Showing posts with label police state. Show all posts
Showing posts with label police state. Show all posts

Shining A Light On Police Seizures, Civil Forfeitures

by Nick Sibilla and Lauren Krisai.    How a town of 7,000 can build a $4.1 million dollar police station.  Mississippi has some of the strongest protections in the country for private property rights. But those protections are shockingly lax when it comes to a little-known police practice called “civil forfeiture.” Unlike criminal forfeiture,     ... MORE

The Real Tragedy Is That The Presidency Matters

by Jeffrey Tucker.     Freedom lovers everywhere are biting their nails this election season, wondering how the damage can be limited. Depending on who gains control, we could have trade wars, nationalized health care, the pillaging of Wall Street, more war in the Middle East, a VAT tax, direct surveillance of your smartphone, internment     ... MORE

Surprise! NSA Data Will Soon Routinely Be Used For Domestic Policing That Has Nothing To Do With Terrorism

by Radley Balko. Everyone is presumed guilty. A while back, we noted a report showing that the “sneak-and-peek” provision of the Patriot Act that was alleged to be used only in national security and terrorism investigations has overwhelmingly been used in narcotics cases. Now the New York Times reports that National Security Agency data will  ... MORE

Katie Kieffer: Apple Is On Your Side

Somebody has to protect individual liberty.    Obama’s order for Apple to let him hack your iPhone is not about fighting terror—it’s about iPhone dominion. This is the equivalent of gun control except in the tech sector. Terrorism is one of the top two issues concerning Americans, including Millennials. You deserve to know why and how Obama’s ... MORE

DC Cop Raids Are Undeterred By Lack Of Probable Cause

from the Washington Post. Government's domestic terrorists. Sallie Taylor was sitting in her apartment in Northeast Washington one evening in January 2015 watching “Bible Talk” when her clock fell off the wall and broke. She turned and looked up. Nine D.C. police officers smashed through her door, a shotgun was pointed at her face and she   ... MORE

M.L. Nestel: Cops Wake Up Naked Woman Who Was Asleep, Order Her To Show Them A Gun, Then Proceed To Kill Her

Trigger-happy public servants.   Deanne Choate was sleeping naked under the covers when a trio of cops flicked on the lights and came barreling into her bedroom with guns drawn, believing she posed a lethal threat. The police officers from Gardner, Kansas roused her awake and ordered her to show the gun her boyfriend told them she had    ... MORE

John Charlton: Connecticut Cops Push For Armed Drones

To promote "public safety."  The drone discussion has been buzzing around the state Capitol for hearings this week. Monday, a bill to ban the weaponization of drones was discussed, and on Tuesday, a bill to control the use of drones in many ways, including by law enforcement agencies, was debated. Lawmakers listened to testimony concerning      ... MORE

VIDEO: Charles Murray - Lawless Government

Virginia Senate Bill Seeks To Turn Cops Into Secret Police

by Clarice Palmer.    Shielding accountability. In the United States, the Fourth Estate, also known as the Fourth Power or the fourth branch of government, has always been a popular label for the media’s role in a free society. But in the state of Virginia, legislators want to remove that power from the press by shielding police officers from public scrutiny. ... MORE

Obama To Trash Reagan’s Restrictions On Domestic Spying

by Chriss W. Street.     A tyrant's sneaky misdirection play. With the pubic distracted by the FBI battling Apple for an iPhone backdoor, President Obama is secretly working to trash President Ronald Reagan’s restrictions on the number of federal agencies that can spy on Americans and others. At a secret meeting of the United States National   ... MORE

The Apple-FBI Fight Isn’t About Privacy Vs. Security

by Brian Barrett.      Do not be misled. Throughout the ongoing fight between Apple and the FBI over custom access to an iPhone used by one of the two terrorists who killed 14 people in San Bernardino, the government has framed the argument as a simple trade-off: You must surrender a little privacy if you want more security. The scales don't balance quite ... MORE

John W. Whitehead: The People Vs The Police State

The struggle for justice in the Supreme Court.    The untimely death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has predictably created a political firestorm. Republicans and Democrats, eager to take advantage of an opening on the Supreme Court, have been quick to advance their ideas about Scalia’s replacement. This is just the beginning of the     ... MORE

Armed Marshals Bust Man Over Unpaid Student Loan

by Michael Harthorne.   And they aren't stopping there. Seven armed US Marshals in combat gear showed up on the doorstep of 48-year-old Paul Aker's home Thursday in Houston, the New York Daily News reports. His crime? Failing to pay a $1,500 student loan he received in 1987. "I say, 'What is this all about?'" Aker recalls. "They say, 'Shut up,   ... MORE

NYPD Wants To Make "Resisting Arrest" Into A Felony

by Cory Doctorow.      Cops want sharper teeth. It's no secret that "resisting arrest" is the go-to excuse for violence committed against suspects by corrupt cops -- it's practically a running gag. But if NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton gets his way, resisting arrest will offer near-perfect impunity to his force's most violent and sleazy officers,    ... MORE

Tim Cushing: Drug Dogs Don't Even Have To Be Right Half The Time To Be Considered 'Reliable' By The Courts

The pretense of probable cause.   All in all, this motion to suppress evidence worked out for the plaintiff, but it does little to address concerns that drug dogs are basically blank permission slips for inquisitive cops. The defendant -- Emile Martin -- was in a vehicle driven by another person (simply referred to as "Montgomery" in the opinion). This vehicle  ... MORE

City Of Buffalo Is Raking In Big Bucks From Auto Drivers After Wildly Expanding Their Traffic Citation Industry

by Matthew Spina.    Throughout last year, Buffalo police pulled over more drivers and handed more tickets to each. But the flood began in July – after City Hall created its new “traffic violations agency” to grab more money than ever from traffic fines. The traffic agency flung open its doors July 1. From that day through December, police issued 30,000    ... MORE

Asset Forfeiture Steals Due Process Rights

A Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial. On a dark desert highway, a sleek, Navy-blue Ford Explorer forces a car to the side of the road. Armed men emerge from the SUV and demand that the occupants of the car open their trunk. Inside, they find $250,000 in cash. The men take the money, leaving the car's passengers on the roadside. They   ... MORE

Police State Update: Ex-Cop California Assemblyman Wants Encrytion Keys For All Cell Phones Available To The Police

by Cyrus Farivar.    A second state lawmaker has now introduced a bill that would prohibit the sale of smartphones with unbreakable encryption. Except this time, despite very similar language to a pending New York bill, the stated rationale is to fight human trafficking, rather than terrorism. Specifically, California Assemblymember Jim Cooper’s (D-Elk   ... MORE