MURDERS UNDER THE COLOR OF AUTHORITY
by Ron Hannivig
TO: TodayShow
CC: ABC-TVNews
Today Show, 17/Mar/99 @ 7:35 AM
"A New Milford, Connecticut Police Officer being Charged with Murder"
Fact: In the distressed city of Carbondale, Pennsylvania - there have been three (3) known and clear cut, cold blooded murders committed by the city's police officers ...and it has been virtually impossible for anyone to incite an investigation.
The local and regional press/media here, within N.E. and Central PA ... specifically, the Scranton/Lackawanna county, Pennsylvania region - have blatantly elected to ignore the prima facie facts in each of these three (3) outstanding murder cases - for reasons which only they might be able to provide.
The three (3) Carbondale, PA murders in question are:
Michael Renter, 19 years old when he was pulled from the passenger side of his wrecked vehicle and clubbed to death by at least one Carbondale police officer. This incident occurred on or about the 24th of July, 1989 ... and the evidence which would surely be required to support this incident as a murder, is indeed overwhelming.
The second occurred just prior to the 4th of July weekend, 1992. Also, a 19 year old healthy male by the name of Robert "Tucker" Crellin - who had been beaten to death by two (2) Carbondale, PA police officers as he stood alone outside of an all night convenience market in the city. This teenager's murder was quickly written off as a suicide; the authorities claiming the boy hung himself in a cell at the the city's police lockup shortly after he was arrested (on what were extremely nebulous charges).
The third murder occurred less than thirteen (13) months later (July of 1993). This time it was a 29 year old mother of four (4) - who was also arrested on nebulous charges by the Carbondale police, and then ... alleged to have attempted suicide by hanging herself in a cell at the city's police lockup. It should be noted here that this young woman was in their custody for only forty-one (41) minutes.
In essence, this city's police force has been out of control for years, and there is no way the responsible citizens of this economically distressed region can hold these murders ... moreover, those who have been stifling our attempts to bring these cold blooded murder cases to term - accountable.
Therefore, it's high time for someone ... i.e., for me to again place another call for help. No normal civilized society would ever have allow one ... much less, three (3) unaccountable murders to be committed by police officers - in the first instance.
I should also note that here, in Lackawanna county Pennsylvania (the distressed and dysfunctional city of Scranton being the county seat) - such legal matters have already gone so far beyond reality, and the national/international press would have a virtual field day picking apart the intertwined corruption being carried out under the full auspice and color of authority.
Why the local/regional press and media will not pick up upon these facts, and force the issues - remains their business. Apparently, those of us residing here, in this dysfunctional region have more problems that can be addressed, herein.
As a final note: It surely appears that the only such incidents (murders and beatings by police officers) being picked up by the national press and media are those which have been committed against non-nationals (or first generation Americans). In the city of Carbondale, the city's police have murdered three (3) American nationals.
Responsibly submitted
Ronald T. Hannivig, Investigative Research Journalist at-Large
Simpson PA - 18407
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ONE CITIZENS RESPONSE TO
"MURDER UNDER THE COLOR OF AUTHORITY":
Thanks for this article. The same story could be written about the city of Knoxville - except there have been 6 murders by the Knoxville City Police since June 96 - (that is when I moved up here). There may be more prior.... because people have told me of previous stories.
Five of these people were shot - by the SWAT team; but ONE was beaten to death by about 6 policemen - ALA Rodney King. The man was black (not a coincidence); not a criminal; and was doing nothing wrong when accosted by the police. There were many witnesses to the crime.
NONE of the policemen have been charged with anything.
The only "investigation" has been an internal investigation by the City Police Dept. who have found "no" evidence of wrongdoing - and that all policemen were acting in accordance with their "duty".
My question to you is: Don't you think that these stories could be written about EVERY CITY or town (of any size) in this country today? I say YES, and that is because of the Crime Bill passed in 1994 - which makes practically everything a "federal" crime. I have this crime bill on a floppy disc - it is too big to print out - unless you have REAMS of paper and plenty of printer cartridges!!!!
AND, this bill was an "UPDATE" to the Crime Bill of 1984 which was bad enough - causing a lot of laws to become federal.... I understand that Congress is working on another CRIME bill to update the l994 crime bill - as well as the HATE CRIME bill - making a lot of MURDER cases federal.
(So, this could account for the 1991-1992 murders in Carbondale since these "local" police could be said to be acting under "federal authority".
The Knoxville Police Dept. and the Sheriff's Dept. make what they call a Friday Night Sweep. They fill up the City and County jails (moving as many "permanent" prisoners as they can to the work camps in the rural areas of the county (and there are several of these camps). The City and County keeps these prisoners in jail all week end on some trumped up "federal" charge - you know "suspicion of".... knowing that they will not be able to make bail until Monday morning. Then on Monday morning they will assign a Public Defender to as many of them as they can - knowing that they have a very limited number of Public Defenders anyhow - and turn the rest of the prisoners loose - dropping all charges.
They don't even hold a hearing for them (would be too much work for the Judges). They do hold an arraignment hearing for those who can be assigned a Public Defender - with MOST of these pleading guilty (at the prodding of the Public Defender) to a lesser charge - and the Judge will "sentence" them to Jail Time - from anywhere to 24hr to say 30 days.
WHY? The federal government PAYS for jailing prisoners under federal crime charges!!!! Some have said it is $89 a day for each prisoner. If you knew how many can be jailed here in Knoxville (in crowded prison cells) this can amount to a lot of revenue for the County.
I think it would be "worthy" of our time IF - citizens would make an effort to be present at these arraignments on Monday morning - and hopefully if we could get some JOURNALIST to investigation these matters for us in EVERY town in the U.S.A. I don't want to go alone to a place like this - and that is the reason I have not done it yet. I should be braver....but I have tried VERY hard all my life to avoid anything legal or having to do with jails., etc. I have only had ONE experience with this when a friend of mine in Pensacola was put in jail over the weekend on a drunk driving charge - a trumped up charge - but he had had a beer - it was raining - and his car slid into the backend of another car. We were NOT able to get him out of jail until MONDAY morning ..... on bail.
I did not "Connect the Dots" about these things until I moved to Knoxville and found out the "practices" of our City and County law enforcement "peacekeepers".
SO, what can citizens DO about it?
CONNECT THE DOTS
Knoxville, TN
"To Deny the Constitution is to Provoke Revolution"