Author: Joe from MassPrivateI

MassPrivateI

The spate of campuswide lockdowns has drawn attention to the practice, which security officials say they increasingly rely on.

“I don’t think there’s any greater level of danger, but our response to it is much different than it used to be,” Northeastern University criminology professor James Alan Fox said.   Continue reading “Bomb hoaxes on campuses expose America’s police state and the exploitation of terrorism”

Dallas Observer -by Eric Nicholson

Police in Parker County had been watching Michael Fred Wehrenberg’s home for a month when, late in the summer of 2010, they received a tip from a confidential informant that Wehrenberg and several others were “fixing to” cook meth. Hours later, after midnight, officers walked through the front door, rounded up the people inside, and kept them in handcuffs in the front yard for an hour and a half.

The only potential problem, at least from a constitutional standpoint, was that the cops didn’t have a search warrant. They got one later, before they seized the boxes of pseudoephedrine, stripped lithium batteries, and other meth-making materials, while the alleged meth cooks waited around in handcuffs, but by then they’d already waltzed through the home uninvited. They neglected to mention this on their warrant application, identifying a confidential informant as their only source of information.   Continue reading “In Texas, Search Warrants Can Now Be Based on a “Prediction of a Future Crime””

Judicial Watch

Days after terrorists attacked the U.S. mission in Benghazi, a State Department official ordered an executive at the security company charged with protecting the special compound not to respond to media inquiries, according to documents obtained by Judicial Watch.

The order was delivered via electronic mail and it’s part of a new batch of State Department documents obtained by JW in an ongoing investigation of the September 11, 2012 Benghazi attack and subsequent cover-up by the Obama administration. Islamic jihadists raided the U.S. Special Mission Compound in Benghazi, Libya and murdered Ambassador Christopher Stevens—the first diplomat to be killed overseas in decades—and three other Americans.   Continue reading “JW Gets Docs: State Dept. Ordered Benghazi Security Co. to Dodge Media”

MassPrivateI

Taser International, Inc. announced it had given up its fight in two major legal battles over “suspect injury or death.” In a 275-word statement submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the company’s chief financial officer said it would pay a total of $2.3 million in settlements to plaintiffs who had sued the company in product liability cases.

This was rare. Taser prides itself in fighting to the bitter end in any case alleging that its products do anything but save lives. Yet there it was in a financial disclosure — Taser backing down.   Continue reading “Taser is paying out millions in secret death settlements”

The Daily Caller – by Ginni Thomas

Trust in the federal government is declining to record lows while the Obama administration uses overbearing, imperious authority to suppress political dissent and intimidate his opposition, says author Angelo Codevilla.

In 2003, former Secretary of Clinton Hillary Clinton said that dissent is patriotic.   Continue reading “Codevilla: Obama’s targeting of his political enemies erodes trust in government”

MassPrivateI

A report, published by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, suggests that the caprice, carelessness, and downright incompetence that marked the disaster was no accident. In fact, that it is endemic in the ATF.

MassPrivateI

The failure of prosecutors to divulge exculpatory evidence in criminal cases has reached epidemic proportions, the 9th Circuit’s top judge wrote Tuesday.

Reacting to the federal appeals court’s refusal to reconsider the case of man convicted in 2003 for possessing Ricin with intent to use it as a weapon, Chief Judge Alex Kozinski stated that an absence of “professional discipline” and a lack of real consequences has loosed “an epidemic of Brady violations abroad in the land.”   Continue reading “Judge: The failure of prosecutors to divulge exculpatory evidence has reached epidemic proportions”

MassPrivateI

Sometimes a single story has a way of standing in for everything you need to know.  In the case of the up-arming, up-armoring, and militarization of police forces across the country, there is such a story.  Not the police, mind you, but the campus cops at Ohio State University now possess an MRAP; that is, a $500,000, 18-ton, mine-resistant, ambush-protected armored vehicle of a sort used in the Afghan War and, as Hunter Stuart of the Huffington Post reported, built to withstand “ballistic arms fire, mine fields, IEDs, and nuclear, biological, and chemical environments.”  Sounds like just the thing for bouts of binge drinking and post-football-game shenanigans.   Continue reading “How every part of Americans lives became a police matter”

New York Post – by Amber Sutherland and Bruce Golding

Many of the city’s major clothing stores tried to defuse the “shop and frisk” scandal on Monday by agreeing to an anti-profiling policy demanded by civil-rights activists led by the Rev. Al Sharpton.

Barneys, Macy’s, Bergdorf Goodman, Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor and the Gap are among the retailers that promised to post and abide by a “Customers’ Bill of Rights” in the wake of allegations that some black shoppers were targeted for questioning by cops after purchasing pricey items.   Continue reading “Stores adopt ‘Customers’ Bill of Rights’ after ‘shop frisk’ fiasco”

MassPrivateI

A redacted IRS letter dated Sept. 8, 2011 reveals that at least in one case the IRS’s examiners used photos of a property, obtained through Google Maps, as evidence to revoke the 501(c)(4) status of a homeowner’s association.

“The road consists of a two-mile loop around the inside of the property. It goes not have any sidewalks or bicycle lanes. The examining agent printed and copied a map from Google Maps into this report,” states the letter.   Continue reading “The IRS is using Google Maps to spy on taxpayers”

Tech Dirt – by Mike Masnick

On Friday the case against the US government, brought by Rahinah Ibrahim over her being placed on the “no fly list,” officially concluded with closing arguments, but that may have been the least interesting part of everything. Apparently, the day got off to a rocky start, after Ibrahim’s lawyers informed the DOJ that they intended to file bar complaints against some of the DOJ legal team for their actions in court, specifically concerning “misrepresentations” made to the court.   Continue reading “Witness In No Fly List Trial, Who Was Blocked From Flying To The Trial, Shows That DOJ Flat Out Lied In Court”

MassPrivateI

“Police see our mobile devices as the go-to source for information,” Christopher Calabrese, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, said. “The idea that police can obtain such a rich treasure trove of data about any one of us without appropriate judicial oversight should send shivers down our spines.”

The records, from more than 125 police agencies in 33 states, reveal:   Continue reading “More police departments using Stingray system to spy on smartphones”

MassPrivateI

Virginia State Police unveiled a new crime-fighting tool. It’s an app for cell phones that sends photos and texts directly to police.

Reaction to the new strategy appears to be mixed.

Virginia State Police are offering an opportunity for every motorist and every pedestrian in the Commonwealth to be “eyes and ears” for suspicious or criminal activity. A new app, available for most smartphones, encourages citizens to either directly text a message to state police, or snap a picture and send it (with a message) to police.   Continue reading “A nation of spies: Police are criminalizing photography”

MassPrivateI

The Five Eyes alliance of States – comprised of the United States National Security Agency (NSA), the United Kingdom’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), Canada’s Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC), the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), and New Zealand’s Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) – is the continuation of an intelligence partnership formed in the aftermath of the Second World War. Today, the Five Eyes has infiltrated every aspect of modern global communications systems.   Continue reading “The Five Eyes intelligence agencies are the most powerful they’ve ever been”

The Guardian – by James Ball

To the National Security Agency analyst writing a briefing to his superiors, the situation was clear: their current surveillance efforts were lacking something. The agency’s impressive arsenal of cable taps and sophisticated hacking attacks was not enough. What it really needed was a horde of undercover Orcs.

That vision of spycraft sparked a concerted drive by the NSA and its UK sister agency GCHQ to infiltrate the massive communities playing online games, according to secret documents disclosed by whistleblower Edward Snowden.   Continue reading “Revealed: spy agencies’ covert push to infiltrate virtual world of online games”