlier this year, he was charged with the sexual assault of a woman in 2002. He has been out on bail on the charges.

"He had a long history of violent crime, infatuation with extremism and mental instability," Abbott said. "As the siege unfolded yesterday, he sought to cloak his actions with the symbolism of the ISIL death cult. 

Tragically, there are people in our community ready to engage in politically motivated violence."

"This is a one-off random individual. It's not a concerted terrorism event or act. It's a damaged-goods individual who's done something outrageous," his former lawyer, Manny Conditsis, told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

"His ideology is just so strong and so powerful that it clouds his vision for common sense and objectiveness," Conditsis said.

Flags were lowered to half-staff on the landmark Harbour Bridge as Australians awakened to the surreal conclusion of the crisis. The state's premier expressed disbelief that the attack could happen in Australia - a place he dubbed "a peaceful, harmonious society which is the envy of the world."

The siege began about 9:45 a.m. in Martin Place, a plaza in Sydney's financial and shopping district that was packed with holiday shoppers. Many of those inside the cafe would have been taken captive as they stopped in for their morning coffees.

Hundreds of police flooded the city. Streets were closed and offices evacuated. The public was told to stay away from Martin Place, site of the state premier's office, the Reserve Bank of Australia, and the headquarters of two of the nation's largest banks. The state parliament house is a few blocks away, and the famous Sydney Opera House also is nearby.

Throughout the day, several hostages were seen with their arms in the air and hands pressed against the window of the cafe, with two people holding up a black flag with the Shahada, or Islamic declaration of faith, written on it.

The Shahada, which translates as, "There is no god but God and Muhammad is his messenger," is considered the first of Islam's five pillars of faith. It is pervasive throughout Islamic culture, including the green flag of Saudi Arabia. Jihadis have used the Shahada in their own black flag.

Channel 10 news said it received a video in which a hostage in the cafe had relayed the gunman's demands. The station said police requested they not broadcast it, and Scipione separately asked media that might be contacted by the gunman to urge him instead to talk to police.

Australian Muslim groups condemned the hostage-taking in a joint statement and said the flag's inscription was a "testimony of faith that has been misappropriated by misguided individuals."

In a show of solidarity, many Australians offered on Twitter to accompany people dressed in Muslim clothes who were afraid of a backlash against the country's tiny Muslim minority of some 500,000 people in a nation of 24 million. The hashtag (hash)IllRideWithYou was used more than 90,000 times by late Monday evening.

Seven Network television news staff watched the gunman and hostages for hours from a fourth floor window of their Sydney offices, opposite the cafe.

The gunman could be seen pacing back and forth past the cafe's windows. Reporter Chris Reason said the man carried what appeared to be a pump-action shotgun, was unshaven and wore a white shirt and a black cap.

Some of the hostages were forced up against the windows.

"The gunman seems to be sort of rotating these people through these positions on the windows with their hands and faces up against the glass," Reason said in a report. "One woman we've counted was there for at least two hours - an extraordinary, agonizing time for her, surely, having to stand on her feet for that long."

"When we saw that rush of escapees, we could see from up here in this vantage point the gunman got extremely agitated as he realized those five had got out. He started screaming orders at the people, the hostages who remain behind," he added.

As night set in, the lights inside the cafe were switched off. Armed police guarding the area outside fitted their helmets with green-glowing night goggles.

Lindt issued a statement saying it was "profoundly saddened and deeply affected about the death of innocent people."

"Our thoughts and feelings are with the victims and their families who have been through an incredible ordeal, and we want to pay tribute to their courage and bravery," said the statement from the Swiss company Lindt & Sprugli.

Australia's government raised the country's terror warning level in September in response to the domestic threat posed by supporters of the Islamic State group, also known as ISIL. Counterterror law enforcement teams later conducted dozens of raids and made several arrests in Australia's three largest cities - Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. One man arrested during a series of raids in Sydney was charged with conspiring with an Islamic State leader in Syria to behead a random person in Sydney.

The Islamic State group, which holds a third of Syria and Iraq, has threatened Australia in the past. In September, its spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani issued a message urging attacks abroad, specifically mentioning Australia.

