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Brazil protesters target Confederations Cup match

By STEPHEN WADE

FORTALEZA, Brazil (AP) — About 5,000 anti-government protesters battled police on Thursday near a stadium that hosted a semi-final match of the Confederations Cup soccer tournament.

The protesters marched peacefully but clashed with police as they neared the outer limits of a security zone about 1 mile (2 kilometers) from the stadium in Fortaleza, where Spain beat Italy in penalty time in the warm-up tournament to the 2014 World Cup. In Rio de Janeiro, about 2,000 protesters marched but didn’t clash with police.

They’re the latest in a series of massive, nationwide protests that have hit Brazil since June 17. Demonstrators are angered about corruption and poor public services despite a heavy tax burden. Protests are also denouncing the billions of dollars spent to host the World Cup and the 2016 Olympics in Rio — money they say should be going toward better hospitals, schools, transportation projects and schools.

Victoria Ferreira, a 16-year-old protesting near the Castelao stadium in Fortaleza, said it was ironic that “if something broke out here, some violence, there would be no hospitals to take care of us.”

Acrid tear gas still drifted in the air around Ferreira as police and clusters of protesters battled. Authorities fired tear gas and rubber bullets in an effort to scatter the crowd, while protesters responded with slingshots, fireworks and rocks. At one point, a group of protesters broke through the outer police barrier and made a dash for the stadium, but they were pushed pack by police.

A few other scattered protests were reported around Brazil, smaller gatherings of demonstrators focused on individual issues, not the sort of massive protests seen last week when as many as 1 million Brazilians poured into the streets to call for change.

In Brasilia, President Dilma Rousseff met with union leaders and legislators as the government continued to scramble to meet protester demands over anti-corruption measures and improved public services.

Rousseff was preparing the ground for a proposal she’s expected to deliver to congress on Monday for a plebiscite on political reform that she wants to put before the Brazilian population in the coming months.

There are no details yet on what political reforms Rousseff will suggest nor on how or when a plebiscite would occur.

Gilberto Carvalho, Rousseff’s general secretary, told reporters in Brasilia Thursday that the biggest lesson the government took from the protests was that it needs to better hear and understand the voices coming from the street.

“For that reason, the plebiscite, which will allow people to express themselves about political reform, is extremely important,” Carvalho said. “To underestimate the unpreparedness of the population would be an error, the same error of those who disregarded their capacity to mobilize in the streets.”

___

Associated Press writer Ricardo Zuniga contributed to this report from Fortaleza.

http://news.findlaw.com/apnews/a2dd4a9c54e2455db2a4e8a437717e44?DCMP=NWL-cons_sportslaw

Red Sox fan stabbed in Conn. by NY fan gets $4.3M

By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN, 6/27/2013

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — A Boston Red Sox fan who was harassed and stabbed through the neck by a New York Yankees fan at a restaurant in 2010 has been awarded $4.3 million by a jury.

The jury in New Haven reached the verdict Thursday in favor of Monte Freire and against the restaurant, U.S.S. Chowder Pot III, in Branford, attorneys for both sides said. Bartenders ignored warnings that the Yankees fan was harassing fellow patrons and trying to start a fight and continued to serve him alcohol, said attorney Timothy Pothin, representing Freire.

“We’re grateful that the jury was very attentive. They understood our case and held the Chowder Pot responsible for its employees’ negligence,” Pothin said. “Perhaps this will provide a lesson to other bars and nightclubs in our community and their insurance carriers who continue to maintain untenable positions in cases of clear negligence.”

Freire, 45, suffered life-altering injuries, including a brain injury, a stroke, impaired speech and vision and severe scarring, Pothin said.

The Yankees fan, John Mayor, was convicted of assault and is serving a 10-year prison sentence.

Mayor told Freire, of Nashua, N.H., and his friends that based on their accents he believed they were Red Sox fans and declared it was Yankees territory and they weren’t welcome, Pothin said. Mayor continued to harass them before the unprovoked attack, he said.

The restaurant’s attorney, Jan Trendowski, said he’ll appeal. He said the complaint was that the patron was arguing about a baseball game and the bartender looked over at the patron, who was sitting quietly, and decided to monitor the situation.

