(From The Republic, Columbus, IN.)

Twenty-two young men who are accused in a lawsuit of being involved with a Kurdish gang in Nashville will be restricted from associating with each other, at least temporarily.

   Attorneys who filed the lawsuit for the Metro government want the men declared a public nuisance. If that happens, they could be permanently barred from being together in public within a 1.4-square-mile "safety zone" south of downtown, where police say the Kurdish Pride gang operates.

   It is the first time in Tennessee that a city has used public nuisance laws to combat gang violence.

   At a hearing on Friday, most of the men said they need time to find attorneys. The judge reset the hearings for Aug. 3. In the meantime, the men will have to abide by the restrictions.

   After the hearing, Aran Ibrahim, who is one of the men named in the suit, complained that he and several others have not been involved with the gang for months or years. Some are now working and married with children.

He also was upset that he was being asked not to associate publicly with his cousins.

   "A lot of us are relatives," the 22-year-old said. "Sometimes you need a ride to work. You're going to call your cousins."

The restrictions on public association include riding in a car together within the so-called safety zone. If the men were caught doing so, the car could be seized.

   Ibrahim, who came to the United States from Turkey as a baby and is an American citizen, was convicted of selling cocaine last year. On Friday, he said he is trying to quit the gang life but the lawsuit drags him back in by labeling him as a gang member.

   Meeran Hamawandi attempted during the hearing to persuade Metro attorneys to dismiss him from the suit but could not reach an agreement with them.

   In an interview afterward the 23-year-old said he is not involved in the gang but is a student at Middle Tennessee State University where he performs community service as a member of the Kappa Alpha Order fraternity. He also said he is working to establish an import-export business.

Hamawandi said he was born in Iraq, but has lived in the United States since he was 7 and is a citizen.

   He said he planned to sue Metro for defamation.

   Typically the state's public nuisance law has been used by local governments to shut down businesses associated with crimes like prostitution and illegal alcohol sales. The state added criminal gang activity to the law in 2009, but this is the first time that provision has been used.

The city's petition includes a way for the accused to opt-out of the injunction if they can prove they are no longer part of the gang. It also gives the city a way to add other gang members to the injunction in the future.

Once is not enough

(From The Tennessean)    For the first time in Tennessee, some one-time, nonviolent offenders will have the right to expunge their felony conviction, forever erasing that criminal record.

A bill signed into law last month, and effective July 1, allows some offenders to expunge a select set of felonies and misdemeanors for a fee, after meeting all court requirements. The law applies only to offenders with a single conviction.

The economy has already proven a powerful incentive for people to have their records expunged. As people lost jobs over the past few years, they found that criminal records often prevented them from finding work, particularly as more people vied for a smaller pool of positions. State and local officials say that economic pressure is responsible for a surge in expungements over the last five years, from roughly 23,000 in 2007 to more than 39,000 in 2011.

Loosening the restrictions is expected to shatter all records, with a stunning 60,000 additional requests each year, according to a fiscal analysis of the approved bill.

“These things are life-altering. It is just devastating to apply to a job, to try to get many things, primarily economic,” said Nashville criminal defense attorney David Raybin, who handles expungement and felons’ rights restoration cases. “The United States is the land of the second chance, that’s what we’re about. To permanently brand somebody with something like this to where it destroys their ability to work or go to school, there’s no reason for it anymore.”

Conviction stood

Until this law was passed, a conviction was permanent, absent an executive exoneration from the governor. Expungement was available only for those not guilty or whose charges were dropped or for those sentenced to judicial diversion, a process by which offenders can clear their names after meeting all of their court-mandated requirements.

Tennessee is set to join at least 17 other states that have some mechanism for first-time offenders to expunge a criminal charge, according to a study by the University of Cincinnati Law Review.

Under the new law, offenders can only have a single criminal conviction, must wait 5 years after all court requirements have been fulfilled and then must pay $350 to apply to have their one charge expunged. Offenders must apply in the county where they are convicted and after a hearing before a judge, where prosecutors could conceivably present evidence in opposition to the removal of a charge.

