US Judge Wolf Approves Inmate Sex Change Operation

Perplexing that a sex change operations is needed to correct a cruel an unusual situation for a man convicted of homicide of his wife. The judge noted "the inmate 'continues to suffer intense mental anguish.'" Yet police refuse to stop daily harassment, provocations and threats for thirty years of a law-abiding-69-year-old man who police say has a disability. Why is such abuse not cruel and unusual punishment? No charge, no conviction, just punishment is not unusual?

[From article]
"there is no less intrusive means to correct the prolonged violation of Kosilek’s Eighth Amendment right to adequate medical care."
[. . .]
the inmate "continues to suffer intense mental anguish"

http://bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1061157848&srvc=news&position=2

Federal judge orders taxpayer-funded sex change for wife killer
Boston Herald
By Associated Press
Tuesday, September 4, 2012

FBI Show Business As Usual; Corruption Reigns

The two articles (Harvey Silverglate, "Whitey Bulger and the Feds," page 10, and David Boeri, "Hollow Justice," Page 11, Boston Phoenix, October 5, 2011) explain that John Durham, the special prosecutor brought in to "clean up" the Boston FBI cesspool, was a company man and did his job of convicting one man. Silverglate raises the obvious question about the dedication of the current US Attorney to convict Bulger. Boeri questions the usual lack of diligence of the FBI director to clean house.

It is nonsense and irrational to think (1) that only one FBI agent was able to corrupt local and state police officers and many politicians who remain silent to this day; and (2) that Bulger and Flemmi ran the rackets in Boston alone. Hundreds of associates remain active operating the same dirty businesses that Bulger and the FBI ran and protected. Clueless taxpayers are mislead by politicians, police and journalists who promote a fantasy reality.

Without bright lights on all the government mechanisms in MA, criminals will continue to control the state. Institutional wholesale theft, abuses of the criminal justice system and homicides will go unpunished. Only defense attorney Anthony Cardinale who made the original motion before Judge Wolf recognized and exposed the abuses of the FBI informant program. Cardinale says the upper echelon informant program was shut down.

But the same criminal abuses continue among the Witness Security program. Criminals with changed names and protected by the FBI and the US Marshals run criminal enterprises with no accountability. FBI agents and their criminal witnesses target vulnerable civilians. The focus of Bulger and the Boston FBI was to eliminate Italian crime families to allow Bulger and his Irish acolytes to control the Boston rackets.

The upper levels of the FBI and the Dept. of Justice are no less corrupt. How many US Attorneys in the 1980s are now judges and high level FBI supervisors in DC? The cesspool will never be cleaned up without a citizen commission with subpoena power. Why is Harvard Law School, The Harvard School of Government and the other four law schools in Boston and the other government schools silent about this abomination of thorough government pollution?

Ken Burns says Fiorello LaGuardia knew it would take 250,000 officers to police the 250,000 officers needed to stop illegal alcohol in New York City. According to the same PBS feature, Boston had hardly any crime during Prohibition. There was no mention of the major Boston bootlegger, Joseph P. Kennedy father of the President and US senators. Hello? Anybody home?

http://thephoenix.com/Boston/news/127965-whitey-bulger-and-the-feds-the-final-act/

Whitey Bulger and the Feds: The final act
Choosing the slow grind: Why are we trying Whitey in federal court, when state courts would deliver justice more swiftly?
By HARVEY A. SILVERGLATE
October 5, 2011
Boston Phoenix

* * *
http://thephoenix.com/Boston/news/127938-hollow-justice/

Hollow justice
The FBI might have got its man, but anyone seeking real accountability from Whitey Bulger's government enablers will come away empty-handed yet again
By DAVID BOERI
October 5, 2011
Boston Phoenix

Courts and Prosecutors Need Cleansing


Government does not police itself. Judge Wolf is a voice in the wilderness trying to bring accountability into a cess pool of self interest. Without support from his colleagues it is unlikely that much will change. Prosecutors overlook miscarriages of justice. How many thousands have had their careers ruined by the failure of judges and prosecutors to do their jobs? Corrective mechanisms are not working and are often used against the whistle blower. Why would anyone file complaints if they become the target of the investigators? That is how law enforcement works in Massachusetts. Government not only blames victims, but also punishes victims. Massachusetts journalists are part of the "COALITION" and barred from exposing wrongdoing by any member of the coalition.

http://bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view/2009_04_29_Mark_Wolf_not_sheepish_about_exposing_court_misconduct/

or

http://tinyurl.com/cg2t5r

Mark Wolf not sheepish about exposing court misconduct
By Peter Gelzinis
Boston Herald
Wednesday, April 29, 2009

