Man Says He and Two Others Injured by Police in Boston Fray; Can Identity Theft Be Stopped?; Fingerprints To Become Mandatory on EU Passports

Man Says He and Two Others Injured by Police in Boston Fray

Paul Gately, a 24-year-old man form Cambridge, Mass., got caught up in the postgame mob scene outside Fenway Park, where some 80,000 people gathered to celebrate the Red Sox’ Game 7 win over the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series. Gately was climbing the beams under Fenway Park’s famed Green Monster, when he was hit in his cheek with a pellet fired by police. Gately said he approached an officer for help, but the startled officer open fire and pumped a few pellet rounds into Gately’s chest. An unidentified Boston police officer quoted in the story said that officers are trained to fire the “pepper balls” into a target’s chest in order to effectively dispense the pepper spray inside. A stray pepper ball killed 21-year-old Victoria Snelgrove in the melee last week.

For more details, read the full article in the Boston Globe.

Can Identity Theft Be Stopped?

Identity theft is one of the fastest-growing white collar crimes in the country and there are few signs that it will slow down any time soon. A story in The New York Times Sunday examines how identity thefts occur by using a high-profile case that began in 2002 involving nearly 30,000 victims and netted more than $50 million for the perpetrators. From 1998 to 2003, the Federal Trade Commission reports than 27.3 million Americans had their identities stolen. More than one-third of them were victimized during the last 12 months. Businesses lost $48 billion over those 12 months while consumers suffered $5 billion in out-of-pocket expenses to regain their financial identitites.

For more details, read the full article in The New York Times.

Fingerprints To Become Mandatory on EU Passports

European Union interior ministries are expected today to approve fingerprinting as a second compulsory biometric feature for passports. According to a report in The Register, fingerprinting was originally considered optional. Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Latvia oppose the mandatory fingerprinting measure. Advocates of the measure say fingerprinting will help combat forgery.

For more details, read the full article in The Register.