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He asked them to stop smoking in Munich's subway station. They brutally beat up the 76- year-old pensioner. Last Thursday, the 20-year-old Turk Serkan A. and his Greek friend Spiridon L. admitted that they critically wounded the former schoolmaster Bruno N. and offended him by calling him: “Crap German.” When the victim was lying motionless on the floor, the two took the old man's rucksack and quickly fled. The victim suffered a triple fractured skull with dangerous brain bleeding. At first, his life was in jeopardy, but his physical condition is stable now. The motive: “Why was he so stupid...

Despite progress, the city's murder rate is No. 1 among big cities. Figures tell the story, but don't nail the solution. AS Philadelphia approaches the new year and a new mayor, the murder rate remains an appalling blight on the city's reputation and a threat to our quality of life. While shootings and other violent crimes are down from last year, there's only slight improvement from the 406 homicides recorded in 2006. As of last night, the city had suffered 391 murders in 2007, the highest rate per 100,000 residents among the nation's 10 largest cities. It hasn't always been...

PARIS - Vandals torched 372 cars as France celebrated the New Year, down on the figure last year after a night the police described as "relatively calm". Cars are burned fairly regularly in France and the image of vehicles in flames in poor suburbs became symbolic of riots in 2005 when angry youths set fire to thousands of cars. There is usually an increase in the number of cars torched on New Year's Eve compared to other days of the year. "The night was relatively calm, without notable incident, there were very few direct clashes with the security forces," said...

IN retrospect, it was not a good idea to have left his pistol at home. Called to the scene of a traffic accident in the Paris suburbs last Sunday, Jean-François Illy, a regional police chief, came face to face with a mob of immigrant youths armed with baseball bats, iron bars and shotguns. What happened next has sickened the nation. As Illy tried to reassure the gang that there would be an investigation into the deaths of two teenagers whose motorbike had just collided with a police car, he heard a voice shouting: “Somebody must pay for this. Some pigs...

It's a case of "Tag, you're it!" Graffiti vandals, or taggers as they're known, are in the spotlight of law enforcement in Los Angeles County. Now is the time to keep up the pressure and shine the light even brighter. Graffiti costs taxpayers, business owners and even homeowners millions of dollars each year. But even worse than that is the look that it gives to a community - it's like a big sign that says, "Lowlifes, gang members and all manner of criminals welcome here!" Studies indicate crime goes up after graffiti comes in. Graffiti is how gang members mark...

MEMPHIS — Relatives, friends and community activists are calling for an end to violence that left an 11-year-old boy dead last week and a 13-year-old girl clinging to life after being shot in the head Monday. Melissa Robertson was struck by a bullet about 5 p.m. at a park in the Binghamton area of Memphis, police said. She was in extremely critical condition and on life support Monday night at Regional Medical Center. Robertson was struck by a bullet fired by one of two groups that had been arguing at the park, said Lt. Toney Armstrong with the department’s homicide...

A Buffalo man was shot in the right thigh and then fired his own gun at his assailant Wednesday night at West Delavan Avenue and Grant Street. Marlin Kemp, no age listed, of Harp Place, was approached at about 9:30 p.m. as he left a corner store. Police said a man wearing a black hooded shirt and black baseball cap approached Kemp and said, "Yo, what's good? What's good?" and then pointed a revolver at him. Kemp grabbed the assailant's gun, was shot in his thigh and ran south on Grant Street. The gunman fired two more shots at the...

The NYPD hate-crimes unit is probing a report that a white NYU student killed by a car in Harlem was fleeing a gang of black teenagers screaming "Get whitey!" sources said yesterday. If the report proves true, the violence could turn out to be an eerie replay in reverse of the infamous 1986 Howard Beach murder, where a black man was chased into traffic and killed by a group of white bigots. The 20-year-old student, John Broderick Hehman, died yesterday, six days after the attack. The sources said Hehman might have been targeted as a soft mark for robbers after...

