Author: Joe from MassPrivateI

Tech Dirt – by Mike Masnick

We’ve written plenty about Stingrays and other “IMSI Catcher” devices that allow law enforcement to set up what are effectively fake cell phone towers, designed to intercept calls and locate certain individuals. These devices are deployed in near total secrecy, often by law enforcement who got them from the federal government. There is little to no oversight over how these are used (and abused). The attempts to keep the details a total secret represent really egregious behavior from all involved. As we’ve covered, police have claimed that non-disclosure agreements with the manufacturers (such as Harris Corp.) prevent them from getting a warrant to use the devices. The DOJ, somewhat famously, had a whole plan for how to mislead judges about the use of these devices, with official documentation telling DOJ officials to be “less than explicit” and “less than forthright” to judges about how the tech was being used. In some cases, the US Marshals have stepped in and seized documents from local police forces to block them from being released in response to FOIA requests.   Continue reading “Senators Leahy & Grassley Quiz DOJ & DHS About Secret Fake Phone Towers Intercepting Calls”

Ars Technica – by David Kravets

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is taking the position that court warrants are not required when deploying cell-site simulators in public places. Nicknamed “stingrays,” the devices are decoy cell towers that capture locations and identities of mobile phone users and can intercept calls and texts.

The FBI made its position known during private briefings with staff members of Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). In response, the two lawmakers wrote Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security chief Jeh Johnson, maintaining they were “concerned about whether the FBI and other law enforcement agencies have adequately considered the privacy interests” of Americans.   Continue reading “FBI says search warrants not needed to use “stingrays” in public places”

Star Telegram – by Susan Schrock

A local gun-rights group is fired up after Arlington police arrested two of its members over the weekend, saying they interfered with a traffic stop and an emergency domestic disturbance call.

Open Carry Tarrant County is urging members to march from the Arlington Police Department to City Hall on Jan. 10 with their rifles and black-powder pistols to demand the return of arrested members’ guns.   Continue reading “Arlington police arrest 2 open-carry advocates”

End of American Dream – by Michael Snyder

It has been said that children are our future, and right now the vast majority of our children are being “educated” in public schools that are rapidly being turned into indoctrination centers and prison camps.  Our children desperately need to focus on the basics such as reading, writing and math, but instead a whole host of politicians, “education officials” and teachers are constantly injecting as much propaganda as they possibly can into classroom instruction.  Instead of learning how to think, our children are continually being told what to think.  Not only that, our children are also being trained how to live as subservient slaves in a Big Brother police state.  Continue reading “28 Signs That U.S. Public Schools Are Rapidly Being Turned Into Indoctrination Centers And Prison Camps”

Free Thought Project – by Matt Agorist

New York, NY — New York City comptroller, Scott Stringer, recently released a map of all lawsuits filed against the NYPD in 2013. This graphic representation of police misconduct was then analyzed and compiled into a compelling report which illustrates the dire need of reform.

The report put out by the comptroller’s officer, titled Claimstat, shows that the lawsuits are derived “primarily of allegations of police misconduct, civil rights violations, and injury and/or damage from accidents involving police vehicles.” The report was put out in July and is used as a way of using data-driven methods to try and save money.   Continue reading “Isolated Incidents? A Lawsuit is Filed Against the NYPD Every 2 1/2 Hours”

Live 5 News – by Harve Jacobs

BERKELEY COUNTY, SC (WCSC) –A local coroner has blasted the law that says only the coroner had the power to arrest Berkeley County Sheriff Wayne DeWitt for drunk driving and for leaving the scene of an accident involving injury.

The law that allows only the coroner to arrest a sheriff took center stage at Sunday night’s bond hearing for Berkeley County Sheriff Wayne Dewitt.

Magistrate James Polk questioned if he had the authority to set bond because a Highway Patrol trooper and not the coroner made the arrest.   Continue reading “Dorchester Co. coroner criticizes law stating only coroner can arrest sheriff”

WVTF Public Radio – by Hawes Spencer

Greene County is buzzing this week over a surprising confrontation at one of its schools.  A four-year-old kid with attention deficit disorder caused a ruckus in the pre-K classroom, and when the principal could not restore calm, the local sheriff handcuffed the child and took him away in a squad car.

This story began in mid-October when a child at Nathanael Greene Primary School allegedly threw blocks, climbed over desks, hit, scratched, and kicked the principal and the director of special education. A sheriff’s deputy assigned to the schools was summoned, and his boss — County Sheriff Steven Smith – says the student was handcuffed.   Continue reading “Child Handcuffed and School Policies Questioned”

Reason – by Lenore Skenazy

I received an update from the Maryland mom of two who was contacted by Montgomery Country Child Welfare Service in November after she let her kids, ages 6 and 10, play at the park two blocks from home by themselves. She was cited for allowing a child under age 8 “to be locked or confined in a dwelling, building, enclosure, or motor vehicle while the person charged is absent.”

The CPS worker decided “confined in a dwelling” was the same thing as “outside in a park.”   Continue reading “CPS Threatens Dad: Let Your Kids Play Outside and We’ll Take Them Away”

New England First Amendment Coalition – by John Ruch

The Boston Police Department embodies the Surveillance Age’s chilling twin principles: more power to spy on law-abiding citizens, and less accountability for doing it. That’s what we at the Jamaica Plain Gazette and Mission Hill Gazette have learned as our attempts to investigate police spying abuses are stymied by the department’s flouting of state public records laws.

The BPD headquarters houses the Boston Regional Intelligence Center, an anti-terrorism spy agency supported by the state and federal governments. BRIC is one of many such centers around the country. A bipartisan U.S. Senate committee in 2012 criticized these centers as wasteful dangers to civil liberties that have failed to uncover any terrorist plots. In BRIC’s case, that has meant spying on lawful protesters while at the same time failing to collecting any information about the Boston Marathon bombers prior to the crime.   Continue reading “Boston Police Department Refuses to Release Spying Records”

Policy Mic – by Sophie Kleeman

Thanks to one Twitter user, we now have a clear and troubling illustration of the rate of imprisonment in the United States. Stretching from 1980 to 2013 and sourcing its numbers from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the GIF shows the number of prisoners per 100,000 American residents. Although the incarceration rates differ from state to state, the nationwide trend is clear: America’s incarceration rate has skyrocketed, and our prison population has become absurdly bloated.    Continue reading “Watch America’s Prison System Explode in One Alarming GIF”

Journal Sentinel – by Meg Kissinger

Milwaukee is ramping up mental health training for all 1,867 police officers, in response to a push from the family of Dontre Hamilton, Mayor Tom Barrett announced Thursday.

Hamilton, 31, was shot and killed April 30 by a Milwaukee police officer at Red Arrow Park. Hamilton, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and active hallucinations, was sleeping in the park that afternoon when employees at the nearby Starbucks called police to complain.   Continue reading “Milwaukee to require mental health training for all officers”

Spying on Americans 2014: ‘See Something, Say Something’ is great I can call the police on my neighbors but now I’ll get paid $100 to call police on my ex-wife or that annoying guy at the bar.

Sun Sentinel – by Angel Streeter

Report an impaired driver in Palm Beach County and you could get $100.

During the holiday party season, the number of drunken revelers rises, so county residents are being enlisted in the DUI battle.   Continue reading “Receive $100 for reporting an impaired driver in Palm Beach County”

Reason – by J.D. Tuccille

Puerto Rico has restrictive firearms laws. Getting a concealed carry permit to legally tote a handgun is an arbitrary affair that largely comes down to a matter of knowing the right people. As with all laws that give government officials the authority to dispense favors, this creates an opportunity for a market—and Lieutenant Sergio Calderón-Marrero, head of the Puerto Rico Police Department’s Bayamón Criminal Investigations Corps, is just the sort of guy to introduce supply to demand. Unfortunately, federal officials don’t care for those sort of shortcuts, and the former police lieutenant has been arrested and indicted.   Continue reading “When Guns Are Outlawed, Only Outlaws Who Pay Off the Cops Will Have Guns”

The Free Thought Project – by John Vibes

As the debate surrounding police militarization continues to grow, some police departments are actually seeking to become more like military organizations. Some of those departments are actually even going public with their militaristic aspirations.

The California Highway Patrol for example, lists as its #1 question on its employment application paperwork, “Are you willing to work in a paramilitary organization, operating under a structured chain of-command?”   Continue reading “Largest State Police Agency in the US, Now Openly Self-Described as a “Paramilitary Organization””

Courthouse News Service – by VICTORIA PRIESKOP

ALBUQUERQUE (CN) – A residential work ranch for troubled youths in New Mexico abuses, neglects, shackles and “waterlogs” children, denies them food and beats them with weapons, parents of four young people claim in court.

Lead plaintiff Coulton Quevedo sued Tierra Blanca Ranch, its owner Scott Chandler and others on Monday in Santa Fe County Court.

Quevedo, 18, claims the ranch advertises itself as a place where troubled youths and those with learning disabilities can responsibility, self-discipline and self-respect.   Continue reading “Youth Home Accused of Welter of Abuses”

ABC News

A man who can’t use his arms because of a spinal condition is being held in jail while facing a gun possession charge his lawyer calls shocking.

Bail was lowered Tuesday for Marcus Hubbard, who has been jailed since his arrest in Trenton in August.

Defense lawyer Caroline Turner said the case against Hubbard, who injured his spine in a car accident and may have Lou Gehrig’s disease, “shocks the conscience.”   Continue reading “Man Unable to Use Arms Faces Gun Possession Charge”