Most of the felonies eligible to be expunged are property crimes like theft and vandalism where the goods stolen are worth less than $1,000. Some minor drug charges, such as felony simple possession, are also eligible to be expunged.

Most misdemeanors are eligible, with the exception of convictions for violent crimes like assault and domestic assault, some weapons charges, child neglect and molestation charges and DUIs.

The bill passed handily, but not without much discussion and some opposition.

State Sen. Jack Johnson, R-Franklin, said he wasn’t opposed to the idea in spirit, but was uncomfortable with some details in the bill.

“It wasn’t necessarily an easy vote for me because I do believe in second chances. But I just don’t like that it includes a few things that I thought should not be expunged,” he said. “I thought it was a little broad, included some things I wasn’t comfortable with.”

He pointed to a handful of felony charges that could be expunged that he thought shouldn’t be, including forgery up to $1,000, auto burglaries and felony vandalism with damages up to $999.

“Being labeled as a felon? That’s pretty serious stuff and that could haunt a 22-year-old kid for the rest of their lives. I don’t have a problem showing some compassion for that,” he said. “But this bill went a little further than that.”

Gun rights a factor

Raybin said that a secondary effect of the new law is that some felons will have their rights — including the right to have a gun — restored when their crimes are expunged. Raybin said that most of the clients who approach him about felony rights are specifically interested in having their gun rights restored.

“It is tremendous the number of people who can’t have a firearm because of a conviction,” he said.

Raybin is currently suing the state on behalf of a Franklin man who was pardoned in Georgia and had his gun rights restored there, but was denied a gun permit in Tennessee because his original charge was drug-related. Tennessee bars violent and drug felons from possessing guns.

He said the new law is not only just, but will also benefit the state economically by removing barriers to employment for those who have made a mistake in their past.

Shooting in north Nashville

 A 32-year-old man was shot and killed in his car outside a north Nashville market last Tuesday night.

Police said Jason Earl Thomas was shot in his car outside Harper's Market on Jefferson Street around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Jason Earl Thomas

He had been talking with a group of people across the street before going to his car. Police said the gunman walked from behind the market and opened fire through the passenger-side window.

"At this time what we're getting from witnesses is the victim was sitting in his car, and the suspect approached him, fired multiple times on the car and then fled," said Metro Police Captain Preston Brandimore.

Witnesses reported hearing gunshots after Thomas left the Brew Sports Bar, where he had been watching a basketball game.

He was taken to Vanderbilt Medical Center, where he died.

Police said the gunman fled on foot. The description of the suspect is limited: a black man wearing a white t-shirt.

Detectives believe there were several witnesses to the murder who left the scene before police arrived. 

It was unlikely that robbery was a motive because drugs and cash were recovered at the scene, according to police.

Police were interviewing witnesses to try to piece together what happened. Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 74-CRIME.

Let's break it up, gang

   Metro police on Tuesday filed a civil lawsuit to wrest control of an area in South Nashville from the clutches of the Kurdish Pride gang by banning members from congregating in a 1.47-mile “safety zone.”

   The department is targeting 24 of what they call the “worst of the worst” members of the gang, hoping a judge will ban them from publicly gathering in a zone that encompasses part of an area known as Little Kurdistan and includes Paragon Mills and Providence Park. The injunction lawsuit is the fruit of a three-year effort to combat gangs for detectives to build their case and attorneys to try and bullet-proof it from legal challenges. The injunction is the first of its kind ever filed in Tennessee, but a tactic used successfully for years in other states like California.

   “Our police department will not sit idly by when a street gang threatens the peace of our community,” said Metro Police Chief Steve Anderson at a news conference held in Paragon Mills, the site detectives say hosted Kurdish Pride gang meetings. “We want to give this park back to the citizens.”

   Police say Kurdish Pride members were involved in at least one murder, multiple beatings and shootings, drug dealing, illegal weapons and vandalism. Incidents include the 2006 attempted murder of a Metro Parks Police officer and multiple graffiti messages threatening a Metro Police Gang Unit detective.