The NYPD hate-crimes unit is probing a report that a white NYU student killed by a car in Harlem was fleeing a gang of black teenagers screaming "Get whitey!" sources said yesterday. If the report proves true, the violence could turn out to be an eerie replay in reverse of the infamous 1986 Howard Beach murder, where a black man was chased into traffic and killed by a group of white bigots. The 20-year-old student, John Broderick Hehman, died yesterday, six days after the attack.

Wed, December 28, 2005 Metropolis' innocence lost long ago By LICIA CORBELLA According to a high-ranking Toronto police officer, the city in which he toils "lost its innocence" on Boxing Day. The comment would be funny were it not in reference to such a tragic and sickening event. Apparently as many as 15 young people exchanged gunfire on a crowded Yonge Street -- one of the busiest shopping areas in all of Canada on any day, never mind Boxing Day. One 15-year-old girl was killed and six others were injured during the Hollywood-style shootout. All were innocent bystanders. No rival...

HOUSTON Houston Mayor Bill White says federal money should fund a six and a-half (M) million dollar task force to target a rise in post-hurricane crime. White says Houston police face additional demands after an influx of hurricane evacuees following Katrina. The hurricane slammed the Gulf Coast on August 29th. White says Houston's homicide rate rose nearly 25 percent since last year and jumped 70 percent this month. White says Houston's crime increase isn't solely blamed on Katrina evacuees. But White says the Federal Emergency Management Agency should fund the task force because of the strain of those additional residents....

MILWAUKEE — Several people were being questioned by detectives in the beating of a motorist who was dragged from his car and severely injured, police said Wednesday. The 50-year-old man was hospitalized in critical condition with head trauma after the beating late Monday on Milwaukee's north side, according to police. His condition had improved by Wednesday morning, police Lt. Scott Lange said. He gave no further details on the victim's condition or on the people he said were being questioned, except to say there had been no arrests. City officials asked for the public's help in finding the assailants, believed...

When scores of shoppers are forced to cower on the ground on Canada's busiest street because more than a dozen gun-toting punks are using it as a shooting range, it is time to stop kidding ourselves. It is time to demand action. Where is the leadership? Where is the law? An innocent 15-year-old girl is dead, gunned down in yet another gang fight. Six other innocents were also shot, all for daring to go Boxing Day shopping in downtown Toronto -- a city once so staid, Boxing Day shopping itself was illegal. Toronto's police chief calls it "infuriating." The city's...

MILWAUKEE -- It's the latest in a series of mob beatings in Milwaukee. This time, according to police, at least 15 young people dragged a man out of his car and kicked and punched him -- after the man honked at them to get them to move out of a street. The beating left the 50-year-old man with severe head trauma. He's hospitalized in critical condition and police said it's not clear if he'll survive. No arrests have been made. Three years ago, more than a dozen people chased a man through the streets of Milwaukee and beat him to...

MILWAUKEE -- At least 15 young people dragged a motorist out of his car and kicked and punched him, causing severe head trauma, after he honked his horn to get them to move out of a street, police said. It was the latest in a series of mob beatings in the city. The 50-year-old man was in critical condition Tuesday and it was unclear whether he would survive, police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz said. Schwartz said the man was driving alone on the city's north side late Monday when he honked at the group of young people in the middle...

Boxing Day horror downtown thestar.com Dec. 26, 2005. 06:26 PM Shots rang out on busy Toronto streets crowded with Boxing Day shoppers today, killing one person and wounding seven others. The first shots were apparently fired around 5:30 p.m. from a vehicle driving north on Yonge St. near Gerrard St., severely wounding one woman in the head. Police received calls within minutes about seven other shooting victims — including one in the Delta Chelsea hotel, one at a Pizza Pizza, two in the doorway of the nearby Foot Locker and one at a Red Lobster restaurant. Police have two...

Heavy crowd gathers in L.A. for funeral of executed former gang leader at 18:39 on December 20, 2005, EST. LOS ANGELES (AP) - Celebrities from hip-hop star Snoop Dogg to motivational speaker Tony Robbins lamented the execution of Stanley Tookie Williams at a funeral Tuesday that drew hundreds to the violence-wracked area where Williams founded the murderous Crips gang three decades ago. Mourners, including gang members flashing hand signs, waited in line to enter the 1,500-seat Bethel AME Church. Under heavy police presence, vendors sold T-shirts with Williams' picture, and a large TV set up in the parking lot allowed...

