MassPrivateI

Big brother style self-service check-outs which socially profile customers to stop shoplifters are in development. 

Symbol Technologies, a part of Motorola helped develop self-scan checkouts for Tesco and Asda, has lodged a patent for a program which monitors a lot more than your shopping. Continue reading “Big Brother to socially profile every shopper at checkout lines”

A TSA checkpoint is pictured. | AP PhotoPolitico – by EMILY SCHULTHEIS

A candidate for Congress in Georgia said earlier this year that he’d rather see another terrorist attack on the United States than have Transportation Security Agency screenings at airports.

Bob Johnson, a doctor and Republican candidate in Georgia’s solidly-red 1st District, said at a February candidate forum that the TSA is “indoctrinating” Americans.   Continue reading “House candidate: I’d ‘rather see’ terror attack than TSA screening”

photoU-T San Diego – by Pauline Repard

 — The Sheriff’s Department apologized, but now it is facing a Vista family’s lawsuit over a deputy who pepper sprayed and beat their 21-year-old son, who has Down syndrome, when he failed to obey the deputy’s orders.

Antonio Martinez, who has the mental capacity of a 7-year-old, suffered scrapes, bruises and eye irritation from the Dec. 18, 2012 encounter, according to the suit filed Thursday in Vista Superior Court.   Continue reading “Suit alleges deputy beat mentally disabled man”

Tech Dirt – by Tim Cushing

“Fixing” bullying through rushedstupidreactionary laws does nothing to address the issue and generally just makes things worse. Carson, CA, Mayor Jim Dear thinks he’s going to beat bullying and he’s going to use a new law to do it. His plan is a real gem, though, requiring only a one-paragraph summary to encompass its utter vapidity. (via Adam Steinbaugh)   Continue reading “California City Achieves New Lows In Anti-Bullying Laws, Makes Public Entirely Subject To Other People’s ‘Feelings”

‘Ghostbuster’ cops keep raiding dead man’s home: suitNew York Post – by Selim Algar and Frank Rosario

He’s been dead for eight years, but try telling that to the NYPD.

Cops have barged into James Jordan Sr.’s family home looking for him more than a dozen times since he died in 2006 — prompting his exasperated relatives to finally post his death certificate on the front door.

“I tell them over and over, ‘James isn’t here! He’s dead! It’s that simple. What’s so difficult to understand about that?’ ” the Brooklyn security guard’s widow, Karen, told The Post on Monday.   Continue reading “‘Ghostbuster’ cops keep raiding dead man’s home: suit”

HT ktrk police framed laura covington sk 140501 16x9 608 Mom Looking Over Shoulder After Cop Husband Convicted of Framing HerABC News – by Dina Abou Salem

The ex-wife of a disgraced Texas police officer who has been sentenced to 30 days in jail and five years probation for framing her on drug charges said today she is glad the “nightmare” is over but said, “I will always be looking over my shoulder.”

“If anyone would have ever told me I would have drugs planted on me by my ex-husband, another police officer and a local criminal, I would have never believed them,” Laura Covington told ABC News today.   Continue reading “Mom ‘Looking Over Shoulder’ After Cop-Husband Convicted of Framing Her”

(credit: Noel Vasquez/Getty Images)CBS Philly – by Chris Stigall

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Chris Stigall spoke with comedian Rob Schneider on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT about the struggle comedians face in today’s current political environment.

Schneider struck on ominous tone when discussing the path he sees the country on.

“Democracies don’t end well. We are sliding very fast towards fascism. It’s an ugly kind of thing. There’s this kind of mob mentality that we have to be careful of,” he said.   Continue reading “Rob Schneider Tells Chris Stigall: We Are Sliding Very Fast Towards Fascism”

MassPrivateI

Apple, Facebook and Google all are updating their policies to expand routine notification of users about government data seizures, unless specifically gagged by a judge or other legal authority, officials at all four companies said. Yahoo announced similar changes in July.

As this position becomes uniform across the industry, U.S. tech companies will ignore the instructions stamped on the fronts of subpoenas urging them not to alert subjects about data requests, industry lawyers say. Companies that already routinely notify users have found that investigators often drop data demands to avoid having suspects learn of inquiries.
Continue reading “Whitehouse to give immunity to telecomm companies that allow them spy on Americans”

derendaWGRZ 

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Buffalo Police have now suspended one officer without pay pending an investigation into an April 19th incident.

A source has confirmed that the suspended officer’s name is John Cirulli. Five others were placed on administrative leave.

Cirulli has already sought legal help. Rodney Personius, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney, told 2 On Your Side that he met with Cirulli on Tuesday. Personius declined any further comment.    Continue reading “Buffalo Police officer suspended without pay over video”

drug-testing-in-schools-300x225.jpgCleveScene – by Eric Sandy

One of the big news items this week has to do with St. Edward High School, St. Ignatius High School and Gilmour Academy all kicking off a mandatory drug-testing program for their students in the fall. It’s an interesting story because no other schools in Northeast Ohio presently test their students for drug use.

Another interesting point of fact is that the president and CEO of Massachusetts-based Psychemedics – the company that will be conducting the tests – is Raymond Kubacki, brother of St. Edward High School President James Kubacki. The former is a St. Ignatius grad himself and a member of that school’s athletic hall of fame.   Continue reading “Mandatory Drug-Testing: President of Drug-Testing Company Is Brother of St. Edward High School President”

File photo of a person in handcuffs. (credit: SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP/Getty Images)CBS St Louis

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (CBS St. Louis) – A second-grader said a school security guard put him in handcuffs because he was misbehaving.

