Showing posts with label accountability. Show all posts
Showing posts with label accountability. Show all posts

Veronique de Rugy: The Government Wasted Tons Of Money On 'Shrimp Fight Club' And A Million Other Things

Waste, fraud, abuse, and monkeys on hamster wheels.  In honor of the release of the new Star Wars movie, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Arizona), subtitled this year's "Wastebook" as "The Farce Awakens." The latest edition of this annual report details 100 spending programs—totaling $108.5 million—that are a complete waste of your money.    ... MORE

William N. Grigg: Chicago Cops Say Keeping Evidence Of Misconduct Puts Cops In Danger – So They’re Destroying It

Destroying the evidence of long festering corruption.     With protesters thronging the streets of Chicago demanding police accountability and clamoring for the resignation of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the city’s police union is frantically trying to destroy decades of records documenting police misconduct. As is always the case, the     ... MORE

Police Shooting Videos Spark Need For Reform

by Steven Greenhut.    It’s easy to understand why law-enforcement lobbyists have largely opposed efforts to expand the use of officer body cameras. As we see in Chicago—and now in San Francisco—the video images of police shootings may be at odds with what officers said took place. In Chicago, protesters have been demanding the         ... MORE

Restrictions On Adult Alcohol Access Don't Make Us Safer

Data explodes popular fallacy.  Violent crime and binge drinking are two potential undesirable outcomes of access to alcohol. But is increased access to alcohol for adult drinkers a sufficient precondition for these attendant negative externalities of drinking? A recent look at the impact of changes to laws governing pub hours in England and Wales 10   ... MORE

Ed Krayewski: Video Captures A Knife-Wielding Man Surrounded And Executed By A Firing Squad Of Cops

Police admit five of the officers fired their guns.  Police in San Francisco shot and killed a man they say was a suspected stabber after he approached an officer while holding a knife. Video posted of the incident to Instagram shows at least nine officers pointing their guns at the man, who appears to be trying to walk away as an officer moves in   ... MORE

The Corrupt System That Killed Laquan McDonald

by Conor Friedersdorf.  A Chicago cop now faces murder charges—but will anyone hold his colleagues, his superiors, and elected officials accountable for their failures? Thanks to clear video evidence, Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke was charged this week with first-degree murder for shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. Nevertheless, ... MORE

Alexander Hendrie: Impeach IRS chief John Koskinen

Halt the tax agency’s partisan scheming.    After revelations that the Internal Revenue Service was restricting political speech and targeting conservative and tea party groups, John Koskinen was appointed to head the agency, promising reform and transparency. These promises never came to fruition. Instead of admitting fault, Mr. Koskinen’s IRS   ... MORE

Syrian Refugee Policy Raises Serious States’ Rights Issue

by Bob Barr.      The flood of refugees from Syria and other Middle East countries that the Obama Administration is preparing to distribute to communities across the nation raises very real and understandable security concerns among government officials at the state and local levels, and among the citizenry generally.  It is, of course, facile for        ... MORE

Police State America 2016: The Case Of An Unarmed Teen Who Flashed His Brights At A Cop And Ended Up Shot Dead

See the video from the police cruiser.   The family of an unarmed teenager shot dead by a sheriff's deputy during a Michigan traffic stop in February has filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit alleging that the officer's "entire course of action was illegal." The lawsuit, filed Wednesday against Eaton County Sheriff's Sgt. Jonathan Frost and the county, ... MORE

Asher-Schapiro & Owen: The People Who Police The Police

Requiring adherence to the law as well as enforcement. Jose LaSalle always told his stepson Alvin: "Watch the cops." So when three undercover NYPD officers stopped Alvin on the street, grabbed his book bag, and twisted his arm, the 16 year old didn't fight back. Instead, he hit Record on his phone and asked the police why they were giving   ... MORE

California Police Unions Are Fighting Police Accountability

by Steven Greenhut.    They fear body cameras like Dracula fears holy water. As a reaction to national news reports about police killings, the California legislature had introduced a flurry of bills designed to provide better oversight of law-enforcement officials. In May, this column was optimistic about the focus on this long-neglected matter, and    ... MORE

John Crudele: Why The Federal Reserve Should Be Audited

Because ignorance is not bliss.  It is time for a comprehensive audit of Janet Yellen ’s Federal Reserve — and not just for the reasons presidential candidate Rand Paul and others have given. The Fed needs to be audited to see if its ruling body has broken the law by manipulating financial markets that are outside its jurisdiction. A thorough    ... MORE

Walter E Williams: Why Home Schooling?

Imparting values along with knowledge.   Many public primary and secondary schools are dangerous places. The Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics and the Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics show that in 2012, there were about 749,200 violent assaults on students. In the 2011-12 academic    ... MORE

We Are The Government: The Power Of Jury Nullification

by John W. Whitehead. Saddled with a corporate media that marches in lockstep with the government, elected officials who dance to the tune of their corporate benefactors, and a court system that serves to maintain order rather than mete out justice, Americans often feel as if they have no voice and no recourse when it comes to holding government    ... MORE

Andrew Napolitano: The Deceptions Of Hillary Clinton

She might find her candidacy deleted.       While the scandal surrounding the emails sent and received by Hillary Clinton during her time as U.S. secretary of state continues to grow, Clinton has resorted to laughing it off. This past weekend she told an audience of Iowa Democrats that she loves her Snapchat account because the messages    ... MORE

Andrew Napolitano: Lies The Government Is Telling You

Because the government is not us.    Last week, Republicans and Democrats in Congress joined President Barack Obama in congratulating themselves for taming the National Security Agency's voracious appetite for spying. By permitting one section of the Patriot Act to expire and by replacing it with the USA Freedom Act, the federal government   ... MORE

Jeremy Egerer: Should Women Be Allowed To Drink?

A sobering thought.    In an age of social liberalism, you can expect to see many things become legal. One thing that hasn't become legal and that almost nobody has considered legalizing is childhood drinking.  And the reason nobody has really suggested it is because each and every one of us knows that children are idiots. You never really know what    ... MORE

Bill Of Rights Doesn’t Amount To Much In A Cop Culture

by John W. Whitehead. Police officers are more likely to be struck by lightning than be held financially accountable for their actions.—Law professor Joanna C. Schwartz (paraphrased) If you can be kicked, punched, tasered, shot, intimidated, harassed, stripped, searched, brutalized, terrorized, wrongfully arrested, and even killed by a police     ... MORE