One terrorism expert said the situation appeared to be that of a "lone wolf" making his own demands, rather than an attack orchestrated by a foreign jihadist group.

"There haven't been statements from overseas linking this to extremist groups outside the country - that is quite positive," said Charles Knight, lecturer in the Department of Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism at Australia's Macquarie University.

With crime coverage, paper `challenging community'

With crime coverage, paper `challenging community'

In this Nov. 20, 2014, photo, New Pittsburgh Courier editor and publisher Rod Doss, left, and assistant to to publisher Stephan Broadus, right, show copies of the paper with focus on black on black violent crime while in the newspaper conference room in Pittsburgh. The Courier, an historic black newspaper, began a campaign with coverage of each homicide almost a decade ago because editors at the Courier simply felt black-on-black killings were not getting the attention they deserved.

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- At the start of every month, the same image of a pistol points from the same place on the front page of the New Pittsburgh Courier, above the same caption: Under Attack By Us!

The only thing that changes is the number of the dead.

"75 of 91 homicides Black lives," read a recent headline in the renowned black newspaper's crusade against black-on-black violence. It was accompanied, as always, by a literal body count: The name, race and manner of death for every homicide in Pittsburgh in 2014 - with victims being overwhelmingly black, as the headline shows.

For years across the news media, stories have focused on cases like the killing of Michael Brown, the unarmed black 18-year-old, by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. And for years, the Courier has kept asking: What about all these other black lives lost?

That gun on its front page might as well be a finger pointed at black America - from a mirror.

"We are challenging the community to own this problem," says Rod Doss, editor and publisher of the 107-year-old weekly newspaper, which sometimes does an in-depth story on a particular victim but unfailingly updates and reprints its list, including whether anyone has been arrested.

The campaign began almost a decade ago because editors at the Courier simply felt black-on-black killings were not getting the attention they deserved. At first, it met with strong resistance from the paper's readership - "almost like we were uncovering dirty laundry. Nobody wanted us to talk about it," Doss says. 

Slowly, though, that attitude started to change. The number of rallies and vigils increased. Mothers of the dead banded together to try to stop the tragedies. Police were pressured to solve more of the murders.

"People began to understand, we were doing it out of concern for black life," Doss says. "We tried to make the issue that every black life is important."

The Pittsburgh metro area, population 1.2 million, is vibrant after rebounding from the collapse of the steel industry in the 1970s and `80s. 

But poverty and violence still afflict black areas such as Wilkinsburg, Homewood, East Liberty and the fabled Hill District, where the playwright August Wilson was born, Louis Armstrong blew his trumpet, and baseball legends Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson played.

The metro area's annual number of homicides has ranged from 71 to 120 between 2007 and 2013. In 2013, the homicide rate of 4.1 per 100,000 residents was 12th highest in the nation, according to FBI data, but well below that of the worst metro areas, Baltimore (10.0) and Detroit (9.6). 

In Pittsburgh and many other big cities, most of the homicides are black males killing each other. 

Rashad Byrdsong, a Pittsburgh native and leader of the Community Empowerment Association, has worked for decades to help stop the violence through myriad efforts, from hands-on street conflict resolution to hiring minority residents to work for his own construction company. 

He is the type of grassroots activist, common in cities across America, whose efforts are often overlooked when critics say that the black community only cares when a white person kills a black person.

A recent example of this criticism came when former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani appeared on "Meet the Press" to comment on nationwide protests over a grand jury declining to indict the officer who killed Brown in Ferguson.

"What about the poor black child that was killed by another black child? Why aren't you protesting that?" Giuliani said.

"Why don't you cut (the homicide rate) down so that so many white police officers don't have to be in black areas?" Giuliani continued, speaking to a black panelist.

 
Byrdsong has been trying to do exactly that. He supports the Courier's focus on the killings, but argues there is a broader narrative that also must be addressed.

He calls it "social violence": few opportunities for early childhood development; over-prescription of drugs like Ritalin to black boys; high rates of school suspensions and expulsions; racial profiling; disproportionate unemployment and incarceration; and more. 

"When we talk about violence, the details in the newspaper are the finality that we're reading about. 

There are a lot of small violent episodes occurring in these young men's lives that led up to the article," Byrdsong says. "There are a lot of systemic and structural impediments that prevent the advancement of a certain group of people."