Lafayette's Cajundome is looking for volunteers to flush more than 200 toilets in the building. About 70 volunteers are needed to participate in the "Great Cajundome Flushoff" set for 6 p.m. on Dec. 27. The Cajundome and Convention Center housed as many as 17,000 evacuees of hurricanes Katrina and Rita for 58 days ending Oct. 26. That many people in the facility 24 hours a day took a toll on the arena's plumbing system. "We don't know what ended up in the (sewer) system," Cajundome Director Greg Davis said. But, operations manager Phil Ashurst said they have found items in...

Vivian A. Samuels A 12-year-old girl who struck a school safety agent shortly before the agent died on Friday night has been charged with harassment and resisting arrest, the authorities said. She was later released from police custody. The girl, whose name the authorities did not release, will appear in Family Court in Brooklyn on Monday, when officials from the city's Probation Department will decide whether further legal action will be taken against her, said Laurence Busching, the chief of the Family Court Division of the City Law Department. On Friday night, Vivian A. Samuels, 56, was escorting the girl...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - A group of 40 people dressed in Santa Claus costumes, many of them drunk, rampaged through New Zealand's largest city, robbing stores and assaulting security guards, police said Sunday. The rampage, dubbed ``Santarchy'' by local newspapers, began early Saturday afternoon when the men, wearing ill-fitting Santa costumes, threw beer bottles and urinated on cars from an Auckland overpass, said Auckland Central Police spokeswoman Noreen Hegarty.She said the men then rushed through a central city park, overturning garbage containers, throwing bottles at passing cars and spraying graffiti on buildings.One man climbed the mooring line of a...

A school safety agent at a Brooklyn middle school died last night, apparently from a heart attack, after a 12-year-old student struck her outside a holiday dance, officials said. The agent, Vivian A. Samuels, 56, of Brooklyn, a civilian employee of the New York Police Department working at Intermediate School 390, was escorting the student away from the dance around 5:50 p.m. The girl began flailing her arms and kicking, and struck Ms. Samuels at least once in the head, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said. Ms. Samuels began to feel shortness of breath and chest pains and was taken...

Williams Memorial Service Scheduled For Tuesday In Los Angeles POSTED: 4:02 pm PST December 14, 2005 UPDATED: 5:25 pm PST December 16, 2005 LOS ANGELES -- A memorial service for Stanley Tookie Williams, the convicted killer who was executed on Dec. 13 at San Quentin Prison, has been scheduled for Tuesday in Los Angeles. The noon service will be held at Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church and will include large TV screens outside. A statement by Williams' supporters says the guests invited to attend the public service include the Reverend Jesse Jackson, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and rapper...

What Should Society Do With Its “Tookie Monsters” ? The “ Tookie Williams Saga “ has finally ended. After decades of appeals and delays , and more appeals and more delays; after vast agitation by a wide variety of people : ranging from sincere opponents of the death penalty, to shameless self-advocates looking for more media “face time”, Tookie Williams – the convicted murderer of four people finally got the justice a jury of his peers had decreed. There are many who say the death penalty is “barbaric” ; or that it serves no useful purpose. I tend to agree...

A fourth-grader at Benjamin Franklin Elementary has been arrested for allegedly trying to poison her teacher, police and school officials said yesterday. The 10-year-old allegedly poured fingernail polish, nail-polish remover and hand lotion into her teacher's coffee mug during class Thursday, said school district spokesman Joe Lyons. The teacher, a 54-year-old woman did not drink from the mug, Lyons said. Authorities yesterday withheld the names of the teacher and the girl. The teacher learned of the tampering from the parent of another student during an evening function at the school, Rising Sun Avenue near Cheltenham. Because schools were closed Friday...

