In Spite of State Law, Maryland Law Enforcement Officials Still Arresting, Charging People for Recording Cops
posted 05/31/2010, 8:00 AM (Reason Magazine) [Category: Tyranny/Police State] In a column last month I wrote about Anthony Graber, a Maryland man who was arrested for posting a video of a traffic stop to YouTube. Graber was pulled over on his motorcycle by Maryland State Trooper Joseph David Ulher. Uhler drew his gun during the stop. Graber was wearing a camera on his helmet. Graber thought Uhler's actions were excessive, so he posted the video to the Internet. Days later, police raided the home of Graber's parents. Graber was arrested, booked, and jailed. He was charged with violating Maryland's wiretapping statute. In an interview he gave to blogger Carlos Miller shortly after, Graber said, "The judge who released me looked at the paperwork and said she didn't see where I violated the wiretapping law."
In my previous column, I interpreted that to mean the judge had dropped the charge. Apparently that isn't the case. Graber is due in court next week. He faces up to five years in prison. State's Attorney Joseph Cassilly has also charged Graber with "Possession of an Interception Device." That "device" would be Graber's otherwise-perfectly-legal video camera.
Graber's case is starting to spur some local and national media discussion of the state's wiretapping law. As I mentioned in my column last month, his arrest came at about the same time the Jack McKenna case broke nationally. McKenna, a student at the University of Maryland, was given an unprovoked beating by police during student celebrations after a basketball game last February... (more)
Lisa Kirkman says her son Noah Kirkman, who was 10 years old at the time, was picked up by Oregon police for not wearing his bike helmet while on a summer vacation with his stepfather in 2008.
... (more)
The Prettification of War
posted 05/31/2010, 8:00 AM (John V. Walsh) [Category: Commentary] Sunday’s NYT, gearing up for Memorial Day, carries a leading front-page story direct from the Afghan front, complete with photos. Does it tell of the 1000 Americans who have perished there in America’s longest war or the unknown number of innocent Afghanis to fall or the many more on both sides to be gruesomely injured or the devastation visited on the poor and backward regions of Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan by the firepower of the mightiest war machine the world has yet to pr... (more)
Joining host Dennis McCuistion, Thomas E. Woods, Jr. (Ludwig von Mises ... (more)
If you give an institution the monopoly power to tax and a monopoly over courts, how can you expect it not to become an out of control tyranny?
All monopolies lead to worse service and increased costs, the idea you would set your government up as a total monopoly is absolutely absurd.
There are a few solutions, one of them is to break up the US into 20,000 separate republics like Lew Rockwell talked about, this would force people to engage in free trade and the incentive structure would be changed because people could vote with their feet and move out of any jurisdiction which was taxing them too much or was out of control in any way.
A much better solution, I believe, is what Hans-Hermann Hoppe talks about which is creating a private sector for all the government industry.
Everyone would buy insurance to protect themselves and everyone would be armed and be able to hire police to defend their property.
The judicial system would be done by the insurance courts and there would be simple laws and actual incentive to give good judgments.
People would be free to live as they please on their own private property and there would be no forced integration and no system of coercion.
People would interact only out of their own volition and could vote with their dollars.
No one would be ruling over anyone yet the society would be completely civilized and have a powerful judiciary and a strong guerrilla army.
There could be no wars of aggression because there would be no state, and if anyone tried to invade us, to quote one Japanese General, "there would be a rifle behind every blade of grass."
We would quickly become the most prosperous nation on earth because that's the product of freedom. We would set the perfect example for the world and it would be like the US in the glory days right after the revolution.
Now THAT'S change I can believe in! - Chris, InfoLib
Southern Seaplane owner Rhonda Panepinto said her husband called the BP Command Center on Tuesday for permission to fly photographer Ted Jackson over Grand Isle, so that he could take pictures of the impact of the spreading oil from the Deepwater Horizon well. But the plane company was tol... (more)
One prominent energy expert known for predicting the oil price spike of 2008 says sending a small nuclear bomb down the leaking well is "probably the only thing we can do" to stop the leak.
Matt Simmons, founder of energy investment bank Simmons & Company, als... (more)
Funny PR Propaganda: "Parish President: President Obama 'Chewed Me Out'"
posted 05/31/2010, 7:59 AM (ABC News) [Category: General] GRAND ISLE, La. -- Billy Nungesser, the president of Plaquemines Parish whose frustrations about the federal government response have been featured prominently on TV in the past few weeks, told ABC News that in the private meeting the president had with local leaders here today, President Obama "chewed me out."
Nungesser, a Republican, told ABC News that President Obama "told me that we need to communicate."
He said that he told President Obama that after his first ... (more)
Gotta love the PR wizards who came up with this stunt!
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