These structural barriers may help explain why few confront black-on-black killings as forcefully and repeatedly as the Courier does.

Many black advocates believe obstacles to black advancement are the root cause of such killings, and that eliminating them should get the bulk of attention. They say blaming the problems of poor black communities solely on the behavior of some residents comes uncomfortably close to the view of certain white critics (and some black ones) that poverty and a lack of opportunity had nothing to do with bad choices. 

On the other hand, some advocates downplay black misbehavior, suggesting that racial obstacles cannot be overcome through good choices.

Those who do mention black behavior can be castigated for "blaming the victim." Even President Barack Obama has been stung by black critics for sprinkling talk of "responsibility" into his rare racial speeches.

"Black people will get extremely fired up and fight for a Trayvon Martin (the black teen fatally shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Florida) or any time a white person kills a black person, or police kill a black person. You got rallies and marches and protests, you get your national leaders involved," says Ulish Carter, the Courier's managing editor. "But all these situations with blacks killing blacks, you're just as dead."

Stephen Broadus, the Courier's assistant to the publisher, thinks the black community has become resigned to violence.

"Another black kid gone, no big deal. Another black kid in jail, no big deal," he says, summarizing that view.

"We've become numb," says Ashley Johnson, the Courier reporter who writes the Under Attack stories.

And what makes the Courier feel it can challenge its readers with coverage that is unsparing and painful to read? It's because of the paper's record of deep, longstanding support. Since its founding in 1907, perhaps no newspaper has done more to advocate for black people.

Anti-discrimination, political empowerment, health care and housing were just a few issues the paper championed in its early years. It fought for the desegregation of professional sports. 

Courier sportswriter Wendell Smith is credited with recommending Jackie Robinson to Brooklyn Dodgers owner Branch Rickey, and Smith then chronicled Robinson breaking of baseball's color barrier, even rooming with him on trips to segregated areas.

During World War II, the Courier's "Double V" campaign published weekly stories advocating "for victory at home against prejudice and discrimination as well as victory abroad against the enemies of democracy," as one article stated.

W.E.B. DuBois, Marcus Garvey, James Weldon Johnson and Zora Neale Hurston all had bylines in the Courier. 

At its height, the paper was distributed nationwide, and its local and national editions had a circulation reaching 350,000.

"By any fair-minded historical measure, the Pittsburgh Courier is one of the most important newspapers in American history," says David Shribman, executive editor of Pittsburgh's biggest paper, the Post-Gazette. 

"No serious student of race relations in the United States can ignore the vital role played by the Courier, which in its time may have been as important as Frederick Douglass' newspaper, The North Star."

The Under Attack By Us series is a continuation of this legacy. And it's making a difference, people say.

"Just by talking about these deaths, it's making people stand up," says Richard Garland, a community activist and University of Pittsburgh instructor who works directly with violence-prone youth. "What the Courier is doing is letting everyone know what the plight of African-Americans is."

Doss, the editor and publisher, says the role of the Courier has always been to take the lead on important black issues - popular or not.

"In many instances we've been in the vanguard of creating change, because we do challenge the community from within," Doss says. "That's where it begins." 

 

Police demonstrations inspire new protest songs

Police demonstrations inspire new protest songs 

FILE - In a Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2014 file photo, Eilidh Branson, a student at Spelman College, sings along with a group of protestors at a rally and protest at the CNN Center, in Atlanta, the day after a grand jury's decision not to indict a white Ferguson, Mo., police officer who killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black teen. Protest songs are taking their place alongside the chants of “I Can’t Breathe” and “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” as demonstrators raise their voices to condemn the deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of police.

 
BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) -- Stop. Hey, what's that sound? Protest songs are taking their place alongside chants of "I can't breathe" and "Hands up, don't shoot" as demonstrators raise their voices to condemn the deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of police. There's something happening here.

The killings of Eric Garner and Michael Brown have inspired a musical outpouring perhaps unseen in the U.S. since Pete Seeger helped make "We Shall Overcome" a civil-rights standard in the 1960s. Older songs are being redeployed for a new generation. New compositions are being widely shared, including some from major-label artists. And holiday classics are being rewritten, such as a barbed spin on "White Christmas."

