High Court Judges to lose Their bodyguards

"This can not be right. They can not just do this from one day to the next," said one judge High Court on Monday after learning the bodyguards That Were Being Assigned To him taken away. The Interior Ministry HAS BEGUN ITS plan to massively reduce the number of bodyguards Assigned to Judges, Prosecutors and other Officials, High Court sources said. The Reductions, Including the elimination of Government vehicles for Some Officials, are to start in September Taking effect from today. Among Those Who will be left without protection are three anti-corruption Prosecutors who are Investigating the Russian Mafia Currently the Gürtel and Contracts-for-kickbacks case. It was the High Court's chief criminal judge, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, who Informed His colleagues of the Government's decision. The Reasons? The Government no longer feels pressured by ETA, Which Announced an end to attacks last fall, and the move is part of overall cost-cutting Measures ordered by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. INITIALLY, Grande Marlaska, High Court Chief Judge Angel Juanes, chief prosecutor Javier Zaragoza and Judge Jose Luis de Castro, who covers penitentiary issues, will keep Their bodyguards and official vehicles. The rest of the Judges and Prosecutors will now Have to go to work unprotected and by Their Own means. Interior's decision will Radically change the Manner in Which protection is afforded to Courtrooms Interior's decision, if it is finally Implemented across the High Court, will Radically change the Manner in Which protection is afforded to Courtrooms. Until now, judge and prosecutor Each four police officers HAD Assigned to Them, as well as a vehicle. Some Judges Say That They Will the only protection is now Have Regular surveillance of Their homes. The High Court Judges and Its Prosecutors intendant to file a note of protest With The Interior Ministry, the sources said. Their colds are among a complaint That Neither Justice nor the Interior Ministry Officials to Assess Whether made evaluations at Risk Before They Were Deciding to Eliminate bodyguards. The decision to Affect también said the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) legal watchdog and the Supreme Court. In a statement released on Monday, Prosecutors Say That state has not yet ETA disbanded and the Danger Posed by That terrorists still exists. According To Interior Ministry estimates, police officers who 1.010 Some Were serving as bodyguards will be reassigned to other Duties.

Bloods gang member from Paterson gets 89 months in prison

federal judge Wednesday sentenced Michael McCloud, of Paterson, to 89 months in prison for his role with the Fruit Town Brims, a set of the Bloods that authorities said terrorized a section of Paterson for years through violent activities connected to dealing drugs. McCloud, 26, also known as “Ike Brim,” was the second Bloods member to be sentenced this week by U.S. District Judge Stanley R. Chesler for their part in a broad racketeering conspiracy to sell narcotics in Paterson and Newark. Chesler Tuesday sentenced Ricky Coleman, also known as “Pool Stick” and “Sticks,” 39, of Newark, to 151 months for a range of violent crimes and racketeering. McCloud was among 15 alleged members and associates of the Fruit Town and Brick City Brims charged in a 20-count federal indictment with racketeering, murder and other crimes. He was arrested by federal agents in Passaic in January 2011 and pleaded guilty to the RICO conspiracy charge in August. In his guilty plea, McCloud admitted to selling crack cocaine to an undercover officer on August 30, 2006, together with two other members of the gang. McCloud also admitted to participating in two robberies in Paterson in 2006. In the first robbery, McCloud and another gang member who was armed with an AK-47 broke up a dice game and took drugs, cell phones and money. In the second, McCloud worked with other gang members to commit a robbery in retaliation for the shooting of an associate by a member of a rival gang. In the sentencing hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa L. Jampol said the Fruit Town Brims had asserted a powerful control of a section of Paterson, centered at the intersection of 12th and 22nd streets. The gang members transformed this section into an area “that was completely uninhabitable,” to the point that residents were too afraid to leave their homes and attend church services, Jampol said. McCloud’s attorney, James Patton, said his client had worked hard to turn his life around, and was working full-time at Domino’s Pizza when he was arrested last January in the RICO sweep. McCloud told Chesler that he couldn’t change the past, but was trying to become a better person for the future. “I’m tired of going in and out of jail,” McCloud said. “I’m tired of letting my family down. And I’m tired of being a failure.” But Chesler was unmoved by this testimony. McCloud’s criminal history is a long one that begins at age 15, and there is nothing to indicate that his repeated contact with law enforcement had done anything to deter the young man from a life of drugs and violence, Chesler said. The sentence – the maximum under federal guidelines, with 36 months subtracted due to time already spent in a state prison – was meant to serve as a deterrent to other gang members engaged in the same activities, Chesler said. “His offenses are horrendous,” the judge said. “He was part of a gang that terrorized citizens of this state.”

