17586: For Court Performance, WPP Scores A Triple-Trouble.

 

Adweek published a WPP cases study—that is, the trade journal spotlighted three separate legal cases arguably exposing the alleged “global crime scheme” orchestrated by executives at WPP Media (formerly GroupM).

WPP honchos are likely relieved to see the Adweek piece is subscription-only content, meaning a limited number of people will read the sordid details. Can’t imagine excerpts from such reporting might appear in WPP Media pitch decks.

At this point, the single White operating company is probably considering launching another unit: WPP Legal Defense.

17276: Mafioso Santa Is No No No.

This Patreon campaign featuring Wiseguy Santa delivers clichéd and contrived cultural cluelessness.

 

Oddly enough, Patreon Community Guidelines allegedly frown on using stereotypes—as well as engaging with crime and criminal activity.

10612: Hoodies And Hoodlums…?

 

When did wearing a hoodie officially translate to criminal and threatening activities?

14696: Now There Are Even More Con Artists And Crooks At 72andSunny.

Adweek reported 72andSunny added a page to its diversity playbook by establishing a partnership with ConCreates, an advertising agency comprised of currently and formerly incarcerated folks. Hey, it’s a natural coupling, given that 72andSunny is in the MDC Partners network, which was once led by a bona fide crook. Plus, 72andSunny is run by culturally clueless con artists. Somebody should throw the book—and playbook—at the shifty scumbags. Strangely enough, ConCreates appears to be an enterprise honestly dedicated to change and progress. 72andSunny, on the other hand, not so much.

72andSunny Partners with ConCreates, an Agency Staffed by Current and Former Prisoners

MDC shop’s New York office will serve as adviser and creative partner

By Minda Smiley

As the advertising industry continues to grapple with diversity, agencies are increasingly trying to find talent outside of the usual recruitment pipelines.

One agency in particular is offering up creative solutions from a population whose vantage point is distinctly unique: former and currently incarcerated people.

The idea for ConCreates came to founder and CEO Vincent Bragg in 2014 while he was serving time in federal prison for running a drug empire. Bragg said he was locked up with the founder of an underwear company, and during their time together, the two would “host think tanks” for the brand. It was through that experience that Bragg began to think he could do this for other brands as well, so he started to pull together a network of incarcerated people who were also interested in this type of creative thinking.

“As a way for me to show the world the creativity behind bars, I started a company and really dedicated my life to this,” he said. After being released from prison in 2016, Bragg joined a prisoner entrepreneurship program called Defy Ventures to get ConCreates off the ground.

“They helped me flesh out the structuring of the company and things like that. One of the things that was really great about that program was the mentorship,” he said, and it was one of his mentors who introduced him to Tim Jones, executive strategy director at 72andSunny New York.

72andSunny New York, which is owned by MDC Partners, has now established a partnership with the ConCreates network that currently spans 436 men and women in prison and 319 who’ve been released, according to Bragg. ConCreates has also built out its leadership team, which includes co-founder and chief innovation strategist Janeya Griffin, who grew up watching her parents struggle to find work after being imprisoned.

As adviser and creative partner, 72andSunny will help craft the agency’s positioning, proposition and visual identity, as well as consult on key client projects.

“When I met these guys, I was blown away by their vision and story,” said Jones. “We have multiple initiatives running to expand and diversify the creative class, but one of the key ways I think we can be most powerful in this space is helping to set up companies like ConCreates, who share the same mission.”

ConCreates operates as a crowdsourcing platform, meaning employees of the agency are sent briefs and asked to respond with their ideas. All who participate are compensated, with employees receiving additional payment as their ideas continue to advance (by making it into a client presentation, for instance). Ideas that actually end up going into production are ones that get rewarded the most.

Much of this correspondence happens via email and snail mail.

“We’re able to be nimble like a startup with a crowdsourced model,” said Bragg, who noted that 10% of ConCreates is owned by the entire company, so staffers also benefit from profit sharing.

Bragg said ConCreates has mostly done work for startups so far, but is now looking to collaborate with “brave brands looking to break the mold” who see the value in what this unconventional creative team has to offer.

He believes the skills needed to pull off crimes are often the same ones that creatives tap into for client work every day; for example, Bragg said one of the original “ConCreators,” who once successfully robbed 27 banks, was basically using the same thought processes as a strategist when coming up with his plan.

“We believe that creativity without opportunity is criminality,” he said. “We look at drug dealers as entrepreneurs. We look at graffiti artists as art directors.”

The hope is that by channeling these skills and talents into something positive, these people will get a chance at building a new life.

“Not only can we help people who’ve committed crimes become beneficial members of society again by learning these kinds of skills, but our hope is that these people become icons to perhaps others who are at that crossroads in life,” said Jones.

13224: White-Collar Crime.

Adweek reported on Bill Grizack, an ad strategist who conned multiple White advertising agencies by falsifying $269 million in client contracts, ultimately earning a 5-7 year prison sentence. Grizack’s former employers include McKinney, The Variable, Egg Strategy, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, Venables Bell & Partners and Interbrand. Which just goes to show that even a totally corrupt White man has a better shot of landing a job in advertising versus a minority.