“They warned the bartender the guy was acting like a jerk,” Trendowski said. “How they make the jump from jerk to stabbing, that’s the real issue here. What is the sane response to the insane situation? If you don’t know why he stabbed him how can you possibly say that something contributed to it?”

A message left with Mayor’s attorney on Thursday wasn’t immediately returned.

http://news.findlaw.com/apnews/a9185b4532a24b55bbd70991f5f91451?DCMP=NWL-cons_sportslaw

Full-Scale Exercise with the Cleveland Indians Tests IED Response

By: Elaine Pittman on June 19, 2013

While the bombings at the Boston Marathon reminded responders and emergency managers about the importance to continue to train and plan for natural and man-made disasters, Cleveland and Cuyahoga County, Ohio, had already been planning a full-scale exercise with the city’s Major League Baseball team. Approached by representatives from the Cleveland Indians about testing their ability to respond to a terrorist attack during a major game at Progressive Field, such as a playoff game, the city reached out to Cuyahoga County to help develop the full-scale exercise.

“The Department of Homeland Security recommends preparation as the No. 1 priority in dealing with emergency situations,” said Bob DiBiasio, the Indians’ senior vice president of public affairs, in a statement. “While our safety and security policies and procedures always have maintained the highest standards, we know it is very important to be well prepared in the event of any major emergency situation.”

Planning began last October for the exercise that took place on April 23, a date determined by the Cleveland Indians because the players were out of town.

“This was a good opportunity for us, and so we took advantage of it and built the exercise as big as we could support it,” said Walter Topp, administrator of the Cuyahoga County Office of Emergency Management.

In addition to the county and city emergency management offices, about 13 agencies participated in the full-scale exercise, including Cleveland’s police and fire departments, the FBI, National Guard, American Red Cross, Northeast Ohio Regional Fusion Center and Region 2 Urban Search and Rescue. Topp said the county works with the agencies that participated on a routine basis and that his office’s role is to assist the local communities. “We don’t have any first responder responsibility ourselves because all of Cuyahoga County is incorporated, so in every square foot of it there’s a police chief and a fire chief and they’re responsible for the initial response in their community,” he said.

“Our function is to assist all the local agencies and to really be the gateway to significant assistance either at the state or federal level,” Topp added.

During the exercise, the county’s objectives included testing immediate notification; fire and hazardous materials operations; the ability to establish an incident command system and transition to a unified command system; communications; activating and operating the EOC; and assessing the ability to conduct emergency public information activities. In addition, Topp said the Medical Examiner’s Office participated with the objective of assessing its ability to do fatality management when there are mass causalities.

Tara Vargovich, exercise planner with the Cuyahoga County Office of Emergency Management, stressed that the exercise was a coordinated effort between the county and Cleveland, and said the city took a lead role with the public information aspect. From the county’s perspective, Vargovich said there were three major takeaways, with the first being the need to focus on a second operational period. A majority of exercises focus on the initial notification and response, but she said discussions need to be expanded to include insight into how long it takes an urban search and rescue team to come in and search an area for people, or how long a medical examiner’s office will be on scene. Vargovich suggested that this could be done by having a time jump or time lapse in the exercise “where incident command is established already, our special teams are coming in to do their role and really provide them additional training and exercising from that standpoint.”

A future exercise with the Medical Examiner’s Office will start at the point where police officers have already set up a perimeter, any fires have been put out, and special teams can move in and start their investigations. “They’re going to be able to go through what it would take to identify articles of clothing and link those articles of clothing to bodies,” Vargovich said. “They haven’t really gotten to do that because they are truncated at the end.”

The second takeaway is to conduct additional specialty training to address the personnel turnover. Vargovich said training is always needed, but additional training will help get new employees and employees who are in new roles up to speed. “The building-block approach to exercises has really been beneficial,” she said. “If we do smaller drills where we identify one item and then building that up into a bigger exercise is really beneficial.”

The final takeaway is assigning people to be scribes and take notes about what is happening. Vargovich said the offices do a good job of documenting information using incident management software, but that it would also be beneficial to have scribes at the scene documenting the response.

Cuyahoga County works with its partner agencies to conduct training constantly throughout the year, participating in one full-scale exercise annually and dozens of smaller exercises with different communities, Topp said.

“Every one of these exercises is extremely valuable to us,” Topp said.

