Police State

Florida policemen accused of forcing women into sex and groin-punching during traffic stop

"Two Lauderhill, Florida police officers were arrested Friday and charged with simple battery and unlawful compensation for allegedly forcing a woman into having sex with one of them and ordering one to punch the other in the groin, to avoid arrest. 33-year-old Franklin Hartley and 34-year-old Thomas Merenda were released on bond and are on administrative leave in connection with a May 24, 2012 traffic stop involving two women who were leaving a local strip club when they were allegedly pulled over by Hartley. Police records indicate the two women were drunk at the time." Continue reading →

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Border Patrol agent who shot Mexican teenager dead will not be charged

"U.S. authorities will not bring charges against a Border Patrol agent in Arizona who shot dead a rock-throwing Mexican teenager two years ago because the fatal injury did not occur in the United States, the Justice Department said on Friday. An unidentified Border Patrol agent shot Ramses Barron, a 17-year-old Mexican citizen, through the border fence in Nogales, Arizona, in the early hours of January 5, 2011. Over the past five years, U.S. border agents have fired into Mexico at least 10 times, killing six Mexicans, according to a report released earlier this year by the Washington Monthly and the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute." Continue reading →

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Scott Brown’s brother arrested with weapons arsenal after impersonating officer and commandeering boat

"Bruce W. Browne told officers responding to the call that he was the owner of the vehicle, and he admitted to wearing battle dress uniform (BDU) pants and carry a 9mm weapon. Inside of the vehicle, officers located three 9mm handguns, two sets of handcuffs, 12 fully-loaded magazines and over 200 rounds of ammunition. Browne also had law enforcement gear, including a tactical bullet-proof vest with the word 'POLICE' on the front and back and a metal TSA badge. Browne had IDs from when he worked for the TSA and Coast Guard, but the Connecticut State Police determined that he was no longer affiliated with those agencies." Continue reading →

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Secret NSA loophole allows data gathering on U.S. citizens without a warrant

"The previously undisclosed rule change allows NSA operatives to hunt for individual Americans’ communications using their name or other identifying information. Senator Ron Wyden told the Guardian the NSA’s authorities provide loopholes that allow 'warrantless searches for the phone calls or emails of law-abiding Americans'. The authority, approved in 2011, appears to contrast with repeated assurances from Barack Obama and senior intelligence officials to both Congress and the American public that the privacy of US citizens is protected from the NSA’s dragnet surveillance programs." Continue reading →

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What It’s Like to Get a National-Security Letter

"I spoke with Brewster Kahle, the founder of the nonprofit Internet Archive, perhaps the greatest of our digital libraries, and of the Wayback Machine, which allows you to browse an archive of the Web that reaches back to 1996. He is one of very few people in the United States who can talk about receiving a national-security letter. Hundreds of thousands of national-security letters have been sent. But only the plaintiffs in the three successful challenges so far—Kahle; Nicholas Merrill, of Calyx Internet Access; and the Connecticut librarians George Christian, Barbara Bailey, Peter Chase, and Janet Nocek—are known to have had them rescinded." Continue reading →

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The impulse to ban

"You don’t have to be a libertarian, or otherwise opposed to large government, to desire proper analysis of a problem and its potential solutions before rushing into a ban. Yet the impulse in the general population is to ban, whether they are on the left or the right. Those of us involved in drug policy reform have seen so clearly first-hand the unmitigated disasters that can come from the rush to ban, and so are less susceptible, perhaps, to that impulse. But we need to help others see that banning is not equal to stopping the problem." Continue reading →

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The Technological Evolution of Nonlethal Weaponry

"Over time, the one constant has been to invent a technology that conferred an advantage on the user in battle—or else served as protection against what the other guy had. And the reason for wielding any given weapon has always been to maim or, preferably, kill one's adversary. Before one got one's own self killed, of course. The concept of a weapon that is designed merely to temporarily incapacitate, with little or no lasting injury, is relatively new. In a way, the development of nonlethal weaponry (NLW) can be seen as an inevitable byproduct of the rise of democracy in the world." Continue reading →

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SWAT-Team Nation: The Militarization of the U.S. Police

"Inside, gallerygoers were looking at art and dancing to a d.j.; outside, on the patio, several young women were goofily belting out the lyrics to 'Hakuna Matata,' from 'The Lion King'. Only then did masked figures with guns storm the crowd, shouting, 'Get on the fucking ground! Get down, get down!' Some forty Detroit police officers dressed in commando gear ordered the gallery attendees to line up on their knees, then took their car keys and confiscated their vehicles, largely on the grounds that the gallery lacked the proper permits for dancing and drinking. More than forty cars were seized, and owners paid around a thousand dollars each to get them back." Continue reading →

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Why Have Police In America Turned Into Such Ruthless Thugs?

"What in the world does NASA need a SWAT team for? The police culture in America has fundamentally changed. In the old days, most police officers were extremely helpful and would give you directions or help you get your cat out of a tree. But if you stop and ask a police officer for help today, you will be lucky if all you get is some dirty language. These days, police all over the nation are actually being trained to bark orders at you and to respond to the least bit of resistance with overwhelming force. The results of this kind of training can often be extremely tragic. And with each passing year, it just gets even worse." Continue reading →

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Teen Killed by Taser, Cops Laugh & High-Five Each Other (Israel Hernandez) – Exclusive Interviews

"We Are Change headed to Miami Beach -- the site where Israel Hernandez was killed after being tased by Miami Beach Police. Exclusive interviews were conducted with Israel's best friends, who were with him the night he was caught drawing a small amount of graffiti on an abandoned building that was already covered in street art. According to his best friends/eye witnesses, after Israel was tased and apparently dead, the cops were laughing and 'high-five-ing' each other." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingTeen Killed by Taser, Cops Laugh & High-Five Each Other (Israel Hernandez) – Exclusive Interviews