by Jacob Sullum. Public servants or simple perverts, you decide. Yet another case of a driver sexually assaulted in the name of the war on drugs dramatically illustrates the dangerously broad power that police officers have to mess with motorists. According to a lawsuit filed last September, described in a February 3 ruling
by federal judge in ... MORE
Showing posts with label public service. Show all posts
Showing posts with label public service. Show all posts
Another Sexual Assault In Service Of The Drug War
by Jacob Sullum. Public servants or simple perverts, you decide. Yet another case of a driver sexually assaulted in the name of the war on drugs dramatically illustrates the dangerously broad power that police officers have to mess with motorists. According to a lawsuit filed last September, described in a February 3 ruling
by federal judge in ... MOREMatt Agorist: “Please Don’t Shoot Me” Body Cam Shows Innocent Unarmed Dad Killed By A Cop Begging For His Life
A simple execution. Mesa Police Officer Philip Brailsford
has been charged with the second-degree murder of Daniel Shaver, an
innocent father of two. The shooting was captured on his body cam. On
January 18, Brailsford, along with several other officers, responded to
a call about a suspect with a rifle in a hotel room. The ‘rifle’ was
nothing more ... MOREIllegal Drugs Should Be Decriminalized, Say Health Experts
by Lisa Ryan. Current policies are damaging. The war on drugs has failed – and certain illegal substances should now be decriminalized, according to some of the world’s leading health experts. Harsh drug control policies have done little to affect drug markets or drug use, experts argued. Instead, the war on drugs and zero-tolerance ... MOREOliver Steinberg: We're One Nation, Under Surveillance
Another slip down the slippery slope. “Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human liberty; it is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.” The Star Tribune’s March 22 editorial endorses tax expenditures for “A needed boost for courthouse security.” Consider what it means: To enter a public building, we lowly taxpayers, at the ... MOREJohn 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 ... MOREHere’s How To Fix Flint’s Water System: Privatize It
by Adrian Moore. Social media sites are awash in pictures
of Flint’s awful water. Local children exposed to lead will likely face
long term health consequences—and it appears that kids suffer from high
lead levels in many Michigan cities. Amidst revelations that the state of Michigan made sure its Flint employees had clean water long before taking ... MOREHow Government Poisoned The People Of Flint
by John Counts. Flint water has poisoned more than just its children. It's poisoned the citizenry's faith in government, which is supposed to provide safe drinking water, one of life's most basic essentials. Just ask Pete Nichols who was picking up bottles of water from a downtown fire station on a recent weekday. "Somebody needs to go to jail for ... MOREWhat Some Think As Law-Abiding Is Really Jackass Abiding
by Paul Hein. If you were to ask people on the street, “Are you law-abiding?” the vast majority would say, some with evident pride and self-righteousness, “You bet I am!” A smaller percentage would say, after some hesitation, “Sure, I guess I am,” and a very few might grimace and say, “Only when I have to be!” Thank God for this last group! ... MORE
Frank Parlato: It's Time You Understood Jury Nullification
Justice is a result, not simply a process. Jury nullification is the term used when a jury – or even a single juror – votes to acquit a criminal defendant who is technically guilty, but who juror(s) do not believe deserve punishment. It occurs in a trial when a jury reaches a verdict contrary to the judge’s instructions. It occurs when a single juror ... MORELittle-Told Story Of How The U.S. Government Poisoned Alcohol During Prohibition With Deadly Consequences
by Deborah Blum. A reminder about public servants. It was Christmas Eve 1926, the streets aglitter with snow and lights, when the man afraid of Santa Claus stumbled into the emergency room at New York City's Bellevue Hospital. He was flushed, gasping with fear: Santa Claus, he kept telling the nurses, was just behind him, wielding a baseball bat. ... MORE
TSA Screens Holiday Travelers Once Again, With Feeling
by James Bovard. Flyers must surrender privacy along with boarding passes. If you use hand sanitizer when traveling, the Transportation Security Administration can badger you as if you were a terrorist suspect. TSA is one of the biggest hassles many Americans will encounter this holiday season. I learned that firsthand while flying home from ... MOREVideo Reveals Motorist Had His Hands Up Before Police Officers Executed His 6-Year-Old Son Strapped In Seat
by Michael Kunzelman. Good thing the cops were black and victims white. A police body camera recorded the father of a 6-year-old autistic boy with his hands up and posing no threat as police fired into his car, severely wounding the motorist and killing his son, the man's lawyer said Monday. "This was not a threatening situation for the police," ... MORE
Proof The System Is Broken Beyond A Reasonable Doubt
by Carlos Miller. Serving the public like Colonel Sanders serves chicken. Juley Harris pulled into a Maryland gas station last December with his family and pumped some gas before stepping into the station’s convenience store and heating up a pizza. When he stepped out, a Charles County sheriff’s deputy was demanding his identification, ... MOREThe Underbelly Of The California Drought
by Victor Davis Hanson. People should be represented as well as salmon. Even the high mountain lakes and reservoirs are about empty – and equally void of vacationers who have few places to boat, fish, and ski, and are unsure where the next forest fire will break out and force evacuations on often one-lane winding mountain roads. Four years of ... MORERobby Soave: Man Jailed For Traffic Ticket Dies In Cell After 17 Days of Torture - Officers Watched It Happen
In the state's custody. It was a death sentence. David Stojcevski, a 32-year-old resident of Roseville, Michigan, was arrested for failing to pay a $772 fine stemming from careless driving. A court ordered him to spend a month in the Macomb County jail. Over the next 17 days of his incarceration in a brightly lit cell—where he was denied clothing ... MOREKate Mather: Good News For Citizens! LAPD Urges Officers To Be Community Guardians, Not Warriors On Crime
Promoting peace officers rather than robocops. For years, Los Angeles police officers have worked under the shadow of the department's dark past. The LAPD of the 1970s and '80s acted as a hard-charging, occupying force that raided poor neighborhoods and rounded up anyone in sight. Police stormed suspected crack houses, tearing down walls ... MORE
Claire Bernish: What Happened When Gloucester, Mass. Stopped Arresting Drug Addicts, And Offered Help Instead
Government as public servants, what a novel idea. Situated on the coast of Massachusetts, Gloucester’s claims to fame include its status as “America’s original seaport,” as well as being the real-life location on which events in the movie The Perfect Storm (2000) were based. Now, the small town has a new reason to be the center of attention: ... MOREBrad Schrade: Cops Shot Unarmed Georgia Woman In Head, Admired Their Marksmanship & Prevented First Aid After
After all, she was suspected of drug use. At high noon on June 18, 2010, Caroline Small, a petite 35-year-old woman and mother of two, sat behind the wheel of her beat-up Buick Century with nowhere to turn. Police vehicles flanked her on two sides, a shallow ditch was on another and a utility pole blocked her rear bumper. Unarmed but ... MORE
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