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- Three First Coast students are facing criminal charges after a teacher says they were involved in oral sex in the classroom. Christopher Lemay, 18, is accused of paying a 16-year-old-girl to perform the act on another boy at Sandalwood High. Those two are under-age, so First Coast News is not releasing their identities. Sandalwood administrators say the act happened under a table in a large class full of students, so the teacher had limited visibility. The news is catching even veteran educators by surprise. "It is not indicative of any school in Duval County," said Acting Principal...

With jazz music, prayer and offerings to the gods, hundreds of Hurricane Katrina survivors on Saturday demanded the government move faster to rebuild the city and provide evacuees with more disaster assistance. Shouting "We're Back," protesters said they feared the city's poor would be shut out of reconstruction after being dispersed far across the United States since the storm. City officials estimate more than 300,000 New Orleans residents have yet to return since Katrina flooded the city, reducing entire neighborhoods to a rubble-strewn wasteland. In one of the largest rallies in New Orleans since the hurricane, survivors marched to City...

Guardsman: New Orleans duty worse than Iraq By MARY BROWNFIELD Published: December 9, 2005 'IT WAS a difficult deployment, because a lot of the guys had just come back from Iraq,” said John Hanson, a U.S. Army National Guardsman and building maintenance specialist for the City of Carmel. “And what we found in New Orleans made it worse.” It wasn’t the hurricane-destroyed homes or the emptiness of the city that made the mission a challenge, but the state of the high school he and his platoon were ordered to get ready to reopen. Hurricane Katrina left 119 schools closed, according...

A brawl that began in the Westbury High School cafeteria Wednesday and spilled outdoors capped weeks of growing tension between Houston students and Hurricane Katrina evacuees and resulted in the arrest of 27 students. The fight was one of about a dozen such on-campus clashes that have roiled Houston and surrounding areas since thousands of students from New Orleans began attending local schools in September. In response, Westbury students can expect more police at the school beginning today, a school district spokesman said. Houston Independent School District Board President Dianne Johnson said the efforts would not end there and sought...

HOUSTON (AP) -- More than two dozen students were arrested Wednesday after a series of fights at a high school between Hurricane Katrina evacuees and local students. One student suffered a cut under the eye. No other injuries were reported, said Houston Independent School District spokesman Terry Abbott. Abbott said 15 students involved in the fights - which started between girls in Westbury High's cafeteria and spread to other areas - were from New Orleans. The other 12 charged were from Houston. One student was charged with assaulting a police officer. The other 26 faced misdemeanor charges of engaging in...

LINCOLN, Neb. -- Two Lincoln teenagers have been ticketed for having sex in a high school hallway during the lunch hour while at least a dozen students watched, according to Lincoln police. School officials said the incident happened over the lunch hour Wednesday at Lincoln Southeast. A female 17-year-old and a male 19-year-old apparently snuck past a gate to get into a restricted hallway near the Prasch Activity Center. Lincoln police said at least a dozen students watched through the gate. A school administrator found the couple and called a school resource officer. "I don't want the message to families...

Los Angeles -- The district attorney's office announced Monday that no charges will be filed against the police officer involved in the February shooting death of a 13-year-old boy who rammed a stolen vehicle into a patrol car after a short chase. The early morning shooting of Devin Brown on Feb. 6 sparked protests in the South Los Angeles area where the shooting occurred. The Los Angeles Police Department sent its findings to the district attorney's office Aug. 5 for a decision on whether to prosecute Officer Steven Garcia, the officer who shot the black teen. District Attorney Steve Cooley,...

In large Red Cross shelters, where most volunteers were white, the mostly minority evacuees "felt like they were being herded like cattle," said Rev. Anthony Evans of the National Black Church Initiative. In the aftermath of the storms, minority evacuees said they encountered many problems in Red Cross shelters. Evacuees who spoke little or no English -- Hispanic and Asian immigrants along the Gulf Coast, as well as French-speaking members of the Houma United Nation tribe in Louisiana -- struggled to make themselves understood because there were so few translators. Some minority groups complained that shelters were set up in...