You may use or reference this story with attribution and a link to

http://www.emergencymgmt.com/training/Exercise-Cleveland-Indians-Tests-IED-Response.html

US Justice Department Publishes Guidelines for Major Events

US Justice Department Publishes Guidelines for Major Events
by TAL Global on June 13, 2013

The new primer aims at adding insights and knowledge to law enforcement officials as they approach the planning and execution of the task of securing large public events.

The Justice Department concluded that often there is an information gap between what individual law enforcement officials know and the vast accumulated knowledge and proven practices gathered by multiple agencies across the country. The Planning Primer is one of the tools designed to bridge this information gap.

The BJA hopes that the new primer, together with other tools they plan to introduce, will help law enforcement officials maximize the local and regional benefits inherent in large scale public events, while minimizing threats to public safety.

The primer presents a comprehensive model practices pertaining to security planning for a large-scale event, starting from pre-event planning and culminating with event specifically pre-event planning, core event operations, checklists, financial as well as operational insights, actionable templates and key considerations designed to facilitate the planning process.

To download the primer, please click on the link below.

Managing Large-Scale Security Events: A Planning Primer for Local Law Enforcement Agencies

https://www.bja.gov/Publications/LSSE-planning-Primer.pdf

Man killed in line for new shoes

A shooter kills a would-be robber in self-defense while waiting in line to buy LeBron James’ signature shoes
Kelly Dwyer, 6/23/13

Greedy shoe companies making select sneakers needlessly exclusive paired together with consumer exuberance, desperation, and American gun culture on Saturday long enough to cost one would-be alleged robber his life. Shoppers waiting in line to purchase the latest incarnation of LeBron James’ signature shoe outside Atlanta were being harassed by a reported pickpocket until one patron decided to pull a gun out and shoot the as-yet unidentified man in what is being considered a move motivated by self-defense.

Wayne Washington at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has the story:

Witnesses told one man in line outside Wish, a clothing and shoe store on Moreland Avenue, pulled out a gun and shot the would-be robber.

The shooter then got back in line, according to Channel 2 Action News.

Police have not charged anyone and for now consider the shooting to be self-defense. No additional information was being released Sunday morning, said Officer John Chafee, an Atlanta Police Department spokesman.

Only 22 pairs of the sneakers were available, but that didn’t stop nearly 50 shoppers from lining up hours before the store opened. The shooting took place at 5:30, five hours before Wish opened its doors to LeBron’s fans.

One witness says the deceased got what he deserved. From the Journal-Constitution:

“He [the shooter] really stood up for all of us,” said Taylor White, who told Channel 2 that he was in line when the shooting happened. “I salute the homie that did that.”

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/shooter-kills-robber-self-defense-while-waiting-line-215135252.html

David Beckham appearance at Chinese university causes stampede

By Ryan Bailey | Dirty Tackle 6/21/13
In his role as Ambassador for Distracting the World from a Football League Riddled with Corruption, David Beckham is currently enjoying a week-long promotional tour of China.

He has seen Chinese Super League teams train, played with school children and sat around watching NBA games. The much-loved old British Dame was even lucky enough to meet Helen Mirren.

Day four of his tour, however, did not pass without incident. The reitred midfielder paid a visit to Shanghai Tongji University to meet their football team, but when nearly 1,000 fans gathered to catch a glimpse of him, the crowds couldn’t be controlled and a stampede ensued. The Guardian reports:

Upon Beckham’s arrival, fans stormed a gate and broke through police and guards, [state-run news site Xinmin] said. Photos and video footage show people pushed to the ground, shoes scattered and a uniformed woman being carried away, her face covered in blood.

[...]

Three police officers, two university security guards and two students were injured, Shanghai police said.

The event was promptly cancelled, presumably leaving a team of very disappointed university footballers.

Becks used his page on Chinese social media site Weibo to wish the injured parties a speedy recovery, but on his Facebook page, it was referred to only as an “enthusiastic welcome”…

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/soccer-dirty-tackle/david-beckham-appearance-chinese-university-causes-stampede-181136834.html

NFL to limit bags brought into stadiums

By The Associated Press
June 13, 2013
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) — The NFL is tightening stadium security starting this preseason, limiting the size and type of bags fans can bring to the game.