Ad Strategist Sentenced to 5-7 Years in Prison for Faking $269 Million in Client Contracts

Bill Grizack deceived multiple agencies, costing dozens of jobs

By Patrick Coffee

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.—“There are certain politicians in this country who could probably take notes from this man. … I’ve never seen anything quite like this.”

With those words, North Carolina Superior Court Judge John O. Craig sentenced former senior strategist and agency partner William John “Bill” Grizack to serve 57 to 81 months in state prison for defrauding ad agencies McKinney and The Variable (formerly known as Pave Advertising) with fake contracts from Coca-Cola and Brown-Forman. According to an earlier report in The Winston-Salem Journal, state prosecutor W. Scott Harkey stated that these fictional accounts would have been worth an estimated $269 million.

“This is a case about lies and deception that fueled an upper-class lifestyle,” said Harkey today in arguing for a harsh sentence, stating that Grizack “perpetuated his scheme for eight months,” and that the fraud persisted long after Pave partnered with Cheil Worldwide’s McKinney. The agencies hired 40 advertising professionals from around the country to work on the fake business. All of these employees lost their jobs when executives discovered the deceptions pulled off by Grizack, who was employed by both agencies at the time.

The case, which has been covered extensively by Adweek’s AgencySpy blog, officially began in November 2015 when the state of North Carolina charged Grizack with three felonies related to obtaining or attempting to obtain money or property via false pretenses.

But the story of Grizack’s deception is more than five years in the making, and it involves at least six different agencies that employed Grizack before his crimes caught up with him.

“Right after his scheme was discovered by executives at Pave and McKinney,” Harkey said, “he went to [Colorado’s Egg Strategy] and did the exact same thing” by falsifying a $14 million contract with McDonald’s.

Timeline of Deceit

Pave Advertising of Winston-Salem hired Grizack in the summer of 2010, and he moved up within the organization largely on the strength of a proprietary data-based software program that he called Brand Forensics. The agency later renamed itself The Variable and promoted this product as a key differentiator, describing it in a 2011 press release as “a derivative of the search engine results page algorithm that allows The Variable to determine with statistical significance where a query starts, where it ends, and where it stops along the way.”

Grizack and his fellow executives used the software to pitch new business and sought other agencies to form a partnership based on the advantages that it could supposedly grant to clients.

His attorney says the software was real and effective, but Grizack began to falsify contracts when he couldn’t land the clients he wanted.

“[Grizack] created a software program that, from the victim’s own mouth, was ‘revolutionary,’” said defense attorney Bernard Desrosiers, adding, “He started getting legitimate contracts from clients, but the two he wanted most he couldn’t get.”

Grizack then developed a plan to fake the wins using what The Variable president and partner Keith Vest described as “fake contracts, fake email addresses, fake phone numbers and fake documents” that allowed him to “[impersonate] officers at these companies.”

The False Promise of New Business

Grizack badly wanted to become a partner at Pave. In order to do so without paying a $150,000 partnership fee, he was required to bring in at least $500,000 in new business revenue—a requirement he satisfied via what Judge Craig called “a very ingenious scheme.”

Desrosiers conceded that Grizack was motivated by greed and pride, stating: “He thought he could get away with it. He didn’t.”

Multiple current and former employees of The Variable attended the court hearing, and as Desrosiers described Grizack’s “crime-free life,” a female attendee began shaking her head emphatically, earning a rebuke from the judge who threatened to remove her from the courtroom.

“Grizack was not out to please anyone. He is a con man who is addicted to lying,” said Vest in his subsequent statement to the court.

“We don’t want to see Grizack do this to other companies,” Vest said. “He conned the company he worked for before us. He conned us and McKinney. The company he moved to after ours was able to uncover his deceit before it went too far.”

His newer deception was only revealed, Vest said, because an unidentified person contacted Egg Strategy to alert the agency that the McDonald’s account was fake.

$4 Million Lost, Along With Jobs

Harkey claimed that Grizack’s deceptions led to $4 million in combined losses for The Variable and McKinney. These losses also took a human toll, as Harkey illustrated by reading from emails written by former employees at the two agencies, one of whom had worked at Pave/The Variable for more than a decade before losing the job.

In the years after Grizack was fired, the two agencies worked with the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation to build a case against him. Those efforts were led by special agent Kevin Snead, who received thanks from both Harkey and Vest in the courtroom.

Grizack pleaded guilty to all charges on March 3 of this year, but he continued to gain employment as a highly paid senior strategist for nearly five months after the charges were first filed. After leaving Egg Strategy in late 2014, he moved to California and worked at Los Angeles’ Dailey Advertising as chief strategy officer for nearly a year. He listed his address as West Hollywood when entering his plea, but up to that very day, he was simultaneously employed or contracted by three agencies in the San Francisco area: Goodby Silverstein & Partners, Venables Bell & Partners and Omnicom consultancy Interbrand.

