Author: Joe from MassPrivateI

The Buffalo News – by Harold McNeil

Erie County Sheriff Timothy B. Howard told legislators Thursday that it is solely up to the courts – not them – to determine how he may use cellphone surveillance equipment to track persons of interest.

Howard told the Legislature’s Public Safety Committee that the Stingray surveillance device the office has owned since 2008 is used only for tracking a person’s movements, not for snooping into the content of phone communications.   Continue reading “Sheriff rejects Erie County Legislature oversight on cell phone monitoring”

The Guardian – by Trevor Timm

If you blinked this week, you might have missed the news: two Senatorsaccused the Justice Department of lying about NSA warrantless surveillance to the US supreme court last year, and those falsehoods all but ensured that mass spying on Americans would continue. But hardly anyone seems to care – least of all those who lied and who should have already come forward with the truth.

Here’s what happened: just before Edward Snowden became a household name, the ACLU argued before the supreme court that the Fisa Amendments Act – one of the two main laws used by the NSA to conduct mass surveillance – was unconstitutional.   Continue reading “Everyone should know just how much the government lied to defend the NSA”

RINF – by Medea Benjamin

If you think that as a United States citizen you’re entitled to a trial by jury before the government can decide to kill you–– you’re wrong. During his stint as a lawyer at the Department of Justice, David Barron was able to manipulate constitutional law so as to legally justify killing American citizens with drone strikes. If you’re wondering what the justification for that is, that’s just too bad – the legal memos are classified. Sounds a little suspicious, doesn’t it? What’s even more suspicious is that now theObama Administration wants to appoint the lawyer who wrote the legal memos to become a high-ranking judge for life.    Continue reading “Drone Lawyer: Kill a 16 Year-Old, Get a Promotion”

Breitbart – by AWR Hawkins

A May 7th solicitation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture seeks “the commercial acquisition of ballistic vests, compliant with NIJ 0101.06 for Level IIIA Ballistic Resistance of body armor.”

According to the solicitation, “The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of Inspector General,” seeks “Body Armor [that] is gender specific, lightweight, [having] trauma plate/pad (hard or soft), [and] concealable carrier.” The order includes “tactical vest, undergarment (white), identification patches, accessories (6 pouches), body armor carry bag, and professional measurements.”   Continue reading “Dept. of Agriculture Orders Ballistic Body Armor”

Springfield News-Leader – by Sarah Okeson

The police officer who shot and wounded a panhandler at a Walmart Neighborhood Market on Friday will be the subject of a criminal investigation.

There’s no indication the man shot was armed at any time. He was running away from the officer when shot, police have said. Court records indicate that the man has been diagnosed with mental illnesses including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.   Continue reading “Records: Unarmed man shot by police has mental illness”

Courthouse News Service

PORTLAND, Ore. (CN) A junior high school suspended a student and turned him over to police because of a “doodle” he drew showing a person being hanged, his father claims in court.

Robert Bernard Keller sued the Beaverton Police Department and Beaverton School District in Federal Court. Beaverton is a suburb of Portland.      Continue reading “Student Turned Over to Police for a Doodle”

Huffington Post – by Matt Sledge

NEW YORK — A civil liberties lawyer challenged members of a New York City Police Department oversight board on Wednesday over an apparent city investigation into a leaked stop and frisk memo.

At issue is a memo that allegedly hamstrings the ability of investigators on the Civil Complaint Review Board to investigate stop and frisks that occur when police are issuing summonses for minor violations, such as public consumption of alcohol.   Continue reading “NYPD Oversight Board Challenged Over Stop And Frisk Leak Investigation”

CBS Baltimore – by Meghan McCorkell

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — Cracking down on curfews. Baltimore City may soon impose a tough new curfew for teens. City leaders say they want to keep kids off the streets but opponents say the new restrictions may be unconstitutional.

In a preliminary vote, the city council approved a bill that could make Baltimore’s curfew laws among some of the strictest in the country.   Continue reading “Baltimore City May Impose New Curfew For Teens”

Washington’s Blog – by Carl Herman

“The basis for the United States’ use of force… is, therefore, the Article 51 right of individual or collective self-defense.” – Operational Law Handbook 2012, Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center & School, page 6.

The US Army’s official law handbook provides an excellent historical and legal summary of when wars are lawful self-defense and unlawful War of Aggression in a seven-page Chapter One.   Continue reading “US military legal argument for current wars: ‘Self-defense’ is whatever we say”

Eagle Tribune

LAWRENCE — Police, joined by agents from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, arrested 40 people for selling counterfeit items at two flea markets yesterday.