Continue reading

The restrictions are designed to enhance security while speeding up entry into stadiums.

With the exception of medically necessary items, only clear plastic, vinyl or PVC bags no larger than 12 inches by 6 inches by 12 inches will be allowed. One-gallon clear plastic freezer bags also will be OK, as will small clear plastic bags approximately the size of someone’s hand, with or without a handle or strap.

One of those clear bags and a small clutch bag will be allowed per person.

Binoculars, cameras, and smartphones also will be permitted.

Banned items will include purses larger than a clutch bag; coolers; briefcases; backpacks; fanny packs; cinch bags; seat cushions; luggage; computer bags; and camera bags or any bag larger than the permissible size.

The league is encouraging fans not to bring any bags to games.

“Our fans deserve to be in a safe and secure environment,” Jeffrey Miller, the NFL’s chief security officer, said Thursday. “Public safety is our top priority. This will make the job of checking items much more efficient and effective. We will be able to deliver a better and quicker experience at the gates and also provide a safer environment. We appreciate our fans’ cooperation.”

An NFL committee on stadium security recommended these measures in May and the owners have approved them.

A secondary buffer area well outside the stadium will be established where security personnel will check for prohibited items or bags being carried toward the ballpark. Fans with prohibited bags will be turned away until they dispose of those bags. Stadium personnel are being encouraged to have approved bags on hand to give to fans, or to have a place outside the restricted areas to check items, so that fans can reclaim after games.

Recently, the NFL has done pat downs and bag checks and also used metal detectors to upgrade security. The new policy announced Thursday has worked well at colleges such as Penn State, Michigan and Michigan State, which do not permit any bags in their stadiums. Boston’s TD Garden allows only clutch bags.

The NFL ramped up security at the draft in late April, its one major event since the Boston Marathon bombings. In a statement Thursday, the league said:

“We had been discussing a new approach to bag restrictions before the Boston Marathon incident. We have come up with a way to do it that will actually make access more convenient for fans than it has been. We think the fans will embrace and appreciate it.”

Stadium workers and media will continue to enter NFL stadiums through designated gates where they will be subject to screening and bag inspections.

Read more: http://www.wjla.com/articles/2013/06/nfl-to-limit-bags-brought-into-stadiums-90080.html?goback=%2Egde_4983088_member_250292780#ixzz2WUQ0e8SS

DNA Fog

A new DNA fog can be sprayed on people and is hard to remove. This can help law enforcement find criminals. Here is the story/cartoon from Business Week.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-06-06/innovation-dna-fog-by-applied-dna-sciences-and-smokecloak

Track marshal dies after sustaining injuries at Canadian Grand Prix

By Nick Bromberg | From The Marbles, 6/10/13

A marshal died from injuries sustained in a mishap while tending to Esteban Gutierrez’s crashed car in the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.

The 38-year-old worker, who has not been identified, dropped his radio and was backed over by a crane while officials prepared to remove Gutierrez’s car from the track. Gutierrez crashed in turn 2 in the late stages of the race.

“The worker was helping to recover a car which had stopped during the race. The recovery vehicle had lifted the car to return it to the pits and while doing this the worker dropped his radio and attempted to pick it up. As he did this, he stumbled and was hit and run over by the recovery vehicle,” the FIA, the governing body of F1, said in a statement.

The track worker, a 10 year veteran, was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead at 6:02 PM local time before he was to be operated on.

From the Montreal Gazette:

The man was rushed by ambulance to the medical centre at the raceway, where he was stabilized by a team of doctors and nurses. He was given oxygen.

The man was then transported by helicopter to Sacré-Coeur, a designated trauma centre, where a team of specialists was already in place waiting for him.

“A giant wheel went over his body, so there are fractures,” Bouchard explained shortly after the accident.

Mobile cranes are a common site at F1 races and are used by course marshals and officials to extract cars from gravel traps and barriers with limited disruption to the race. Fernando Alonso, who finished second to Sebastian Vettel in Sunday’s race, tweeted his condolences.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nascar-from-the-marbles/track-marshal-dies-sustaining-injuries-canadian-grand-prix-010852942.html

Ten fans injured by fallen TV cable

By David Newton | ESPN.com, May 27, 2013

CONCORD, N.C. — Ten fans were injured and several Sprint Cup cars were damaged on Sunday night during the Coca-Cola 600 when a nylon rope cable from the Fox television skycam above Charlotte Motor Speedway fell over the track and grandstands in Turn 4.

