Who Watches The Watchers

NJ Assemblyman, Former Mayor Accosted By Cop Previously Fired For Lying

"'What happened to me should happen to no one,' the 56-year-old former Washington Township mayor said Friday. 'I was targeted. I was hunted down by this police officer who lied in a police report, lied in the summons he gave to me, lied to me, lied on tape, and also lied to his supervisors,' he said. 'I didn't do anything wrong that day.' In the video - obtained by Moriarty's lawyer, John Eastlack - the officer's mobile video recorder shows a sequence of events that appears to correspond with Moriarty's account of the police stop." Continue reading →

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‘Fusion centers’ spark security controversy

"The federal government has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to help establish more than 70 such 'fusion centers' throughout the country. The idea was for the centers to serve as a domestic information-sharing network that would help local, state and federal law enforcement agencies better collaborate to prevent a future attack. But a two-year inquiry released earlier this month questions the value of such centers saying they’ve provided irrelevant, useless or inappropriate information that, in some instances, threatened people’s constitutional rights." Continue reading →

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Italy’s Political Scandals Rattle Public Trust

"Many of the current scandals have their origins in a 2001 law meant to promote greater federalism and, theoretically, more local accountability. The measure, which handed out generous state financing without requiring that the regions raise much money on their own, backfired badly, fostering reckless spending throughout the country. With the creation of Italy’s provinces in 1970, and especially in the years after 2001, the cost of regional governments exploded. The salaries of Italy’s 1,113 regional lawmakers expanded as well, to $4,000 to $6,500 a month, and often double that with added benefits." Continue reading →

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Boston Police Tracking Protesters

"The Boston Regional Intelligence Center is one of more than 40 so-called 'fusion centers' around the country that were set up after Sept. 11, 2001 to share intelligence among federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. The documents show that the center has conducted extensive surveillance and investigations of lawful political activities. Members of the Boston Police Department are tracking the internal workings of political groups, interrogating peaceful activists, and filming demonstrations, such as an Occupy Boston protest from last year. In it, Occupy activists chant as the police video slowly pans the faces of those demonstrating." Continue reading →

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How the Feds Manufacture “Criminals”

"Undercover IRS informants posing as drug dealers offered to buy cars with cash they described as proceeds from narcotics deals. After Joseph Johnson was arrested and charged with money laundering, federal prosecutor Wendy Olson offered him a deal in exchange for testifying against Kurt Barnes. To enhance Johnson’s credibility, Olson sought to prevent disclosure of Johnson’s prior felony convictions – which is essentially the same act for which Barnes now faces a prison term. The difference here is that Olson, unlike Barnes, actually succeeded in stealing something – in this case, a year of a man’s life. Continue reading →

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Government Bomb Plots

"If a private person undertook such a 'plot,' but called it off without carrying it out and then announced 'I meant it only as a joke,' wouldn't he face criminal prosecution nonetheless? Shouldn't the FBI agents involved in this make-believe 'plot' also be charged with a conspiracy to blow up a federal building? They were not only participants in the scheme, but its very instigators!" Continue reading →

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The John McKenna Case: Video Captures Baton Blows to University of Maryland Student

"The encounter between police officers and a University of Maryland student after a basketball game in 2010 lasted only 10 seconds, but how a jury interprets those moments, captured on video, will determine the fate of two veteran Prince George’s County police officers on trial this week. Ruddy, an assistant state’s attorney, urged jurors to hold the officers accountable in what he called an unprovoked beating of a skipping, singing student during a postgame celebration on the streets of College Park." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe John McKenna Case: Video Captures Baton Blows to University of Maryland Student

Former NJ police officer sentenced to 20 months

"A former Camden police officer has been sentenced to 20 months in federal prison for stealing money, illegally searching homes, planting evidence and lying in court. Thirty-two-year-old Kevin Parry was one of four officers arrested on corruption-related charges in 2010. In 2009 and 2010, the Camden County Prosecutor's Office dropped charges in 210 cases in which some or all of the officers were involved." Continue reading →

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Disabled Vet Labeled “Terrorist” For Investigating Cost Of Surveillance Cameras

"A 55-year-old disabled veteran was labeled a 'terrorist' by three county commissioners after he photographed security cameras at the Elbert County administration building in Colorado as part of an investigation, a designation the man claimed was retribution for him filing multiple open-records requests. Elbert County resident Don Pippin took pictures of the security cameras back in April as part of an open-records request that sought to discover the cost of the surveillance system." Continue reading →

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