[VIDEO] Baltimore calls in federal agents to help homicide cops deal with spike in violence

Baltimore's police and civic leaders launched a two-month partnership Monday that will see ten federal agents embed with the city's homicide detectives in the latest bid to curb a surge in violent crime that has not been seen in decades.

Under the program, two special agents from each of the federal government's five crime-fighting agencies (the FBI, DEA, Secret Service, U.S. Marshals Service and the ATF) will help investigate cases for the next 60 days. The city's acting police commissioner, Kevin Davis, told reporters that the agents met with officers Monday to discuss cases where officers have identified suspects, but need additional evidence to file charges.

The homicide rate in Baltimore began to skyrocket in May, when the city saw 42 homicides in a single month. There was a brief dip in June, with 29 killings, however the number shot up to 45 in July, breaking a record set in 1972. The uptick comes after rioting in the spring over the death of Freddie Gray, a black man who was critically injured while in police custody.

In total, the city has recorded 192 homicides so far this year, according to The Baltimore Sun. By contrast, 208 murders were committed in all of 2014. The three-month total of 116 homicides for May, June, and July is the highest since at least 1970.

Adding to the urgency of Baltimore's violence is the relatively low "clearance rate" of closed homicide cases. Last week, Davis said the city police department's "clearance rate" was at 36.6 percent, down from the department's mid-40s average.

For several years "American cities have not seen an uptick in homicides we're seeing in 2015," Davis said Monday. "Now we're back at the table, and our cities are looking at Baltimore. They want to know what Baltimore's going to do about it."

Davis had said Sunday that more people are arming themselves on the streets, and that the department has seized 20 percent more guns than it had by this time last year. Davis also said the influx of prescription pills — 32 pharmacies were looted during the April 27 riot and nearly 300,000 doses of prescription medication stolen — has contributed to Baltimore's spiking violence.

Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby attributed to the spiking violence to violent repeat offenders, whom she called "a small number of individuals responsible for the majority of the crimes." Mosby warned those inclined to reach for a weapon that "we are going to go after you with everything that we have. Collaboratively, we will get the job done and convict you."

ATF spokesman Special Agent David Cheplak told the Sun that his agents were assisting Baltimore police with controlled drug buys and surveillance. Officials from the DEA and FBI told the paper that their agents would provide a supporting role for officers.

"We've got to take a different look at things," DEA spokesman Todd Edwards said, "whether it's fresh eyes or just looking at it in a different way."

At Monday's press conference announcing the program, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md. made a plea to the residents of his home city.

"The only people making good now are the morticians," Cummings said. "And I say our city is better than that. It's not just the murders and the shootings. I'm begging you, put your guns down."

Referencing the riots after Gray's death, Cummings said, "I hear over and over and over again, 'Black Lives Matter'. And they do matter. But black lives also have to matter to black people."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Via: Fox News

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Feds Get the Power to Seize Medical Records on 'Fishing Expedition' Investigations with No Subpoena from a Judge

While focusing their resources and political energy on the NSA’s mass collection of metadata, privacy advocates have neglected the most dangerous institutionalized violations of the Fourth Amendment: administrative subpoenas.

Now a United States District Court judge in Texas has ruled for the Drug Enforcement Agency that an administrative subpoena may be used to search medical records. 

It was inevitable, given the march towards illegally nullifying the Fourth Amendment through use of these judge-less bureaucrat warrants authorized by Congress.

Administrative subpoenas are issued unilaterally by government agencies -- meaning without approval by neutral judges -- and without probable cause stated under oath and affirmation as required by the Fourth Amendment. There are now 336 federal statutes authorizing administrative subpoenas, according to the Department of Justice.

In U.S. v Zadeh, the DEA obtained the records of 35 patient files without showing probable cause or obtaining a warrant issued by a judge. Citing New Deal-era case law, Judge Reed O’Connor noted that “[t]he Supreme Court has refused to require that [a federal] agency have probable cause to justify issuance of an administrative subpoena,” and that they may be issued “merely on suspicion that the law is being violated, or even just because it wants assurance that it is not." (Emphasis added).

In other words, the government may now use “fishing expeditions” for medical records.

Those constitutionally grotesque New Deal-era decisions violated the Fourth Amendment on its face, and were ideological, progressive foolishness when issued against the likes of the Morton Salt Company in 1950. Now this corrupt precedent creating institutionalized violations of the Fourth Amendment has been applied to medical records.

Dr. Zadeh has filed an appeal. Conservative activist Andy Schlafly, the lawyer for the Association of American Physicians & Surgeons, has filed an amicus brief stating, “[w]ithout a warrant and without initially identifying themselves, federal agents searched patient medical records . . . based merely on a state administrative subpoena. A month later the [DEA] sought enforcement . . . [and n]one of the checks and balances against overreaching by one branch of government existed for this warrantless demand for medical records.”

The targeting of private medical records shows that it is now far past the time to eliminate administrative subpoenas for good. Congress may do that legislatively. History also shows it can be done even by the courts, which have the authority -- actually, the constitutional duty -- to declare void acts of Congress in violation of the Constitution.

Via: American Thinker

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DEA Releases Photos Of Baltimore Pharmacy Looters…

“You’re Honor at the time of the looting my client was returning from singing in the church choir, after he taught the homeless illiterate how to read and in his spare time builds houses for the poor.”

The Drug Enforcement Agency released photographs Thursday of nine people officials say are connected with looting prescription drugs from Baltimore pharmacies during the April unrest related to the death of Freddie Gray.

The move came a day after Baltimore police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts revised the estimate of how many drugs were stolen to more than 175,000 units, or doses.

“That amount of drugs has thrown off the balance on the streets of Baltimore,” Batts said.

DEA Special Agent Gary Tuggle said even more drugs were stolen than initially reported. About 40 percent of the looted pharmacies have not finished counting losses, he said.

Twenty-seven pharmacies and two methadone clinics were looted when rioting erupted April 27, the day of Gray’s funeral.[…]

harmacy and law enforcement officials said they have seen no evidence that personal information found on stolen prescriptions has been used for fraud. Nevertheless, Rite Aid hired Kroll, a risk management firm, “to alert impacted customers via a letter of notification and share with them the proactive measures it has taken to guard against identity theft.”

Via: Baltimore Sun

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