Animal Farm

Chicago Police Superintendent Says Cops Will Shoot Gun Carrying Citizens

"Chicago police superintendent Garry McCarthy is not happy about the new concealed carry laws in Illinois. And now he is predicting that police will shoot citizens who are lawfully carrying firearms. While every cop has a right to protect himself, this bold statement by McCarthy is obviously meant to intimidate gun owners who choose to exercise their rights. This threat that cops may mistakenly shoot a gun carrying citizen is just another attempt to fight the concealed carry laws that Illinois has long been deprived of. McCarthy would not say what specific training officers will undertake if any. However, he did admit that in the past his department has made mistakes in shooting unarmed civilians." Continue reading →

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WikiLeaks Launches Criminal Investigation ahead of Obama Visit to Sweden

"WikiLeaks will file a criminal complaint in Sweden, ahead of the arrival of President Obama. The complaint concerns the seizure of WikiLeaks property on 27 September 2010, following its publication of thousands of classified US intelligence documents on the war in Afghanistan. WikiLeaks’ publisher Julian Assange said: 'Swedish authorities have the opportunity to demonstrate that no one, including state officials, is above the law.' The property seized included evidence of a war crime perpetrated by US forces in Afganistan in which more than sixty women and children were killed, known as the Garani massacre." Continue reading →

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Virginia State Trooper inattentively plows into skateboarder, beats hasty exit

"A video showing a Virginia State Trooper striking a skateboarder with his police cruiser was published to YouTube Wednesday. It is unclear, at this point, exactly when this incident happened and police didn’t give an exact date. Sergeant Molnar said that Virginia State Police 'are aware of this video as this incident occurred approximately nine months ago in the City of Richmond near the VCU campus.' 'I do not have any other details to provide to you,' said Sergeant Molnar. 'This is a personnel matter and state police does not have further comment on this matter.' CBS 6 did find out that the trooper is still employed with the state police." Continue reading →

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The State: Judge in its Own Cause

"Is this really a nation of laws, though? There’s an old legal principle, 'nemo iudex in causa sua,' which translated into English means 'no one should be the judge of their own cause.' But in fact all the laws theoretically limiting the state’s power are interpreted by — wait for it — officials of the state. The commission of the actual military, intelligence and diplomatic crimes themselves, the classification of documents that evidence those crimes, and the setting of civil and criminal penalties for revealing wickedness in high places — all these things are done by officials of the same government." Continue reading →

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“Absolute Immunity” for the “Supreme Crime”

"One week before whistleblower Bradley Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison for exposing war crimes, the Obama administration filed a petition with a federal court in San Francisco arguing that George W. Bush and his top advisers enjoy 'absolute immunity' against any potential criminal charges or civil liability arising from the Iraq war. At the Nuremberg Tribunal following World War II, aggressive war was designated the 'supreme crime,' and it was recognized that faithful execution of unlawful orders does not immunize soldiers for their actions in waging aggressive war. High-ranking officials of the National Socialist Party were sent to the gallows for the crime committed by Bush and his cohorts." Continue reading →

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The Compulsion To Rule

"A system that insists on controlling others through increasing levels of systematic violence; that loots the many for the aggrandizement of the few; that regulates any expressions of human behavior that are not of service to the rulers; that presumes the power to wage wars against any nation of its choosing, a principle that got a number of men hanged at the Nuremberg trials; and finally, criminalizes those who would speak the truth to its victims, has no moral energy remaining with which to sustain itself. The treatment accorded private Manning may have been the final nail driven into the coffin of the American state." Continue reading →

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California hunger strike: judge approves force-feeding of prisoners

"Jail officials in California have been given permission to force-feed hunger strikers who are entering their seventh week of a statewide protest against prison conditions. The order strikes out directives recently signed by some prisoners that they be allowed to die. US District Court Judge Thelton E Henderson ruled that California prison doctors may force-feed selected inmates who are near death, even if they had previously signed orders asking not to be resuscitated. About 136 California inmates are taking part in a hunger strike that began on 8 July demanding an end to a policy of housing inmates believed to be associated with gangs in near-isolation for years." Continue reading →

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Federal court upholds California ban on foie gras sales

"A US federal appeals court upheld California’s ban on the sale of foie gras Friday, 13 months after the block on the controversial delicacy came into force. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected claims that the ban interferes with free trade, made in a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles by a group of Canadian and US foie gras producers. California lawmakers agreed the ban in 2004, but gave the western US state’s only foie gras producer seven-and-a-half years to comply before it came into effect on July 1 last year. Restaurants serving the gourmet item — made by force-feeding ducks or geese, a practice some animal rights campaigners regard as cruel — can be fined up to $1,000." Continue reading →

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From the Files of the Nineveh PD

"At some point within the last decade or so, American police adopted a modified version of the Assyrian model of law enforcement. This helps to explain why it is now considered permissible for a police officer to assault an uncooperative but non-violent pregnant woman. Rochester, New York Police Officer Lucas Krull was recently captured on videoassaulting a 21-year-old expectant mother. In an earlier incident, a young pregnant girl was kneed in the stomach by one of three Rochester Police Officers who were restraining her during an arrest. A pregnant mother and an elderly woman were collateral victims in yet another episode involving 'tumultuous' behavior." Continue reading →

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Policing Prosecutors

"A hungry man stealing a loaf of bread from a market to feed his family is treated differently than a con man bilking senior citizens for personal gain. Aaron Swartz knew he was breaking the law when he downloaded those articles. What he did not know, was that if a prosecutor wanted to make his life hell, she could credibly see to it that he was locked up until his mid 50’s. We should make sure that punishments fit crimes, and that when we collectively threaten to remove a human being from society for a generation or two, they actually did something worthy of such a profound punishment." Continue reading →

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