Author: Joe from MassPrivateI

The Intercept – by Naomi LaChance

FOUR MEN IN DETROIT were arrested over the past week for posts on social media that the police chief called threatening. One tweet that led to an arrest said that Micah Johnson, the man who shot police officers in Dallas last week, was a hero. None of the men have been named, nor have they been charged.

“I know this is a new issue, but I want these people charged with crimes,” saidDetroit Police Chief James Craig. “I’ve directed my officers to prepare warrants for these four individuals, and we’ll see which venue is the best to pursue charges,”he said.   Continue reading “After Dallas Shootings, Police Arrest People for Criticizing Cops on Facebook and Twitter”

The Newspaper

A majority of judges on an Ohio Court of Appeals panel decided last week to overrule the state legislature on the issue of speed cameras and red light cameras. Judges James D. Jensen and Arlene Singer insisted that no regulation of any kind could be imposed on cities that outsource traffic tickets to private companies like American Traffic Solutions and Redflex Traffic Systems of Australia.   Continue reading “Ohio Court Of Appeals Wants More Speed Cameras”

Photography is Not a Crime – by Grant Stern

Washington state law requires all known videos by police to be kept for 90 days, but Seattle Police capture dash video from all patrol cruisers and automatically dump it 3-5 days later.

Seattle activist Tim Clemans requested video from the fail-safe dash cam video recording system implemented by private contractor COBAN.   Continue reading “Seattle Police Erasing Thousands of Dash Cam Videos, Massively Breaching Public Records Law”

Think Progress – by Carimah Townes

In the wake of the killing of six officers in Dallas last Thursday, legislators across the country are considering bills to offer hate crime protections to cops. Two so-called “Blue Lives Matter” bills have already been announced since the mass shooting, modeled after the law passed in Louisiana this year. But instead of making police safer, the bills may have the consequence of criminalizing protesters and groups that are already targeted by law enforcement.   Continue reading “More ‘Blue Lives Matter’ Bills Expected Across The Country After Dallas Shooting”

Vox – by Abe Marshal

After recent mass shootings in San Bernardino, California, and Orlando, Florida, members of both parties in Congress have called for “no fly, no buy” — a bill that would allow the federal government to bar people on the Transportation Security Administration’s no-fly list from purchasing guns.

To supporters, the proposal seems straightforward: If you’re a “known or suspected terrorist” who’s too dangerous to board a plane, you’re too dangerous to buy a gun. Tocritics, it’s a reminder of the problems with the no-fly list itself.   Continue reading “I’m a former Marine who was on the no-fly list for 4 years — and I still don’t know why”

Common Dreams – by Nadia Prupis

As news emerges that police officers in Dallas, Texas used an armed robot to kill the suspected shooter in Thursday night’s ambush, experts are warning that it represents a sea change in police militarization that only heightens risks to human and constitutional rights.

Dallas Police Chief David Brown said Friday morning during a press conference that police “saw no other option but to use our bomb robot and place a device on its extension for it to detonate” where the suspect had taken refuge in a parking garage as police tried to negotiate with him, adding that he was “deceased as a result of detonating the bomb.”   Continue reading “Legal Experts Raise Alarm over Shocking Use of ‘Killer Robot’ in Dallas”

Fortune – by David Z Morris

Court upholds conviction of ex-employee who shared database access.

On July 5^th , the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion which found, in part, that sharing passwords is a crime prosecutable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). The decision, according to a dissenting opinion on the case, makes millions of people who share passwords for services like Netflix and HBOGo into “unwitting federal criminals.”   Continue reading “Sharing Your Netflix Password Is Now a Federal Crime”

Infowars – by Kit Daniels

The Clinton Foundation is a “massive spider web of connections and money laundering implicating hundreds of high-level people,” according to an anonymous insider who revealed why the FBI stopped short of indicting Hillary Clinton.

Before FBI Director James Comey announced the FBI wouldn’t recommend pressing charges against Clinton, an insider with “intimate knowledge of the inner workings of the Clinton case” hosted an little-publicized AMA session on 4Chan, and the statements he made on July 2 corroborate with later developments of the scandal.   Continue reading “FBI Source: Clinton Foundation Can Bring Down Entire Government”

Atlantic Journal Constitution – by Rhonda Cook

A North Georgia newspaper publisher was indicted on a felony charge and jailed overnight last week – for filing an open-records request.

Fannin Focus publisher Mark Thomason, along with his attorney Russell Stookey, were arrested on Friday and charged with attempted identity fraud and identity fraud. Thomason was also accused of making a false statement in his records request.   Continue reading “North Georgia newspaper publisher jailed over open records request”

New York Post – by Daniel Harper

Lawmakers and their aides are being offered free blood tests after lead was found in water fountains at the U.S. Capitol office building.

Beginning today, “blood lead level testing will be available to House Members and Staff, with a valid congressional badge, at no cost to the individual or office,” the Architect of the Capitol wrote to Hill staffers Tuesday, according to Roll Call.   Continue reading “Lawmakers tested after lead found in US Capitol office water fountains”

Daily Mail

It has now been 20 years since TWA Flight 800 exploded in mid-air just 12 minutes after taking off from New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport en route to Paris, and many are still questioning just what caused the crash that killed all 230 people on board.

The National Transportation Safety Board spent four years looking into the cause in what would become the lengthiest and most expensive investigation in the history of American aviation before publishing their findings in 2000, which stated the explosion was likely caused by a short circuit in the plane’s fuel tank.   Continue reading “TWA 800: The Crash, the Cover-Up, and the Conspiracy”

Vocativ – by Kevin Collier

A ten-year study of how state and federal law enforcement wiretaps suspects shows that the government is extremely efficient at the practice, and is only getting better.

The new report, conducted by the Federal Judiciary, looked at the prevalence of the FBI and state and local police petitioning for a warrant to surveil someone. Methods range from tracking their computer activity to bugging a home telephone or a room, though it overwhelmingly—96 percent of the time 2015—meant tracking or listening to their cell phone calls. It has become a common enough practice that in a ten-year span, a wiretap request has been denied only eight times, and never more than twice in a year. According to the report, “No wiretap applications were reported as denied in 2015.”   Continue reading “US Government Approved 100% Of Wiretap Applications In 2015”

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – by Chris Potter

During a campaign stop Monday at the Law Enforcement Officers Memorial on the North Shore, U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey said the June 12 mass shooting in Orlando, Fla., showed that “we are a nation at war” — and he called on his Democratic challenger, Katie McGinty, to join him in arming police to fight it.

Mr. Toomey, a Republican, touted his bid to restore the “1033 program,” which allows local police to obtain mothballed military equipment at no or low cost. Police have used the three-decade-old program to obtain everything from sidearms and camouflage to grenade launchers and armored vehicles.   Continue reading “Sen. Pat Toomey seeks military equipment for police”

Argus Leader – by Mark Walker, Patrick Anderson and John Hult

Police in South Dakota are collecting urine samples from uncooperative suspects through the use of force and catheters, a procedure the state’s top prosecutor says is legal but is criticized by others as unnecessarily invasive and a potential constitutional violation.

The practice isn’t new, according to attorneys, but it’s been brought to light in a recent case in Pierre. An attorney for a man charged with felony drug ingestion is asking a judge to throw out evidence from an involuntary urine sample, saying it violated his client’s constitutional rights.   Continue reading “Police use catheters, force to collect urine samples”