Survey of law officers finds majority doesn't agree with Obama's gun control plan

Published April 09, 2013

FoxNews.com

An overwhelming majority of law enforcement officers says a federal ban on assault weapons would not reduce the risk of violent crime, according to a recently released national survey of active duty and retired officers.

The survey conducted by PoliceOne.com found that 85 percent of officers think the passage of the Obama administration’s gun control legislation either would have no effect or would have a negative effect on their safety.

More than 80 percent of respondents said they supported arming school teachers and administrators with guns. And more than 28 percent of officers say they think having “more permissive” concealed carry policies for civilians would help most in preventing large-scale shootings in public.

The survey, which polled 15,000 law enforcement professionals at all ranks, was conducted online March 4-13. Survey questions were composed and compiled by PoliceOne staff and the Pretorian Group, PoliceOne’s parent company.

“The American people, and particularly the members of law enforcement, want politicians in Washington to stop pursuing a failed political agenda and get to work fixing our broken mental health system, improving school security and getting criminals off the streets,” said Chris Cox, head of the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action following the results of the PoliceOne survey.

The results of the survey, released Monday, come as President Obama tries to keep the political momentum for gun control measures going. Last week, he traveled to Colorado and Connecticut – two states that have seen some of the country’s worst mass shootings and responded by passing tough state gun laws. During his multistate swing, Obama repeatedly called on Congress to step up its efforts for universal background checks for gun buyers and limits on large-capacity ammunition magazines.

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Amateur with metal detector finds 1,600-year-old royal ring

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  The Escrick Ring, an intricately worked gold ring surrounding a brilliant blue sapphire discovered in 2009 by metal-detector enthusiast Michael Greenhorn, seen here with his discovery.Kippa Matthews / York Museums Trust

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  A unique piece of jewelry called the Escrick Ring is only the second known use of a sapphire in jewellery found in the country, the first being a 5th century Roman example. It was found with a metal detector in 2009.Kippa Matthews / York Museums Trust

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Did this intricate piece of sapphire, gold and glass belong to the King of France, some 1,600 years ago?

A group of archaeologist met at the Yorkshire Museum in England last week to discuss the Escrick Ring, an intricately worked gold ring surrounding a brilliant blue sapphire discovered in 2009 by an amateur metal-detector enthusiast.

'Nothing like it has been found in this country.'

- Natalie McCaul, curator of archaeology at the Yorkshire Museum

The ring, among the oldest pieces of sapphire jewelry ever found in the country, was thought to date from the 10th or 11th centuries -- until the group took a closer look.

“Nothing like it has been found in this country,” said Natalie McCaul, curator of archaeology at the Yorkshire Museum. “This sapphire ring is even more special than we had previously thought.”

The panel’s conclusion: The Escrick Ring was made in Europe, possibly France, and would have belonged to a king or leader -- not just a Bishop, as had been previously thought. It’s likely to date far earlier than previously thought as well: the 5th or 6th century, as much as 600 years earlier than archaeologists had believed.

"Hopefully this will lead us to finding out more about the ring and possibly even who might have owned it," she said.

The ring was found by Michael Greenhorn, from York and District Metal Detecting Club, in 2009. The Yorkshire Museum raised over $50,000 to purchase it.

Attendees of the workshop, which the Yorkshire Museum said included more than 30 experts from across the country, decided that the sapphire in the ring was probably cut earlier, possibly during the Roman period, but the ring itself was specially made around the sapphire. By looking at the wear on the ring it is thought that it was worn for at least 50 years before it was lost.

The gold hoop that forms the ring also looks slightly different to the main part of the ring, with suggestions being made that it was turned into a ring later, possibly from a brooch or mount.

Further research, including an X-ray analysis and samples from the gold hoop, may help to pinpoint its origin.

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'Fast and Furious' report finds DHS missed warning signs, Napolitano in the dark

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The second of two reports examining who's to blame over the federal anti-gunrunning scheme known as Operation Fast and Furious exonerates top officials at the Department of Homeland Security, but paints a picture of ineptitude, ignorance and mismanagement at the DHS operations in Arizona. 

A report by the Homeland Security inspector general, obtained Friday by Fox News, concluded many in the agency's Arizona operation knew for a long time the U.S. helped criminals smuggle guns to Mexico in violation of policy, but did nothing to stop it. 

Further, the report said word of the gun-smuggling operation within DHS never traveled beyond Arizona -- and claimed Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano were never informed of the role ICE played. 

According to the report, on numerous occasions ICE and Border Patrol agents stopped vehicles smuggling guns to Mexico, but were instructed by the ATF and U.S. attorney's office to back off. Even after "suspects admitted to having transported weapons across the border five or six times," they were not arrested, and ATF did not "try to flip the suspects to get them to cooperate, which was a mistake," the report said. 

The report was especially critical of senior management in Arizona, who oversaw the Fast and Furious case and assigned a full-time agent to the task force running the operation. That agent conducted surveillance, wrote and received reports, and was aware "gun-walking" -- or allowing the guns to go into Mexico -- "was against policy." But "senior leaders did not read (his) reports nor instruct him to change his methodology or activities." 

