Land Of The Flea

How the System Treats a Good Cop

"As a New York City Police Officer assigned to the 81st Precinct, Adrian Schoolcraft became disillusioned when supervisors talked about manipulating crime statistics and carrying out illegal arrests. Schoolcraft blew the whistle – and immediately paid a steep price. A police strike force raided Schoolcraft’s apartment and forcibly confined him to a mental ward at Jamaica Hospital under the care of Dr. Isak Isakov, supposedly to prevent him from harming himself. He was held there for six days. An internal investigation validated nearly all of Schoolcraft’s claims – yet nobody has ever been punished for his abduction and false imprisonment." Continue reading →

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New York police running criminal checks on domestic abuse victims

"New York City police have been ordered to run criminal background checks on domestic abuse victims, The New York Post reported on Friday. According to a March 5 memo obtained by the newspaper, Chief of Detectives Phil Pulaski has directed detectives to run background checks on both the accuser and the alleged perpetrator in domestic violence cases. If victims are found to have outstanding warrants, police are ordered to arrest them. The new policy is already drawing criticism from victims’ advocates." Continue reading →

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Obama couldn’t eat at Hill meeting without food ‘taster’

"Following President Obama’s lunch meeting with Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill, Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins described the food served and said the president was not able to eat since his 'taster' was not present. 'He looked longingly at it,' Collins continued. 'He honestly did look longingly at it, but apparently he has to have essentially a taster, and I pointed out to him that we were all tasters for him, that if the food had been poisoned all of us would have keeled over so, but he did look longingly at it and he remarked that we have far better food than the Democrats do, and I said that was because I was hosting.'" Continue reading →

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Bush-era state secrecy expert: Presidents abuse power like in Kafka or Orwell novels

"William Leonard, who was entrusted with ensuring proper treatment of state secrets by government agencies in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, said that over the past decade both the Obama and the previous Bush administrations had manipulated their classification authority to create new executive powers without congressional oversight or judicial review. Leonard, the former head of the Information Security Oversight Office from 2002 to 2007, said that what was at stake was 'the abuse of the very form of government we are operating under, as unilateral executive powers go unchallenged.'" Continue reading →

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Veteran Faces Jail Time For Using Marijuana As Treatment For PTSD

"Former U.S. Navy Corpsman Jeremy Usher came home in 2003 from Iraq and Afghanistan to sleepless nights and panic attacks, with vivid flashbacks of combat, horrifying nightmares, anxiety and depression, all amid memory loss and a severe stutter. He's doing well in counseling and school, he says, but he faces jail time for using marijuana medicinally while on probation to manage his PTSD and traumatic brain injury. Jeremy finds himself in legal limbo. Medicinal marijuana is the one treatment that's helped him with his PTSD, but he violates his probation when he uses it, which puts him at risk of going back to jail." Continue reading →

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The Case Against Government Bans on Feeding the Homeless

"Cities like New York City, Philadelphia, and Houston have banned residents from sharing food with the homeless and less fortunate. In Chicago, for example, at least one politician, Ald. James Cappleman, recently tried to banish a Salvation Army food truck from feeding the homeless in his neighborhood. I called such laws 'unconstitutional, discriminatory, and wrongheaded' in a column I wrote over the summer. They remain so. But since I wrote that widely read column in June, I’ve noticed a welcome pattern emerging. These unjust laws are under attack." Continue reading →

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Police Cited Homeless Veteran For Dumpster Diving In Search For Food

"They’ve traveled many different roads with all of them leading to the same destination – a place called homelessness. James Kelly, 44, is no exception. 'James Kelly is a nine-year veteran of the Navy, who has fallen on hard times,' said Randall Kallinen, a civil rights attorney. Those hard times recently got even harder, when Kelly was issued a citation as he foraged for food in a trash bin on Bagby Street. 'The mayor is shutting down feeding the homeless,' said Deborah Girton, who is also homeless. Critics point to a city ordinance passed last summer that places restrictions on good Samaritans and how many people they can feed." Continue reading →

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Federal Judge Finds National Security Letters Unconstitutional, Bans Them

"Ultra-secret national security letters that come with a gag order on the recipient are an unconstitutional impingement on free speech, a federal judge in California ruled in a decision released Friday. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston ordered the government to stop issuing so-called NSLs across the board, in a stunning defeat for the Obama administration’s surveillance practices. She also ordered the government to cease enforcing the gag provision in any other cases. However, she stayed her order for 90 days to give the government a chance to appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals." Continue reading →

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Rep. Walter Jones: Dick Cheney is going to hell for the Iraq war

"Republican Rep. Walter Jones of North Carolina said Saturday that former Vice President Dick Cheney would likely end up in hell because of his role in the Iraq war. At a Young Americans for Liberty conference, Jones said it was impossible under current law to prosecute a president for intentionally manipulating intelligence reports to make the case for war. He co-authored a bill to change the law, but the legislation was killed in committee by Lamar Smith of Texas. The conservative Christian turned against the war after witnessing American causalities and once it became clear Iraq was not building any weapons of mass destruction." Continue reading →

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Private surveillance companies flock to Arizona’s annual Border Security Expo

"The Expo began on Tuesday and concludes today. About 185 companies are showcasing everything from gates to guns, drones to portable toilets. A stall offering self-heating meals was next to a table of firearms. Two themes emerged from a day at the Expo: equipment and technology used by the US military is increasingly becoming available to domestic entities. And software is now easy to use and more powerful. Physical Security Information Management (PSIM) software potentially gives officials huge surveillance powers whether in a desert or a metropolis." Continue reading →

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