Author: Joe from MassPrivateI

Tech Dirt – by Mike Masnick

The self-assured nature of federal prosecutors can be quite insane. We’ve talked many times in the past about how the criminal justice system is completely rigged against anything remotely looking like fairness. From grand juries to plea bargains to sentencing guidelines, the entire system is designed to make anyone who enters it presumed guilty until their spirit is crushed and destroyed. In the last few years we’ve noted an even more disturbing trend: law enforcement creating their own plots, in which they lure (often gullible or marginalized) individuals into a convoluted criminal “plot” in which nearly all of the other players are fellow law enforcement folks (or informants). They then build up this big plot… wait until it’s about to go off (knowing it’ll never actually happen) and then arrest those they lured into it.       Continue reading “DOJ Claims Judge Who Trashed ‘Made Up Plot’ Should Be Removed For Being ‘Hostile’ To The Gov’t”

LA Times – by Tony Perry

A lawsuit filed on behalf of 30 strippers at two local nightspots was filed Wednesday seeking damages from the city of San Diego and the police chief for allegedly violating the strippers’ rights during licensing inspections.

The strippers were employed at Cheetahs Gentlemen’s Club and Club Expose when members of the police department’s vice squad detained them and forced them to pose for pictures during “raids” in 2013 and 2014, according to the lawsuit filed in Superior Court.   Continue reading “Strippers sue San Diego police over ‘nearly nude’ photos”

Daily Mail – by David Martosko

The Obama administration quietly announced on Tuesday that it intends to change the way Americans learn about natural disasters and other major emergencies during radio and TV broadcasts, giving the president the ability to flip a switch and address the entire nation at once.

The Emergency Alert System, the latest version of a program first established in 1951, blasts out  emergency messages in the event of local weather emergencies, but can also be used to warn Americans about terror attacks and major natural disasters.   Continue reading “New emergency alert system will give Obama the power to flip a switch and address the entire nation at once”

Sacramento Bee – by RUSSELL CONTRERAS

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Federal agents paid a struggling addict in crack cocaine for his help with an undercover investigation into a Las Vegas, New Mexico drug operation, a new lawsuit claims.

According to court papers filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque, Aaron Romero, 38, was approached by DEA agents in 2011 to assist with drug deals in exchange for portions of the drugs obtained by authorities. But Romero’s participation in “Operation Smack City” reignited a previous crack addiction as he became a victim of recklessness on behalf of DEA agents, causing severe emotional and physical harm, the lawsuit said.   Continue reading “Lawsuit: DEA paid New Mexico man with crack”

Washington Post – by Radley Balko

A couple of themes we explore here at The Watch are the increasing criminalization of just about everything and the use of the criminal justice system to address problems that were once (and better) handled by families, friends, communities and other institutions.A few examples from recent headlines show those themes intersecting with parenthood.

The first story comes from South Carolina, where a mother was jailed and charged with “unlawful conduct toward a child” for . . . leaving her 9-year-old daughter alone to play in a park. Lenore Skenazy of “Free Range Kids”comments:

Continue reading “And now: The criminalization of parenthood”

MassPrivateI

Integrating unmanned flight systems (UAV’s) into use for domestic surveillance can provide first responders with key information in responding to fires, earthquakes and man-made disasters, said John Hill, director of the Indiana Department of Homeland Security.

Professor Richard Baker, director of ISU’s Center for Unmanned Systems and Human Capital Development, said the expo is designed to bring civilian and military organizations together, as each “has some technology, or equipment or capability that can help in an area of domestic response for disasters, either man-made or natural.” Continue reading “DHS wants to use UAV’s as hearses to transport the dead”

Ben Swann – by Rachel Blevins

The California state Senate sees their share of interesting and controversial legislation proposals. One of the most recent bills, Assembly Bill No. 1014, is one which, if passed, would permit the secret seizure of a California state resident’s guns, after just one complaint that they pose a risk of committing an act of violence.

