Author: Joe from MassPrivateI

Huffington Post

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – A Texas former trooper who arrested a black woman motorist later found hanged in her jail cell pleaded not guilty on Tuesday on a misdemeanor charge of lying on the arrest report he made of the July 2015 incident, a court official said.

Brian Encinia, who arrested 28-year-old Sandra Bland in Waller County, was fired this month for his conduct that escalated tension in the arrest, which led to her apparent suicide.   Continue reading “Former Texas Trooper Pleads Not Guilty In Arrest Of Sandra Bland”

Of Two Minds – by Charles Hugh Smith

Once the Oligarchy is above the law, the Republic is already dead.

To paraphrase Ernest Hemingway: How did you lose your Republic? Two ways, gradually and then suddenly. The Romans experienced this when their Republic was extinguished by Empire.   Continue reading “If Hillary Isn’t Indicted, the Rule of Law and the Republic Are Dead”

NBC Chicago

A woman is outraged after she says her daughter was handcuffed while at school.

Marlena Wordlaw said her 6-year-old daughter Madisyn Moore was pulled out of class at Fernwood Elementary for taking candy off of a teacher’s desk. Wordlaw said her daughter was then handcuffed under some stairs at school to teach her a lesson.   Continue reading “‘They Hurted’: Mom Says Daughter Put in Handcuffs at School”

The Hill – by David McCabe

Businesses representatives are poised to release draft privacy guidelines for the use of facial recognition technology, a plan completed after privacy advocates walked out of the negotiations in protest.

The draft rules, which are expected to be presented on March 29 and will likely go through further revisions, would govern when companies need to tell customers that their faces are being analyzed by the technology.   Continue reading “Business eyes facial recognition guidelines”

The Intercept – by Alex Emmons

Government lawyers on Thursday continued their fight to bury the Senate Torture Report, arguing before the D.C. District Court of Appeals that the 6,700-page text could not be released on procedural grounds.

When the 500-page executive summary of the report was released more than a year ago, it prompted international outcry and renewed calls for prosecution. The summary describes not only the CIA’s rape and torture of detainees, but also how the agency consistently misrepresented the brutality and effectiveness of the torture program.   Continue reading “The U.S. Government Is Still Fighting to Bury the Senate Torture Report”

Ars Technica – by David Kravets

Denver police officers performed searches on state and federal criminal justice databases that were not work-related and instead were made to help officers’ in the romance department and to assist friends, according to an independent department monitor. The report said that punishment, usually a written reprimand instead of being charged criminally, is not enough to deter future abuse of the National Crime information Center (NCIC) and the Colorado Crime Information Center (CCIC) databases.   Continue reading “Fearing no punishment, Denver cops abuse crime databases for personal gain”

Fast Company

The New York Civil Liberties Union has issued a statement expressing privacy concerns about LinkNYC, New York City’s free public Wi-Fi that officially launched last month. The free service sees old phone booths replaced with LinkNYC hubs that act as wireless routers that provide fiber Internet to anyone with a wireless device. LinkNYC is offered through a partnership between the city and CityBridge, a consortium of companies behind the LinkNYC system.   Continue reading “Privacy Concerns Raised About New York City’s Free Wi-Fi”

Activist Post – by Katherine Hine

Book Review: GUARDIANSHIP: How Judges and Lawyers Steal Your Money M. Larsen, Ed., 2016; Pub: Janet Pipes; ISBN: 9780692586211. Price: $13.38. Available HERE

Setting the stage for Michael Larsen’s collection of personal accounts of escalating crimes against the elderly in probate courts, one typical story from the reference manual,GUARDIANSHIP, describes the techniques probate judges, attorneys and predatory guardians use to plunder the wealth of the elderly, destroying their remaining years:   Continue reading “GUARDIANSHIP: How Judges And Lawyers Steal Your Money”

Eric Peter’s Autos

Well, that didn’t take long.

The car companies have decided – on their own – to install automated braking in all the cars they make by the 2022 model year, just six years from now.

They have come to love Big Brother.