Leaders of El Salvador’s Mara street gangs said they are ready to start negotiations with the government toward a permanent peace pact

Leaders of El Salvador’s Mara street gangs said they are ready to start negotiations with the government toward a permanent peace pact following the success of a three-month-old temporary truce that has lowered the Central American country’s murder rate dramatically. The gang leaders said during a ceremony at the Izalco prison to celebrate the first 100 days of the truce that they want the government to offer job programs or some other sort of aid to gang members in exchange. “We want to reach a definitive ceasefire, to end all the criminal acts of the gangs,” said Mara 18 leader Oscar Armando Reyes. “But we have to reach agreements, because we have to survive. There was talk of job plans, but we haven’t gotten any answers, and it is time for the government to listen to us.” Mr. Reyes said the gangs weren’t thinking of ending the temporary truce. “We are issuing a call for us all to sit down and have a dialogue, to reach a definitive accord,” he said. There was no immediate response from the government. Former leftist guerrilla commander Raul Mijango and Roman Catholic Bishop Fabio Colindres mediated a truce between the Mara Salvatrucha and the Mara 18 gangs in March that has helped lower homicide rates. Mr. Mijango said the country’s homicide rate has dropped from about 14 murders a day in March to about five a day in early June. “This effort has saved the lives of more than 850 innocent Salvadorans,” Mr. Mijango said. An estimated 50,000 Salvadorans belong to street gangs that deal drugs, extort businesses and kill rivals. Gang leaders say they want to stop the violence that has given El Salvador one of the highest murder rates in the world, behind neighbouring Honduras. In April, authorities rejected a proposal that El Salvador’s gangs receive the subsidies the government currently spends on public transportation in exchange for gang members stopping extortion of bus drivers.

Indicted gang member arrested

last of 27 alleged gang members indicted in April was arrested Tuesday afternoon by the U.S. Marshals Service. Darius Smith was taken into custody around 3 p.m. after authorities found him on James Street, officials of the service said. The indictment, handed up April 3, alleges that Smith, 29, conspired to sell more than 280 grams of cocaine and heroin. He was to appear Wednesday in U.S. District Court. Smith was allegedly a member of the Uptown, or Gunners, gang. In an April news conference, U.S. Attorney Richard Hartunian said the gang used guns to terrorize the neighborhood and its members marked buildings in the Central State Street neighborhood with graffiti to mark their territory. The investigation led to the arrests of 27 alleged gang members listed on the indictment; 23 were arrested

Malvern Crew gang member ordered deported

An accused member of the notorious Malvern Crew street gang has lost a last-ditch bid to stay in Canada and is being deported to his native Jamaica for criminality. Raoul Andre Burton, 28, of Toronto, was one of 65 suspected members of the east-end gang rounded up in May 2004 by Toronto Police in Project Impact. Members of the gang were involved in a rivalry with the Galloway Boyz over turf in 2003 and 2004 that left four people dead. Burton was charged with nine offences and sentenced to eight-months in jail along with a 165-day stint of pre-sentence custody. He pled guilty to participating in a criminal organization, known as the Malvern Crew, and two counts of drug possession and trafficking that made him inadmissable to Canada Officers of the Canada Border Services Agency have been trying for years to deport Burton, who arrived here from Jamaica at age 10 and never obtained citizenship. Lawyers for Burton sought to appeal the deportation order to the Federal Court of Canada, but Judge David Near dismissed the application which means Burton will be sent packing. “Mr. Burton was right in the thick of things, an active member of the Malvern Crew, actively participating in the activities of the organization,” Near said in his June 11 decision. “He may have occupied a rather influential or responsible place in the organization.” Near said Burton’s involvement with the Malvern Crew was “significant.” “He was obviously fully integrated and well-invested into the organization,” Near wrote. “He was also prepared to engage in criminal activities on a significant scale for the benefit of the organization.” Police gang experts said Burton was a loyal Malvern foot-soldier who was a “good money-earner” for the gang. Officers said the gang was involved in the trafficking, importation and distribution of drugs as well as other crimes, including murder.

