Celebrating The 4th Of July 2020

Today we celebrate on the 4th of July the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the birth of America in 1776.

   
In the 1972 film 1776 the late, great actor Howard de Silva, portraying the late, great Ben Franklin, describes how we have spawned a new race, Americans.

You can watch the clip via the below link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EadfD59LB04

Rescuing Victims Of Child Sexual Abuse: FBI Programs Support A Global Effort To Save Children From Harm

The FBI released the below information:

With every report to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and every law enforcement investigation dealing with child sexual abuse material, a largely unseen—but urgent—effort begins to identify and aid the child or children being harmed in the images.

It is an effort that relies on technology and painstaking investigative work—where details as small as a baseball cap or a soda cup have provided the clues that allowed investigators to find a child.

At the FBI, the Endangered Child Alert Program (ECAP) works alongside Operation Rescue Me to explore every possible avenue in identifying a child victim of sexual abuse. Operation Rescue Me is focused on rescuing the child victim from further abuse and exploitation. In pursuit of that same goal, ECAP seeks national and international exposure of unknown adults whose faces and/or distinguishing characteristics are visible in images of child sexual abuse.

Special Agent Karen Jurden, who heads both programs within the FBI’s Violent Crime Section, explained the two programs this way: “Our goal is to identify victims. But if we’ve exhausted everything we can do on the child, and we have an image where an adult does appear, we will pursue that angle.”

She stressed that the adults featured on ECAP are not always suspected of wrongdoing. “We know that person has knowledge of the victim,” she said.

“There is nothing better than knowing publicity has helped our agents solve one of these cases and identify a child,” said Chris Allen, chief, FBI Investigative Publicity and Public Affairs Unit.

With a larger number of eyes on these pictures, there is a greater likelihood that someone will spot a person or item they recognize and help point law enforcement in the right direction.

“Every time we have a new case, it draws people’s attention to older cases as well,” Jurden said. “People have helped us solve older cases that way.”

“For every ECAP case we work on, we use every available publicity tool to ensure the maximum number of people will see the images,” said Chris Allen, chief of the FBI’s Investigative Publicity and Public Affairs Unit. “There is nothing better than knowing publicity has helped our agents solve one of these cases and identify a child.”

The Effort to Identify Every Child Victim 

When the FBI (or any law enforcement agency) seizes child sexual abuse material from an offender—and Jurden said many offenders have hundreds or thousands of files—the FBI brings the material to NCMEC.

NCMEC runs a digital scan that checks the material against images and videos that already exist in their system, explained Shelley Allwang, manager of NCMEC’s Child Victim Identification Program. The process allows NCMEC to see which victims are already known to them. These children have either already been reached or NCMEC is actively working with law enforcement both domestically and internationally to identify them. The most pressing goal, Allwang said, is to find “the children we have never seen before, because these could be children who are being victimized right now.”

Allwang said NCMEC has a number of high-tech and human tools to help in the process of identifying these victims, but if they reach a dead end, they return the case to the investigators who brought them the material. “We are not law enforcement,” Allwang stressed, “so we can only use the tools we have.”

If the file began with an FBI case, the charge of identifying that still unknown victim comes back to FBI agents and becomes an active case within the Operation Rescue Me program and possibly ECAP.

Jurden and Allwang both acknowledge that the number of these cases and the volume of images can give rise to feelings of both fury and hopelessness. But while the scale of the crime is daunting, these cases are not being lumped together by law enforcement or by NCMEC. The two groups are committed to the heartbreaking work of cataloging each image and finding the children in them.

“If you look at the totality, you won’t sleep at night,” Jurden said. “The answer is to take it case by case. It is rewarding to wake up each day and know you’re doing something. And to know I’m not the only one doing this.”

Allwang also said she is comforted both by thinking of her impact on individual children and by the knowledge that there is a global network of people who are fighting alongside her. “So many people from so many different professions are invested in solving this problem—technology companies, law enforcement, advocates, media, prosecutors, judges,” Allwang said. “They are all motivated by the mission.”

Allwang said she is also moved by the bravery and resilience she sees in survivors of child sexual abuse. “I see the worst of humanity,” she said. “But I also see the best.”

The FBI's Operation Rescue Me has identified more than 600 children since 2008. ECAP was created in 2004 and it has investigated 41 cases. The program has successfully identified 28 of the individuals profiled and found 45 child victims. The remaining cases remain active investigations. And the FBI will stay on them—case by case, child by child.

Powerful: LeBron James Pulls Over To Lecture Homeless Man On His White Privilege

The Babylon Bee takes a satirical shot at LeBron James and the Black Lives Matter movement.

LOS ANGELES, CA—We all know LeBron James is an amazing human being, but seriously. Just when we thought he couldn't get any better, local media caught this powerful moment and WE CAN'T EVEN. Cameras caught the inspiring, heartwarming moment LeBron approached a homeless man last week at one of LA's many tent cities. 

… LeBron James then proceeded to lecture the lucky panhandler on his white privilege.

You can read the rest of the humor piece via the below link:

https://babylonbee.com/news/powerful-lebron-james-pulls-over-to-lecture-homeless-man-on-his-white-privilege 

The Real Donnie Brasco: Legendary Undercover FBI Special Agent Joe Pistone's Video Interview

Legendary retired FBI Special Agent Joseph Pistone, who went undercover with the New York Bonanno Cosa Nostra organized crime family, was interviewed by Patrick Bet-David on YouTube.com

You can watch the video interview via the below link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8v-X06Q04w4

I interviewed Joe Pistone for the Philadelphia Inquirer when I reviewed his book The Way of the Wiseguy and I later interviewed him for my Crime Beat column.

You can read my Philadelphia Inquirer review below and you can read my Crime Beat column on Joe Pistone via the below link:

www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2010/01/look-back-at-joseph-pistone-aka-donnie.html

Note: You can click on the above to enlarge.

'Oh, God. The Sixties Are Coming Back,' Says Conservative Writer And Humorist P.J. O'Rourke

Former Philadelphia-South Jersey Cosa Nostra Crime Boss Ralph Natale's Video Interview

Former Philadelphia-South Jersey Cosa Nostra crime family boss Ralph Natale discussed Jimmy Hoffa's murder and the history of organized crime in Philadelphia with Patrick Bet-David on YouTube. 

You can watch the video interview via the below link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AB0PHFoaZU

 

I reviewed Ralph Natale’s book, Last Don Standing for the Washington Times and I interviewed the former mob boss-turned government witness.

You can read my Crime Beat column and Q&A with Ralph Natale via the below link:

www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2017/04/my-crime-beat-column-my-q-with-ralph.html 

Chinese National Guilty Of Laundering Millions For Mexican Drug Cartels

The U.S. Justice Department released the below information:

A Chinese national pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to commit money laundering in connection with laundering more than $4 million in drug proceeds generated by large-scale cocaine trafficking in the United States.

Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department's Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney G. Zachary Terwilliger for the Eastern District of Virginia; Special Agent in Charge Wendy C. Woolcock of the Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) Special Operations Division and Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey T. Scott of the DEA Louisville Field Division; Jason Crosby, Chief of the Criminal Investigations Division of the U.S. Department of State's Diplomatic Security Service (DSS); and Special Agent in Charge James Gibbons of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Chicago, Illinois, made the announcement after U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema accepted the plea.

According to court documents, Xueyong Wu, 40, cultivated relationships with Latin American drug trafficking organizations to transport and launder their United States-based drug proceeds.  Wu is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 29.

Much of this money was repatriated to Mexico through a complex series of international financial transactions. Wu received a percentage of the money involved in these transactions as compensation for organizing these laundering activities.  Much of this money was generated through movement of cocaine or payment for cocaine that took place within the Eastern District of Virginia.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael P. Ben’Ary and David A. Peters, along with Trial Attorneys Steve Sola and Kerry Blackburn of the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section are prosecuting the case.