Information from AG.NY.gov — Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo announced that his office has obtained an order to shut down the Yonkers SPCA after it was found to be giving peace officer status to more than a dozen individuals, allowing them to carry guns without providing any service to the community.
Attorney General Cuomo’s Office obtained an order permanently shutting down the Yonkers Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA). The services it was supposed to provide have actually been carried out by the SPCA of Westchester for decades. The order, the result of a lawsuit filed in 2009, also requires that all members with peace officer status turn over their firearms, shields and identification cards.
The order also forwards any remaining assets of the Yonkers SPCA to a legitimate organization that prevents animal abuse.
“The individuals behind the Yonkers SPCA took advantage of a nationally renowned non-profit to masquerade as a law enforcement entity with no responsibilities or oversight,” said Attorney General Cuomo. “Since this organization provides no service to the community, we have shut it down.”
Yonkers SPCA, headquartered at 976 McLean Avenue in Yonkers, was incorporated in 1912 but has not conducted any operations in decades. The SPCA of Westchester expanded its territory to include Yonkers and has provided and continues to provide prevention of cruelty to animal services to the city. The newly reconstituted Yonkers SPCA conducted no law enforcement activities.
Nevertheless, the organization conferred peace officer status to at least 16 members over the past three years, essentially allowing them to carry guns with peace officer status while not doing any activities relating to the prevention of cruelty to animals. By comparison, the SPCA of Westchester conducts all such enforcement across the county and has only two peace officers.
Peace officer status grants people the power to make warrantless arrests, use deadly physical force in making an arrest, conduct warrantless searches whenever such searches are constitutionally permissible, and to seize firearms.
In July 2009, the Attorney General’s Office, in its role as overseer of non-profit organizations in New York State, intervened and obtained a temporary restraining order barring the Yonkers SPCA from appointing or reappointing peace officer status for any members. The court has now issued an order dissolving the Yonkers SPCA.
For more information, go to AG.NY.gov.
*********
Please note: All suspects are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
This column is provided for general information purposes only. Please check with your local law enforcement agency and legal professional for information specific to you and your jurisdiction.
The information in this article is provided “as is”, with all faults, expressed or implied. The author and/or publisher and/or copyright holder makes no guarantee regarding the accuracy or completeness of the information. In no event shall the author and/or publisher and/or copyright holder be liable for any incidental or consequential damages, punitive damages, lost profits, and/or any indirect damages.
The Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), which maintains a special reserve fund mandated by Congress to protect the customers of insolvent brokerage firms, said today that it is alerting international regulators about a “look-alike” Web site for a fictitious organization that is mimicking the SIPC Web site in an apparent attempt to target Madoff victims.
The indictment charges that LaRose (an American citizen born in 1963 who resides in Montgomery County, Pa.) and five unindicted co-conspirators (located in South Asia, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and the United States) recruited men on the Internet to wage violent jihad in South Asia and Europe, and recruited women on the Internet who had passports and the ability to travel to and around Europe in support of violent jihad.
It’s a fact that certain kinds of activities can indicate terrorist plans that are in the works, especially when they occur at or near high profile sites or places where large numbers of people gather–like government buildings, military facilities, utilities, bus or train stations, major public events. If you see or know about suspicious activities, like the ones listed below, please report them immediately to the proper authorities. In the United States, that means your closest Joint Terrorist Task Force, located in an FBI Field Office. In other countries, that means your closest law enforcement/counterterrorism agency. 
Foreign students from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Kuwait, Turkey, and Qatar allegedly paid thousands of dollars to the defendant and his associates to take college classes, exams and placement tests on their behalf so they could maintain their lawful immigration status as foreign students.
Given these horrendous circumstances, it would be hard to believe that anyone would be so cold-hearted as to take improper advantage of these awful conditions for their own personal financial gain.
“There is an increase in Mexican drug cartel related violence in the northern Mexican border cities. Parents should not allow their children to visit these Mexican cities because their safety cannot be guaranteed,” said DPS director Steven C. McCraw. 