In a statement, Grizack apologized to his former employers while shaking his head profusely, thanking the court, his wife and his two daughters. “From my heart, I am truly, truly sorry,” he said.

The judge said that the most important factor in his sentencing decision was the fact that dozens of people lost their jobs because of Grizack’s actions. He then cited an unnamed “rare genetic disorder that could be fatal and most likely will greatly shorten his lifespan” in explaining why he did not choose a longer sentence.

But the judge also pointed out that the agencies deserve some blame for letting their judgment be clouded by wishful thinking and the potential for financial gain.

“There is just a small amount of gullibility and greed on the part of the victims,” he said, comparing the case to the tale of the goose that laid the golden eggs. “I hope you will take this as a hard-earned lesson.”

Spokespeople for McKinney and Egg Strategy declined to comment on the case.

12823: Criminal Perspective.

Jared Fogle Will Pay $1.4 Million to 14 Underage Victims—probably to be paid in $5 Footlongs. To put things in obscene perspective, Fogle is paying roughly $20 million less than former MDC Partners CEO Miles Nadal, making it unclear as to which scoundrel is the bigger criminal.

11504: Kwame Kilpatrick KO’d.

From The New York Times…

Kwame M. Kilpatrick, Former Detroit Mayor, Sentenced to 28 Years in Corruption Case

By Steven Yaccino

DETROIT — Kwame M. Kilpatrick, the former mayor of Detroit, stood before a federal judge on Thursday and apologized for putting the people of his city through a corruption scandal so vast that prosecutors say it helped accelerate Detroit’s march toward bankruptcy.

“They’re hurting,” Mr. Kilpatrick said. “A great deal of that hurt I accept full responsibility for.”

They were solemn words from the formerly boisterous figure, a bear of a man at 6 feet 4 inches who many believed would lead Detroit out of its long economic downturn. But on Thursday he stood slouched, wearing a tan prison uniform instead of the flashy suits he once favored. Court officers replaced the entourage of bodyguards that used to follow him around. The diamond that once studded his ear, an emblem of his reputation as the “hip-hop mayor,” was gone.

Then, declaring an end to the bribery and thieving that marked the Kilpatrick administration, Judge Nancy G. Edmunds of United States District Court imposed the sentence prosecutors had sought: 28 years in prison.

Mr. Kilpatrick, 43, was convicted in March of two dozen counts that included charges of racketeering and extortion, adding his name to a list of at least 18 city officials who have been convicted of corruption during his tenure. His punishment ranks among the harshest major state and local public corruption cases.

Lawyers for Mr. Kilpatrick said that they intend to file an appeal of the convictions and sentence.

The hearing came at a sobering moment for the city he once led, which is now remaking itself in bankruptcy court as residents wrestle over whom to blame for the fiscal mess. For Detroiters, Mr. Kilpatrick’s meteoric fall — from potential savior of a struggling city to prison-bound symbol of financial mismanagement — may be the closest they will get to holding past leaders accountable for decades of disappointment and poor fiscal decisions.

“He’s become the poster child of what went wrong with the city and why it went bankrupt,” said Adolph Mongo, a political consultant who worked for Mr. Kilpatrick’s re-election campaign. But it was unfair to pin the city’s problems on any single elected leader, he said.

“It was a house of cards,” added Mr. Mongo about Detroit’s fiscal health. “Kilpatrick was the last card. He fell, and it knocked everything down.”

Joseph Harris, a former auditor general for the city during Mr. Kilpatrick’s first term, said that the former mayor was just one in a string of leaders who failed to fully address the crisis of a shrinking tax base amid growing employee health care and pension costs.

Mr. Kilpatrick also increased the city’s debt obligations to fill budget gaps while he was in office. A $1.44 billion borrowing deal he brokered in 2005 to restructure the city’s pension liabilities, though applauded by many at the time, added to the city’s estimated $18 billion in long-term liabilities.

At 31, Mr. Kilpatrick became the youngest person to hold the city’s top position when he was first elected in 2001. He brought new attractions to the city’s riverfront and much-needed business investment downtown. But scandals dogged his nearly seven years in office, ultimately ending a political career that had once seemed destined for the national stage.

In 2008, Mr. Kilpatrick resigned after he lied under oath during a police whistle-blower lawsuit and approved an $8.4 million settlement to try to cover it up. After pleading guilty to charges of obstruction of justice, Mr. Kilpatrick served four months in jail and was ordered to pay $1 million to the city. He was soon behind bars again for hiding assets from the court and telling a judge that he could afford to pay only $6 a month in restitution.

The former mayor and Bobby W. Ferguson, a city contractor and a friend, were indicted in 2010 on sweeping federal corruption charges. All told, prosecutors contend that Mr. Ferguson received $73 million worth of city contracts as a result of an extortion scheme that involved Mr. Kilpatrick, netting $9.6 million in illegal profit. Mr. Ferguson was convicted of nine counts and will be sentenced on Friday.

