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Pastimes : Murder Mystery: Who Killed Yale Student Suzanne Jovin? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: CJ who wrote (17)	12/5/1999 10:35:00 PM
From: Jeffrey S. Mitchell	Respond to of 1397

Re: The New Haven Police While searching through Barrons on a totally unrelated issue, I came across this article: ===== SEPTEMBER 20, 1999 Dumb Us By Alan Abelson New Haven, Connecticut, long has been known as the home of ivy-clad Yale University. Now, we're able to report, it has another, equally impressive claim to fame -- the zeal with which it guards the intellectual integrity of its police force. Unlike many an unhappy hamlet that has cut its civic cloth to meet the political or social fashion of the day, New Haven remains steadfastly true to principle. More specifically, it refuses to veer from the strict standards it has traditionally employed to determine the fitness of potential peace officers. Thus, New Haven's finest recently affirmed a longstanding policy of screening out applicants burdened by a high IQ. In so doing, the estimable guardians of public safety ensured that they would keep unsullied a record stretching back some 35 years of never having solved a major crime. At the same time, the New Haven P.D. has avoided degrading the unique characteristics that distinguish it from the vast majority of the nation's police departments. It has, for example, no intelligence unit. And virtually alone among the country's law enforcement agencies, it uses only dum-dum bullets. In truth, in refusing to hire persons of elevated cognitive capacity as police officers, New Haven is in perfect tune with many of America's leading institutions. Indeed, the linchpin of our democratic structure -- our vaunted system of checks and balances -- has been preserved only because the citizenry has been so vigilant in keeping the executive, legislative and judicial bodies equally free of superior intelligence. Can you imagine, for instance, the chaos that would ensue had we a bright President and the usual dim Congress? Or if the Supreme Court were adorned with gray matter as well as black robes? etc. interactive.wsj.com ===== I have the utmost respect for police. They put their lives on the line for us every day. However, sometimes you just have to call a spade a spade. Does anyone know the significance of the animal hairs from Suzanne's fleece jacket that are presently being analyzed ? First off, James Van de Velde is not now and was not then, a cat owner. Interesting how not a single news article makes mention of this, leading the reader to think maybe this could be some sort of smoking gun against him. Amazing. It sure would be nice if one of the supposed other suspects owned a matching cat-- and was a stranger. Otherwise, if the matching cat owner is a friend, heaven help them if their name is leaked out. Sure they should be questioned, but certainly not branded a suspect as anyone who has ever owned a dog or cat knows how easily animal hair can get caught -- and stay -- in clothing. One more New Haven police story... At one point, many months after the murder, the New Haven police decided to enlist the aid of a local treasure hunt club to comb the area looking for the murder weapon. Their search could have fanned out in many a direction but, of course, they went 3/4 of a mile right to Jim's apartment (Btw, the murder scene is 3/4 of a mile further away from campus). The headlines proclaimed the police did find something they considered "evidence". As usual, they wouldn't say what the evidence was leading people to speculate murder weapon as the search was conducted using metal detectors. Luckily one of the treasure hunt people spilled the beans that it was a drivers' manual that was found caught in a bush in front of Jim's apartment. Had they bothered to ask they would have found out -- and been able to verify -- that Jim's car had been broken into several weeks prior to the murder and the burglar obviously had tossed stuff out the car. Even without knowing that, one has to wonder what type of twisted scenario they had envisioned to classify the manual as evidence in the first place. Keep in mind we're talking only one incident out many that have taken place over an entire year! - Jeff