"There’s just no accountability today," complains Sheriff Michael Lewis of Maryland’s Wicomico County. Sheriff Lewis was not expressing concerns over the institutionalized impunity of law enforcement officers, but rather disgust over public criticism of police by "defiant" people who "hate law enforcement," and the fact that some school-age kids are allowed to watch TV and play video games late on school nights.
"I think there’s a complete lack of accountability ... (more)
The police have been at war with the general population for generations, killing innocent people, locking them in cages and taking their hard earned money every opportunity that they get. However, now that people are finally starting to resist this oppression and are finally speaking out, police are beginning to act as if they are some sort of persecuted minority, who now have even more reason to “fear for their lives” and be even more aggressive with the public.
At the beginning of this year, Attorney General Eric Holder attempted to close an exploitable loophole in asset forfeiture laws. State and local law enforcement agencies often sought federal "adoption" of seizures in order to route around statutes that dumped assets into general funds or otherwise limited them from directly profiting from these seiz... (more)
A new ordinance in Alabama has turned cops into fashion police. "I prayed about this; I know that God would not go around with pants down," Dadeville City Councilman Frank Goodman said.
"We have people walking down the street with their hand in front of them holding up their pants," Goodman added. "Then they have the nerve to walk into a place of business and ask for a job. If you come to my house you are going to pull them up before you get on my property, much less in ... (more)
Chris Barger is your average citizen. Except for a traffic ticket, Barger has never had any legal problems in his life. That all changed on September 7, when Barger was violently assaulted by a Purcell Police Officer. According to Barger, he was at an apartment complex, dropping off a friend when a police officer approached him. The officer shined his flashlight into Barger's car.
He begins to shine his light in my car window repeatedly, and after a while, I decided maybe
Anyone who was called crazy for shouting from the rooftops back in 2005 when the first sign of drone testing in the United States was uncovered appears to have been vindicated. Small comfort as we are finally coming face to face with the consequences of our apathy.
North Dakota made international news recently as the first state to legalize weaponized drones for use upon its own ci... (more)
Federal agents put a Chinese professor at Temple University through hell after accusing him of passing sensitive schematics of a complicated "pocket heater" device to China, only to later quietly drop the charges after it turned out the schematics he sent were entirely unrelated.
Sheriff’s deputies in California claimed they feared for their lives after shooting a man who was filming them from his own garage.
The Sacramento sheriff’s deputies shot Danny Sanchez on Friday. Sanchez is currently in the hospital at the UC Davis Medical Center, where he underwent surgery to remove bullet fragments, according to his father, John Sanchez.
The shooting occurred when the Sheriff’s department SWAT team showed up to arrest a neighbo... (more)
As it stands today, our government is a constitutional republic in name only.
Our nation is ruled by wealthy oligarchs and special interests, and there is plenty of blame to go around for this situation. No society falls to these depths without at least the implicit consent of the population, and even the most ruthless of governments can't survive if its citizens refuse to go along with the program.
So it's safe to say that the American people are at least partly t... (more)
Tampa, FL -- On the afternoon of August 26, while filming MacDill Air Force Base from a public park, a U.S. veteran was illegally detained and bullied by police for legally recording the installation.
The filming of government buildings has been ruled to be protected under the First Amendment but is often cited as a reason for being detained by police who are either unaware or willfully ignorant of this right.
Flexing his rights immediately upon contac... (more)
Huntsville, AL -- After a jury failed to reach a decision in the federal trial of an Alabama police officer, which left an Indian grandfather partially paralyzed, the judge declared a mistrial in the case.
The surprising announcement by U.S. District Court Judge Madeline Haikala came after jurors told the judge on four separate occasions that they were unable come to a unanimous decision.
Officer Eric Parker is accused of using excessive force while violating the ci... (more)
San Francisco Bay area activists staged a dramatic demonstration in Oakland on Friday to call attention to the domestic war games and militarization of police set to take place at the annual Urban Shield conference this weekend.
An estimated 100 people "dressed in fake police uniforms, banging drums and chanting antiviolence slogans" reportedly took over an intersection near Lake Merritt to condemn the four-day law enforcement and first-responder training expo, which the Alame... (more)
Surveillance videotape released by the New York Police Department shows Officer James Frascatore ambushing tennis star James Blake in what appears to be a startling, illegal arrest. Frascatore has been sued four times for excessive force in the past.