“The amount of crime, it was astonishing and it had a huge impact on this city,” Mark Chutkow, one of the prosecutors, said as he left the courthouse on Thursday.

Mr. Kilpatrick’s lawyer, Harold Z. Gurewitz, who pushed for a sentence of no more than 15 years, argued in court that Mr. Kilpatrick was being unfairly targeted as a scapegoat for Detroit’s insolvency, with people trying to “send him out with the sins of the city over the last 50 years.” The sentence, he said in an interview later, was tougher than necessary and stiffer than some people get for violent crimes.

Among some of the highest penalties for recent public corruption convictions, James C. Dimora, former commissioner of Cuyahoga County in Ohio, was sentenced last year to 28 years in prison for racketeering and bribery. A year before, Rod R. Blagojevich, former governor of Illinois, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for convictions that included trying to sell the Senate seat President Obama left open when he went to the White House.

In her ruling on Thursday, Judge Edmunds said her decision was another strong warning to elected officials.

“That way of business is over,” she said. “We’re done. We’re moving forward.”

Judge Edmunds agreed to recommend that Mr. Kilpatrick serve his prison term in Texas, where his family now lives.

11499: A Biased Bite Out Of Crime…?

From The Los Angeles Times…

Bites from sheriff’s K-9 units increase for blacks, Latinos

Bites from K-9 units rose 33% for blacks, 30% for Latinos from 2004 to 2012, study finds. This year, 100% have been to Latinos and blacks.

By Ruben Vives

The number of minorities bitten by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department canines has increased in the last few years, according to a study released Monday.

The annual number of dog bites of whites, Pacific Islanders and Native Americans remained low from 2004 through 2012, but similar incidents involving African Americans and Latinos increased in the same period, according to the report.

Researchers noted that the vast majority of canine deployments occurred in high-crime areas. However, authors of the semiannual study have previously recommended that the department focus on the disparities.

The study is the 33rd semiannual report released by Merrick Bobb, president of the Police Assessment Resource Center, a nonprofit group. Bobb was retained as a special counsel to the county Board of Supervisors after a 1992 report highlighted a series of problems in the department.

The report released Monday also examined disciplinary procedures regarding sheriff’s deputies.

The latest study, according to the monitor, was prompted by the increasing number of people who were apprehended during a canine deployment.

“In the first six months of this year, 100% of the dog bites were of blacks and Latinos,” the report stated, adding that a total of 17 dog bites had been reported up to June.

According to the report, the number of Latinos bitten by dogs increased 30% from 30 bites in 2004 to 39 in 2012. Similarly, the number of blacks bitten increased 33% for the same time period, from 9 to 12.

Researchers reviewed the department’s canine deployment policies, use of force reports for dog bites and accidental bites that resulted in monetary settlements.

The report showed that five sheriff’s stations — Century, Lennox, Compton, Lakewood and City of Industry — had the highest number of bites, more than all the other 21 stations combined. The stations with the lowest dog bites were in more affluent areas, such as Marina del Rey and West Hollywood.

The report cited a lack of supervision of the department’s canine detail as one reason for the increase.

Researchers recommended that the department improve canine deployment policies, employ alternative use-of-force measures, and track bite incidents for individual dogs and handlers.

11229: New Jailhouse On Sesame Street.

The New York Daily News reported Sesame Street introduced a new Muppet—Alex—whose father is in jail. Look for a possible bonding friendship between Alex and Elmo.

‘Sesame Street’ introduces first-ever muppet with a parent in prison

The long-running children’s show is introducing the storyline in an online kit being made available to prisons and advocacy groups. The Sesame Workshop hasn’t shied away from other thorny topics.

By Erik Ortiz / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

“Sesame Street” is teaching kids about bedtime, bath time and jail time.

The popular children’s television series hasn’t shied away from tough topics in the past, and has introduced a new muppet named Alex as a way to talk about the stigma of having a parent in jail.

“I just miss him so much,” the fuzzy blue-haired muppet says of his locked-up dad, adding, “Sometimes I just feel like I want to pound on a pillow and scream as loud as I can.”

The sensitive subject is being featured in an online teaching kit called, “Little Children, Big Challenges.”

The clips featuring Alex aren’t actually being aired on television, and he isn’t being introduced as a regular character on the show.

Still, “Sesame Street” execs say his story can be a useful tool for kids, specifically those ages 3 to 8. The show has broached other tricky lessons relating to divorce, hunger and military deployment.

“Coming from a muppet, it’s almost another child telling their story to the children,” Jeanette Betancourt, vice president of outreach and educational practices at the Sesame Workshop, told the “Today” show.

The videos show Alex telling his friends that his dad won’t be able to help him build a toy car. When they ask him why his father is not around, he says he doesn’t want to talk about it.

Later, his friends ask him what’s wrong.

“My dad’s in jail,” he says haltingly, adding, “I don’t like to talk about it. Most people don’t understand.”

A human friend says that her father was once incarcerated, which happens when “someone breaks the law — a grown-up rule — and then they have to go to jail or prison.”