The report did not name names. However, the Phoenix agent in charge then and now is Matt Allen, a highly regarded and long-time ICE agent who transferred to Arizona in 2008. It criticized Allen's use of the word "tangential" when describing ICE's role in Fast and Furious and the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. 

"We question (Allen's) use of the word 'tangential'," said the report. "Just a few weeks earlier, (the department described HSI agents as) fully involved. ... (Allen) should have provided ICE headquarters officials with a more thorough and clear account of the role his office had in the operation." 

Early in the case -- after learning the ATF let more than 200 guns get smuggled to Mexico despite a warning the buyers were dirty from Lone Wolf gun store owner Andre Howard --  a senior ICE agent said in an email, "I'm speechless. Even the owner knows this ain't right, and ATF apparently doesn't get it." 

Following the death of Agent Brian Terry, another supervisor wrote, "and this is exactly what I said would happen when you let that many guns walk." 

Yet the debate apparently stayed within Arizona. 

"Senior DHS officials in Washington DC had no awareness of the methodology used by the task force to investigate Operation Fast and Furious until media reports were published in March 2011," the report said. 

The report also claimed that days after the death of Terry, former U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke, who oversaw Fast and Furious and later resigned because of his role in it, declined to tell Napolitano about the case, even as she called for an investigation into it. 

Robert Heyer, a spokesman for the Terry family, said no one from the OIG ever contacted the family and criticized the report for failing to hold anyone accountable. 

"We are very disappointed with the quality and depth of the investigation," Heyer told Fox News. "The report says that Homeland Security personnel in Arizona all knew on December 15th that the weapons found at the murder scene were from (Fast and Furious). That information was passed to (headquarters), yet was never passed on to Secretary Napolitano," he said. "(Allen) had the opportunity to shut down the operation because of public safety concerns but he chose not to. How about holding DHS executives accountable for that decision." 

The OIG has not responded to a question from Fox News on why the report did not include names.

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China's Christians see mounting persecution in country's effort to disband churches, report finds

Christians and human rights advocates are alarmed over an aggressive crackdown on house churches in China, where the faithful are forced to call their gatherings "patriotic" assemblies or sent to prison where they can face torture, according to a new report.

Cases of the government persecuting Christians rose 42 percent last year, amid a three-phase plan by Beijing to eradicate the home-based churches, according to China Aid, a Texas-based human rights group. Experts say the Communist Party in China has long felt threatened by any movement that galvanizes a large sector of the population, fearing it could wield political clout. But the nation has become more systematically hostile to worshippers, according to Bob Fu, China Aid founder and president.

“This is very serious stuff.”

- Bob Fu, founder and president, China Aid

“There have been new tactics of persecution as well, especially with the government using secret directives and memos with long-term, step-by-step strategies to eradicate house churches,” Fu told FoxNews.com. “This is very serious stuff.”

Last year, the government mounted a new three-phase approach designed to wipe out unregistered house churches by forcing them to join the official "Three-Self Patriotic Movement" and stop defining themselves as churches. The phase included having China's State Administration for Religious Affairs secretly investigate house churches and create files on them, the report found. The current wave of crackdowns, which began midway through 2012, is part of the second phase, according to Fu.

Fu said the government is using a wide array of subtle and ham-handed tactics to persecute Christians, targeting house church leaders and churches in urban areas.

“Instead of using law enforcement officials directly to attack churches, last year we found they used a softer approach,” he said. “They used utility companies, service committees and neighborhood committees to terminate contracts with rental facilities and cut off electricity and water [to the churches].”

Those semi-official agencies, including industrial and commercial affairs departments, used various excuses to “harass, interfere and ban” church services.

“In most cases, they did not take anyone into custody, or detain or sentence, and even if a person was in custody, he was quickly released,” the report found. “The unrelenting persecution of Shouwang Church in the past nearly two years has been conducted in this manner. For example, landlords were pressured to terminate lease agreements with church members, church members who had purchased real estate were unable to take possession of them, church leaders were placed under house arrest and church members were evicted — all of which was done to make it impossible for the house church to operate normally so that it would eventually disband.”

At least 132 cases of persecution affecting 4,919 Christians, including 442 church leaders, were reported last year, up from 93 cases and 4,322 Christians in 2011, respectively. The number of people detained (1,441) and sentenced (9) also increased from the year earlier, the report found.

A total of 62 cases — the highest countrywide — were reported in Beijing, according to the report, affecting 934 Christians, followed by 11 cases in Xinjiang in northwest China that affected 382 Christians. Fu said the systematic targeting of the estimated 80 million Christians living in China has become commonplace.

“It has almost become routine and that’s the danger,” Fu said. “And when the Chinese government purposefully uses this kind of soft approach, the foreign media in Beijing won’t be able to report it and the government is essentially taking advantage of the passive obedience by the church folks. If it happened to other social groups, there would be large demonstrations.”

Fu said his most pressing goal is to educate the millions of people in the United States and China who are unaware of the rampant persecution.