American street artist Frank Shepard Fairey works on his latest piece, Envision, above a shop in Turnpike Lane

.Photograph: Teri Pengilley

The natural territory of the street artist Shepard Fairey would seem to be as all-American as it gets. Emerging from the country's skateboarding scene he achieved global prominence with his much copied, much parodied Hope poster displaying a stylised Barack Obama in shades of blue and red.

He spent much of Friday assembling his latest street mural in a seemingly less likely locale – a suburban street in Turnpike Lane, one of north London's more economically mixed neighbourhoods.

Hoisted aloft by a rented cherry picker, the 42-year-old artist used stencils and paint to create Envision, an image of a giant, stylised eyeball design, set in the frame of a disused Victorian placard site on the wall of a local shop.

The unlikely public commission, carried out with any charge by the artist, was the almost accidental result of a wider community regeneration programme carried out by the local council, Haringey, and the green travel charity Sustrans.

In getting together to decide options for more pedestrian-friendly street layouts, locals pondered what to do with the crumbling and slightly tatty shop wall, and decided the existing frame left by the long-disappeared Victorian placard would be best filled by a mural.

James Straffon, a local who helped organise the project, went to a London art gallery specialising in graffiti artists to seek help.

He said: "The woman from the gallery asked: 'Ideally, who would you like?' I said: 'I know it would never happen, but Shepard Fairy.' She said: 'Shall I get in touch with him, then?' I stuck my neck out and said yes and sent them a diagram with the sizes, thinking nothing would happen. Literally a week later they said, he's interested and he's coming over."

Straffon says he remains unsure why such a celebrated artist would be interested in a relatively out-of-the-way location. He said: "I think what sold it was that it's an old Victorian billboard. I think they like the fact it's the old London thing."

Before Fairey arrived, Straffon and some neighbours spent a day preparing the wall, painting it in a specified shade of red for a background to the stencilled design.

The US artist and his team spent several hours in decidedly mixed weather putting the design in place. Straffon said: "He's come from west coast America to dreary, sodden London. He must be thinking: 'Great, I've got to do this.' It's quite windy, too."

Another oddity is that this is Turnpike Lane's second work by a globally-known street artist in a matter of months. Last month, a mural believed to be by Banksy, a rough UK equivalent to Fairey, appeared on the wall of the area's local Poundland shop, showing a child sweatshop worker sewing jubilee bunting.

Jimmy Carr was heckled repeatedly in Stockport as he made his first appearance since his tax affairs became public.

Photograph: Anthony Upton/Rex Features

Thank you for coming out. I've had a busy week," said Jimmy Carr, master of understatement. Four days ago he was exposed for investing in a scheme that enabled him to pay roughly 1% income tax.

His initial response was fiercely unapologetic – until David Cameron named and shamed him. By Thursday Carr was dressed in a sober black, and tweeting for forgiveness. "I made a terrible error of judgment," he said. Of course he did: he got caught out.

This was Jimmy Carr's first gig post-humiliation, and everybody had an opinion. Even the woman selling me my ticket for Friday's gig in Stockport had her ha'penny worth. "Boy, he's going to get heckled," she said gleefully. What would she shout out if she was here? "Taxi for Mr Carr!" Not a fan.