A Pew Charitable Trusts report found that 1 in every 28 children has a parent behind bars.

In New York state, an estimated 105,000 kids have an incarcerated parent, although that’s a low-ball figure, said Tanya Krupat, program director of the Osborne Association’s New York Initiative for Children of Incarcerated Parents.

Krupat said the group is excited about the “Sesame Street” kit, which is in the process of being shipped to prisons in 10 states, including New York.

“We’re grateful to them for taking this on,” Krupat told the Daily News.

While she thinks America may not be ready for a character such as Alex to be a regular on a kids’ show, she hopes the attention brought by “Sesame Street” will spotlight the issue of over-incarceration.

“The goal of these materials is not to normalize parental incarceration because there’s nothing normal about it,” Krupat said. “It’s great to focus on those children immediately impacted … but I want to see these materials affect policy.”

11125: Profiling Victims…?

From USA TODAY…

Missed opportunities, or a job well done in Cleveland kidnapping?

By Yamiche Alcindor, USA TODAY

Some argue that the missing girls in Cleveland’s horrifying kidnapping were not aggressively sought, but police strongly deny the claim as unfair

CLEVELAND—Judy Martin recites the names of missing people in Cleveland like a well memorized poem. She knows names, dates, last known whereabouts, and details about dozens of cases dating back to 1997.

Martin, who founded Survivors/Victims of Tragedy, also says she knows how race and economic status play a role in how police treat cases, including those of three women held captive for years here in an impoverished Cleveland neighborhood.

She, along with experts, believe cases involving people of color, low-income residents, and working class victims don’t get the same law enforcement resources as others. Officials from the Cleveland Police Department, however, say they did all they could find Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight and regularly look into missing persons cases without any biases.

“When it’s somebody of color or someone from in a poorer area, we don’t see to get the response that other areas of the country get,” said Martin whose nonprofit regularly works with families of victims. “It needs to stop. When a person goes missing, it shouldn’t matter whether they’re white, black, hispanic, Asian, purple, green or blue.”

Knight, Berry, and DeJesus were abducted in separate incidents almost a decade ago by Ariel Castro, police said. Castro, who now faces kidnapping and rape charges, kept the three women hostage until Monday when Berry escaped and alerted police.

In the years after Berry and DeJesus went missing, Martin, whose son was murdered in 1994, became an advocate for the women’s families holding rallies and vigils every week and later every year. At each event, she and the families tried to keep the public aware of the cases while Martin says police brushed off the cases as teenagers who just took off.

It’s a claim the police fiercely deny.

Police say they and FBI investigators devoted extraordinary resources, at times fueled by personal anguish, to pursue every lead in the case.

“The Cleveland Police Department doesn’t care someone’s economic or social status,” Police Commander Keith Sulzer said Friday afternoon. “We don’t care what status you’re from, everybody gets the same treatment.”

He’s insulted that somebody would suggest their services would vary based on race or money—especially in the cases of Berry, DeJesus, and Knight.

For a decade, officers searched hundreds of streets, investigated vacant homes, and followed any information they thought might lead to the women, Sulzer said.

Thursday night at a community nearby the Seymour Avenue home of Ariel Castro, where the women were found, Sulzer told residents that more than 2,900 people were missing in the city of Cleveland and that families of those missing need actively work with officers to keep the cases going.

“If you have a missing person, you need to be on us at all times,” he said, adding that if families feel like officers aren’t doing enough they should contact the department.

Still, Martin maintains that police often assume cases involving people of color and lower income victims involve a person walking away without criminal involvement. She wants protocols that would make it mandatory that officers file a report each time someone says their family member or friend is missing regardless of the person’s past, economic status, or race.

A similar question arose in 2009 when the bodies of 11 murdered women were found in the Cleveland home of a serial killer. Anthony Sowell specialized in luring poor, drug addicts into his Imperial Avenue home, raping and strangling them.

During Sowell’s trial, relatives of some of his early victims said police didn’t take missing-person reports seriously, and one victim who survived an attack said police didn’t believe her when she reported the assault. Sowell was released from jail without charges after the woman’s report and went on to kill several others.

Journalist and urban planning specialist Angie Schmitt, co-founder of Rust Wire, blogged last month that although the Cleveland Plain Dealer ran “sympathetic” and extensive profiles of the Sowell victims, the paper “never raises the bigger issue. What made these women such easy targets was being black, being women and being from the highly-segregated and desperately poor east side of Cleveland.

“This is a story about racism and inequality and sexism and poverty as much, if not more, than it is about drugs and individual lives going astray,” Schmitt wrote. “Nobody was going to tear up the city looking for a few black women from the east side with sketchy pasts.”

Read the full story here.

11124: The Perils Of Pretty White Women.

From CNN…

We’re obsessed when it’s white women in trouble

By Lisa Bloom, Special to CNN

(CNN) -- Our country is obsessed with the perils of attractive young white women, as this week’s trio of high profile crime stories about Amanda Knox, Jodi Arias and the Cleveland kidnapping victims demonstrates. We don’t see breathless coverage of the disproportionately large number of African-American men tried for crimes in our system. We see almost no coverage of missing boys, or missing children of color, or crimes against nonwhites.

