Crime

NEVER AGAIN, said the feds, and they meant it. Never again will owner Rosalind Lavin nor the managers of her four personal-care centers in Philadelphia and Media allow more than 210 residents to live in what U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan called "appalling" conditions. Never again will Lavin or her managers allow residents to lie in vomit or feces for days, unattended. Never again will Lavin or her managers serve insufficient food to residents, like a slice of bologna and a piece of cheese between bread, and call it nutritious.

AW, SHUCKS! Child rape is not a capital crime. No state may execute for it. In a perfect world, all murderers, rapists, heroin-heads, etc., would be exterminated. Can you imagine? Lawful jurisprudence protecting the innocent instead of protecting the guilty and damning the innocent? Whew! Makes your head spin. M. Anthony Vare, Philadelphia

Re "If guns are the problem, why aren't Hispanic, Asian and white males killing each other?": First, the press reports more black-on-black crimes. Second, whites are so busy leaving the border open, killing people in schools, molesting in churches, kiddie porn, meth labs, political crimes. Maybe whites are killing whites in the suburbs. There is crime everywhere. Not just blacks - whites, Asians, Hispanics. And whites who run the White House are getting whites, blacks, Asians, Hispanics killed every day in a war that isn't necessary.

The next time John Street, Ron White or any other African-American cries race when investigated by the FBI or any other agency I would ask them to read page 47 of the Daily News on Tuesday, June 22. Maryland's former police superintendent Edward Norris, a white man, was sentenced to six months in prison for misusing thousands of dollars in police funds while he was Baltimore's Police Commissioner. Please spare everyone the race card when the indictments are served and remember crime and graft knows no color.

I AND A lot of others blame the system for these continous crimes. A suggestion: When criminals commit these horrible crimes with little or no fault of the victim, it really should be a stiff sentence. Jury duty never calls on me because I'll send the criminals to hell. Cissy Benjamin, Philadelphia

In taking a fresh look at the allegations of womanizing and sexual misconduct by former Warminster Police Chief Elmer P. Clawges, Bucks County District Attorney Alan M. Rubenstein has added fuel to the notion that this case is too hot to handle. A few weeks back, the D.A. said the former police chief's alleged conduct in one instance was "not only criminal, it is reprehensible and it's wrong. " The case involved a former township police clerk, Julie Beekman, who said the chief had sex with her regularly, beginning when she was 16. While he said he wanted to prosecute, Mr. Rubenstein said he was "absolutely barred by the statute of limitations.

Philadelphia Interfaith Action tried yesterday to present a fiddle to Commissioner Richard Neal at Police Headquarters, saying he and mayoral chief of staff David Cohen are fiddling while the city burns. The group cited a lack of response to rising crime and police scandal.

On June 30, the Supreme Court of this country declared sodomy a crime. In one fell swoop, millions of Americans were made criminals, punishable with prison terms of up to several years. It is irrelevant to argue that this is simply a "paper" law, one that will not be enforced. The highest court in the land, subject to political pressure and the intolerance of Christian fundamentalists, has made the expression of an act of love between two consenting adults in the privacy of their bedroom a crime.

WHO CAN stop the killings in our neighborhoods? To see a crime and not report it, to know who committed the crime and not tell who did it, makes you as guilty as the one who did it. We can stop the killing, and we can get guns off the streets, all we have to do is step up and speak on what we see. Tell the police what you know and what you saw - and let the killers out there know you're not taking anymore. If the shooter knew that people were going to tell the cops just what they saw, I bet there wouldn't be that many killings.

LONDON - Seven men were convicted in London on Tuesday of sexually abusing underage girls, including one who was just 11, by plying them with alcohol and drugs before forcing them to commit sex acts. The guilty verdict followed five months of testimony indicating the pedophile sex ring exploited girls between 2004 and 2012 in the Oxford area, about 60 miles northwest of London. Charges include rape, trafficking, and child prostitution. The case follows several other high-profile ones of sex rings that took advantage of underage girls.

IN THE DARKNESS of night, the complaints were etched in chalk up and down the walkways of Swarthmore College, a 399-acre oasis of green quads and liberal student activism southwest of Philadelphia. "Welcome to Swarthmore," said one of the scribblings that recently confronted students - and administrators - when the sun rose. "Home of my rapist. " The so-called chalkings, which infuriated Swarthmore's president, were a turning point in a controversy that has rattled one of America's top-ranked liberal-arts schools.

NEIGHBORS SAID they were inseparable in life. But after 53 years of marriage, Louis Hartdegen separated himself from wife Judith in the most vicious and devious of ways Monday morning when he beat and suffocated her in bed - and then called 9-1-1 to falsely report that a neighbor broke in to rape and kill her, homicide Capt. James Clark said yesterday. Louis Hartdegen, 75, confessed his crime after detectives discovered "discrepancies" in his account of the supposed home invasion, Clark said.

Now comes the test. A new police force in Camden this week began the monumental job of patrolling one of the most dangerous cities in America. It will come under intense scrutiny to determine if it is up for the task. The Camden County Police Department Metro Division replaces the nearly 184-year-old city Police Department, which was abolished under a controversial plan that took more than two years to implement. Supporters, including Gov. Christie, have hailed the new force as the best way to improve public safety in the impoverished city of 79,000.

Mayor Nutter has been touting law enforcement efforts that are reducing crime, so why is he risking that success by inadequately funding the District Attorney's Office? Nutter has proposed increases for the police, prisons, and public defender's office, but his proposed budget would shortchange the District Attorney's Office by at least $2 million. That doesn't add up in a city that so far this year is on pace to reduce the 331 homicides and more than 1,200 shootings that occurred last year.

SEOUL, South Korea - An American detained for nearly six months in North Korea has been sentenced to 15 years of "compulsory labor" for unspecified crimes against the state, Pyongyang announced Thursday. The sentencing of Kenneth Bae, described by friends as a devout Christian and a tour operator, will further complicate strained relations between Pyongyang and Washington as the countries pursue tentative diplomacy after weeks of warlike threats from North Korea. Pyongyang's official state media said Bae's trial took place Tuesday; the dispatch provided few other details.

Now that we know that the structure of some people's brains, the chemistry of their bodies, puts them at higher risk to commit crimes, what should we as a society do about it? That's the question that University of Pennsylvania professor Adrian Raine would like people to think about as they read his new book, The Anatomy of Violence, The Biological Roots of Crime . The book highlights Raine's research on what makes bad guys physically different, but also discusses how environmental factors such as the quality of parenting and nutrition interact with physical risks to make things better or worse.

Saying witness intimidation is a national issue, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.) urged Friday that threatening or harming witnesses be made a federal crime. He pledged to reintroduce legislation giving federal prosecutors the right to bring such cases, providing the wrongdoers had crossed state lines to commit the crime, plotted their attacks or threats using interstate communication, or transferred weapons from state to state. And, Casey said, his coming legislative package would newly provide more federal money to relocate local witnesses to places of safety.

The operator of a North Philadelphia day-care center, already held in the drowning death of a 7-year-old, was charged with new crimes Thursday. This time, it was over stealing from a church. In March, a grand jury charged Tianna Edwards, 31, with involuntary manslaughter in the death of Isear Jeffcoat. Now, authorities say that just days before her arrest, Edwards cashed a stolen check for more than $4,000 from Saints Tabernacle Church in Fern Rock. On Jan. 15, the church's financial manager notified police that seven checks had been stolen from the church office, according to criminal court records.