San Jose

By Rob Reynolds in Americas on May 14th, 2012
Photo: EPA

One afternoon in May, Al Jazeera accompanied police sergeant Joseph Paul on patrol in San Jose, California, a city of just under a million people. As Paul wheeled his cruiser down the highways and streets of his city, he said his daily routine is full of  potential dangers. 

“On patrol you have absolutely no idea who you're dealing with, what their story is, why they're where they are, why they're doing what they're doing,” Paul said.  “So you have to always be alert.”

On this particular patrol, Sgnt Paul did not encounter any dangerous situations. But the conditions of police work - the unpredictability, and the way that even a routine traffic stop can suddenly turn violent, are what police departments around the US often cite in support of arming officers with Tasers. In 2004, the San Jose department  became one of the first law enforcement agencies to equip each of its patrol officers with a Taser.

By Al Jazeera Staff in Americas on October 13th, 2010
The first miner was pulled out of the gold and copper mine on Wednesday

Al Jazeera follows the last stage of the rescue of 33 trapped miners in Chile as they get hoisted to the surface one by one through a narrow rescue shaft which took months to drill.

The men have been trapped 600 metres underground after the upper galleries of the San Jose mine in the country's north collapsed on August 5.

01:25 GMT: Pinera says Chile is "not the same" as it was 70 days ago, when the mine collapsed. He praises Chileans across the "length and width" of the country. Behind him, the wheel that has helped raise the "Phoenix" capsule over the past 24 hours, an image that has become symbolic of the rescue, spins as the rescue workers are winched up to the surface.

By John Terrett in Americas on October 12th, 2010
Photo from EPA
The mine rescue in Chile is bringing back memories for one group of fellow miners in the northeastern US state of Pennsylvania.

Eight years ago they were rescued, after a three-day ordeal, using the same method being used by engineers at the San Jose pit.

Sixty-one-year-old Tom Foy was one of nine rescued - it's known as 9-4-9 as they all came out alive - and although he lives in Pennsylvania, his heart and mind are in Chile right now.

 

By Monica Villamizar in Americas on October 10th, 2010
Photo by AFP

"I am going to take you down the mine so that you understand that you shouldn’t ever want to be a miner," a Chilean miner warns his six-year-old son.

Daniel Sanderson has brought young Christian to the entrance of a giant copper mine, similar to the one that's been in the headlines for the last two months, ever since a collapse trapped 33 men deep underground in the mountains of the Atacama desert.

Daniel is familiar with the San Jose mine; he was due to be working there on August 5 but at the last minute he decided to stay at home. If he'd gone to work he would have felt the huge rock fall at about 2pm that blocked the long spiral mineshaft and trapped many of Daniel's friends, and his cousin.  

Since the accident Daniel says he's felt guilty for not being with his colleagues on the day the mine collapsed. He says the mine owners have never cared much about safety and that many men "heard the mine crying a lot" in the days before the accident.

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