FBI Can't Find Its Tail

FBI Can't Find Its Tail

The lack of prosecutions of organized crime in Massachusetts is
due more to the priorities of the FBI, than the lack of organized
crime operations . (Kevin Cullen, "Wiseguys, wannabes," Boston Globe,
February 11, 2008) Major crime operations moved into offices run by
corporations and public officials. As the Corleones said you can steal
more money with a law degree than with a gun. US Judge Mark Wolf
questioned why US Attorney Michael Sullivan does not focus on white
collar crime.
Taxpayers cover multi-billion-dollar thefts using government
agencies. See the Savings and Loan scandal, the subprime mortgage
scandal, HUD, etc. Best Buy employees discovered a terror plot not the
FBI. The corruption of the Boston FBI office was revealed by defense
attiorney Anthony Cardinale. US Attorney Donald Stern took credit when
credit was not due.
The Gambino arrests resulted from an informants who was arrested, in order to save his own behind, not from FBI diligence. The New York arrests excluded public officials, police and corporation executives that worked with the Gambino crew members. They will cooperate with any family. Business is business. In Boston after
Weeks (in print) and Bulger boasted of having local police and state
police on their payroll there has yet to be any investigation of any
police agencies including the FBI. It appears that crime families
moved out of the streets and now comfortably operate in public and
private offices. It is possible to fool most of the people most of the
time.

Roy Bercaw - Editor ENOUGH ROOM

Wiseguys, wannabes
By Kevin Cullen,
Boston Globe Columnist
February 11, 2008

Reading through that 170-page indictment aimed primarily at the
Gambino crime family in New York the other day, it was hard not to
feel a twinge of nostalgia.

Among the 62 wiseguys and wannabes named were such luminaries as John
"Johnny Red Rose" Pisano, Thomas "Tommy Sneakers" Cacciopoli, John
"Jackie the Nose" D'Amico, and the deliciously named Anthony
"Buckwheat" Giammarino.

Now, perhaps there is some loanshark in Cleveland called "Stymie," but
I'm guessing Giammarino is the only made guy in America named after a
black kid on "The Little Rascals."

Despite this talk of the Red Sox having exorcised the demon of
inferiority complex when it comes to all things New York, my first
reaction to the indictment was: Why we no have?

There hasn't been a roundup of mafiosi by the feds around here in
years - and don't hold your breath waiting for one.

The difference between New York and Boston is not simply one of scale:
that New York, as home to the five biggest crime families, is a
major-league wiseguy town while Boston is not. There are still more
than a few made guys around here extorting bookies, running drugs,
whatever. Still, federal prosecutors are loath to bring another
era-spanning racketeering case against the remnants of Boston's mob
not merely because there are so few wiseguys left but because doing so
would inevitably mean revisiting the legacy of corruption within law
enforcement, especially Boston's FBI office.

To suggest, as the Department of Justice does, that it began and ended
with a few rogue agents involved in the mishandling of James "Whitey"
Bulger is simplistic. So, while the good guys in New York are still
chasing real live wiseguys, we're chasing ghosts, namely Bulger, who
may or may not be alive and is most definitely not where the FBI has
been or has not been looking for him.

Taking advantage of the federal racketeering act, prosecutors were
able to charge the New York wiseguys with crimes that stretch to 1976.
Detailing in court the way people around here were getting framed,
used, and excused going back to 1986, let alone 1976, would be a
defense attorney's dream.

"As the FBI approaches its 100-year anniversary, we remember that our
very beginnings were rooted in fighting gangsterism," FBI Deputy
Director John Pistole said in New York. "We face other daunting
challenges today, but our commitment to battling organized crime has
never wavered."

Could Pistole come here and make that same speech? Actually, let me
rephrase the question: Could Pistole come here, make that same speech,
and be believed?

If federal prosecutors here were to prepare an indictment similar in
scope and historic reach to the one in New York, some of those
indicted would have been working for the FBI or enlisted as government
witnesses over the last decade to clean up the mess created by corrupt
agents. Some of them will be in Miami in June, ready to testify for
the government when Bulger's old FBI handler, John Connolly, goes on
trial for allegedly helping Bulger's guys murder people.

The greatest single act of government aggression against the Mafia
around here was the creation of the Massachusetts Lottery. It muscled
out the mob's bread and butter, the daily number, essentially leaving
the gangsters with sports betting. The federal prosecutions of the
1980s took out some big shots, but the chances of seeing another big
Mafia trial here are, unlike Carmen DiNunzio, the alleged local Mafia
leader, slim.

DiNunzio faces state charges for extortion and sports bookmaking,
which might land him maybe five years, instead of a federal rap that
would be effectively a life sentence. As for DiNunzio's supposed
nickname, "The Big Cheese," he insists nobody calls him that, that
it's an invention of the cops and the newspapers because he runs a
cheese shop in the North End.

We have been reduced to bookmaking cases and made-up wiseguy nicknames.

What would Buckwheat say?

