bill of rights

Police videos draw disparate opinions in Oklahoma

"A court ruled in May that a dash-cam video made by Claremore police of a DUI arrest in 2011 contains facts concerning the arrest and is public under the state Open Records Act. The city of Claremore has petitioned the Oklahoma Supreme Court, asking it to review the decision. 'I'm not trying to be coy or provide a lack of transparency,' Claremore Police Chief Stan Brown said in a telephone interview. 'I base my administration on my mission statement, which includes accountability. I want us to be accountable. But I'm not just accountable to the people that request the information. I'm accountable to the people that I'm supposed to be protecting, too.'" Continue reading →

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Violence Rages in Baltimore Despite Governor O’Malley’s New Gun Control Laws

"It is important to note that before O'Malley signed new gun control laws in May, Maryland already had some of the strictest gun laws in the country and also some of the worst violence in its big cities. Baltimore was bad and now, it's getting worse. New laws require that anyone who wants to buy a firearm must be finger printed. Maryland turned law abiding citizens who simply want to exercise their Second Amendment rights, into crime suspects before they had done anything wrong. But guess what? That didn't work to reduce crime, either." Continue reading →

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Top Ten Reasons Why You Should Not Talk to the Police

"REASON #1: Talking to the police CANNOT help you. If the police are talking to you, it’s because they suspect you have committed a crime. If they have detained you, it’s because they already have enough evidence to arrest you and they want to see if you will admit it and thus, give them an even stronger case against you. If they have evidence to arrest you for a crime, they will. If they don’t, they won’t. It’s as simple as that. Talking to them or not talking to them won’t make a difference! No one has ever 'talked his way out of' an arrest. If the police have enough evidence to arrest, they will." Continue reading →

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A Constitution-Free Zone Where Officials Can Grab Your Computer And Copy Your Hard Drive

"Did you know that the U.S. government considers the U.S. border to be a 'constitution-free zone'? Did you know that customs officials can take your computer away from you, keep it for 30 days or more, and make a copy of everything that is on your hard drive? Sadly, this is actually true. According to the government, when you choose to cross the U.S. border you temporarily give up your constitutional rights. They can look at anything on your computer that they want to, and if they find anything that violates any law, they can use it against you in court. You may think twice about taking your computer out of the country after you read the rest of this article." Continue reading →

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Supreme Court asked to suspend NSA and FBI’s blanket collection of phone data

"The US supreme court will be asked to suspend the blanket collection of US telephone records by the FBI under an emergency petition due to be filed on Monday by civil rights campaigners at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (Epic). Previous attempts to appeal against the rulings of these courts have floundered due to a lack of public information about who might be caught up in the surveillance net, but the disclosure of specific orders by National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden has opened the door to a flurry of new challenges. It comes as a similar legal challenge was filed in Britain on Monday." Continue reading →

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State Dept. whistleblower’s lawyers targeted by ‘Watergate-style’ break-ins

"Two burglars spent last weekend repeatedly breaking into a Dallas law firm and stealing three computers while leaving other valuables behind. The attorneys said Sunday that this was no ordinary break-in: it may have been politically motivated. The law firm targeted is Schulman & Mathias, which represents State Department whistleblower Aurelia Fedenisn, formerly with the department’s office of inspector general. Fedenisn revealed to CBS News earlier this year that she’d seen internal investigations called off or misdirected by higher ups, drawing a rapid and terrifying response from law enforcement, with a specific focus on her family and children." Continue reading →

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The Ten Most Disturbing Things You Should Know About the FBI Since 9/11

"1. USA Patriot Act Abuse; 2. 2008 Amendments to the Attorney General's Guidelines; 3. Racial and Ethnic Mapping; 4. Unrestrained Data Collection and Data Mining 5. Suppressing Internal Dissent: The FBI War on Whistleblowers; 6. Targeting Journalists; 7. Thwarting Congressional Oversight; 8. Targeting First Amendment Activity; 9. Proxy Detentions; 10. Use of No Fly List to Pressure Americans Abroad to Become Informants." Continue reading →

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Daniel Ellsberg: Snowden made the right call when he fled the U.S.

"Many people compare Edward Snowden to me unfavorably for leaving the country and seeking asylum, rather than facing trial as I did. I don’t agree. The country I stayed in was a different America, a long time ago. I hope Snowden’s revelations will spark a movement to rescue our democracy, but he could not be part of that movement had he stayed here. There is zero chance that he would be allowed out on bail if he returned now and close to no chance that, had he not left the country, he would have been granted bail. Instead, he would be in a prison cell like Bradley Manning, incommunicado." Continue reading →

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Government Spying Has Always Focused On Crushing Dissent … Not On Keeping Us Safe

"High-level American government officials have warned for 40 years that mass surveillance would lead to tyranny. They’ve warned that the government is using information gained through mass surveillance in order to go after anyone they take a dislike to. And a lieutenant colonel for the Stasi East German’s – based upon his experience – agrees. You don’t have to obsess on the NSA’s high-tech spying to figure out what the government is doing. Instead of focusing on catching actual terrorists, police spy on Americans who criticize the government, or the big banks or the other power players." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGovernment Spying Has Always Focused On Crushing Dissent … Not On Keeping Us Safe