This week an African-American man in Mississippi, Willie Manning, was about to be executed, though he was denied access to DNA testing. Manning, convicted of murdering two college students in 1994, maintains his innocence and requested the scientific testing, which has exonerated many convicted murderers, including some on death row.

The Mississippi Supreme Court denied that request and ordered his execution. At the last moment, U.S. Justice Department letters tipped the balance in favor of a reprieve. Few media outlets considered the monumental constitutional issues, or even the dramatic ticking clock toward his execution, worthy of mention.

Isn’t the fact that we still execute Americans without giving them access to DNA testing a stunning, significant story? Yet it got next to no attention.

Instead, in the last week thousands of hours of attention have been devoted to every detail of just three crime stories.

In Phoenix, Arizona, Jodi Arias (whose father is Latino) was convicted Wednesday of first degree murder, after the jury unanimously found that she intentionally and with premeditation killed her former boyfriend, Travis Alexander. The trial was covered live on HLN and followed closely on social media and other television networks. The next phase of the trial is scheduled to begin May 15.

In Cleveland, Ohio, Amanda Berry reportedly screamed for help, a neighbor came to her aid, and she, her 6-year-old daughter, and two women, Gina DeJesus (who is Latina) and Michelle Knight were freed after a decade of captivity. Ariel Castro was charged today with kidnapping and rape.

Amanda Knox, the American college student who was convicted, then acquitted of the murder of her roommate in Italy, has given tearful interviews in connection with her book tour, as an Italian court has reversed again and held that she should stand trial again for the charges.

Each of these cases includes salacious allegations and high-stakes outcomes. The Cleveland victims were reportedly raped and beaten countless times over the years. Amanda Knox is accused of killing her roommate as part of a drug-fueled sex game. Jodi Arias posed nude for photos and had sex with her victim just before she murdered him.

While each of these crime stories is worthy of news coverage—especially the Cleveland story, which involved serious questions of alleged law enforcement lapses—many others are equally worthy yet receive little or no attention, even as every detail of the high-profile stories is pored over and rehashed.

Missing children websites carry pictures of many African-American and Latino kids who have disappeared, and photos of little boys who have vanished. News outlets rarely feature their stories. Their families grieve their absence and yearn for media coverage that could help find their children and energize law enforcement.

And the biggest American crime story of all receives the least mention: that we now incarcerate more of our own people than any other country on earth, or in human history, and that minority males are disproportionately policed, arrested and convicted, and sentenced to harsher sentences. African-American juveniles are six times as likely as whites to be sentenced to prison for identical crimes.

In Washington, three out of every four black men can expect some time behind bars in their lifetimes. In Baltimore and Chicago, the majority of young black men are currently under the control of the criminal justice system. In sheer numbers, more African-Americans are under correctional control today than were enslaved at the time of the Civil War. Our disastrous war on drugs has devastated inner-city communities, and led to large numbers of African-Americans being legally barred from voting, jury duty, public housing, food stamps, student loans, and many other civic rights and benefits, often for life.

We cannot fix these problems if we are unaware of them. We cannot get a groundswell for reform if we are distracted by titillating outlier stories.

The media choose which stories to make high profile, driven by public interest in those stories. We cannot call ourselves a nation of equals until we pay equal attention to all those in our criminal justice system whose stories merit our attention, regardless of their race or gender.

10820: Oh, Canada!

Threatening sexual predators with sexual violence in a semi-comedic style seems stupid.

From Ads of the World.

10423: Sharpie House Parties.

Reuters reported a new crime trend dubbed “Sharpie parties,” where people armed with markers vandalize foreclosed homes. Let’s just go ahead and blame this on Sharpie advertising agency Draftfcb.

‘Sharpie parties’ fuel rampage on foreclosed homes

REUTERS

LOS ANGELES—In the age of Facebook and Twitter, a new crime has hit America: “Sharpie parties,” gatherings of party revelers armed with “Sharpie” magic markers and lured by social media invitations to wreak havoc on foreclosed homes.

Five years into the US foreclosure crisis, Sharpie parties are a new form of blight on the landscape of boarded-up homes, brown lawns and abandoned streets. They are also the latest iteration of collective home-trashing spurred by social media.

At least six Sharpie parties were reported in one California county in recent months, where invitations posted online drew scores to foreclosed homes.

The partygoers are handed Sharpie pens on arrival by their hosts and urged to graffiti the walls - a destructive binge that often prompts other acts of vandalism including smashing holes in walls and doors, flooding bathrooms and ripping up floors.

The California spree follows a similar outbreak earlier this year, when teenagers wrecked homes in states including Texas, Florida and Utah after seeing the movie Project X. The film features a house wrecking party sparked by online invitations.

Anna Hazel, an investigator in the Merced district attorney’s office in central California, said the use of social media is a very effective way for partygoers to find the address and to track the progress of the party.

It also provides a treasure trove of evidence for the police.

Hazel said in her most recent case of “extensive destruction” to a foreclosed property, the host of the Sharpie party posted an invitation to “Matt’s House of Mayhem” on a Facebook page.

At least 100 people turned up. Hundreds of smartphone text messages describing the party were also sent.

They drank alcohol, scrawled profanities on walls, smashed glass, tore up parts of the house and left garbage strewn everywhere.

“We obtained search warrants for Facebook accounts,” Hazel said. “It was very useful to us to get access to the social networks. They posted pictures of the party. They were brazen about it.”

Three men, aged 21, 24 and 30, were arrested on suspicion of felony vandalism, burglary and conspiracy. One of them was the son of the evicted former owner.

“The Sharpie party is the newest twist here,” said Larry Morse, the district attorney in Merced County, California. Morse said he has investigated vandalized homes after six “Sharpie parties” in recent months.

Andy Krotic, a Californian realtor, said: “It’s a growing fad among young people, especially the Twitter crowd. They throw a big party, everyone gets a Sharpie, and they are invited to write on the walls and spray paint.”

Krotic said in one recent case partygoers shot arrows through the wall, hitting a room in a neighbor’s house.

Banks that own the foreclosed homes are reluctant to pursue the perpetrators, Krotic says, because they don’t have the resources to hunt down the miscreants. Even if they’re caught, the unwanted publicity from their prosecution would likely incite more parties.

“Usually they leave the damage and just drop the price,” Krotic said.

10371: Snickers Satisfies Meth Heads.

The Huffington Post reported a man was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport for trying to smuggle methamphetamine disguised as Snickers bars. Authorities were probably tipped when the guy was not acting like himself after eating a Snickers.

Meth Candy: Snickers Bars Filled With Methamphetamine Get Man Arrested At LAX

LOS ANGELES -- A California man faces federal drug charges for allegedly trying to smuggle more than 4 pounds of methamphetamine to Japan in what looked like dozens of Snickers bars.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said Monday that 34-year-old Rogelio Mauricio Harris of Long Beach was arrested last week at Los Angeles International Airport as he prepared to board a flight to Japan.

Harris was charged in Los Angeles with drug possession and faces at least 10 years in prison if convicted.

Federal agents conducting routine baggage inspections found 45 full-sized Snickers bars inside Harris’ luggage. Each bar was coated in a chocolate-like substance to make it look like a candy bar, but tests revealed the so-called candy contained methamphetamine.

Authorities estimate the 4 pounds of meth is worth about $250,000.

9890: Making A Clean Getaway.

From The New York Post…

Grime Wave: Thefts of Tide laundry detergent across the US baffle police

By THE DAILY

Law enforcement officials across the US have been left baffled by a crime wave targeting an unlikely item—Tide laundry detergent.

Theft of Tide detergent has become so rampant that some cities are setting up special task forces to stop it and retailers like CVS are taking special security precautions to lock down the liquid.

One Tide thief in West St. Paul, Minn., stole $25,000 of the product over 15 months before he was arrested last year.

“That was unique that he stole so much soap,” said West St. Paul Police Chief Bud Shaver.

“The name brand is [all] Tide. Amazing, huh?”

Tide has become a form of currency on the streets. The retail price is steadily high—roughly $10 to $20 a bottle—and it’s a staple in households across socioeconomic classes.

Tide can go for $5 to $10 a bottle on the black market, authorities say, and some thieves even resell it to stores.

“There’s no serial numbers and it’s impossible to track,” said Detective Larry Patterson of the Somerset, Ky., Police Department, where authorities have seen a huge spike in Tide theft. “It’s the item to steal.”

Police say thieves target the Procter & Gamble detergent because it is the most popular and, with its Day-Glo orange logo, the most recognizable.

George Cohen, spokesman for Philadelphia-based Checkpoint Systems, which produces alarms being tested on Tide in CVS stores, said, “Name brands are easier to resell.

“In organized retail crimes they would love to steal the iPad. It’s very easy to sell. Harder to sell the unknown Korean brand.”

Most thieves load carts with dozens of bottles, then dash out the door. Many have getaway cars waiting outside.

“These are criminals coming into the store to steal thousands of dollars of merchandise,” said Detective Harrison Sprague of the Prince George’s County, Md., Police Department, where Tide is known as “liquid gold” among officers.

He and other law enforcement officials across the country say Tide theft is connected to the drug trade.

“We sent in an informant to buy drugs,” Sprague said. “The dealer said, ‘I don’t have drugs, but I could sell you 15 bottles of Tide.’”

Police in Gresham, Ore., said most Tide theft is perpetrated by “users feeding their habit.”

“They’ll do it right in front of a cop car—buying heroin or methamphetamine with Tide,” said Detective Rick Blake of the Gresham Police Department. “We would see people walking down the road with six, seven bottles of Tide. They were so blatant about it.”