"Facts aren't fueling this fire. Feeling is what is fueling this fire, and until we express those feelings and those feelings are understood, we aren't going to get too far," said Daniel Watts, a Broadway performer who starred in a professionally choreographed Times Square flash mob in response to Eric Garner's death on Staten Island. He's also written two more spoken-word pieces about police brutality that others set to music.

One of the tunes gaining a following on the streets and social media was penned six weeks ago by Luke Nephew, a 32-year-old Bronx poet who also has composed event-specific cantos for protests at immigration detention centers, foreclosure auctions and other demonstration sites. It has four lines, starting with "I still hear my brother crying, `I can't breathe.' Now I'm in the struggle singing. I can't leave."

Hundreds of people sang those words last week as they blocked bridges and got arrested in New York on the night after a grand jury declined to indict the white officer who used a chokehold on Garner. That so many knew the hymn-like song, and the way it has caught on since then, might owe as much to savvy preparation as the power of the lyrics.

Nephew first introduced the song at an early November meeting of activists preparing for the grand jury's decision. The participants agreed to share it with their members so as many people as possible could join in when the time came. A recording was posted on YouTube and links made the rounds on Facebook and Twitter.

"We said, `Make sure you are taking this back to your organizations. Make sure you are learning this,'" recalled Jose Lopez, an organizer with the social service and advocacy group Make the Road New York.

Gospel singer and radio host Darlene McCoy, founder of a group called Mothers of Black Sons, heard the protesters in Manhattan singing as she watched the news at home in Atlanta. She was so taken with the images of people raising their voices in unison while being handcuffed that she replayed the broadcast to write down the words.

Unaware of its origins, McCoy immediately recorded herself singing Nephew's composition, posted the file on Instagram and challenged other singers to do the same. At least 45 people have done so, including Catrina Brooks, a former "The X-Factor" contestant from Michigan, whose rendition has been viewed nearly 750,000 times.

"The funny thing is, you have to do it in 15 seconds," McCoy said, referring to the site's maximum video length. "And that's a challenge for some artists."

Some protesters find fresh relevance in popular music of the past - Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come" or Michael Jackson's "They Don't Really Care About Us."

Nephew is a bit baffled by how seldom contemporary music has been a part of American social movements in recent decades. He thinks it's partly because people are no longer accustomed to singing together in public, partly because younger Americans are turned off by traditional folk and gospel tunes that do not speak to their experiences.

"It's amazing how much of a vacuum there is," he said. "God bless Pete Seeger. But where is his children's generation?"

Questlove, drummer for the hip-hop band the Roots, urged fellow musicians via Instagram and Twitter last week "to be a voice of the times that we live in," noting that "protest songs don't have to be boring or non-danceable."

Several professionals have already released home-produced tribute songs to Brown and Garner, including Alicia Keys, Long Beach rapper Crooked I, Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morelo and hip-hop producer J. Cole.

Amateurs have gotten into the act too. A group in St. Louis disrupted a symphony performance of Brahms' Requiem by singing a "Requiem for Mike Brown" and scattering confetti hearts from the balcony.

Other protests adopt a seasonal theme with "justice carols" that reimagine holiday classics - "All I Want for Christmas Is An Indictment" and "O Little Town of Ferguson."

But whether any of the songs come to crystallize recent events in the way Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth" came to symbolize the Vietnam War era, well, it ain't exactly clear.

"It often takes time for ideas to percolate through and for people to step back and take a breath and write meaningful tunes," said Ian Peddie, an English professor at Georgia Gwinnett College who studies the intersection of popular music and human rights. "There has to be that period of incubation."

Alabama woman convicted in children sex abuse ring

Alabama woman convicted in children sex abuse ring 

Wendy Wood Holland, left, is lead out of the courtroom after she was found guilty on of sodomy, sexual abuse, sexual torture and child endangerment at Baldwin County Circuit Court, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2014, in Bay Minette, Ala. Holland was convicted on felony charges as member of a family sex ring that abused children for years. She was among 11 people arrested following the disappearance of her 19-year-old niece Brittney Wood in 2012.

