Author: Joe from MassPrivateI

The Intercept – by Jenna McLaughlin

A leading House Democrat expressed serious concern on Tuesday that the FBI is exploiting the ISIS-inspired massacre of 14 people in San Bernardino to sidestep Congress on the encryption debate.

Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., said it was troubling “that in the middle of an ongoing congressional debate on this subject, the FBI would ask a federal magistrate to give them the special access to secure products that this committee, this Congress, and the administration have so far refused to provide.” He spoke at a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee, of which he is the ranking Democratic member.   Continue reading “Congressman Suggests FBI Is Taking Advantage of San Bernardino Tragedy to Push Agenda”

Courthouse News Service – by Cameron Langford

HOUSTON (CN) – Houston cleared police officers of wrongdoing in 99 shootings between 2009 and 2012, and must now face claims it has an “unwritten policy” of protecting officers, a federal judge ruled Monday.

Audry Releford is the father of Kenny Releford, a schizophrenic Navy veteran who was shot dead by Houston police officer Jason Rosemon in October 2012.   Continue reading “Houston to Face Claims of Trigger-Happy Cops”

The Intercept – by Kelly Davis

AS THE FBI and Apple fight a media war over whether the federal government can force the computer company to hack an iPhone, in California a new privacy law is raising questions over how deeply government should be allowed to peer into a convicted criminal’s digital life.   Continue reading “California Courts Demand Total Access to Email and Social Media Accounts”

Huffington Post, Reuters

More than a third of people hit by Los Angeles police officers’ gunfire last year had indications of mental illness, double the prior year, according to a report on the use of force released on Tuesday by the Los Angeles Police Department.

The report, which analyzed shootings involving police officers and other uses of force over a five-year period from 2011 to 2014, comes amid increasing concern in Los Angeles and across the United States about police tactics.   Continue reading “More Than A Third Of People Shot By LAPD In 2015 Were Mentally Ill”

Courthouse News Service – by Pamela Baker

In its first annual report after the convictions of top state politicians, a government watchdog group found $2.4 billion of “opaque funds” in the New York budget at risk for corruption.

Citizens Union released a report Monday detailing 78 “ambiguous pots” of funding within the Empire State’s proposed $145 billion budget for the 2017 fiscal year.   Continue reading “Watchdog Sees Risk of Corruption in NY Budget”

Reuters

Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google said on Monday it bears “some responsibility” after one of its self-driving cars struck a municipal bus in a minor crash earlier this month.

The crash may be the first case of one of its autonomous cars hitting another vehicle and the fault of the self-driving car. The Mountain View, California-based Internet search leader said it made changes to its software after the crash to avoid future incidents.   Continue reading “Google says it bears ‘some responsibility’ after self-driving car hit bus”

Tech Dirt – by Tim Cushing

Surprise, surprise! The NYPD is less enthusiastic about telling its officers to restrain themselvesthan it is about letting them off their leashes.

The NYPD has lightened up on its use of stop-and-frisk, but unconstitutional stops persist because cops don’t know about reforms, according to a federal monitor’s report released Tuesday.
Continue reading “Court Monitor Finds NYPD Still Performing Unconstitutional Stops”

Courthouse News Service – by Nick Divito

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (NY) – A former Long Island police chief pleaded guilty Friday to beating up the man suspected of breaking into the chief’s car, stealing a duffel bag full of porn and bullets.

James Burke, 51, had been the police chief of Long Island’s Suffolk County in December 2012 when someone broke into his cruiser and liberated a duffel bag full of pornography, the officer’s gun belt, magazines of ammunition, a box of cigars, a humidor, toiletries and clothing.   Continue reading “Long Island Police Chief Cops to Beating Suspect”

Washington Post – by Radley Balko

Another day, another regrettable decision from a federal court. This one comes from a panel of judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit granting summary judgment to the police officers who shot and killed Marcus Cass, a resident of Abilene, Tex.

