Belgium is legalizing pot smoking. The country's politicians voted to allow adults to possess up to five grams of marijuana with two restrictions: They can't smoke it in front of children or teenagers, and they can't disturb the peace.

The new Homeland Security Agency has appointed its first Counter Narcotics "Czar"

The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have named former CIA operative Roger Mackin to coordinate federal anti-drug efforts between the two agencies. The position will combine the existing duties of the United States Interdiction Coordinator (USIC), a currently held position within the ONDCP, with those of the newly established DHS Counter Narcotics Officer.

According to an ONDCP press release, the Counter Narcotics "Czar" will "ensure that all DHS counterdrug policies, initiatives, efforts, andresources are aligned with the President's National Drug Control Strategy," among other duties.

NORML Foundation Executive Director Allen St. Pierre criticized the formation of the new federal anti-drug bureaucracy under the umbrella of the DHS. "Adding another 'anti-drug' technocrat to the acronym soup of federal agencies already charged with drug law enforcement at this time of heightened security and federal belt-tightening is the embodiment of government waste and redundancy," St. Pierre said.

Though the ONDCP's press release alleges that Mackin has "unmatched experience" in coordinating anti-drug efforts and drug policy, an internet search-engine query under his name revealed virtually no references to his background. Mackin has worked as an intelligence officer for the CIA in Vietnam, and later in South America.

Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton said on Thursday that investigators had found 'substance' to molestation allegations against a top police commander and were seeking to bring charges against him. Sources close to the case said the allegations stem from three men who claim that Deputy Chief David Kalish, the LAPD's highest-ranking openly gay officer, sexually molested or assaulted them during the 1970s.

Bratton said the Department investigated the charges for five months before submitting a request the D.A.'s office for filing of charges. The allegations are currently the subject of civil suit filed against Kalish, so they are not secret. Bratton said that even if the DA declines to file charges, Kalish will still face administrative charges.

Bratton said he had to place Kalish on "home assignment" because the deputy chief could not be effective with the molestation allegations swirling around him. The chief said it would be impossible to keep the matter secret. The allegations apparently surfaced in a lawsuit by a man who claimed in a civil lawsuit that Kalish "harassed, sexually molested and assaulted" him in the 1970s, when they had contact through a teen program run by the Boy Scouts of America. Since then, sources said, two more men have come forward to say that they were molested by Kalish when they were young.

Here is the American Bar Association's letter that was sent to Congress today protesting the planned subpoena of the sentencing records of Federal Judge James Rosenbaum. We wrote earlier today about the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers' (NACDL) Board Resolution opposing such a subpoena. Background on it is here.

March 24, 2003

The Honorable James Sensenbrenner
Chairman
U.S. House of Representatives
2332 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Chairman Sensenbrenner:

On behalf of the 410,000 members of the American Bar Association, I write to express our grave concern about the pending proposal to subpoena Judge James Rosenbaum regarding his sentencing practices. Such a subpoena, to our knowledge unprecedented outside of impeachment proceedings, represents a significant threat to the independence of our judiciary and to the separation of powers doctrine.

If the purpose of this action is to obtain information in furtherance of the Committee's oversight responsibilities with respect to the sentencing guidelines, it would not focus on this one judge. There is a wealth of statistical material available on implementation nationally, most notably from the U.S. Sentencing Commission itself.

If there is a belief this judge has in some manner violated his obligations as a federal judge, a complaint may be filed under the procedures established by Congress when it enacted the Judicial Discipline and Disability Act of 1980.

If there is concern over the outcome in a particular case where a downward departure from the sentencing guideline was imposed, the Department of Justice has the authority to challenge such action in the Court of Appeals.

We are concerned that issuing a subpoena will suggest to all members of our federal judiciary that decisions they make which may be disagreeable to certain Members of Congress will result in their being compelled to appear before Congress to explain themselves. Such an action would be a serious threat to the independence of the Third Branch of our government as envisioned by the Founding Fathers.

We urge you and your colleagues not to issue a subpoena but rather pursue other means to obtain whatever information your Committee may require to carry out its duties.

Sincerely,

Alfred P. Carlton, Jr.

cc: Members of the Committee on the Judiciary
The Chief Justice of the United States
The Hon. James Rosenbaum

With all the war news this week, and the Texecutions last week, we overlooked this article appearing in the March 22 Washington Times:

President Bush yesterday announced his intention to nominate Karen P.Tandy, head of the Justice Department's Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, as the new chief of the Drug Enforcement Administration. If confirmed by the Senate, she would be the first woman ever to head the anti-drug agency.

A veteran prosecutor, she would replace acting administrator John B. Brown
III, a longtime drug agent who was named in January to succeed former Rep.
Asa Hutchinson. In his announcement, Mr. Bush noted that Mrs. Tandy, a deputy associate attorney general, had previously served as both chief of litigation in the Justice Department's asset-forfeiture office and as deputy chief for
narcotics and dangerous drugs.

The president said she also was an assistant U.S. attorney in Virginia and
Washington state, where she handled the prosecution of violent crime,
complex drug cases, money laundering and forfeiture cases.

Are there any Virginia or Washington defense lawyers out there who want to give us their take on Ms. Tandy? You can use the comments section and post anonymously if you want.

The National Institute of Standards has just completed a study for the Government on the accuracy of facial recognition systems. Here are the major findings:

The systems recognize men more easily than women.

Younger people are harder to recognize than older people.

Recognition from video imagery is not much better than from still images.

Even topflight software is not sensitive to typical indoor lighting changes.

The technology has improved substantially over the past two years. How accurate are the systems?

The three top-rated systems verified identities correctly 87 percent to 90 percent of the time with a false-alarm rate of 1 percent. When NIST specified a false-alarm rate of 0.1 percent, the success rate dropped to between 79 percent and 82 percent. When checking facial images against a watch list of 25 images at a false-alarm rate of 1 percent, the top three systems were accurate about 80 percent of the time. The success rate fell to below 60 percent when NIST expanded the watch list to 3,000 images at the same false-alarm rate.

[link via PatriotWatch]

Dr. Frederic Whitehurst, the whistleblower referred to in today's news articles about the 3,000 criminal cases that may be tainted due to "flawed science" and "skewed testimony" at the FBI lab prior to 1997, has this to say about the matter:

The present director of the FBI crime lab is Dr. Dwight Adams. You may remember that one of the improvements to the FBI crime lab taken in 1997 was that the lab would be managed by an outside scientist, not an FBI agent. That individual was Dr. Don Kerr. He stayed about 3 years and left and was replaced quietly by ... an FBI agent. Back to normal. Dr. Adams is an FBI agent and has been one for close to twenty years. He originally worked in the serology section of the lab, went to the field to the New York FBI office and returned in about 1996 or 1997 and zoomed up the ladder of management.

Supervisory Special Agent Adams, now director of the FBI crime lab, tells us that the number 3000 cases affected by the lab's woes is not necessarily alarming as the lab has 650 employees working hundreds of thousands of cases. That Adams would say that is in itself alarming. But look behind those numbers. The IG report only looked at the work product of 13 examiners. The lab employs 650 personnel. If 13 employees caused the work in 3000 cases to be suspect then if you do the math you could imagine that on the average one lab examiner might mess up 230 cases in a career. Multiply that by 650 and you get a universe of 149,500 cases that might be flawed. In reality only about 200 of those 650 employees in the lab are examiners who render opinions. So let's assume that the 450 technicians do perfect work during their whole career (fat chance). That will reduce the possible universe of flawed cases down to a mere 46,000 cases. Dr. Adams should be relieved by that number. The question you should ask yourself then is, are you relieved knowing that only 46,000 cases may have been screwed up by the FBI crime lab and the US Department of Justice only found 3000 of those cases.

But there is more.

LA Weekly examines LA Police Chief William Bratton's decision to open up the Ramparts scandal to an independent investigation in Bring on the Dirty Cops:

But even before he applied for the job last year, Bratton knew the department would never fully recapture its stature, its morale or its effectiveness until the subject of Rampart was finally closed. And he knew that to be closed, it must finally be fully opened.

In October, before taking the oath as chief, Bratton called for a new internal LAPD probe into the whole disaster. But a few months on the job convinced him that another inside report would never remove the stain of scandal. Last month, he told the Police Commission that he wants an outside, independent probe.

This is what police reformers had been seeking, and City Hall had been resisting, for years. Why the change now? The first answer is the most obvious one --Bratton is an outsider. No matter how disturbing the revelations that may come out of any new probe, they will not directly tarnish this chief from New York with the Boston accent.

This is something that could never be said of career LAPD officer Bernard Parks, who was in charge of Internal Affairs and later Operations when much of the misconduct occurred, even though he fervently insisted as chief that it was his leadership and discipline that brought the conspiracy to light.

There's lots more, go read the whole thing. Then go over and read two more LA Weekly articles:

The new guy in town — Bill Bratton — has a good idea. He wants to know just how deep Rampart-style sins go in L.A. Here are two cases that might be worth another look by the chief. CELESTE FREMON records the final moments of the life of 19-year-old Flavio Aragon, who bled to death in 1994 in the presence of police officers. CHARLES RAPPLEYE examines the death of Erik Vega, who was shot in 1996 after officers dropped him off near rival gang territory.

A new Justice Department report criticizes the Miami Police for its policies on use of force and choice of weapons.

The report is part of an investigation the Justice Department began into alleged police misconduct against minorities in the Miami area last yea, resulting from accusations of racism and police brutality.

Here is Miami Police Chief John Timmony's response to the report

Addressing the U.S. Department of Justice's critical findings of some Miami police policies and practices, Miami Chief John Timoney said today that he will make necessary changes after he finishes his own review of the agency. ''We have been looking at the entire department,'' Timoney said. ``Our review is even more extensive and exhaustive than the one they are doing.''

You can read the entire Justice Department report here. A Miami Herald intensive report, Fatal Fire, Flawed Justice, is accessible here.

Sometimes justice prevails after all. We reported recently on the brutality charges leveled against Ernesto Velasco, former head of the Cook County jail in Chicago and since appointed by new Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to head up the state's Department of Corrections.

Velasco resigned Friday. During his tenure at the Cook County jail in 1999, "guards allegedly beat dozens of inmates following a gang-related stabbing and conspired to cover up the rampage."

Our detailed coverage is here and here.

Under a new law effective March 17, physicians in the Netherlands will be able to prescribe medical marijuana and pharmacies will dispense it to patients as they do other prescription medications. This will make the Netherlands the first country to treat marijuana in the same manner it treats other prescription drugs.

For more, visit the Marijuana Policy Project and NORML.

Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton has initiated a new disciplinary policy for the city's police force. It has the approval of the Police Commission, the Mayor, city residents and the cops on the force. Bratton said it boils down to this:

"If you are right, we will back you up. If you make a mistake, we will retrain you. If you are corrupt, we will jail you."

Under the new policy, station captains, rather than the Internal Affairs Bureau, will handle "procedural errors or other nondisciplinary complaints." A fact-finding system will be implemented to resolve minor complaints between residents and officers. There will be "alternative conflict resolution groups in which non- and minor-discipline cases can be resolved in sessions with the officer and the complainer, Bratton said."

The cops quoted in the article are clearly relieved. We're glad to see city residents, top brass and street cops LA warming to Bratton and trusting him. We've always said, if anyone could turn that corrupt and demoralized police department around, it would be Bill Bratton. Too bad they can't clone him to do the same for San Francisco.