  

BAY MINETTE, Ala. (AP) -- The conviction Wednesday of an Alabama woman accused of being part of an incestuous sex ring provided graphic evidence about horrendous child molestation, but it didn't answer a baffling question: What happened to a young victim who is missing and presumed dead?

Jurors took two hours to convict Wendy Wood Holland, 35, of sodomy, sexual abuse, sexual torture and child endangerment. She showed no emotion when the verdict was read. Prosecutors say Holland faces at least 20 years in prison and could get a life sentence.

Witnesses heard two days of testimony in her trial that didn't give any clues about the whereabouts of her 19-year-old niece Brittney Wood.

Wood was last seen with Holland's husband, Donnie, in 2012, and 11 people have since been arrested on sex-related charges. That includes Wendy Holland, on trial on charges of sexually abusing another underage relative.

Authorities said Wood could provide important evidence about sexual crimes by her adult relatives if only they could find her alive. But searches and two years of investigation have failed to turn up any sign of her. 

Police believe Wood is dead, possibly killed in the days before the case went public.

Following the disappearance, Holland was charged with sexual abuse, sodomy, sexual torture and child endangerment.

Donnie Holland was under investigation as the leader of the alleged sex ring at the time of Wood's disappearance, and he died days later of what authorities ruled was a self-inflicted gunshot.

Prosecutors told jurors during closing arguments that Wendy Holland, her late husband and others were monsters who subjected their own children and others to perversions that were almost too depraved to understand, with parents and in-laws using their own young relatives for sex.

Holland used sex toys and other forms of stimulation to groom the alleged victim for sex with adults at an age children typically are watching "Sesame Street" and learning to color, prosecution witnesses told the jury.

"You have heard testimony over the last two days that no one wants to believe," prosecutor Nicki Patterson said in closing arguments. "We want to give family the benefit of the doubt."

But defense attorney Mitzi Johnson-Theodoro argued that the alleged victim, two other relatives who pleaded guilty to sex charges and a jailhouse friend of Holland were lying when they portrayed her as a serial child abuser.

She said Holland would appeal the verdict.

"This is the beginning of a very long process. This is just the first step," she said.

Neighbors didn't see pornography or sex toys in Holland's home, and prosecutors have no physical evidence, Johnson-Theodoro told jurors. Holland is a loving person who took her own kids trick-or-treating and worked as a certified nursing assistant at a state nursing home for veterans, she said.

"They want you to believe that a woman who cared for the elderly abused children?" Johnson-Theodor said in closing arguments.

The trial, though, was all about Brittney Wood for Christin Huffman, a friend of the missing teen.

Testimony showed Wood was part of at least one family sexual encounter involving Holland, three other adults and two children, but the fact that no one has seen the teen since before the case broke in 2012 wasn't mentioned to jurors.

Seated in the court and wearing a T-shirt decorated with Wood's photo, Huffman dabbed at her eyes as attorneys laid out details of generations of incest allegations involving her friend's family.

"To me the whole thing is about her," Huffman, 21, said outside court. "There's no way anyone could look at it and say it's not."

Wood's older brother and an uncle have pleaded guilty and testified against Holland, and her mother faces sex charges.

Holland was the second person to stand trial in the case. Family friend Billy Brownlee was convicted in October.

Prosecutor Patterson said authorities believe Holland's conviction could prompt more.

"I hope this will clear a logjam," she said.

Statistics lacking in debate over police behavior

Statistics lacking in debate over police behavior 

FILE- In this July 23, 2014 file photo, mourners gather during a funeral service for Eric Garner at Bethel Baptist Church in the Brooklyn borough of New York. A grand jury ruled not to indict the police officer involved in the death of Garner. No firm statistics can say whether a spate of officer-involved deaths is a growing trend or simply a series of coincidences generating a deafening buzz in news reports and social media.

Ferguson, Missouri. Cleveland, Ohio. Staten Island, New York. Eutawville, South Carolina.

In each place, individuals - all unarmed except for a child carrying a pellet gun - died at the hands of police officers. All of the dead were black. The officers involved, white.

To many Americans, it feels like a national tidal wave. And yet, no firm statistics can say whether this spate of officer-involved deaths is a growing trend or simply a series of coincidences generating a deafening buzz in news reports and social media.