“Many people, especially in China, don’t even know there are really hundreds and thousands of their fellow Christian brothers being persecuted,” he said. “If a country like China shows it does not respect its own citizens and their most basic freedoms, we should be on alert and take more action from our side in the United States to advance that.”

Fu, a 45-year-old scholar and activist born in China, ran a house church himself in Beijing until he and his wife, Heidi, were arrested for doing so in 1996. He fled to the United States a year later and made national headlines last year while championing the plight of Chen Guangcheng, a blind lawyer and dissident who fled house arrest to take refuge in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing as then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived in Washington for talks with Chinese officials.

Fu described himself as Chen’s “ambassador” at the time and was instrumental in China’s ultimate decision to grant Chen, his wife and the couple’s two children, U.S. visas in May. Chen, 41, remains in New York and speaks with Fu on a regular basis, he said.

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Detroit is in financial emergency, state-appointed review finds

DETROIT –  The fiscal crisis plaguing Detroit is now in the hands of Michigan's governor after a state-appointed review team determined the city was in a financial emergency with "no satisfactory plan" to resolve it.

Republican Gov. Rick Snyder has 30 days to decide if Detroit needs an emergency manager to take charge of its finances and spending, and come up with a new plan to get the city out of its financial mess.

After spending weeks looking at the city's books, the independent review team released a report Tuesday saying Detroit's deficit could have reached $900 million last fiscal year had it not borrowed enormous amounts of money. The city's long-term liabilities, including underfunded pensions, are more than $14 billion.

The report also said the city's bureaucratic structure makes it difficult to solve the financial problems.

Some fiscal experts believe the city's only way out may be municipal bankruptcy, but state Treasurer Andy Dillon said answers could be found if the city and state work together.

"It's our hope at the state level that this is a partnership. It doesn't have to be adversarial," said Dillon, a member of the review team. "A lot of the ingredients for the turnaround of the city are in place. Now we just need to execute. I do believe strongly that Detroit is fixable."

But over the last nine months, that relationship has been strained. Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and the nine-member City Council entered into a consent agreement with Snyder in April that allowed some state oversight and help with Detroit's finances -- short of cash infusions -- in return for certain fiscal reforms. However, the city often missed deadlines and benchmarks.

The ongoing cash crisis has threatened to leave the city, which has a current budget deficit of $327 million, without money to pay its workers or other bills. Dillon said the city has been running deficits since 2005, and masking over them with long-term borrowing.

"I stand with Detroiters and other stakeholders that the pace of change has been frustratingly slow," said Gary Brown, City Council president pro-tem. "The political will has often not been there to make the necessary and bold fiscal reforms. ... Without a doubt we need the support and accountability that a State of Michigan partnership offers. We cannot address our legacy obligations alone."

Under state law, Snyder has 30 days following the review team's finding to decide for himself whether there's a financial emergency. Bing would have 10 days to request a hearing. The first-term governor could then revoke his decision or appoint an emergency manager.

The emergency manager would be responsible for overseeing all of the city's spending. Bing and the City Council would keep their jobs, but the manager would decide all financial matters. And only the manager would have the power to authorize the city to take the bankruptcy route.

James McTevia, president of a Michigan-based firm that specializes in turnaround management, said an emergency manager could halt the city's borrowing, freeze debt and restructure finances, including voiding contracts.

"The checkbook needs to be taken from the politicians," he said.

However, others said that even with an emergency manager, municipal bankruptcy may be the city's only option.

"Is it imminent? Well, not tomorrow," said Doug Bernstein, managing partner of the Banking, Bankruptcy and Creditors' Rights Practice Group for Michigan-based Plunkett Cooney law firm. "You need to give a financial manager the opportunity to formulate a plan and let the plan have a chance to succeed or fail. It may not avoid a bankruptcy, but you don't need to do a bankruptcy today."

Bing said Tuesday's report shouldn't have surprised anyone.

"My administration has been saying for the past four years that the city is under financial stress," Bing said in an emailed statement. "If the governor decides to appoint an emergency financial manager, he or she, like my administration, is going to need resources -- particularly in the form of cash and additional staff."

Snyder spokeswoman Sara Wurfel said the governor will carefully review the team's report.

"He won't make a determination immediately, but sooner rather than later," she said. "The governor believes that a strong and successful Detroit is key to Michigan's continued comeback."

If Snyder appoints an emergency manager, Detroit would be the sixth and largest city in Michigan to have one. The cities of Benton Harbor, Ecorse, Pontiac, Flint and Allen Park are currently under state oversight. School districts in Detroit, Highland Park and Muskegon Heights also have managers.

A new state law taking effect in late March gives local governments the chance to choose their own remedy when a review team finds a financial emergency exists. However, Detroit loses those options if an emergency manager is put in place before the new law goes into effect, said Department of Treasury spokesman Terry Stanton.

The six-member review team began looking closely at Detroit's books in mid-December. Another team had done the same about 12 months earlier, but stopped short of declaring a financial emergency. That team's findings eventually led to the consent agreement in April.

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