Missing from the surveillance tape, released on Friday, is any indication that Officer Frascator... (more)
Louisville, KY — A man from Shelby Street caught an epic display of 'flexing your rights' on video when a cop tried to harass him while buying fried chicken.
"I have an ID, OK. But I'm in my uncle's parking lot. So you tell me, for what reason"¦what rights did I violate? Am I being detained? Am I being detained?" says the informed citizen.
The cops can only stammer in frustration, suggesting the he has to show his ID and they have a ri... (more)
San Francisco, CA – Two police officers were recently recorded in a Happy Donuts location, joking and laughing about shooting and killing civilians. One of the officers was telling the other about how they can kill suspects while the body camera is rolling, as long as the situation would look justifiable in the video. It seems that the officers were debating which type of evidence they wouldn’t mind appearing on body camera footage, and what type of evidence they would like to cover... (more)
A few weeks ago there was a fair bit of controversy after a US drone-strike killed an ISIS "hacker" who was, among other things, popular on Twitter. While US officials tried to paint him as a much bigger deal behind the scenes, some are now admitting that he was just noisy online. ABC News is reporting on the supposed internal debate among US counterterrorism officials<... (more)
Clatskanie, OR – An Oregon police officer, who chose to cross the "thin blue line" and alert authorities after his department's police chief disparaged a black woman who had filed a discrimination complaint, is now receiving death threats.
Officer Dustin Stone, of the Clatskanie Police Department, now fears for his life for following his moral code and deciding to be a "good cop." The incident began after him and officer Zack Gibson reported an incident in which Clatska... (more)
A Texas police officer was arrested this week after he allegedly fired his gun into a wall in anger because a server rejected his sexual advances.
According to a press release from the El Paso Police Department, Temple Police Officer Kenneth Lee Sheka, 28, was attending a law enforcement convention on Tues... (more)
Fairfax County, VA -- Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey Kincaid released a graphic video on Thursday depicting deputies restraining a mentally ill woman and repeatedly tazing her with a stun gun, which resulted in her death. The sheriff decided to release the footage two days after a criminal investigation declined to file charges against the officers for excessive use of force.
Diagnosed with schizophrenia at the age of 12, Natasha McKenna, 37, was arrested by Fairfax police on ... (more)
Medical records have long been given an increased expectation of privacy, something that dates back to before the passage of HIPAA. (See also: Hippocratic Oath.) Consultations with doctors -- and the written records resulting from them -- have generally been treated as confidential, seeing as they contain potentially embarrassing/damaging information. Personal health information can be reported to law enforcement for many reasons: suspicion of criminal activity on the health entity's property, s... (more)
New York, NY — Retired tennis great James Blake was tackled by plainclothes members of the NYPD Wednesday outside of his hotel. He arrived Wednesday morning and was waiting for a car in front of the Grand Hyatt on East 42nd Street. Blake was texting when he noticed “someone in shorts and a t-shirt charging at him,” according to the NY Daily News.
"Maybe I’m naïve, but I just assumed it was someone I went to high school with or something who was
Zanesville, OH — Early Friday morning, Patrick Solomon was out for a stroll. He had committed no crime and had harmed no one when Zanesville police officer Andrews pulled in front of him to block his path.
SAN FRANCISCO (CN) - California sheriff's officers beat a man senseless after stopping him for riding his bicycle without a headlight, then told him if he sought medical treatment he "would never see daylight," the man claims in court.
Manuel Jose Salazar sued Santa Clara County, its Sheriff's Department, and Officers Carrie Gordon and Alan Reyes on Sept. 4 in Federal Court.
Salazar acknowledges he was riding his bicycle without a forward-facing light... (more)
A barbershop that is set up specifically to serve men, must now pay $750 dollars after a Pennsylvania state investigation into "discriminatory" practices on the part of the barbershop owners. The owner, John Interval, was fined $750 after he declined to cut a woman's hair. According to Interval: 'I didn’t really consider it so much a discrimination thing as – it’s a barbers... (more)
Steele County, MN — The Old Paths Baptist Church was out doing some evening preaching last month when they were approached by Steele County cops who were destined to shut them down.
As the group was out on public property, practicing their First Amendment right to peacefully assemble, they were approached by Sheriff’s deputy, Lon Thiele. Thiele told the man filming, who is also a preacher, that he would have to move all the way down the road, away from the intersection... (more)
