Author: Joe from MassPrivateI

Tech Dirt – by  Trevor Timm

The US State Department announced the launch of its third annual “Free the Press” campaign today, which will purportedly highlight “journalists or media outlets that are censored, attacked, threatened, or otherwise oppressed because of their reporting.” A noble mission for sure. But maybe they should kick off the campaign by criticizing their own Justice Department, which, on the very same day, has asked the Supreme Court to help them force Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times reporter James Risen into jail.   Continue reading “State Dept Launches ‘Free the Press’ Campaign Same Day DOJ Asks Supreme Court To Jail Reporter”

Prairie Village Post – by Jay Senter

A false reading by a license-plate scanner mounted on a Prairie Village police car led officers to stop an innocent motorist on 75th Street Monday — an incident that has the PV-based attorney questioning the department’s protocol for officers unholstering their weapons.

Mark Molner, whose law office is just north of the intersection of 75th Street and State Line Road, was driving back from a sonographer’s appointment with his wife around 5:15 p.m. Monday when a Prairie Village police car pulled up behind him.   Continue reading “Error from license plate scanner leads to police stop that startles PV-based attorney”

Newsday – by Nicole Fuller

A Brooklyn man says a Suffolk police officer threatened to take him to a wooded area and beat him after a traffic stop, according to a lawsuit filed last Friday in U.S. District Court.

The lawsuit alleges Sandino Hazzard’s civil rights were violated after an officer pulled him over in North Babylon a couple of years ago and falsely arrested him. In addition, police used excessive force when an unidentified officer allegedly “pushed, assaulted and strip searched” Hazzard, the suit states.   Continue reading “Brooklyn man alleges in lawsuit he was threatened by Suffolk cop”

Philly.com – by Aubrey Whelan and Mike Newall

Tampa Bay Times – by Dan Sullivan

TAMPA — A Tampa police detective was fired Thursday amid a federal grand jury investigation into potential criminal conduct, police Chief Jane Castor said.

Detective Eric Houston, who worked on some of the department’s highest profile cases, was dismissed several weeks after a department investigator found Houston was involved in suspected criminal activity, Castor said. She refused to give specifics about the accusations but said the information was turned over to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.    Continue reading “Tampa police detective fired amid accusations of criminal conduct”

Atlanta Journal-Constitution – by Rodney Thrash

The person of interest who prompted a lockdown of the state’s third largest university posed no threat to the campus community, officials said this afternoon.

About 2 p.m., Kennesaw State officials received a call about a suspicious man on campus with a possible weapon and put the school on lockdown as a precaution, university spokeswoman Tammy DeMel told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in an emailed statement.   Continue reading “Univ. goes into lock-down over student with a cell phone in front pocket”

Breitbart – by Bob Price

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Oklahoma Field Office responded to Breitbart Texas about the so-called Red River “land grab” by emphasizing that parcels in question are already held in the public domain and BLM-managed.  The Bureau claims it is not they who are declaring the ownership but that settled case law long declared it to be government land.

BLM Public Relations Specialist Paul McGuire agreed to a one-on-one telephone interview with Breitbart Texas after reading the original report published earlier this week.  In contrast with the interview with Texas General Land Office Commissioner Jerry Patterson, McGuire expressed much more confidence about the ownership of the land and indicated little, if any, ambiguity about how or why the land should be under federal control.   Continue reading “BLM on Texas Land: Not a Land Grab, It’s Already Ours”

Tech Dirt – by Tim Cushing

As we recently covered, Jim Ardis, the absurdly thin-skinned mayor of Peoria, IL, got the boys in blue to raid a house over a parody Twitter account that portrayed him as a.) a possible drug user, b.) a possible patron of the world’s oldest profession and c.) “trill as fuck.” Peoria’s Finest have never been finer, deploying seven plainclothes officers to nail a dangerous tweeter whose Ardis-mocking account had been shut down by Twitter weeks before. Bonus: drugs were discovered during the raid, which meant the cops could at least declare victory over marijuana use, if not the internet itself.    Continue reading “Mayor Ardis Defends Police Raid, Complains That Parody Twitter Account Used Up All The Free Speech”

MassPrivateI

Along with other humanitarian organizations and UN agencies, one key advocate and user of big data is the UN Global Pulse, launched in 2009 in recognition of the need for more timely information to track and monitor the impacts of global and local socio-economic crises. 

UN Global Pulse clearly identified the privacy concerns linked to their use of big data and the impact of privacy in “Big Data for Development: Challenges & Opportunities” and have adopted Privacy and Data Protection Principles. Given the increasingly complex web of actors concerned, the expanding scope of their work, the growing amount of data that can be collected on individuals, and the poor legal protections in place.   Continue reading “The U.N. is using ‘Global Pulse’ to spy on people in every country”

Infowars- by Paul Joseph Watson

Critics of the newly proposed ‘Hate Crime Reporting Act of 2014′ have slammed the bill as a “dangerous” threat to free speech, warning that the legislation would hand an obscure federal agency “chilling” powers to restrict the First Amendment.

