Animal Farm

Wash. state bill allows police to search students without parental consent

"A Washington state bill, S.B. 5618, that would allow police officers, or 'school resource officers,' to search students without probable cause or parental consent, passed the State Senate Monday, 30-19. The legislation would allow police to search a student's person, locker and possessions if they are believed to be violating the law or any school rule. Currently under Washington state law, if a school employee has a reasonable suspicion to search a student, they have the right, but a police officer serving as a school resource officer cannot search a student without probable cause." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWash. state bill allows police to search students without parental consent

Massachusetts cops reinstated with back pay after testing positive for cocaine

"Officers Ronnie Jones, George Downing, Shawn Harris, Richard Beckers, Jacqueline McGowan and Walter Washington each had very different explanations as to why there might have been cocaine detected in their hair follicles, yet all were summarily fired in the last decade. The board’s ruling reinstates them to their jobs with back pay dating to October 2010. Reasons for the presence of cocaine given by officers included a recent prescription of lidocaine, living near a crackhead, keeping drug evidence in the same pocket as food and accidental physical contact after mistaking the drug for powder from a doughnut." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMassachusetts cops reinstated with back pay after testing positive for cocaine

Judge: Bozeman police intentionally erased audio in excessive force case

"A judge has found Bozeman police intentionally erased a portion of an audio recording made during a welfare check on a man who claims officers used excessive force against him. Soheil Jesse Verdi claims the officers caused him to fall and injure his skull when they used a stun gun against him in 2007. One of the officers was wearing a microphone. Attorneys for Verdi said there is a missing audio segment. U.S. District Judge Richard Anderson agreed with Verdi in a ruling last month the segment was intentionally erased." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJudge: Bozeman police intentionally erased audio in excessive force case

Eric Holder: Some Banks Are So Large That It Is Difficult For Us To Prosecute Them

"While it is widely assumed that the too-big-to-fail banks in the US (and elsewhere) are beyond the criminal justice system - based on simple empirical fact - when the Attorney General of the United States openly admits to the fact that he is "concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them, since, 'it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy,' one has to stare open-mouthed at the state of our union. It appears, just as the proletariat assumed, that too-big-to-fail banks are indeed too-big-to-jail." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingEric Holder: Some Banks Are So Large That It Is Difficult For Us To Prosecute Them

The Filibuster in Two Minutes

"A decent compilation. Sen. Paul referenced at least two videos during his speech. Here are two of them. Progressive WH spokesman Gibbs says that the president should be free to murder children. And Lindsay Graham of the Great State of South Carolina declares the Fifth and Sixth Amendments null and void." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Filibuster in Two Minutes

‘Cannibal cop’ says torturing and eating women nothing more than his fantasy

"Prosecutors wrapped up their case on Monday, saying Valle should be found guilty of conspiracy to kidnap women that he discussed abducting and eating. They showed the Manhattan federal jury gruesome pictures downloaded onto Valle’s computers, including women apparently being burned. It was not always clear when a picture had been staged or not. Lawyers for Valle, who faces up to life in prison if found guilty on the kidnapping conspiracy charge, hope to persuade the jury that he is guilty of nothing more than unusual sexual fantasies." Continue reading →

Continue Reading‘Cannibal cop’ says torturing and eating women nothing more than his fantasy

Massive ACLU initiative aims to measure police state’s growth

"The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said Wednesday that chapters in 23 states have filed over 255 open records requests pertaining to the militarization of local police departments around the country since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, in what the group is calling its most concentrated effort yet to assess the growth of America’s police state. The ACLU is also seeking information on the use of drone aircraft by local law enforcement, along with GPS tracking systems, any military weapons obtained from the federal government and so-called 'shock cuffs' that can be programmed to deliver electric shocks or even sedative injections to restrained detainees." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMassive ACLU initiative aims to measure police state’s growth

We Have Come Not To Bury the Fourth Amendment But To Praise It

"The folks at 'Freedom to Travel USA' have filed an amicus brief in the case Refern, et al. v. Napolitano. This lawsuit challenges the TSA’s groping and carcinogenic porno-scanners on the grounds that the Fourth Amendment prohibits such unreasonable searches. This cause was not only lost but buried under a Progressive avalanche about a century ago. Here’s why: 'the TSA claims ‘administrative search authority ... the administrative search does not require probable cause, but must further an important government need, such as preventing would-be terrorists from bringing an explosive device onto a crowded commuter train.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWe Have Come Not To Bury the Fourth Amendment But To Praise It

Can police collect DNA when someone is arrested? Supreme Court to decide.

"The US Supreme Court heard argument Tuesday in a case testing whether government officials can routinely collect a person’s DNA at the time he or she is arrested and then use that DNA sample to try to link the individual to unsolved crimes. At issue in the case is whether taking a DNA sample from an arrestee without first obtaining a court-authorized warrant is an unreasonable search under the Fourth Amendment. DNA material contains a plethora of highly personal information bound within a person’s genetic code. DNA might someday reveal information about an individual’s susceptibility to future diseases and perhaps even personality traits." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCan police collect DNA when someone is arrested? Supreme Court to decide.