user: Input: Rikers jail officers found 52% more weapons this year
The number of weapons found in city jails has gone up 52% this fiscal year — due to increased visitor searches and tougher inmate checks, authorities said Wednesday.

Jail officers found 2,376 knives and other arms from July 1 to May 1, up from 1,566 over the same period the previous year, records show.

The amount of drugs seized has also spiked by 5% over the first 11 months of this fiscal year. Jail officers have found 284 items, compared to 271 over the same period the prior fiscal year, records show.

Searches have led to the arrest of at least 10 visitors, including some who tried to smuggle in drugs like crack, cocaine, Suboxone, marijuana and K2.

Rikers violence drops compared to last year, Commissioner says

Most recently, two separate visitors were busted within minutes on May 6.

Visitor Angelique Cruz, 23, was charged with trying to smuggle one clear ziplock bag with marijuana at 1:30 p.m., according to the criminal complaint.

About 20 minutes later, Kaity Reyes, 32, was busted with a latex balloon with one strip of Suboxone and some tobacco, court records show.

Both women were arrested on the spot and have since pleaded not guilty.

"The arrests and contraband seizures from these searches are even more evidence of the strides we are making in promoting safety for staff, inmates and visitors alike," said department spokeswoman Eve Kessler.

For the first time, jail officers now board city buses filled with visitors just as they arrive at the main entrance to Rikers Island. The officers warn visitors they can dump any contraband in amnesty boxes.

One recent visitor apparently took the warning very much to heart, dumping 57 rounds of ammunition for a pistol, three shotgun shells and a boxcutter into an amnesty box, sources said. The unidentified visitor then got right back on the bus and left the island, jail insiders said.

Rikers Island beatdown victim is ‘lying stoned retard’: lawyer

Another visitor dumped a tazer gun on the bus before getting off, records show.

"You would not believe the things we find," a jail source said.
What was this article about?
++++++++++
It's about: The number of weapons found in city jails has gone up 52% this fiscal year, authorities said Wednesday.


Input: Cowboys need Dez Bryant’s passion
Dez Bryant’s epic sideline meltdowns — plural — during the Cowboys’ inexplicable 31-30 loss Sunday to the Lions are being welcomed in Dallas instead of criticized.

Bryant was caught on tape going berserk on the bench at least twice during the second half, screaming at offensive assistant Derek Dooley and Tony Romo and then later going nose-to-nose with tight end Jason Witten and linebacker DeMarcus Ware.

Bryant was furious about rarely being targeted by Romo at the same time Lions receiving counterpart Calvin Johnson — whom Bryant had publicly compared himself to last week — was posting one of the best single-game pass-catching performances in NFL history in Detroit’s comeback win.

The sideline scenes didn’t exactly jibe with what had been billed as Bryant’s “maturation” this season, but Bryant ended up getting praised afterward by teammates, coaches and owner Jerry Jones.

Justifiably so. While the optics of Bryant’s sideline rants might have appeared shocking, Jones was right: It was about time someone on the Cowboys showed some emotion and pushback.

They certainly never get that from Romo or just about any other designated team leader, which might go a long way toward explaining why the 4-4 Cowboys appear locked in a perpetual cycle of 8-8 mediocrity.

Bryant wears the No. 88 jersey of a former Cowboys receiving great known for wearing his emotions on his sleeve during games, and that receiver, Michael Irvin, might as well have been speaking for Jones when he defended Bryant after Sunday’s loss.

“For years we talked about people on the sideline of the Dallas Cowboys having no passion, no leadership and [seeming] like they don’t care,” Irvin said on the NFL Network. “Now we get a guy with maybe a little too much passion [who] doesn’t know how to exactly display it in front of a TV audience, but now we are going to go and say, ‘Get rid of all the passion you have’? No. It is absolutely crazy [to do that].”

Even Romo would have to agree.
What was this article about?
++++++++++
It's about:

assistant: http://youtu.be/89ctFnEFRE0 Dez Bryant’s epic sideline meltdowns -- plural -- during the Cowboys’ inexplicable 31-30 loss Sunday to the Lions are being welcomed in Dallas instead of criticized. Bryant was caught…