CMS reported that seven fans were evaluated and released from the track care center with minor cuts and scrapes. Three were sent to area hospitals for further evaluation and were eventually treated and released.

A Fox Sports statement said the camera system that fell consisted of three ropes — a drive rope that moves the camera back and forth, and two guide ropes on either side. The drive rope failed and fell to the track.

The system has been used successfully this year at the Daytona 500 and last week’s All-Star race at CMS, as well as other major events around the world.

“We certainly regret that the system failure affected tonight’s event,” Fox said. “We apologize to the racers whose cars were damaged, and our immediate concern is for the race fans. We also offer a sincere thank you to the staff at CMS for attending to the injuries and keeping us informed on this developing situation.”

Caution came out on Lap 122 of the race, which NASCAR stopped on Lap 126. At that time, drivers were allowed to stop on pit road for 15 minutes and crew members were allowed to check for damage from the cable and make necessary repairs.

All cars were allowed to change tires and refuel, but not make repairs unrelated to the cable incident.

After the 26 minute-plus delay, cars returned to the track in the position they were running when caution came out.

The cars of race leader Kyle Busch and Marcos Ambrose in 15th received the most damage. The brake line of Ambrose’s car was broken and there was damage to the grill and roof. The right side of Busch’s car around the front tire was severely ripped.

There also was reported damage to the splitter, the fender and the rocker arm on Busch’s car.

“Due to extenuating circumstances with what happened to the cable rope it obviously impacted the flow of the race and also impacted some of the racecars,” NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp said in explaining the decision to stop the race and allow teams to work on the damage. “It was in the interest of everybody’s best interest to red flag it, take the necessary steps to get all the cabling either off the racing surface or secured and let the teams bring their cars down pit road and make any necessary repairs.”

Matt Kenseth noted during the delay that Jeff Gordon was not allowed to repair his car in 2004 after a chunk of concrete came up at Martinsville Speedway and put a hole in the front grill of his car, which was running second when that race stopped.

“I can’t believe they’re doing that,” Kenseth said of NASCAR on his radio.

Tharp said he couldn’t compare this situation to what happened in the past.

“I just know these circumstances led us to make the decision we felt that was in the best interest of competitors,” he said.

The initial delay lasted 10 minutes, 40 seconds while officials evaluated what happened. The second delay to allow teams to pit lasted 16:22.

Busch’s initial reaction was, “My f—— car is killed.”

At the beginning of the delay, Busch got out of his car, borrowed a cellphone camera and took pictures of the damage.

When the race restarted, Busch maintained the lead until the next caution around Lap 177.

Busch’s night ended on Lap 253 when he had a catastrophic engine failure that he said had nothing to do with the cable incident.

“I commend NASCAR for taking action and giving us all a chance to repair our cars from the issue we had earlier in the race,” Busch said. “Catastrophic engine failure. It seems to be that time of year again. I hate it for my guys. They worked too hard and they always do.

“It’s so frustrating to see it end on a note like that and not get the finish we needed.”

Busch entered the night eighth in points, only eight ahead of ninth place. It is the third time this season he has not finished a race and the second straight point race he has led a lot of laps without getting the finish he felt he deserved.

“What do you do?” Busch said. “It’s a shame because these guys have got to suffer through it. We’re one of the best teams out here, and yet we can barely stay in the top 10 in points because of stupid things like this happening. That keeps us out of Victory Lane.”

Busch said he didn’t see the cable when he ran over it.

“I heard a big thump on the right front tire,” he said. “I thought the right front tire blew out and that’s how hard it felt. It did have an effect of slowing my car down. I couldn’t feel it.

“That’s weird. I don’t know that anybody has ever seen that. Maybe now we can get rid of that thing.”

Kevin Harvick pulled away on a restart with 11 laps left to win the race.

http://espn.go.com/racing/nascar/cup/story/_/id/9314259/fans-hurt-coca-cola-600-halted-cable-falls?utm_source=Main+Mailing+List&utm_campaign=c682f40f93-Main_Mailing_35&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_4eada278ac-c682f40f93-295136453

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