“Some of the kids were messing with me,” Kalyb Primm Wiley told KSHB-TV.

Kalyb told the station that kids were teasing and taunting him but nothing got physical. A teacher was unable to calm him down and he was taken to the principal’s office by a school security guard.    Continue reading “Second-Grader Says School Put Him In Handcuffs For Misbehaving”

David GonzalezCBS Miami – by Gaby Fleischman

FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – Two Broward Sheriff’s Office Deputies are under fire, accused of using excessive force—and all of it was caught on camera.

BSO is conducting an internal affairs investigation to find out if the two officers involved were justified in using force and are also questioning why Sheriff Scott Israel wasn’t notified until three months after the incident.   Continue reading “Two Broward Deputies Accused Of Using Excessive Force”

ed-and-don-2Lew Rockwell – by William Norman Grigg

Sheriff Ed Brown considers himself to be the owner of every human being residing in North Carolina’s Onslow County – but he counsels his subjects not to worry, for his is a benevolent dictatorship administered by quasi-divine people endowed with transcendent wisdom.

“The vast majority of our Duties and Functions are performed with only our conscience Watching and Directing us,” Brown explained in a full-page advertisement for his re-election campaign. “Those in the law enforcement profession have complete power over you, your life, your family, your loved ones, your rights, your freedom, your future and everything precious to life. From the very word of a Law Enforcement Office [sic], all those Precious Things of Life hang.”

Continue reading “Sheriff Ed Brown: The Delusional Dictator of Onslow County, N.C.”

Tech Dirt – by Tim Cushing

It looks like the American public won’t be getting any answers on the government’s extrajudicial killings any time soon. An intelligence bill that passed the Senate late last year contained a stipulation requiring the administration to provide statistics on drone strikes, including number of combatants and noncombatants killed or injured in these strikes. That requirement has now been excised, thanks to the efforts of Sens. Feinstein and Chambliss and their buddy at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, as Spencer Ackerman reports.   Continue reading “Feinstein And Chambliss Let James Clapper Talk Them Out Of Requiring Transparency On The Administration’s Drone Strikes”

BILL HASLAMHuffington Post – by Laura Bassett

Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam (R) signed a bill into law on Tuesday that is the first law in the country to authorize the arrest and incarceration of women who use drugs while pregnant. Reproductive and civil rights advocates had strongly urged Haslam to veto the legislation.

“I understand the concerns about this bill, and I will be monitoring the impact of the law through regular updates with the court system and health professionals,” Haslam said in a statement.   Continue reading “Tennessee Enacts Law To Incarcerate Pregnant Women Who Use Drugs”

Eileen Battisti’s Aliquippa, Pa. home was sold off after she failed to pay a $6.30 interest charge that ballooned to $235 over two years.Philly.com

BEAVER, Pa. (AP) – A widow was given ample notice before her $280,000 house was sold at a tax auction three years ago over $6.30 in unpaid interest, a Pennsylvania judge has ruled.

The decision last week turned down Eileen Battisti’s request to reverse the September 2011 sale of her home outside Aliquippa in western Pennsylvania.

“I paid everything, and didn’t know about the $6.30,” Battisti said. “For the house to be sold just because of $6.30 is crazy.” Continue reading “OK to sell widow’s home over $6 bill, judge rules”

Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

Submitted by Pam Martens and Russ Martens of Wall Street On Parade,

It doesn’t get any more Orwellian than this: Wall Street mega banks crash the U.S. financial system in 2008. Hundreds of thousands of financial industry workers lose their jobs. Then, beginning late last year, a rash of suspicious deaths start to occur among current and former bank employees.  Next we learn that four of the Wall Street mega banks likely hold over $680 billion face amount of life insurance on their workers, payable to the banks, not the families. We ask their Federal regulator for the details of this life insurance under a Freedom of Information Act request and we’re told the information constitutes “trade secrets.”   Continue reading “Guest Post: Suspicious Deaths Of Bankers Are Now Classified As “Trade Secrets” By Federal Regulator”

Frank Phillips (source: Knox County Sheriff's Office)WATE 6 News

KNOXVILLE (WATE) – The Knox County Sheriff’s Office says they have fired the deputy involved in Saturday night’s block party in Fort Sanders.

Frank Phillips, 47, has been with the Knox County Sheriff’s Office since 1992.

A statement posted on the Sheriff’s Office website reads:   Continue reading “Sheriff’s office fires deputy in Ft. Sanders party incident”

MassPrivateI

New Mexico – Driving with good posture, with hands at the classic ten and two position on the wheel, is sufficient reason to pull over a driver with a bad complexion, according to a ruling handed down Thursday by the Tenth Circuit US Court of Appeals. A unanimous three-judge panel approved the Border Patrol’s April 18, 2012 stop and search of a motorist who happened to be nervous when pulled over.

Border Patrol Agent Joshua Semmerling saw the white Ford F-150 pickup truck being driven in the opposite direction on Highway 80 in New Mexico, about 40 miles from the border with Mexico. It was 7:45pm, a time the Border Patrol agent found suspicious. The truck had an Arizona plate on the back and tinted windows, but its driver, Cindy Lee Westhoven, violated no traffic laws. Instead, Agent Semmerling noted she had “stiff posture” and hands “at a ten-and-two position on the steering wheel” so he decided to do a U-turn and pursue.
Continue reading “Court ruled driving upright with good posture & acne is suspicious”