Introduced earlier this week by Senator Ed Markey (D-MA), the ‘Hate Crime Reporting Act of 2014′ (S.2219), along with its companion bill in the House, H.R. 3878, would task the National Telecommunications and Information Administration with filing reports on Internet, radio and television content that seeks “to advocate and encourage violent acts and the commission of crimes of hate”.   Continue reading “‘Hate Crime Reporting Act’ a “Dangerous” Threat to Free Speech”

Tech Dirt – by Tim Cushing

Good news, Americans! The former “top watchdog” for the Department of Homeland Security, Charles K. Edwards, was an incredibly perverse blend of crooked and spineless and yet we still managed to avoid being terrorized to death during his run as Inspector General (2011-2013). That’s the resilience of the American public. Even while the agency was being bumblefucked into (even greater) uselessness, those who hate us for our way of life (which now includes drone strikes, neverending military ‘interventions’ and the constant watching of damn near everybody) were unable to find a way to maneuver around the “security” “provided” by the DHS.     Continue reading “Former DHS Watchdog, A Tyrant, Failure And Alleged Felon, ‘Punished’ With Transfer To Another Government Agency”

Yahoo News – by STEPHEN OHLEMACHER

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Internal Revenue Service has paid more than $2.8 million in bonuses to employees with recent disciplinary problems, including $1 million to workers who owed back taxes, a government investigator said Tuesday.

More than 2,800 workers got bonuses despite facing a disciplinary action in the previous year, including 1,150 who owed back taxes, said a report by J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration. The bonuses were awarded from October 2010 through December 2012.    Continue reading “IRS awards bonuses to 1,100 who owe back taxes”

Tech Dirt – by Mike Masnick

The ACLU has jumped into a troubling legal fight, in which it appears that the DOJ has issued gag orders against Twitter and Yahoo concerning grand jury subpoenas that have been sent to both companies. This case is one we mentioned last week where magistrate judge John Facciolaasked the two companies to weigh in, as he appears unconvinced that the government’s request is sound. However, the whole thing is happening under seal, which the ACLU feels is inappropriate, given the importance of allowing companies to respond freely to such requests, without being gagged.   Continue reading “Why Is The DOJ Gagging Twitter And Yahoo Concerning Grand Jury Subpoenas?”

Health Impact News Daily

Dr. Dalbergue (pictured above), a former pharmaceutical industry physician with Gardasil manufacturer Merck, was interviewed in the April 2014 issue of the French magazine Principes de Santé (Health Principles). You can read it here (in French): http://ddata.over-blog.com/xxxyyy/3/27/09/71/2012-2013/Juin-2013/Dr-Dalbergue–Gardasil–plus-grand-scandale-de-tous-les-tem.pdf   Continue reading “Merck’s Former Doctor Predicts that Gardasil will Become the Greatest Medical Scandal of All Time”

Daily Mail – by David Martosko

The Citizens Commission on Benghazi, a self-selected group of former top military officers, CIA insiders and think-tankers, declared Tuesday in Washington that a seven-month review of the deadly 2012 terrorist attack has determined that it could have been prevented – if the U.S. hadn’t been helping to arm al-Qaeda militias throughout Libya a year earlier.

‘The United States switched sides in the war on terror with what we did in Libya, knowingly facilitating the provision of weapons to known al-Qaeda militias and figures,’ Clare Lopez, a member of the commission and a former CIA officer, told MailOnline.   Continue reading “Benghazi attack could have been prevented if US hadn’t ‘switched sides in the War on Terror’ and allowed $500 MILLION of weapons to reach al-Qaeda militants, reveals damning report”

Fox 17 West Michigan – by Darren Cunningham

ALLEGAN COUNTY, Mich. (April 21, 2014) — Edward Hart, 8, faces two felony counts after an altercation with police and damage done inside a police vehicle, according to court documents.

“I don’t even think he did anything wrong in this case.” stepfather Robert Bluhm said. “He’s special need[s].”

Edward, ran away on March 19 from the Hillside Learning and Behavior Center in Allegan where Edward Hart attends school, Bluhm said.   Continue reading “Little Boy Faces Two Felony Charges”

Hercules and the Umpire – by RGK

I told Scott H. Greenfield at Simple Justice that I would answer the question posed in the title. And so I shall.

The following is not intended as an excuse. Indeed, it may be viewed as an indictment. With the foregoing keenly in mind, and in no particular order, here are some of my thoughts on why I have tended to believe cops most of the time.   Continue reading “Why does Judge Kopf believe cops most of the time?”

LA Times – by Joel Rubin

Top Los Angeles police officials Tuesday publicly apologized to their civilian bosses for not promptly alerting them that officers had tampered with recording equipment in patrol cars to avoid being monitored.

LAPD Chief Charlie Beck and several top aides promised to monitor the problem more closely and vowed to be better about notifying the five-member police commission about such issues in the future.   Continue reading “LAPD apologizes to commission for not alerting it to tampering”