9619: Holiday Shoppers—And Shoplifters.

The Associated Press revealed why many holiday presents may not be accompanied by gift receipts.

A whole lotta naughty — more shoppers stealing this holiday

By Sarah Skidmore

More than spirits are being lifted this holiday season.

Shoppers may be grabbing lots of things off shelves, but many are leaving stores without paying for them.

During the four weeks leading up to Christmas, an estimated $1.84 billion in merchandise will be shoplifted this year, according to The Global Retail Theft Barometer, a survey of retailers worldwide. That’s up about 6 percent from $1.7 billion during the same period last year.

Some people always get sticky fingers during the holidays. After all, crowded stores and harried clerks make it easier to slip a sweater under a coat undetected. But higher joblessness and falling wages have contributed to an even bigger rise this year.

AP

9404: You Deserve A Broken Skull Today.

From The New York Daily News…

Ex-con McDonald's cashier jumps counter, beats two women with metal bar over $50 bill

By John Doyle, Daily News Staff Writer

A McDonald’s cashier with a manslaughter rap was caught on camera savagely beating two women with a metal bar inside the Greenwich Village franchise on Thursday, police said.

Rayon McIntosh, 31, beat down the female customers after they attacked him following an argument over the veracity of a $50 bill inside the W. Third St. restaurant, police said.

WATCH THE VIDEO: SHOCKING ATTACK AT MCDONALD’S

He can be seen in the video repeatedly striking the women, who had jumped behind the counter, even after they were on the ground, as horrified customers’ screamed and pleaded for him to stop.

McIntosh was arrested and charged with assault, police said. He was held on $40,000 bail.

The women, Denise Darberau, 24, and Rachel Edwards, 24, were also arrested and charged with menacing, criminal trespass and disorderly conduct, police said.

Both were hospitalized, one with a cracked skull and broken arm. The other had a cut.

McIntosh had been paroled from prison in March after serving 10 years for manslaughter for shooting and killing a 17-year-old classmate in 2000.

With News Wire Services

9197: Authentic Mexican Stereotypes.

Guessing the typical Mexican drug lord would not find the food at this place to be very authentic.

9113: LGBT Crime Targets.

From USA TODAY…

Crimes against LGBT community are up, despite social gains

By Natalie DiBlasio, USA TODAY

Violent crimes, including murder, increased last year against people identifying themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT), and people of color among those groups were most likely to be targeted, an advocacy group reports.

A report last month by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, a group that supports victims of anti-LGBT harassment, found:

• Hate incidents against LGBT people and HIV-affected persons increased 13% from 2009 to 2010.

• Murders of LGBT people numbered 27, the second-highest total recorded.

• Half of victims did not report the crimes to police, and 61% of victims who did said they experienced indifferent or abusive police attitudes.

• Offenders were mostly strangers, white and non-transgender men.

This rise is no surprise to Suzanna Walters, professor of gender studies at Indiana University and author of All the Rage: The Story of Gay Visibility in America.

Walters says that ongoing homophobia is hidden because of increased visibility of support for the LGBT community, including New York’s legalizing same-sex marriage and the repeal of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

“These positive changes are very real, there is no doubt about it, but the more visible you are as a community the more vulnerable you are, too,” she says. “There is a protection in the closet, as awful as that is. Real homophobia with violent outcomes is not a thing of the past and there is much more work to be done.”

Nationally, violent crimes are in decline, according to the most recent FBI statistics. Preliminary figures published in May show a 5.5% decrease in the number of violent crimes, including murder, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault from 2009 to 2010.

The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 gave the FBI authority to investigate hate crimes involving sexual orientation, says Peter Kaupp, FBI supervisory special agent and hate-crimes program manager.

A look at major cities:

• New York. Incidents happened in popular gay neighborhoods such as Chelsea and the West Village.

• Chicago. The Center on Halsted Anti-Violence Project reported 73 incidents, a 12% increase over 2009.

• San Francisco. Incidents rose 65% to 213 last year, reports the Community United Against Violence.

• Kansas City, Mo. Kansas City Anti-violence Project documented a 52% increase to 31.

Mattie Leyden, 40, was born a man but legally changed her documents to reflect a female identity two years ago. Every day she says she fears becoming a crime statistic. “I’m waiting for it to happen someday,” Leyden says.

Contributing: Nicole C. Brambila, The (Palm Springs, Calif.) Desert Sun

8996: Apple Picking And Perp Walking.

Law and Disorder in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• Chicago law enforcement officials are reporting a significant increase of “Apple picking”—where bus and train commuters are being robbed of their iPhones and smart devices. Hey, if it all leads to fewer morons holding loud and annoying phone conversations on public transportation, what’s the problem?

• A NYC Councilman has proposed legislation to ban the “perp walk”—the public display of criminal suspects being paraded by law enforcement officials. The politician believes such acts ultimately hurt defendants by making the presumed innocent “look guilty and bias the potential jury pool.” Introducing the legislation can only mean one thing: the NYC Councilman knows he’s about to get busted for something.