"We have a huge scandal in that we don't have an accurate count of the number of people who die in police custody," says Samuel Walker, emeritus professor of criminal justice at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and a leading scholar on policing and civil liberties. "That's outrageous."

There are some raw numbers, but they're of limited value.

The FBI's Uniform Crime Reports, for instance, track justifiable police homicides - there were 1,688 between 2010 and 2013 - but the statistics rely on voluntary reporting by local law enforcement agencies and are incomplete. Circumstances of the deaths, and other information such as age and race, also aren't required.

The Wall Street Journal, detailing its own examination of officer-involved deaths at 105 of the nation's 110 largest police departments, reported last week that federal data failed to include or mislabeled hundreds of fatal police encounters.

Put simply: It's hard to know for certain what is happening on the ground.

"We want a comprehensive picture ... so people can be aware of what really goes on, and not the claptrap put out by people with agendas," says David Klinger, a professor of criminology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis who has studied use of deadly force and hopes to get funding for a pilot project that could provide better national statistics.

To those who have taken to the streets to protest in recent weeks, that lack of context is almost beside the point.

"These are communities that have been living for generations under the yoke of what has felt like an occupying force," says Phillip Atiba Goff, co-founder of UCLA's Center for Policing Equity. "And regardless of what any of the stats are ever going to say, if we don't address the reality of that experience, then we're shooting ourselves in the foot in our attempts to make good on our promise of democratic principles."

The high-profile cases have erupted one after the other.

On July 17, 43-year-old Eric Garner died after officers tried to arrest him on suspicion of selling untaxed cigarettes on a New York City street. Cellphone video captured the scene as one officer wrapped his arm around Garner's neck, and the black man repeatedly pleaded, "I can't breathe."

Tensions escalated on Aug. 9, when Officer Darren Wilson fatally shot unarmed, 18-year-old Michael Brown in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson.

On Nov. 22, a Cleveland officer shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice after responding to reports of an armed man at a city park. Rice had been holding a pellet gun.

Two days later, officials announced that a grand jury had declined to return an indictment in the Brown case. Fires from the resulting protests in Ferguson had barely stopped smoldering when word came there would be no charges against the officer in New York City. Again, angry protesters marched.

Then a grand jury in Orangeburg County, South Carolina, returned a murder indictment Wednesday against a former small-town police chief in the May 2011 shooting death of an unarmed black man.

Richard Combs, who was the sole officer for the town of Eutawville, had been charged with official misconduct for shooting Bernard Bailey, who had come to the town hall to argue about a ticket his daughter had received. Combs' attorney questioned prosecutor David Pascoe's motives in seeking the murder charge.

"He's trying to make it racial, because his timing is perfect," John O'Leary said. "He's got all the national issues going on, so they want to drag him (Combs) in and say, `Look what a great community we are here, because we're going to put a police officer who was doing his job in jail for 30 years.' That's wrong."

Walker, co-author of the book "The Color of Justice: Race, Ethnicity, and Crime in America," says much of the anger out there comes from years of conflict between the black community and law enforcement.

"Within the African-American community, there has been an experience of disrespect, offensive language, mistreatment in terms of stops and so on," he says. "And there's a sense that the police are out to get them."

It's not just the killings that have minority communities "fed up," says Inimai Chettiar of the New York University law school's Brennan Center for Justice.

"African-American communities are tired of being over-policed, over-prosecuted, sent to prison, having men taken away from their communities, having families broken," says Chettiar, director of the center's Justice Program. "I think there's much more than just an instinctual sense that there is something amiss in these communities. I think people are tired of `tough on crime.'"

Whether such incidents are on the rise, says Walker, "we're certainly more aware. And, certainly, the digital revolution has had a huge impact."

Goff compares it to the ice bucket challenge phenomenon of this past summer - in which a series of viral videos raised millions of dollars for research into amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's Disease.

"Once something is trending, so that it's in the American consciousness, people become aware of it," he says. 

"The reason we're hearing about this is because we're hearing about it. It has its own momentum."

Goff has begun work on creating a policing database, with funding from the Department of Justice, the National Science Foundation and private groups. He says it would include not just deaths but all police stops and uses of force.

