What Country Is This? Forced Blood Draws, Cavity Searches and Colonoscopies

"Forced cavity searches, forced colonoscopies, forced blood draws, forced breath-alcohol tests, forced DNA extractions, forced eye scans, forced inclusion in biometric databases: these are just a few ways in which Americans are being forced to accept that we have no control over our bodies, our lives and our property, especially when it comes to interactions with the government."

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Sessions/Trump Pull Off an Amazing Feat — Making the DEA Look Reasonable

"The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has never been known as a forward-thinking place when it comes to drug and crime policy, but these days, the hide-bound drug fighting agency is coming off as much more reasonable on drugs than its bosses, President Trump and Attorney General Sessions."

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More staged police body cams lead to 43 more dropped Baltimore cases

"The first two videos involved either the planting of drugs or the recreation of a drug crime scene. Those videos prompted Baltimore Police Department Commissioner Kevin Davis to order officers not to stage body cam footage. The authorities did not publicly release the latest video. Nor did they identify the suspects or the officers connected to the video."

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John Whitehead: Anything Goes When You’re a Cop in America

"Not only are cops protected from most charges of wrongdoing—whether it’s shooting unarmed citizens (including children and old people), raping and abusing young women, falsifying police reports, trafficking drugs, or soliciting sex with minors—but even on the rare occasions when they are fired for misconduct, it’s only a matter of time before they get re-hired again." Continue reading

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In America, Growing Tomatoes Might Get Your Home SWAT Raided

"As the family sat quarantined in their own living room while the police searched through their most private and intimate belongings, Bob’s wife Addie had a terrible thought: This must have something to do with the family’s tomato garden." Continue reading

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Cop didn’t know his body cam was filming him planting drugs

"The officer's alleged trickery was revealed by the fact that his body cam retained footage for 30 seconds before it was activated to begin recording. During that time, according to the footage and the Baltimore public defender's office, Officer Richard Pinheiro puts a bag of pills in a can in an alley and walks out of the alley." Continue reading

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Congress Passes Bill To Imprison Sexting Teens, And Their Parents, For 15 Years

"The United States House of Representatives has passed a bill to criminalize 'sexting' among teenagers. But that’s not all. This ominous bill also punishes their parents by making them face a 15-year mandatory, minimum sentence." Continue reading

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The DEA’s $4 Billion Warrantless Cash Grab

"Federal law enforcement officers are raking in hundreds of millions of dollars a year with little oversight or constitutional protections for property owners. Most of these types of seizures are never challenged. The I.G. found petitions were filed in only 20 percent of the DEA cash seizures it reviewed. Of those that were challenged, though, 40 percent saw money fully or partially returned to the owner, indicating that there may be a significant number of unfounded seizures going unchallenged." Continue reading

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Silk Road Creator Ross Ulbricht Loses His Life Sentence Appeal

"As Judge Katherine Forrest explained at the time, Ulbricht's life sentence was intended also to send a message to other would-be dark web drug kingpins. Her strategy appears to have backfired, at least in the short term: Sales on Silk Road successor sites doubled in the immediate wake of Ulbricht's sentence, as news of the trial's outcome raised awareness of the dark web drug market." Continue reading

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