Chicago cops want to make sure they're communicating clear "public safety messages" with the folks congregating to protest the upcoming NATO summit, that's why they've just spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on an LRAD sound cannon.
In the State of Tennessee, highway robbery in the name of "asset forfeiture" is commonplace -- and Monterey PD Officer Larry Bates, who stole $22,000 from New Jersey businessman George Raby, is the embodiment of this unfathomably corrupt practice.
Reby, an insurance adjuster, was stopped for speeding by Bates on Interstate 40. Like too many honest and innocent people, Reby made the mistake of answering questions posed by the armed stranger who materialized at the driver's side doo... (more)
Government has a serious problem. It's got nothing worthwhile to do. All the cool things in life come from the private sector, and this is more obvious than ever. The market is creating whole worlds before our eyes, while the government seems ever more like a hopeless anachronism.
Government's life depends on public frenzy about some grand task it is seeking to accomplish. But today, there is no epic struggle, no grand historic project, no leading us to the light, no vanquishing e... (more)
If there were any real terrorists, Jose Rodriguez would be dead.
Who is Jose Rodriguez? He is the criminal who ran the CIA torture program. Most of his victims were not terrorists or even insurgents. Most were hapless individuals kidnapped by warlords and sold to the Americans as “terrorists” for the bounty paid.
If Rodriguez’s identity was previously a secret, it is no more. He has been on CBS “60 Minutes” taking credit for torturing M... (more)
Talking surveillance cameras that bark orders at passers-by and can also record conversations are heading for U.S. streets, with manufacturer Illuminating Concepts announcing the progress of its ‘Intellistreets’ system.
As we first reported last year, high tech street lights with “homeland security applications” are now being ... (more)
Documents just released by US Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) in response to one of EFF's Freedom of Information Act requests show that DHS is considering collecting DNA from kids ages 14 and up--and is exploring expanding its regulations to allow collection from kids younger than that.
The proposal appears to be working its way through DHS in the wake of regulatio... (more)
Sifting the historical record for cases affirming that the majority was on the right side of an issue fails to turn up a single "decision" where this was the result. So where is it written that the majority should rule? In the absence of affirmative evidence, a clever wag once offered the following argument:
The majority is infallible. Because no matter how stupid the propositions decided or the ones ele
Levii Dozier is only four months old, but he’s already been assaulted by the police.
Roughly five months ago, Levii’s mother Raven Dozier was present when her brother got embroiled in a child custody dispute with a girlfriend. After the police arrived, Raven did what she could to calm her brother down. Eventually one of the officers shot the agitated man with a Taser. A thugscrum quickly coalesced as several officers inflicted gratuitous punishment on the prone and he... (more)
A pair of bullying Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies detained a photographer who snapped their picture on Hollywood Blvd, accusing him of all kinds of false crimes before handcuffing him, then searching through his camera bag without consent.
Shawn Nee – who already has a pending lawsuit against the sheriff’s department for violating his r... (more)
Sheriff’s deputies secretly attached a GPS tracker to the truck of a vocal local government critic who they feared was planning to kidnap her son — and then tried and failed to retrieve it for four months.
Stacy Lynne found the device on her SUV earlier this month after growing suspicious that deputies were following her. Lynne has repeatedly... (more)
Avid texters beware: Fort Lee, N.J. police said they will begin issuing $85 jaywalking tickets to pedestrians who are caught texting while walking.
“It’s a big distraction. Pedestrians aren’t watching where they are going and they are not aware,” said Thomas Ripoli, chief of the Fort Lee Police Department.
[...]Officers handed out pamphlets during a short grace period in March before they began aggressively going after “dangerous walker... (more)
This city has a new way of fighting crime: Employees who are out and about, trimming trees or picking up litter on the beach, are officially on the lookout for signs of a crime.
A group of about 70 landscapers and garbage truck drivers got training from the Broward Sheriff's Office this week so they know what to look for. Another group of about 35 will train next week.
BSO calls the program Operation B.O.L.O. When an em... (more)