California Assembly members Das Williams, a Democrat from Carpinteria, and Nancy Skinner, a Democrat from Berkeley, first introduced the legislation last year. Favor of the bill increased after the Island Vista shooting rampage on May 23, when the shooter’s mother claimed she had raised concerns about her son’s mental state, but no action had been taken.   Continue reading “California Bill Would Permit Secret Seizure of Firearms, Based on a Single Complaint”

The Daily Caller – by Chuck Ross

The Federal Election Commission recycled the computer hard drive of April Sands — a former co-worker of Lois Lerner’s — hindering an investigation into Sands’ partisan political activities, according to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Sands resigned from the Federal Election Commission in April after she admitted to violating the Hatch Act, which bars executive branch employees from engaging in partisan political activities on federal time and at federal facilities.   Continue reading “Lois Lerner’s Former FEC Colleague Has Emails Go Missing Too”

Daily Caller – by Ginni Thomas

Standing resolute against the forces transforming the nation he loves, Lt. Gen. (Ret.) William G. “Jerry” Boykin thinks “the two most egregious violations of the trust of the American public” are the Veterans Affairs scandal and Benghazi — and in his opinion, these two cases rise to the level of impeachable offenses.

Speaking of the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11, 2012, General Boykin said, “If we will leave people behind on the battlefield and let them be overrun and killed by an enemy simply because it was politically inconvenient for us to respond to their calls for help, which is what I believe happened with all my heart. If we will do that, then the character of this nation is not the nation I grew up in and the nation I served for 36 ½ years. We have an obligation to people who serve this country, people serving our country.”   Continue reading “Lt. Gen Boykin: Veterans Scandal And Benghazi Are Grounds For Impeachment”

Sun Times – by Frank Main

Chicago – In a major policy turnabout, Mayor Rahm Emanuel will make citizen complaints against Chicago Police officers available for public scrutiny, according to city officials.

In March, a state appeals court ruled the city couldn’t keep the records secret, and the city vowed to appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court.

But on Friday, city officials said they won’t appeal after all.   Continue reading “City won’t fight to keep citizen complaints against cops secret”

The Free Thought Project – by John Vibes

Silicon Valley resident Yasir Afifi recently discovered an FBI tracking device on his car when he took it for an oil change.

Alarmed and curious about what it might be, Yasir posted photos of the device online, asking members of reddit whether it was a bomb, or possibly an FBI tracking device.

In a short amount of time Yasir learned that it was in fact a GPS tracking device, and it was made by a company that only sells to government agencies.   Continue reading “Man Finds FBI Tracking Device on Car, Posts Photos Online, Gets Visit From FBI”

Washington Post – by Tom Jackman

Dallas Northington spent nearly eight years working for Target in loss prevention, roaming the stores and scanning the surveillance cameras. In an episode at the Leesburg Target store in May that he said was typical, a man was allegedly captured twice on video shoplifting, and Northington responded as he said he always did: He called the Leesburg police, made a report and provided them the videos of the two incidents.

But the man in the video may have been a Fairfax County sheriff’s deputy, Northington said he soon learned. And within days, two things happened: The deputy retired from the sheriff’s office and Target fired Northington, 29, a married father of two with a third child on the way. Continue reading “Target security officer fired after reporting shoplifting”

ACLU, July 10, 2014

SAN FRANCISCO – Civil rights groups filed a lawsuit today challenging the legality of the federal government’s controversial Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) program. The lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of California, the national ACLU, and Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Asian Law Caucus, was brought on behalf of five Americans who had their information entered into law enforcement databases for innocent things like taking pictures, buying computers, or standing in a train station, and were then subjected to investigation.   Continue reading “Lawsuit Challenges Government’s ‘Suspicious Activity Report’ Program”

KOB 4 News – by Ryan Luby

New Mexico’s largest police department, mired in controversy over the use of excessive force, is about to supply military-style weapons to officers using taxpayer money.

The investigative team at KOB Eyewitness News 4 learned that Albuquerque Police awarded a bid to a local vendor for the purchase of AR-15 rifles — the type of gun used to kill James Boyd in the foothills in March.   Continue reading “Arizona Police Department to buy 350-plus AR-15 rifles”

Huffington Post – by David McCabe

The State Department awarded more than a billion dollars in funding to the security firm Blackwater and its later incarnations even after one of the company’s top officials allegedly threatened a government investigator’s life, a review by The Huffington Post has shown.

The New York Times revealed last week that the State Department’s chief investigator reported being threatened by a Blackwater official in Iraq in August 2007. The investigator said project manager Daniel Carroll told him “that he could kill me at that very moment and no one could or would do anything about it as we were in Iraq.”    Continue reading “State Department Awarded Blackwater More Than $1 Billion After Threat On Investigator’s Life”