Conference addresses sex trafficking

(From The Associated Press):  About 160 people attended the three-day Trafficking in America Conference in Nashville last week, where police, prosecutors, clergy and child advocates gathered to bring awareness and find solutions.

The conference was a response to the sense of urgency that many state and federal officials feel about the need to stop trafficking in the United States.

Crissy and Gov. Bill Haslam

First Lady Crissy Haslam wrote in a letter to the attendees that trafficking was “an epidemic of tragic proportions,” and her husband, Gov. Bill Haslam, declared May as Human Trafficking Awareness Month. A Tennessee Bureau of Investigation report last year found more than 4,000 known victims statewide.

One of those victims, Kim Benson, spoke about how she was forced into prostitution in Chicago as a teenager before she was able to escape her kidnappers.

“I survived hell and back,” said Benson, who now lives in Cordova.

Benson said her abusers would put a gun to her head and tell her they could kill her if they wanted and she would never get away.

“My story doesn’t end in tragedy,” said Benson, who married and now has a 16-year-old son. “It ends in triumph.”

She runs A Bridge of Hope Ministries, mentoring victims and trying to reform pimps and johns. As part of her ministry, she said she met one Memphis inmate who admitted to trafficking about 200 young women.

Shelby County authorities and social workers have reported more than 100 cases of minors who were victims of sex trafficking. That includes victims who are brought into the state from other cities and others who run away from home and end up in relationships that turn predatory.

Traffickers look for victims over the Internet, said FBI Supervisory Special Agent Scott Augenbaum, who heads the Memphis division’s Cyber Crime Squad. He said his team has prosecuted more than 30 predators in Memphis and Nashville who go online to target minors.

Roscoe Johnson, pastor of Restoration Outreach Ministries in North Memphis, came to the conference to learn about what his ministries could do to help fight trafficking.

Bills (including Haslam) target violent crime

   Three bills aimed at reducing violent crime in Tennessee were signed by Governor Bill Haslam this week at the Bartlett Criminal Justice Center in Shelby County. 

Following is a brief summary of the new laws:

• Felons with Firearms — Increases penalties for illegal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon from a Class E felony to a Class C felony, which is punishable by a 3- to 15-year sentence and up to $10,000 in fines if the crime involved the use of force, violence or a deadly weapon. The punishment is a Class D felony, under the new law, for felons whose conviction involve a drug offense.
• Enhancing Penalties for Gang Violence – Bumps up penalties by one classification in Tennessee if “a crime of force or violence is committed while acting in concert with two or more other persons.” The measure addresses certain types of serious crimes not covered by the state’s current “Crooks with Guns” law, including aggravated assault, robbery, or aggravated burglary, if the crime is committed in concert with two or more persons.
• Repeat Domestic Violence Offender Law – Specifies at least 30 days in jail and a fine ranging from $350 to $3,500 for those convicted of a second offense for domestic violence when bodily injury occurs. Upon a third or a subsequent conviction, the mandatory jail time would increase to 90 days and a fine ranging from $1,000 to $5,000. In counting prior convictions, the new law provides for a ten-year look back provision for domestic violence due to serious bodily injury similar to the one used in the state’s drunk driving law.

   “Tennessee is ranked second in the nation in domestic violence and is fifth in the number of women murdered by men as a result of domestic violence,” said Senator Mark Norris, the state's Senate Majority Leader and the sponsor of the bills. “We must turn the tide on domestic violence in Tennessee. This new law represents a large step forward in that effort.”

   Norris said all three of the new laws were part of a package of public safety bills included in Haslam’s legislative agenda. The bills were recommended by a group headed by Department of Safety and Homeland Security Commissioner Bill Gibbons, composed of more than 10 government agencies. The group held meetings with over 300 leaders in law enforcement, substance abuse, and corrections, and developed 11 objectives and 40 action steps in their multi-year safety action plan with the goal of significantly reducing drug abuse and drug trafficking, curbing violent crime and lowering the rate of repeat offenders in Tennessee.