Jefferson Parish Councilman Byron Lee says that his constituents were speaking out of fear when they decried plans to build a temporary trailer park in Marrero to house hurricane victims. No doubt he's right, but the comments some West Bank residents made at a public forum also reflect another emotion: hatred. That's a shame because hatred is far more destructive. "If they want to take in Jefferson Parish residents only, that's one thing. But outsiders, no," one woman said. Another speaker was less subtle: "How do we know these people are not from the projects of Orleans?"

Mandisa likes Abercrombie & Fitch, not FUBU. She speaks proper English, not Ebonics. She takes honor classes and belongs to the Beta Club and National Arts Honors Society at Parkview High. She plays the violin and has danced and sung in area productions of “The Nutcracker” and “My Fair Lady.” Mandisa Surpris, a 15-year-old sophomore, is all this. And she’s black. Some of the other black students don’t know what to make of her. The way she dresses, the way she talks, the grades she earns. She’s an anomaly. To them, she’s more white than black. They’ve even told her...

Dec 3, 1:54 AM EST Philly Toddler Brings Crack to Daycare PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- A 2-year-old boy was removed from his family and his mother could face charges after the child handed his daycare teacher two packets of crack cocaine, and a search of his jacket pocket turned up nine more, police said.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency pulled all its workers out of New Orleans's Lower Ninth Ward yesterday after threats of violence and planned to request additional police or National Guard support, a FEMA spokeswoman said. A spokeswoman for Mayor C. Ray Nagin said the police commander for the district knew of no incidents or threat complaints. ... One relief worker in the region said an angry resident berated a Corps of Engineers employee before delivering a threat to the effect of "I'm going to go get my gun, and I'm going to kill you." Federal agents have arrested six people...

Five boys arrested in connection with the sexual assault of an 11-year-old girl at a downtown park have not been formally charged with a crime, according to Capt. Frank Fujii, Honolulu Police Department spokesman. The Star-Bulletin reported in both the morning and afternoon editions today as well as its online edition that police filed charges against the boys yesterday. That report was based on statements by police last night. The city prosecutor’s office is working with the Family Court on formal charges against the boys but none has been filed. Four of the boys — two 13-year-olds, a 14-year-old and...

CAPITOL HEIGHTS, Md. -- Another student was beaten on a school bus in Prince George's County, and her parents are pledging legal action. The seventh-grader said she was assaulted by a group of girls on her ride home Tuesday. This is the second alleged school bus assault of a Walker Mill Middle School student in less than a month, and some parents said they fear for their children every time they get on a bus. The parents of Karley Berry, 12, say their daughter is a model student in the talented and gifted (TAG) program at Walker Mill. She is...

Whenever there's a racial incident involving an African American in an overwhelmingly white suburb, it's another embarrassing reminder that the ugly history of separation between the races in America can erupt into the open at any time. It's a reminder to whites, that is. African Americans don't have to be reminded. They are aware of that possibility every day of their lives. No African American, no matter how high he or she may rise, is ever safe from being subjected to racial fears - or far worse - from whites for simply being "in the wrong place at the wrong...

AT LEAST 36 Scottish teachers were hospitalised by pupils last year, according to official figures which reveal the horrifying extent of classroom violence. Primary school children as well as secondary school pupils were involved in the attacks, in which teachers were punched, head-butted, hit by flying chairs or shoved so hard they hit desks or walls. The injuries ranged from cuts and bruises to lacerations needing stitches, broken arms and back injuries. Many victims had to take weeks off work. The revelation that an average of three Scots teachers a month need hospital treatment following classroom violence has enraged teaching...

Florida School Board Sued for Unequal Education Friday, November 18, 2005 PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — A first-of-its-kind class-action lawsuit in Pinellas County, Fla., could force the local school board to reveal how it teaches and disciplines its 20,000 black students, who struggle academically in disproportionate numbers to students of other races. "Public education, to me personally, is specifically set up to dumb us down," said William Crowley, who filed the lawsuit. Click in the video box to the right to watch a report by FOX News' Orlando Salinas. Crowley said the white-run school system allowed his son to fall behind....