No, they have become Big Brother.   Continue reading “The Car Biz Goes Full Clover”

RT

Five high-profile activists have been arrested by the New York City police just this week, prompting speculation about a crackdown. RT caught up with a journalist who has followed the spike in arrests of prominent anti-police brutality demonstrators.

On Thursday, NYPD officers arrested Ramsey Orta once again after he filmed them. Orta is the citizen who filmed the killing of Eric Garner by police trying to arrest him for selling loose cigarettes.   Continue reading “Crackdown? NYPD arrests 5 anti-police brutality activists in 3 days”

Breitbart – by John Hayward

In an interview with National Public Radio, the deputy director of the National Security Agency Richard Ledgett claimed the NSA has lost track of about 1,000 intelligence targets since 2013 because of NSA leak Edward Snowden’s revelations, including a terrorist group that was planning attacks against the United States and Europe.

The good news, in the deputy director’s estimation, is that much of the information disclosed by Snowden is becoming obsolete. “The amount that matters from a technical capabilities sense has decreased over time,” he told NPR.   Continue reading “NSA: Snowden Leaks Caused Loss of 1,000 Targets, Including Terrorists”

Fox 31 Denver – by Chris Halsne

DENVER — Denver police officers should stop punching suspects in the face when they believe the person might have put evidence such as drugs in their mouths, the Office of the Independent Monitor, the city’s top police watchdog, recommended.

It’s an issue the FOX31 Denver Problem Solvers brought to light 18 months ago, but after a long investigation, independent monitor Nicholas Mitchell is weighing in with the release of the 2015 annual report.   Continue reading “Watchdog group: Denver police should not punch suspects to retrieve drugs from mouths”

MassPrivateI

Intrado Communications is the company behind assigning every home a threat rating and it’s run by two former deputies, the FBI and DHS.

“George Heinrichs and Stephen Meer spent 35 years building Intrado Inc. into one of the largest public-safety companies providing 911 services.”
Continue reading “DHS, the FBI and Intrado Communications are giving our homes threat assessments”

Valley Central – by Dave Hendricks

Federal agents have arrested two drug traffickers who claim they worked with corrupt cops to fake cocaine busts, according to federal court records.

Homeland Security Investigations agents arrested Mario Alejandro Solis, 37, of San Juan on Friday and Carlos Aron Oyervides, 40, of Houston on March 4.   Continue reading “Smugglers worked with corrupt cops to fake drug busts in Edcouch and Houston”

RT

Apple has accused the US government of “attempts to rewrite history”, saying that Founding Fathers “would be appalled” by Department of Justice and FBI’s requests. The corporation is fighting demands to unlock the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone.

In its last court filing before it squares off against the FBI in federal court in California next week, Apple said that the US government was trying to “stretch” the All Writs Act to fit its needs, but doing so would “usurp the legislative function and to improperly extend the limited federal court jurisdiction.”   Continue reading “‘Founders would be appalled’: Apple accuses FBI, DoJ of trying to ‘rewrite history’”

MassPrivateI

Every year, 636,000 people walk out of America’s numerous prisons, but 11 million people cycle through our jails each year!

A staggering 451,000 or close to 1/2 a million people in America’s jails haven’t been convicted!
Continue reading “America has nearly 1/2 a million people in jail who haven’t been convicted of committing a crime”

BuzzFeed – by Stephanie M. Lee

Two days after Christmas 1977, police found Shelley H. dead in her apartment in Long Beach, California. The 17-year-old had been sexually assaulted and strangled: She waslying on the end of her bed, her feet touching the ground, with an electrical wire tied around her neck.

Vaginal swabs were taken during her autopsy, but at the time, there was no DNA testing. So the samples went into storage, and the case went cold for the next three decades.   Continue reading “People Are Going To Prison Thanks To DNA Software — But How It Works Is Secret”

Consumerist – by Chris Morran

If you don’t like your wireless company’s service, or your current rate plan, you’re free to change providers. But if you think your wireless provider is breaking the law, you can’t sue the company; and it doesn’t matter which of the four major carriers you have, because they all strip their customers’ of their legal rights.   Continue reading “Court Reminds Us All: You Have No Right To Sue Your Phone Company”