A novel idea: Fighting crime where it happens

The Metro Police Department says their new precinct in Madison is allowing officers in north Nashville to spend more time in problem areas, and that has cut down on crime.

Haynes Manor has been known as one of Nashville's high-crime neighborhoods, but resident Job Bond said things have been different lately.

"It's been quiet since the police have been around here. It's been quiet," he said.

Police say it is not by chance crime is down in several north-side communities.

"I think the message that has been sent to Haynes Manor is, 'Hey, every time we look around the police is all in here, so we need to go someplace else, or we need to quit,'" said Commander Anthony Carter.

In January, with the addition of the Madison Precinct, officers' coverage for the North Precinct shrank by about 70 square miles. Police said that has allowed officers to better focus on problem areas and arrest more criminals.

As a result, Carter said serious crimes in areas such as Bordeaux are down 9 percent and in Joelton, 25 percent. That includes offenses like homicide, robbery and aggravated assault.

"The Madison Precinct opening up has allowed us to be more visible and spend more time in the neighborhoods. And spending more time in the neighborhoods allows us to be more visible," Carter said.

But the news isn't great across the board. Carter said overall crime in north Nashville is up by about 2 percent. That's in part, he said, because of significant burglary issues in the Whites Creek and Scottsboro areas.

Mad at God?

   Surveillance cameras last week captured a man throwing a brick through a window and breaking into North Nashville's 15th Avenue Baptist Church.

   "The fact that someone would vandalize something so sacred is deeply upsetting and disturbing to me," said Pastor William Buchanan.

   Other burglaries have occurred at churches on Smith Springs Road and Old Murfreesboro Pike.

   Maybe the burglars think their victims will be more forgiving?

   At one church, choir members got ready in a room to come out and sing. The room was left unlocked from an outside entrance and a thief waltzed in and stole all the personal belongings of the choir members.

   Pastors and police are joining forces and fighting back with Metro's fourth annual Church Safety Seminar. Officers won't just be addressing break-ins; they'll be tackling everything from embezzlement to identity theft.

   Father Joseph Breen of St. Edwards Church has been to the seminar before. "We found out lighting is one of the most important elements of security," Breen said.

   This year, Breen is hosting the event and said he hopes to send a message to criminals that they will have to bear the burden of their actions. "I don't think they can live with that and find peace," Breen said.

   But for those who are able to overcome their conscience, they’ll now have to deal with clergy armed with self-defense tactics.

   "I think they would be wise to keep that it in mind, that it is a house of God. It's something different and something special that I would hope they would not consider doing it again,” Breen said. (Or they’ll suffer the wrath of God?)

   Metro police said anyone is welcome to join the seminar. It starts at 9 a.m. Thursday at the St. Edwards Church on Thompson Lane.

Hold on thar, Quick Draw

The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled this week that police must corroborate anonymous tips before officers stop and frisk someone.

   The unanimous court ruling came in a case involving a man who was convicted of being a felon in possession of a handgun and having a firearm while intoxicated. 

   The opinion, which overturned a ruling of the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals, said police had no grounds to stop and frisk Guy Alvin Williamson at a hotel because there was no indication, beyond the anonymous report, that a crime had been committed. As a result, the court said evidence against Williamson should have been suppressed.

The opinion protects everyone from illegal searches and seizures, said Parker Dixon, an assistant public defender in Tipton County, who represents Williamson.

   Williamson was arrested after an anonymous report was made to Covington police in May 2009 of an "armed party" at a local motel. Police had only the report of an armed person before they drew their guns on his client and two others — essentially seizing them — when they were at the motel, Dixon said.

   Dixon maintained in this case that police should have had to have more grounds to assume that a crime had been committed than just a report that someone was armed, especially seeing as how many people legally have the right to carry a gun.

   "This case really protects someone's rights to bear arms," Dixon said.

It also protects citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures, he added.

   The opinion didn't say police couldn't act on anonymous tips--only that they have to have some reason to believe that a crime has been committed before stopping and frisking someone.