But he does have plenty. How else could he stash away £3m in a year in a tax-avoidance scheme, treat himself to an £8.5m mansion, and drive a Bentley? Matthew Thornburn, a fan, didn't have any time for the moralists. "I think people have jumped on the bandwagon. What he did was legal, and it's been escalated by social media and the government. Why's he been singled out? Why not Gary Barlow?" Then he answered the question himself. "Because he's Sir Gary Barlow Soon To Be, and he wrote a song for the Queen."

The Stockport Plaza was sold out for two shows on Friday – this week's headlines helped get rid of the last few tickets.

"We'll just treat it as a normal night then," Carr said by way of an intro.

"No chance," bellowed Stockport's first heckler of the night.

"Well fine, let's kick off and see how it goes. Let's go back to causing moral outrage in the traditional manner."

But if it was ever going to be a contest between Carr and the hecklers, the comic won hands down. The audience were too interested in laughing and shouting out rude words to pass judgment. Carr almost seemed disappointed by how tame they were.

He asked one member of the audience what she did for a living.

"Teacher," she said.

"Teachers work so hard," he said sympathetically. Pause. "Five-hour days, half a year."

"At least we pay tax," she shrieked. But it seemed more in delight at the recognition than in judgment.

"What's the worst present anybody's ever bought you?" he asked the audience.

"A ticket for tonight," said a man close to the front.

"What do you do?" asked Carr.

"Tax inspector."

Carr blinked and responded: "Well you've not been doing a very good job. You better get your finger out." The audience cheered.

When one woman told him she was a banker, he said that normally he'd get on his high horse and make a few jokes at her expense. But he acknowledged this was not the right occasion.

So he got on with what he did best – causing offence. We could be listening to a triple X-rated Bob Monkhouse on acid. The filthy one-liners keep coming, delivered with headache-inducing expertise. Anal sex, blowies, hand jobs, bestiality, coprophilia and back to anal sex.

Carr is not what you'd call an issues comic. Some of the jokes are funny, most are impossible to repeat in a newspaper. As he says (and as Bernard Manning used to say) he is an equal opportunities offender so he'll take the piss out of anything – disabled kids, fat people, lesbians, fat, disabled lesbians. Much of it is a postmodern version of what the reactionary comics of the 70s gave us in the working men's clubs. "I love a blow job off the missus. Oh, the peace and quiet." "Not all fat people are jolly. Some are women." "Not all gay people are camp and funny. Some are lesbians." "A problem shared is a problem halved. Well it wasn't with Aids." At the end of most jokes, or midway through, he laughs like a seal. "Ha-ha-ha-ha-haaaaaa!"

To be fair, Carr is also a target of his own jokes. But he is careful to appear as Carr the pervert, a carefully honed persona, and never Carr the man who doesn't like to pay tax. "Ten per cent of women have cried in shop changing rooms. I guess they didn't expect to find me there."It's so embarrassing how I always have the biggest penis in the gym changing room. Then again, I'm the only one with an erection."

Towards the end of the evening he asked if there was anybody who had not been offended, and a few put their hands up. He looked disappointed and had another go. It was pretty much business as usual for Carr, with a few teaspoons of humility thrown in. When one fan shouted out he should be made chancellor, Carr replied "No, I have been a dick."

In a sketch on brand new thoughts, he came up with "a new accountant". The message was clear – any problem lies with professional advice, not my personal morality.

It would have been brave if he had addressed the issue, explained why he had not paid his full share of tax and why he now thought it was wrong. It would have sufficed if he'd just written some new jokes that incorporated his embarrassment. But tax doesn't fit neatly with lezzas and fatties and blowies. And Carr has never been a comedian of the heart or soul, and was never going to become one overnight.

At the end he thanked the audience again and said he felt humbled.

"Because the best phrase I can think of of to explain how I was feeling would be 'fucking shitting it'." And one last thing, he said, he just wanted to clear up a potential misunderstanding. "Sometimes after the show girls think I'm buying them a drink because I'm just a nice guy. Ha-ha-ha-ha—haaaaaa! Oh no."