"Is it getting better? Is it getting worse? What are the actual numbers?" asks Goff. "You know, when a plane crashes, it feels all of a sudden like it's not safe to fly. But if you look at the statistics, it's way safer to fly - and always has been - than to drive a car."

The Department of Justice is investigating possible federal civil rights violations in the Ferguson case and has opened an investigation into Garner's death in New York. On Thursday, the agency reached an agreement to reform the Cleveland Police Department after concluding that officers there use excessive and unnecessary force far too often - an investigation prompted in part by the deaths of the two black occupants of a car involved in a high-speed chase. In that case, 13 officers fired 137 shots at the unarmed suspects.

Chettiar is hopeful that recent events will create the "political and public will" to begin gathering and analyzing the facts.

"In addition to personal stories," she says, "statistics help people change their minds."

 

Bill Cosby resigns from Temple University board

Bill Cosby resigns from Temple University board 

In this May 12, 2011 file photo Comedian Bill Cosby attends Temple University's commencement ceremonies in Philadelphia. Temple University has announced that Cosby has resigned as a trustee amid more than a dozen sexual-assault allegations. The 77-year-old entertainer has been a highly visible cheerleader of his alma mater in Philadelphia and a board member since 1982.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Bill Cosby stepped down as a trustee of his beloved Temple University following renewed accusations that he had drugged and sexually assaulted a string of women over many years.

The 77-year-old entertainer has been a high-profile booster for his alma mater in Philadelphia and a board member since 1982.

"I have always been proud of my association with Temple University. I have always wanted to do what would be in the best interests of the university and its students. As a result, I have tendered my resignation," Cosby said in a statement released by the university.

Board chairman Patrick O'Connor told The Associated Press that the comedian does not want to be a distraction.

"The Board of Trustees accepts Dr. Cosby's resignation ... and thanks him for his service," the university said in its release.

O'Connor had defended Cosby in a 2005 civil suit filed by a former Temple basketball employee who accused Cosby of drugging and molesting her at his suburban Philadelphia mansion a year earlier. Cosby, who said he gave the woman only Benadryl, later settled the lawsuit for undisclosed terms.

More than a dozen other women have come forward since the lawsuit was filed to make similar claims, including several who have gone public this month. Some said they passed out after taking a drink or pill from him, and woke up with their clothes askew, and, in some cases, in physical pain.

Cosby has strongly denied wrongdoing and has never been criminally charged. A suburban Philadelphia prosecutor declined to file charges in the 2005 case, and most of the other women came forward too late.

"He didn't comment on the allegations (Monday)," O'Connor said. "They were from (as long as) 50 years ago."

Cosby, who was born and raised in Philadelphia, has been one of Temple's most famous alumni and a frequent commencement speaker.

Several other colleges have also severed their ties with Cosby in recent weeks. The Berklee College of Music will no longer award a scholarship in Cosby's name, and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst had him step down as honorary co-chairman of their $300 million fundraising campaign.

At Temple, an online petition urging the university to cut ties with Cosby had garnered more than 1,000 signatures by Monday afternoon.

The accusations, although unproven, "got to the point where the reputation of the institution started to get dragged down with (them)," said Raymond Smeriglio, president of the student body.

Cosby testified in the 2005 civil case that he gave the National Enquirer an exclusive interview about former Temple basketball employee Andrea Constand's lawsuit claims in exchange for the tabloid spiking a story about a second accuser, Beth Ferrier. "Did you ever think that if Beth Ferrier's story was printed in the National Enquirer, that that would make the public believe that maybe Andrea was also telling the truth?" Cosby was asked.

"Exactly," Cosby replied, according to court motions initially filed under seal and made available last week from archived federal court records.

Although willing to play the public face of Temple in advertisements, fundraising campaigns and commencement speeches, Cosby was a rare sight at board meetings.

A review of minutes to 138 board meetings held since 1982 suggests he attended just once - in December 2002, when he was on campus to film a Temple women's basketball commercial.

But his commencement speeches were wildly popular, and he gave a welcome lecture to freshmen classes called "Cosby 101."

Trustee Anthony McIntyre said the latest accusations - sparked by a comedian who called Cosby a rapist in a recent performance - presented a "no-win situation" for the Temple community.

"It's a tragedy for all," McIntyre said.