White Supremacist Wants To Bankrupt N.Y. TownPOSTED: 6:22 pm EST November 19, 2005 KINGSTON, N.Y. -- A white supremacist radio talk-show host said he wants to bankrupt the city of Kingston, N.Y. Hal Turner organized a rally Saturday that drew about 50 supporters, 100 counter demonstrators -- and as many as 200 police officers. Turner invited the Ku Klux Klan and similar groups to help protest recent attacks on white students by black students at Kingston High School. Police have said the attacks were not motivated by race. Turner figures the city would have to pay $100,000 in overtime for...

A North York church group is fighting to curb the alarming rate of unplanned pregnancies among high school girls living in west-end housing complexes. Members of the Abundant Life Pentecostal Church on Dixon Rd. said they're concerned for the girls and their fatherless babies. They are aware of one youth who has impregnated more than a dozen schoolgirls. "Some of these studs have made 10 or more girls pregnant," said Pastor Al Bowen. "Many others have made two or three pregnant." Bowen and volunteers of the Kuriou Foundation have been conducting outreach for 15 years in housing complexes in Jane-Finch,...

Two state legislators want the governor to create a task force to examine why African-Americans are imprisoned at a higher rate in Wisconsin than in any other state, including the states of the Deep South. Rep. Spencer Black, D-Madison, and Rep. Tamara Grigsby, D-Milwaukee, are circulating a memo asking their colleagues to join in a written request to Gov. Jim Doyle.Black said the idea came up after the Black Commentator published a story in July listing Wisconsin as the worst state to be in for African-Americans. John Odom, a longtime Madison civil rights activist, brought the article to Black's attention....

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PUNTA GORDA, Fla. Nov 11, 2005 — A man on death row for murdering a prosecutor 17 years ago has died of natural causes, leaving some close to the victim lamenting that he was never executed. Samuel A. Pettit, who suffered from a degenerative brain disorder and had been in a wheelchair for several years, died Nov. 4 at Union Correctional Institution in Raiford. He was 43. "I know Pettit's in hell and I feel good about that," former state prosecutor Kathleen Finnegan said. Finnegan was 28 in 1988, when Pettit approached her and Norman Langston, 27, with a gun...

PHOENIX - A couple held a runaway teen captive in a hollow bed frame for weeks and forced her to have sex for money with people they found on the Internet, police said. The 15-year-old girl managed to call family members for help while 18-year-old Matthew Gray and 19-year-old Janelle Butler were sleeping Monday night, authorities said. The two were arrested Tuesday. The girl ran away from her El Mirage home in September and met the couple through a friend about three hours after she disappeared, police Sgt. Andy Hill said. They took her to a park, bound her and...

PHOENIX A man and woman are jailed after they allegedly held a teenage runaway captive, raped her and then forced her into prostitution. Phoenix police say she met 18-year-old Matthew Gray and 19-year-old Jannelle Butler through a friend. A police spokesman says the couple imprisoned the teen in a dog kennel for about a week. Police allege the couple tortured the girl by pointing a gun at her and telling her if she tried to escape or said anything, she'd be killed. Last night, as the couple was sleeping, police say the victim called her family and told them she...

PHILADELPHIA A man who fled the Gulf Coast because of Hurricane Katrina found more trouble while working as a high school English teacher in Philadelphia. Mark Seghers, of Long Beach, Mississippi, was pummeled by two 17-year-old twin sisters at South Philadelphia High School on Friday morning.Police say one girl repeatedly punched him in the face and head, while the other hit him over the head with a chair. Both girls were arrested and charged with aggravated assault and other offenses.Seghers says more than 20 other students poured into his room and joined in the attack. The New Orleans native describes...

A faculty member at Cornell University in New York wants the administration to pull the plug on the conservative paper there, the Cornell American, to silence what she calls a "disgusting piece of trash that has absolutely no intellectual merit whatsoever." Writing in the Cornell Sun, associate professor Anna Marie Smith says those in charge of the student activities fee that partially funds the American should yank that money and that the university should insist that the paper stop using the Cornell name. Smith rules out censorship, but then goes on to say that "the University is a special and...