US police dig up yard for ex-boxer

Livingston, New Jersey – Police dug up the back yard of a New Jersey house Friday searching for the body of a former Russian Olympic boxer. The authorities believe he was killed by members of a Russian organized crime ring.

« The Russian ex-boxer, of the Brooklyn borough of New York, was last seen in November four years ago», FBI spokesman Joseff Valiquette said.

The Joint Eastern European Organized Crime Task Force, made up of the FBI and New York City Police, won a federal search warrant to dig up the yard of a home in suburban Livingston, New Jersey. Valiquette would not say what led the authorities to the house but said the information points to a homicide.

«The information we have which led to the search warrant indicates that he was buried there, which logically would indicate that he was murdered. So yes, we do believe that he was the victim of a homicide», Valiquette said.

New York’s Daily News reported that the ex-boxer was shot in the garage by three Russian mobsters days after an incident at the bar where he worked as a bouncer.

(from Reuters)

1. 
   Answer the following questions:
1. 
   Do you know the name of this ex-boxer?
2. 
   How do you think the police leaned where the boxer was buried?
3. 
   Was his body found in the yard?
4. 
   Were the murderers identified and arrested?
5. 
   Is it an exceptional case?

3. Write out all the information on each point from the newspaper item:

1. 
   the Russian ex-boxer
2. 
   the suspected murderers
3. 
   the place and time of the murder
4. 
   the investigation

4. Agree or disagree:

1. The police dug up the back yard of the house where the ex-boxer lived.

2. The FBI alone was investigating this case.

3. Most probably the General Attorney issued a federal research warrant.

4. Joseff Valiquette was a member of the task force.

5. The newspaper had all the facts in their hands.

Text№2

1. 
   Read and translate the following newspaper article.

Some new words to the text:

Brute жестокий, грубый

Brutality жестокость, грубость

To brutalize обходиться грубо

To tarnish запятнать

Even and odd numbers четные и нечетные числа

To be at odds with smb не ладить с кем-либо

To drop падать

Lobby коридор

Apparently очевидно

To reach for smth потянуться за чем-либо

Bullet пуля

Conscious осознанный

To cite критиковать

To launch запускать, начинать
Police brutality

Outside police headquarters in New York City, the protesters show up each day. In the courts, the biggest criminal cases are against cops. And at City Hall, the law-and-order record of Mayor Rudolph Guiliani appears tarnished.

A combination of brutality charges, federal investigations and public relations problems has thrown the United States’ largest police department into its worst crisis in years. Police and the city’s minorities seem increasingly at odds, and morale in the department is dropping.

The department’s troubles come just two years after it was riding high on news that the city’s crime rate was dropping for the first time in 28 years.

What’s created the most anger is the case of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed West African immigrant shot to death by police in an apartment lobby. The police, apparently believing Diallo was reaching for a gun, fired 41 bullets at him. He was hit by 19 shots.

Now the four white officers who killed him are on trial accused of murder. The defence says it was a tragic accident; the prosecution accepts that the officers did not set out that night to kill a black man but says that they made a conscious decision to shoot him once they got out of their car.

And the protesters have other cases to cite in their charge of police misconduct.

In New York’s borough of Brooklyn, jury selection is to begin Monday for the trial of three other officers accused of brutalizing a Haitian immigrant Abner Louima. The trial centres on allegations the officers brutalized him in a precinct station.

Federal and state prosecutors have launched investigations of the NYPD (New York Police Department). The commission will hold hearings in May on whether the police tactics violate the public rights, especially in minority neighbourhood.

(from The Guardian)

1. 
   Check if you remember:

1. 
   About what country and police does this newspaper item speak?
2. 
   Where are the protest organized?
3. 
   Are the biggest criminal cases against the cops?
4. 
   Is the Mayor of New York involved?
5. 
   What testifies to the crisis in the New York Police Department?
6. 
   With what part of the population do the police confront most?

3. Sum up what newspaper item said about:

- the morale of the NYPD in the past

- the case of Amadou Diallo and the trial

- the case of Abner Louima

- the federal and state investigations of the NYPD.

Text №3

1. Read the following text and translate the sentences given in bold type in writing: