Author: Joe from MassPrivateI

Reason – by Robby Soave

Southern Oregon University administrators told students that they couldn’t freely distribute copies of the Constitution out in the open, on public university property. Officials tried to usher the students indoors, to the preposterously unconstitutional “free speech zone” where political activity is deemed permissible.

The students, who wish to start a Students for Concealed Carry chapter at the university, recorded their interactions with various officials. The footage was published by Campus Reform. One telling exchange with an administrator who defended the free speech zone:   Continue reading “How Does This Still Happen? Southern Oregon U. Students Not Allowed to Distribute Constitutions”

Huffington Post – by Ned Simons

Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower who revealed the extent of American and British surveillance programmes, should be charged with murder, according to a senior United States congressman.

Republican Mike Rogers, the chairman of the House of Representatives intelligence committee, told a meeting in the House of Commons in London on Tuesday evening that Snowden was a “traitor” who was now living in the “loving arms” of Russian spies.   Continue reading “Edward Snowden Should Be Charged With Murder, Says Congressman Mike Rogers”

The Raw Story – by NAFEEZ AHMED

A 10-year veteran Internal Revenue Service (IRS) attorney has demanded a Congressional audit of the IRS to investigate the agency’s alleged role in allowing American corporations to illegally avoid paying billions of dollars in taxes at the same time the agency is cracking down on individuals and small businesses.

In a letter to Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, IRS commissioner John A. Koskinen, and IRS chief counsel William Wilkins, Jane J. Kim, an attorney in the IRS Office of the Chief Counsel in New York, accused IRS executives of “deliberately” facilitating multi-billion dollar tax giveaways. The letter, dated October 19, will add further pressure on the agency, which is under fire for allegedly targeting conservative and Tea Party groups.   Continue reading “Whistleblowers: IRS officials behind ‘fraudulent’ multi-billion dollar corporate tax giveaways”

Electronic Frontier Foundation – by Hanni Fakhoury and Nadia Kayyali

Your computer, phone, and other digital devices hold vast amounts of personal information about you and your family. This sensitive data is worth protecting from prying eyes, including those of the government.

The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects you from unreasonable government searches and seizures, and this protection extends to your computer and portable devices. But how does this work in the real world? What should you do if the police or other law enforcement officers show up at your door and want to search your computer?   Continue reading “EFF: Know Your Rights”

MassPrivateI

Why is the NSA, DHS, TSA and numerous spying agencies in our universities? Why are govt. spies in demand on college campuses?

Former govt. officials find work at colleges across the country.

A smartly dressed man named Joe whose parents don’t know what he does for a living riveted a University of Maryland class recently with tales about U.S. government secrets. Joe, the guest lecturer in a course called “Legal Issues in Managing Information,” works for the CIA. So does the course’s instructor, whose full name can be published.   Continue reading “Police State Amerika: DHS/TSA on America’s campuses”

Boston Globe – by Jordan Michael Smith

THE VOTERS WHO put Barack Obama in office expected some big changes. From the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping to Guantanamo Bay to the Patriot Act, candidate Obama was a defender of civil liberties and privacy, promising a dramatically different approach from his predecessor.

But six years into his administration, the Obama version of national security looks almost indistinguishable from the one he inherited. Guantanamo Bay remains open. The NSA has, if anything, become more aggressive in monitoring Americans. Drone strikes have escalated. Most recently it was reported that the same president who won a Nobel Prize in part for promoting nuclear disarmament is spending up to $1 trillion modernizing and revitalizing America’s nuclear weapons.   Continue reading “Vote all you want. The secret government won’t change.”

The Center for Investigative Reporting – by G.W. Schulz

While revelations from Edward Snowden about the National Security Agency’s massive database of phone records have sparked a national debate about its constitutionality, another secretive database has gone largely unnoticed and without scrutiny.

The database, which affects unknown numbers of people, contains phone records that at least five police agencies in southeast Virginia have been collecting since 2012 and sharing with one another with little oversight. Some of the data appears to have been obtained by police from telecoms using only a subpoena, rather than a court order or probable-cause warrant. Other information in the database comes from mobile phones seized from suspects during an arrest.   Continue reading “5 Virginia police agencies quietly stockpile private phone records”

Anti-War – by Jason Ditz

The tiny village of Oakley, Michigan looks fairly unremarkable as you drive through it. Located along the M-52 highway, it consists of little more than a single traffic light, with a bar on one side and a gas station on the other. It’s a village of secrets, however, or so it would seem.

Oakley has 290 residents. They also have over 100 police, for some reason. Those police are also, more or less entirely anonymous.   Continue reading “ISIS Cited as Michigan Village’s Police Push for Secrecy”

Activist Post – by Amanda Warren

The Atlantic recently did a piece highlighting the use of tasers by law enforcement and the National Park Service on people for light infractions. The darkly comedic or disturbing title is:  Zap! Should the State Keep Shocking Citizens to Enforce Minor Laws? A rhetorical question with this possible answer: “WTF, No!” The url words are also notable: “modest-limits-on-when-the-state-can-electrocute-americans.”

It centers around Californian Gary Hesterberg jogging with his unleashed terrier which he then leashed. It ended with a National Park Service woman deploying taser barbs in his back and calling for backup. The twists and turns are well written in depth and are interesting. But…   Continue reading “No Real Limitations on Tasers Used for Minor Infractions or Just Because”

Venture Beat – by Richard Byrne Reilly

Everything you post on social media can and will be used against you.

That could very well be the premise of Chicago-based startup Geofeedia, a social media intelligence platform. It enables customers to act like law enforcement agencies and corporations to filter, analyze, and geolocate all their social postings on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram — and then to group and post them for the world to see.   Continue reading “All your social media posts now sorted by location and up for sale”

OC Register – by Sue Manning

Young people who torture and kill animals are prone to violence against people later in life if it goes unchecked, studies have shown. A new federal category for animal cruelty crimes will help root out those pet abusers before their behavior worsens and give a boost to prosecutions, an animal welfare group says.

For years, the FBI has filed animal abuse under the label “other” along with a variety of lesser crimes, making cruelty hard to find, hard to count and hard to track. The bureau announced this month that it would make animal cruelty a Group A felony with its own category — the same way crimes like homicide, arson and assault are listed.   Continue reading “FBI turns animal cruelty into top-tier felony”

The Intercept – by Dan Novack

What’s public for me is private for thee. At least that’s what Monroe County, N.Y. believes when it comes to where you drive your car.

Monroe police have been using high-speed cameras to capture license plates in order to log vehicle whereabouts. As of July, the County’s database contained 3.7 million records, with the capability to add thousands more each day. The justification for cops having records of the whereabouts of law-abiding citizens is that the vehicles are driven in public and therefore drivers have no expectation of privacy. It’s an argument that’s at odds with the Supreme Court’s 2012 ruling in U.S. v. Jones. In Jones, a GPS tracking case, the court held that individuals do have an expectation of privacy when it comes to their long-term whereabouts, even when using public roads.   Continue reading “Local Cops Say Your Driving History Is Public — Unless You Want A Copy”

Times Free Press – by Tyler Jett

An alleged rape victim says Chattanooga police officer Karl Fields pulled her into a men’s bathroom, pushed her against a wall and kissed her.

The woman, who says she had been raped in a bathroom a month earlier, had a panic attack. She says she pulled away from Fields and ran outside.

The woman and Fields met at El Meson Restaurante in Hixson on June 25 because Fields, the investigating officer, said he wanted to discuss her case and introduce her to a man who could give her a job. But when they sat down over Mexican food and mixed drinks, Fields told her he was sexually attracted to her. He said he wanted a relationship with her.   Continue reading “Alleged rape victim sues city, says Chattanooga police officer harassed her”

The Newspaper

The US Supreme Court’s McNeely decision (view case) has made it much more difficult for police officers to forcibly draw blood from motorists without a warrant. Last week, the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals became the latest to apply the precedent to discourage the practice statewide.

Defendants in these driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) cases are rarely sympathetic figures. Cases that reach the appellate level usually have prior convictions and were visibly intoxicated at the time of arrest, but the principles that allow officers to forcibly draw blood from repeat offenders also allows them to draw blood from innocent motorists.   Continue reading “Tennessee Courts Crack Down On Cops Taking Blood From Drivers”

First Coast News

BRUNSWICK, Ga. — A Brunswick police officer who took three hostages in a vacant office inside an apartment leasing center Wednesday afternoon had been placed on administrative leave before the incident, authorities said Thursday.

Two shots were fired during the hostage situation, but no one was injured before the BPD officer surrendered to police.

After speaking with 43-year-old officer Darry Williams, police warned employees at city hall to get to public places in case Williams tried to confront them, Interim Police Chief Jimmy Carter said.   Continue reading “Brunswick police officer takes 3 hostages in standoff”

NBC Washington

A judge sentenced a former D.C. police officer who served as a pimp for two teenage girls to seven years in prison Thursday.

Linwood Barnhill Jr., 48, who resigned from the Metropolitan Police Department after his arrest, pleaded guilty to two counts of pandering a minor and one count of possession of child pornography. After his release from prison, Barnhill will be under 10 years of supervised release and must register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.   Continue reading “Ex-D.C. Cop Linwood Barnhill Jr. Sentenced to 7 Years for Pimping Teen Girls”