“This is an effort to support local, legitimate businesses who have complained of these individuals selling bogus merchandise,” Interim Lawrence Police Chief James Fitzpatrick said of the sweep last night.    Continue reading “Authorities raid flea markets”

Common Dreams – by Jon Queally

In a new policy directive from the Obama administrative, national security and other government officials will no longer be allowed to publicly discuss or even reference news reporting that is based on “unauthorized leaks.”

President Obama once promised the American people that his administration would be the most transparent in history, but after years of fights with civil libertarians trying to obtain legal memos used to justify the president’s overseas assassination program, an unprecedented pattern of prosecuting government whistleblowers, the targeting of journalists, and all the secrecy and obfuscation related to the NSA’s mass surviellance programs made public by Edward Snowden, that claim is now met with near universal laughter, if not scorn, by critics.   Continue reading “Obama Directive Makes Mere Citing of Snowden Leaks Punishable Offense”

Huffington Post

(Reuters) – A police officer who shot and killed a 93-year-old woman as she brandished a firearm in a small Texas town was fired on Saturday, a police official said.

Officer Stephen Stem fatally shot Pearlie Golden in Hearne, Texas, on Tuesday after responding to an emergency call about a woman with a gun, the Robertson County District Attorney’s Office said earlier this week.   Continue reading “Stephen Stem, Officer Who Shot, Killed 93-Year-Old Fired From Force”

Infowars – by Kit Daniels

Organizers of a street festival in Minneapolis are suing the city for granting Major League Baseball the power to suppress signs and events in every section of downtown for two weeks – all for just one baseball game.

In their lawsuit, James McGuire and Robert Kolstad are challenging the constitutionality of a city ordinance which states that in preparation of the MLB All-Star game at Target Field on July 15, “temporary sales, vending, entertainment, signs and related special event permits will not be approved or issued by the City of Minneapolis without the additional approval of Major League Baseball” between July 5 and July 20 for the entirety of downtown and its environs.    Continue reading “Minneapolis Sued For Granting MLB Power to Suppress Free Speech”

Oregon Live- by Maxine Bernstein

Two uniformed Portland police officers showed up at the home of a 9-year-old girl last May, questioned her on the front porch about a fight at a youth club six days earlier, then handcuffed her as she stood in a blue-and-white bathing suit.

They drove her to police headquarters in downtown Portland, where she had her fingerprints and mugshot taken.

Latoya Harris couldn’t believe what was happening as she watched the officers head off with her daughter in the back seat. The girl was still wet after running through a neighborhood sprinkler, wearing flip flops and a pink Velco wrap-around towel over her swimsuit.   Continue reading “9-year-old led away in handcuffs by Portland police prompts outrage, push for policy changes”

RT News

Suspected Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev requested a lawyer multiple times from his hospital bed after being arrested, yet investigators continued pressuring him to answer questions alone, Tsarnaev’s lawyers claimed in court Thursday.

Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation spent hours interrogating Tsarnaev after he first asked for an attorney while recovering from gunshot wounds to the face, throat, head, and jaw in the time following his arrest in Watertown, Massachusetts, the documents said. When defense attorneys did arrive at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, at least one FBI agent allegedly told them Tsarnaev was not even in custody.   Continue reading “FBI interrogation violated Boston bomber’s constitutional rights – lawyers”

The Center for Public Integrity – by Susan Ferris

Usually, it’s the judge who decides how to handle a kid in court who’s accused of an offense.

But in eastern Tennessee, a lawsuit filed on April 24 alleges that it was a court bailiff — a sheriff’s deputy — who meted out an instant physical penalty last year in the middle of a juvenile court proceeding. The alleged incident took place in Cocke County, a region near Knoxville that has struggled in recent years with FBI investigations and multiple allegations of law enforcement corruption  and abuse and judicial impropriety.    Continue reading “Abuse in court? Deputy strikes boy in court, boy charged with assault”

The Daily Caller – by Robby Soave

A 17-year-old was killed after a confounding police encounter during which the cops slammed him on the ground, shattered his ribs, pepper-sprayed him and shoved a sharp object down his throat, according to his family’s lawsuit.

The teen, whose first name is not given in the lawsuit, allegedly died at the hands of Huntsville, Alabama, police during an attempted drug bust. His mother, Nancy Smith, filed the lawsuit.   Continue reading “Lawsuit: Cops Shoved A ‘Sharp Object’ Down Teen’s Throat, Killing Him”