it can’t happen here

Armed EPA raid in Alaska sheds light on 70 fed agencies with armed divisions

"The recent uproar over armed EPA agents descending on a tiny Alaska mining town is shedding light on the fact that 40 federal agencies – including nearly a dozen typically not associated with law enforcement -- have armed divisions. The agencies employ about 120,000 full-time officers authorized to carry guns and make arrests, according to a June 2012 Justice Department report. Though most Americans know agents within the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Federal Bureau of Prisons carry guns, agencies such as the Library of Congress and Federal Reserve Board employing armed officers might come as a surprise." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingArmed EPA raid in Alaska sheds light on 70 fed agencies with armed divisions

Open Carry Chicks Hassled by Power Hungry Cop & AR-15

"Four young ladies went for a quick bite to eat in Marshfield Missouri at a local Walmart. Two of them were open carrying not knowing they would be confronted by a Nazi-styled 'show-me-your-papers' local police officer. Of course, they bring out the big guns for these gun-toting 'thugs.'" Continue reading →

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Jeffrey Tucker: 3 Important Lessons from a Canadian Border Crossing

"I was at the Canadian border, headed toward the freedom that exists a few feet beyond the last security check. I was gently waved down a side corridor. Ninety minutes later, I was let go, but not before something truly alarming happened. I’m pretty sure that the Canadian government captured a mirrored version of my smartphone — which pretty much holds the whole of my life. I’ll explain precisely how this happened in just a bit — in the hopes that perhaps you can take precautions that I did not. But let’s first establish that this practice is not unusual. According to documents obtained by the ACLU, this has become the standard backdoor method of search used today by governments around the world." Continue reading →

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“We’re Really Not Apologetic” for two killings, say Texas’ Airborne Snipers

"On Tuesday, a grand jury decided not to indict a Texas trooper who had killed two unarmed Guatemalan immigrants after shooting them from a helicopter last year. A police officer in a helicopter shot at a nonviolent suspect and killed two innocent men, and his actions were deemed defensible because the DPS gave him authority to do so. Before he fell under intense scrutiny, McCraw had expressed no remorse for putting people on the ground in danger while using lethal force against a nonviolent suspect. A few months before the incident, he had told interviewers, 'We're really not apologetic about it. We've got an obligation to protect our men and women when we're trying to protect Texas.'" Continue reading →

Continue Reading“We’re Really Not Apologetic” for two killings, say Texas’ Airborne Snipers

Licensed to Kill: Growing Phenomenon of Police Shooting Unarmed Citizens

"This mindset that any challenge to police authority is a threat that needs to be 'neutralized' is a dangerous one that is part of a greater nationwide trend that sets law enforcement officers beyond the reach of the Fourth Amendment. Equally problematic is the trend in the courts that acquits officers involved in such shootings, letting them off with barely a slap to the wrists. What exactly are we teaching these young officers in the police academy when the slightest thing, whether it be a hand in a pocket, a man running towards them, a flashlight on a keychain, or a dehumanizing stare can ignite a strong enough 'fear for their safety' to justify firing on an unarmed person?" Continue reading →

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Police Are More Dangerous To The Public Than Are Criminals

"The American public is too brainwashed to be able to defend itself. Consider the fact that cops seldom face any consequence when they murder citizens. We never hear cops called 'citizen killer.' But if a citizen kills some overbearing cop bully, the media go ballistic: 'Cop killer, cop killer.' The screaming doesn’t stop until the cop killer is executed. As long as a brainwashed public continues to accept that cop lives are more precious than their own, citizens will continue to be brutalized and murdered by police psychopaths." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPolice Are More Dangerous To The Public Than Are Criminals

Secret terrorism court orders declassification of its own rulings

"Court cases before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court — the court that reviews requests by the NSA to wiretap suspected terrorists’ communications — are generally classified. But Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ordered the government to review the court’s opinions on the meaning, scope, and constitutionality of Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which authorizes the government to obtain 'any tangible things' relevant to foreign-intelligence or terrorism investigations. Section 215 is the legal basis the NSA claims legitimizes its mass phone records collection program." Continue reading →

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Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri calls for U.S. attacks and economic boycott

"'We should bleed America economically by provoking it to continue in its massive expenditure on its security, for the weak point of America is its economy, which has already begun to stagger due to the military and security expenditure,' Zawahiri said according to the SITE translation. 'And keeping America in tension and anticipation only costs a few disparate attacks here and there, meaning as we defeated it in the gang warfare in Somalia, Yemen, Iraq and Afghanistan, so we should follow it with that war on its own land,' he added." Continue reading →

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Profiles in Pork

"One doesn’t have to sign up for law enforcement work as a Hail Mary way to avoid poverty, or the gulag . . . or the gas chamber. So, what sort of person chooses to become a law enforcer – and remains one – when it is still possible to avoid such a dirty occupation? An occupation that, as a matter of routine, puts one in the position of rousting – and caging – people who’ve done nothing that can be characterized as causing harm to others (or their property)? Who have merely run afoul of 'the law'? There seem to be four general types." Continue reading →

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Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer defends tech company NSA cooperation

"Mayer said she was 'proud to be part of an organisation that from the beginning, in 2007, has been sceptical of – and has been scrutinizing – those requests [from the NSA].' Yahoo has previously unsuccessfully sued the foreign intelligence surveillance (Fisa) court, which provides the legal framework for NSA surveillance. In 2007 it asked to be allowed to publish details of requests it receives from the spy agency. 'When you lose and you don’t comply, it’s treason,' said Mayer. 'We think it make more sense to work within the system,' she said. The meeting came as Yahoo and Facebook filed suits once more to force the Fisa court to allow them to disclose more information." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingYahoo CEO Marissa Mayer defends tech company NSA cooperation