In brief: SF police texting inquiry expands
SAN FRANCISCO – Authorities have identified 3,000 arrests that could have been influenced and resulted in wrongful convictions as the result of bias by 14 San Francisco police officers being investigated for racist and homophobic text messages, the district attorney announced Thursday.
District Attorney George Gascon also said he was adding three former judges to a task force eyeing whether bias led to wrongful prosecutions.
If one person was wrongly imprisoned because of bias by the officers, “that’s one too many,” Gascon said.
The texts included slurs against blacks, Mexicans, Filipinos and gays, and feature officers and civilians repeatedly using the phrase “white power.”
The texts were discovered by federal authorities in a probe of former San Francisco police Sgt. Ian Furminger, who was recently convicted of corruption. The names of the officers under investigation have not been released.
Last month police Chief Greg Suhr said he had asked a police oversight committee to approve firing seven officers. Six others face disciplinary actions that include reassignment to positions that don’t have contact with the public. Another officer tied to the investigation has resigned.
Feds to investigate Baltimore police
BALTIMORE – U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch plans to launch a full-scale civil rights investigation into use of force by Baltimore police officers, according to sources with knowledge of the matter.
The decision came as local officials pressed the Department of Justice to launch an inquiry similar to investigations into police departments in Ferguson, Missouri, and Cleveland, examining whether officers engaged in patterns of excessive force. In both of those cities, unrest erupted after unarmed people were killed by police.
Lynch visited Baltimore this week and met the family of Freddie Gray, the man who died last month of a severed spine and other injuries sustained while in police custody. Lynch said earlier this week that the Justice Department might need to go beyond a voluntary, collaborative review of use of force by city police that began in October.
More spikes coming to White House fence
WASHINGTON – The Secret Service is adding a second layer of steel spikes to the top of the White House fence to keep would-be intruders at bay, according to a proposal submitted to the National Capital Planning Commission.
The commission approved the proposal at a hearing Thursday afternoon.
The spikes will be added to the fence along the north and south sides of the White House grounds starting today, the Secret Service and National Park Service said in a statement Thursday.
The Secret Service has been studying ways to improve security at the White House since a Texas man was able to climb over the fence and run deep into the executive mansion in September.
The agencies said a preliminary review of design concepts for long-term security changes at the fence is being reviewed, and a final design is expected to be selected this summer.
First named storm of hurricane season forms
MIAMI – The first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season formed off the South Carolina coast on Thursday – nearly a month before the season officially begins.
Subtropical storm Ana was located 170 miles southeast of Myrtle Beach, with maximum sustained winds near 45 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. The storm was moving north at about 2 mph.
A tropical storm watch was in effect late Thursday for Edisto Beach, South Carolina, to Cape Lookout, North Carolina. A watch means that tropical storm conditions are possible within 48 hours.
The Atlantic hurricane season officially begins June 1 and ends Nov. 30. In the eastern Pacific, it begins May 15 and ends Nov. 30.