bill of rights

Michael Reichert and the Road Pirates of Collinsville, Illinois

"The Collinsville PD conducts dozens of identical stops each week, and roughly half of its operating budget comes from seizures of cash and property through civil asset forfeiture. Despite the fact that Reichert was fired twice after being put on the so-called Brady List (police officers whose documented dishonesty disqualifies them from testifying in court) he is in charge of instructing other Collinsville officers in the dark arts of manufacturing 'probable cause' for vehicle searches. This makes a certain cynical sense when it’s understood that the Collinsville PD is engaged in a cut-throat competition with road pirates in the employ of four other police agencies." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMichael Reichert and the Road Pirates of Collinsville, Illinois

Glenn Greenwald: New York’s top court highlights the meaninglessness and menace of the term ‘terrorism’

"What the court is admitting here is amazing. It is saying that when someone is accused of terrorism, the rules governing trials and law completely change. All sorts of things that the state is normally barred from doing on the grounds that it is unjust suddenly become permissible when someone faces terrorism charges. Indeed, so 'prejudicial' are these special rules of 'justice' for terrorism cases that anyone convicted under these rules is, by definition, treated unfairly if terrorism is inapplicable. That's what has happened in the post-9/11 era: a whole new system of 'justice', with all new rules designed to ensure convictions and long prison terms." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGlenn Greenwald: New York’s top court highlights the meaninglessness and menace of the term ‘terrorism’

Will Grigg: Merely Being Arrested Can Ruin Your Life

"A recent investigation by the Gainesville Sun found that local police agencies make hundreds of entirely unnecessary arrests every year. The victims are arrested without charge, but the arrest is instantly noted in databases that are used for background checks for employment and housing. Even if the victim’s criminal record is expunged, the digital trail cannot be erased. Many of those arrests are summary punishment for 'contempt of cop.' Others are made for cynical reasons related to career advancement within the state’s punitive priesthood." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWill Grigg: Merely Being Arrested Can Ruin Your Life

Suicide underscores grim conditions at Guantanamo

"The suicide of a Guantanamo inmate underscores the grim reality for detainees held there for nearly 11 years without charge or trial, with no end in sight to their imprisonment. Three months after Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif was found dead in his cell, the US Army formally declared his death to be a suicide — the seventh at the prison. How, Remes would like to know, did the prisoner manage to die at the tightly-controlled facility of a self-administered drug overdose, as the autopsy report cites as the cause? And how could an inmate suffering from acute pneumonia be languishing in a disciplinary cell without medical care?" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSuicide underscores grim conditions at Guantanamo

An American Stasi

"America is building its American Stasi openly. Some parts of its operations will be open, and critical parts will be secret. Many Americans will support it. No matter whether the American Stasi is open or secret, each isolated American will face a powerful foe, even more powerful than the Stasi, in a one-sided contest whose outcome is predetermined. The captured Stasi files on East Germans are 65 miles long, excluding 16,000 sacks of shredded documents that are being reconstructed. The American Stasi's files will be, for all practical purposes, infinite, because of the advances in technology and information storage." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAn American Stasi

Deputy pepper sprays, beats man with Down Syndrome

"His eyes stinging with pepper spray, a developmentally disabled 21-year-old man was hit and forced to the ground before being taken into custody by California sheriff's deputies. Antonio Martinez was taken to a hospital and detained for possible obstruction of justice, but there was no citation or charge filed on that or other counts. While trying 'to gain compliance and prevent a possible escape,' the deputy used pepper spray on Antonio Martinez. The deputy began using a baton as an agitated crowd approached. The deputy hit Antonio Martinez with it, forcing him to the ground, then levied 'a couple more strikes to get his hands free'." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDeputy pepper sprays, beats man with Down Syndrome

Occupy activists sue Los Angeles over harsh treatment from police

"Activists with Occupy Los Angeles have filed suit against the city for what they allege was harsh police treatment as they were swept off City Hall grounds over a year ago. An estimated 1,400 officers drove about 300 demonstrators off the grounds on November 30, 2011; the activists had been camping out for eight weeks to support the Occupy Wall Street movement against economic inequality and wealth disparities. The activists claim they were denied food and water for hours while being detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center, at a jail in Van Nuys or on a bus to the detention center. Others allege they were refused access to bathroom facilities." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingOccupy activists sue Los Angeles over harsh treatment from police

NYPD to Start Searching Internet for Pre-Crime Shooters

"Big brother just gets bigger and bigger. They take advantage of any event to grow. The NYPD intends to create algorithms that scan the text of conversations in chat rooms, social media and emails for clues on potential ‘apolitical or deranged killers’. NYPD Police Chief Raymond Kelly said in a statement: 'The goal would be to identify the shooter in cyberspace, engage him there and intervene, possibly using an undercover to get close, and take him into custody or otherwise disrupt his plans.' This is particularly bizarre since it appears that Adam Lanza, the shooter at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, didn't leave any kind of Facebook or Twitter clues." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNYPD to Start Searching Internet for Pre-Crime Shooters

Indefinite Detention Without Trial: Completely Unconstitutional, Yet Routine

"Seattle residents Matt Duran and Katherine Olejnik have been imprisoned in the SeaTac Federal Detention Center for weeks. Neither of them has been indicted, arraigned, or even arrested for a crime. They have been imprisoned for civil contempt by a federal prosecutor for refusing to answer personal questions during a secretive grand jury investigation of other people in the Occupy movement. Olejnik exercised her constitutionally protected right to remain silent. That is why she was sent to prison on the orders of U.S. District Judge Richard A. Jones. Duran’s case is nearly identical. They may remain in prison until 2014." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIndefinite Detention Without Trial: Completely Unconstitutional, Yet Routine

Records show FBI monitored ‘Anarchist’ Occupy Wall Street protests

"Newly-released records show the Federal Bureau of Investigations used counter-intelligence measures to monitor several Occupy Wall Street protests, at times labeling their actions as 'Anarchist' and investigating them as potential domestic terrorists. The documents, which were obtained by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund in redacted form, show that the bureau began monitoring the movement as early as August 2011, when Occupy was establishing itself in Zuccotti Park in New York City. The fund’s director, Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, said the findings prove authorities overstepped their bounds in gathering information against lawful protesters." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingRecords show FBI monitored ‘Anarchist’ Occupy Wall Street protests