Police State

‘Dislike’ and ‘Unfriendliness’ Can Be Hate Crimes, UK Police Confirm

"National bodies, including the College of Policing (CoP) and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), both admit there is an 'absence of a precise legal definition of hostility', with the latter also referring individual forces onto 'dictionary definitions' for the purpose of investigating hate crimes. Dictionary definitions include a wide range of normal human behaviours and emotions, and images on social media suggest police officers are being told to look out for 'unfriendliness' as a sign of a hate crime. The CPS also mentions 'ill-will, ill-feeling, spite, contempt, prejudice, unfriendliness, antagonism, resentment, and dislike' as examples of hostility that could be taken from a dictionary."

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If the Law Is This Complicated, Why Shouldn’t Ignorance Be an Excuse?

"America’s judges still cling to the proposition that it’s perfectly fine to lock people up for doing something they had no idea was illegal. But it’s not fine, and the justifications for that palpably unfair rule have only grown more threadbare with time."

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Rand Paul’s USA Rights Act Would Protect Us From NSA Spying

"It fixes the 'backdoor search loophole,' which now allows warrantless searches of the NSA-collected contents of Americans’ communications. It extends broad oversight powers to an independent agency. It guarantees the end of a controversial type of data search (called “about” searches) that the NSA suspended earlier this year. It improves judicial oversight of the government’s surveillance regime. It provides better transparency and requires stricter reporting."

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U.S. widens surveillance to include individuals with no foreign connection

"The change last year to a Department of Defense manual on procedures governing its intelligence activities was made possible by a decades-old presidential executive order, bypassing congressional and court review. The new manual, released in August 2016, now permits the collection of information about Americans for counterintelligence purposes 'when no specific connection to foreign terrorist(s) has been established,' according to training slides created last year by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI)."

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Who’s ‘the Harvey Weinstein of’ Sex Work? The Police

"Every week brings a new story of police officers abusing their power to extort sex from women, especially women whom they've known to engage in prostitution. Since the start of October, at least five cops and a police dispatcher have made headlines for prostitution offenses, sometimes with underage women. And of course these are only the ones getting caught."

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Cops Claim Teen Consented to Sex — While Handcuffed In Custody

"After their DNA was found on 18-year-old 'Anna Chambers' in September, the two Brooklyn narcotics officers who she accused of raping her admitted to sex with the young woman. But they claimed the contact—which occured after police pulled over Chambers on a traffic stop, found loose prescription pills in her bag, and took her into their custody—was consensual. Now they're trying to discredit her by pointing prosecutors to her 'provocative' social-media selfies and to tweets where she lashes out at someone accusing her of lying."

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She’s a Mom and a Sex Offender for Life

"Shawna is a 35-year-old woman who is legally prohibited from taking her kids to the park. That's because she's a sex offender. Years earlier, on her 19th birthday, Shawna and her friends were drinking and celebrating. A teen boy expressed interest in her, and they slept together. He turned out to be 14 years old. His mother notified the authorities. Now Shawna is spending the rest of her life on the sex offender registry, even though the mother of two is obviously no threat to children."

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Feds ‘Rescue’ Women From Their Freedom, Money In Sting Operations

"Everyone will ignore the real victims of Operation Cross Country: the vulnerable women and girls tricked, frightened, robbed, detained, arrested, incarcerated, and otherwise mistreated by police and federal agents as part of this sick charade that claims to help them."

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Don’t Call the Cops If You’re Autistic, Deaf, Mentally Ill, Disabled or Old

"Here’s another don’t to the add the growing list of things that could get you or a loved one tasered, shot or killed, especially if you are autistic, hearing impaired, mentally ill, elderly, suffer from dementia, disabled or have any other condition that might hinder your ability to understand, communicate or immediately comply with an order: don’t call the cops."

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