Kevin Cullen is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at cullen@globe.com.

Pervasive corruption

Pervasive corruption


It is not just the BPD which has bad officers. (O'Ryan Johnson, "Cops
nab officer in armed holdup," Boston Herald, January 12, 2008) Since
James Bulger allegedly became a fugitive, there's been no scrutiny or
cleansing of any of the many police agencies in Massachusetts. Bulger,
Kevin Weeks and others boasted of how they paid off many officers and
agents.
A one party government breeds corruption. US Judge Mark Wolf
criticized the US Attorney who holds two jobs for not prosecuting
malfeasance.
In Cambridge three city employees were arrested selling cocaine
from City Trucks. After five meetings the City Council remains silent
about this criminal activity.
On the Cambridge weekly newspaper blog only one comment from
citizens regarding this activity. No city, state or US elected
officials speak about corruption.
The Universities, corporations and lawyers exploit the relaxed
rectitude of officials. The corruption is so thorough that the few
citizens who watch the government fear speaking out due to the severe
retaliatory abuse from police and politicians.
Politicians cite silence as approval of their good work. Talk
about living in a fantasy world. Massachusetts politicians all live
there.
The Harvard-Corporate-Lawyer Governor treats laws as
inconveniences. He openly ignores laws and encourages other officials
to join him. Massachusetts is a lawless state and the citizens approve
of it.

Roy Bercaw - Editor ENOUGH ROOM



Cops nab officer in armed holdup
Robbery rocks BPD
By O'Ryan Johnson
Boston Herald
Saturday, January 12, 2008

Bulger Corruption Continues

Bulger Corruption Continues

The Editorial refers to "prior corruption problems in the Boston Police
Department." (Editorial, "Blight on the Boston police," Boston Globe, November
14, 2007) In 1995 US Judge Mark Wolf exposed FBI corruption which festered for
many previous years. The gangster leaders, Weeks and Bulger, boasted of their
corruption of state and local police.
Since then there was no wholesale cleansing of any police agency in the
state. The FBI office remains questionable. Neither the staties nor any local
departments were scrutinized. The alleged Internal Affairs divisions do nothing.
Cambridge's Police Review Board is toothless and is run by the police
department. There is no oversight.
Most troubling is the loud silence of elected officials who ignore the
serious threats to public safety. The relaxed moral rectitude and arrogance of a
one-party system keeps the state drifting further and further from the rule of
law.

Roy Bercaw, Editor ENOUGH ROOM

Blight on the Boston police
Boston Globe
Editorial
November 14, 2007

BOSTON POLICE Commissioner Edward Davis still subscribes to the "few rotten
apples" theory of police corruption. He used it yesterday to explain the
activities of three officers who pleaded guilty in recent weeks to cocaine
trafficking after getting caught in an FBI sting operation. But cases of
drug-related police corruption in New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, and
elsewhere suggest that the barrel itself may be moldy.

The three-year investigation of disgraced former officers Roberto Pulido, Nelson
Carrasquillo, and Carlos Pizarro provide the department's internal affairs
investigators with numerous leads. Pulido has been linked to allegations of
steroid sales, identity fraud schemes related to traffic stops, immigrant
smuggling, and protection services for after-hours parties where officers
consorted with known drug dealers and prostitutes. Davis predicts that the
number of additional officers connected to Pulido or his corrupt crew will not
be large. But the department's history doesn't warrant such confidence.

The convicted officers were boastful and contemptuous of their oaths, which
played into the hands of the FBI. It will be harder for Davis to uncover how
many officers are poised on what criminologists call the "invitational edge of
corruption." Drug-related police corruption usually involves just a small number
of hands-on officers. But the larger and potentially more destabilizing problem
stems from officers who know about criminal activity on the part of fellow
officers but fail to report it.

That tarnished sense of loyalty has infected the Boston Police Department
before, notably in 1995 when dozens of officers fled behind a blue wall of
silence rather than testify against colleagues who had nearly beaten a fellow
officer to death after mistaking him for a fleeing suspect.

Some signs are encouraging. Davis says the department displayed its capacity for
self-policing by bringing the Pulido crew to the attention of the FBI in the
first place. And two officers, he says, reported the illicit activities
allegedly taking place at the Hyde Park after-hours club to their superiors.

Other signs point in the wrong direction. Pulido tested positive for cocaine
back in 1999 under the department's mandatory drug testing policy. But overly
lenient accountability measures gave him a chance to return to duty after a
45-day suspension. In New York or Los Angeles, he would have been out on the
street, where he belonged.

An underlying corrosion of standards - weak control of evidence lockers, sloppy
documentation by detectives, poor recruitment practices - has been linked to
prior corruption problems in the Boston Police Department. This case is likely
to be no different. Maybe Pulido and his crew are rotten apples. But the public
still needs to know how the decay got in them in the first place.