Cass and Charles Camp were owners of the Abilene Gold Exchange, a business that bought jewelry and other precious gems and metals and paid the owners in cash. Like pawn shops, these are businesses where thieves often try to unload stolen merchandise, but the opinion itself points out that the two men had cooperated with police investigations in the past. Neither man had much of a criminal past. The only charge between them was a 30-year-old felony conviction against Camp for possession of marijuana.   Continue reading “Federal appeals court finds fatal raid was bad policy, but declines to hold officers accountable”

Continue reading “Police State America in Pictures”

ProPublica – by Michael Grabell

Seven and a half years ago, as a new reporter here, I filed a Freedom of Information Act request for all reports of misconduct by federal air marshals.

It had been several years since the U.S. government rapidly expanded its force of undercover agents trained to intervene in hijackings after 9/11. And a source within the agency told me that a number of air marshals had recently been arrested or gotten in trouble for hiring prostitutes on missions overseas.   Continue reading “The TSA Releases Data on Air Marshal Misconduct, 7 Years After We Asked”

Cincinnati.com

Kentucky law requires police and sheriff departments to report how much property and cash they seize and keep as the result of criminal investigations.

But an Enquirer investigation found fewer than 30 percent of such agencies around the state actually sent in such accounts last fiscal year under a system that state officials describe as “sporadic” at best.   Continue reading “Ky. seizure laws under scrutiny by local lawmaker”

K Fox 14

EL PASO, Texas–An El Paso man tells KFOX14 Investigates he was beaten so violently he was in the hospital for days. Police said he was resisting arrest.

Medical records show he had a seizure. In a fight to clear his name, he asks KFOX14 to Investigate.   Continue reading “Man hospitalized after police allegedly beat him while having seizure”

The Post and Courier – by Andrew Knapp and Dave Munday

A woman who was arrested at a hospital over the summer for failing to pay court fines died the next day because she was deprived of water at the Charleston County jail, her family’s attorneys said Wednesday.

Joyce Curnell, 50, of Edisto Island was found dead in the jail shortly before 5 p.m. July 22, a day after being taken from Bon Secours St. Francis Hospital, where she had been treated for a stomach illness.   Continue reading “Lawyers say woman, 50, died after being ‘deprived of water’ at Charleston County jail”

Washington’s Blog – by David Swanson

The U.S. government, from Dick Cheney to Hillary Clinton, told blatant lies about the Iraqi government creating chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons in 2002, despite having been informed of the fact that Iraq was doing no such thing. U.S. leaders lied about ties between Iraq and terrorists that they also knew did not exist.   Continue reading “More U.S. troops killed by Halliburton than by Iraqis”

USA Today – by Brad Heath

WASHINGTON — Federal marshals have secretly used powerful cellphone surveillance tools to hunt nearly 6,000 suspects throughout the United States, according to newly-disclosed records in which the agency inadvertently identified itself as the nation’s most prolific known user of phone-tracking devices.   Continue reading “U.S. Marshals secretly tracked 6,000 cellphones”

MassPrivateI

Since 1990 Minnesota has been forcing bad drivers to pay an extra $50 dollars to display “Whiskey” or “special license plates.”

The U.S. has stolen a page out of Nazi Germany’s playbook which forced Jews, political prisoners etc., to wear stars, triangles etc.   Continue reading “States are forcing bad drivers to display “special license plates””

Washington Post – by Radley Balko

In a bizarre ruling issued last week, federal District Court Judge Mark Kearney ruled that the First Amendment rights of two people were not violated when they were apprehended for attempting to photograph or record police officers. As far as I know, this is the first time a federal court has not found that recording cops while on duty and in a public setting is protected by the First Amendment. Two federal appeals courts, at least two state supreme courts and a few other federal circuit court judges have all determined otherwise. Some of those decisions found that the right hasn’t been clearly established long enough for those wrongly arrested to overcome the qualified immunity afforded to police officers, but they did find that the right to record exists. Kearney in this decision rules that no such right exists.   Continue reading “Federal judge: Recording cops isn’t necessarily protected by the First Amendment”