From the Trenches World Report
Enforce our Bill of Rights
According to an article in the Telegraph, Houston County’s $46.5 million dollar 911 center allows police to spy inside homes and businesses.
“If the alarm goes off at your business, 911 operators will be able to view a live video stream from the security surveillance system and tell law enforcement what’s happening.”
Continue reading “Next Generation 911 centers spy inside homes and businesses”
Post and Courier – by David Slade
When Hampton County sheriff’s deputies found $1.7 million stashed in secret compartments of a sport utility vehicle during a traffic stop on Interstate 95, the department confiscated the money and the SUV. The driver walked away with no criminal charges.
The driver “denied any knowledge of the money, and we had no way to connect it to him,” said Hampton County Chief Deputy William Jarrell. “He got a traffic ticket and we pointed him at the bus station.”
Continue reading “Federal law has South Carolina cops searching cars on interstates for drug money”
The Intercept – by Victoria Law
WHEN MARY SHIELDS was first sent to prison, her daughter was too young to understand why their phone calls would cut off mid-conversation and why she would not hear from her mother again for days. Shields was among the many incarcerated people who had their contact with loved ones curtailed by the high rates for making prison phone calls. During her 21 years in a California state prison, she spoke with her family for 15 minutes twice a month. Each call cost $15.
“Those calls are very expensive,” she said, noting that her family paid the phone bills as well as the cost of caring for her children. Shields could have put more of a burden on her family but thought it would only drain their financial resources. “I wasn’t able to do that because I wanted the best for my children. I didn’t want to take anything away from them and that” — the phone bills — “was taking away from them.” Continue reading “$15 For 15 Minutes: How Courts Are Letting Prison Phone Companies Gouge Incarcerated People”
We noted yesterday that the Washington Post is owned by one of the world’s richest guys, worth $72.8 billion … and who may soon become THE world’s richest.
And you probably won’t hear it from the New York Times, but the largest shareholder of the Times is the sixth wealthiest guy … worth $54.5 billion. He used to be THE richest person, but he’s slipped a little in the rankings. Continue reading “Why Mainstream Media Represents the View of Billionaires … Instead of Average Americans”
Leaked secret documents have revealed that the CIA has been targeting and compromising home, office, and public wireless routers for years in an effort to carry out clandestine surveillance.
The documents, which could not be immediately verified, are part of an ongoing series of leaks released by the website WikiLeaks, revealing the work of the CIA’s elite hacking unit, dubbed the Engineering Development Group. Continue reading “CIA has been hacking into Wi-Fi routers for years, leaked documents show”
Hitachi, is field testing a portable breathalyzer that uses facial recognition. Field testing, means cops will be given free portable breathalyzers to use on our streets and highways.
Portable breathalyzers have a checkered history and are notoriously inaccurate. Not long ago, the FTC called a million dollar portable breathalyzer ‘dangerous and deceptive’.
“Breathometer agreed to settle FTC charges that they lacked scientific evidence to back up their advertising claims. Overstating the accuracy of the devices was deceptive — and dangerous.”
Continue reading “Cops to be equipped with portable breathalyzers that use facial recognition”
Mother Jones – by Samantha Michaels
It’s no secret that President Donald Trump has been very good for private prison executives. After the Justice Department announced earlier this year that it would continue using private lockups—a reversal of an Obama policy announced in 2016—prison companies’ stock prices soared. Now, a campaign finance watchdog is suing to figure out whether one of these prison companies influenced the Trump administration’s policy reversal by donating large sums to a pro-Trump super-PAC during the 2016 presidential campaign. Continue reading “Lawsuit Accuses Private Prison Company of Illegally Funding a Trump Super-PAC”
The billion or more Yahoo accounts that were hacked in two separate cyber attacks didn’t dissuade Verizon from purchasing the security frazzled company, although the price was shaved by $350 million in Verizon’s final bid of $4.5 billion, reports Foxbusiness.com. Even though Yahoo’s CEO Marissa Mayer didn’t accomplish what she was hired to do, she’ll still walk away with $186 million from the deal. But why did Verizon even purchase a company known for the worst security breaches in U.S. history? Continue reading “Yahoo selling out to Verizon, the NSA surveillance front-end that spies on everyone”
Activist Post – by Bernie Suarez
When we think of proxy armies and the arming of civilians, we think mostly of the US government meddling in other countries particularly in the Middle East. We also think of (the late) Zbigniew Brzezinski arming the Mujahideen fighters in Afghanistan in the late 1970s and we think of the Bush-Obama years and the creation, funding, training and arming of fighters which would all turn out to have the same agenda and enemies as ISIS.
For anyone keeping track of the current deep state war this is a heads-up warning of things that appear to be on the horizon in America as the road to Civil War 2.0 moves closer to reality. Continue reading “Are Proxy Armies Coming To America?”
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A 71-year-old man who said he robbed a Kansas City, Kansas, bank so he could get away from his wife blamed his actions on depression.
A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced Lawrence John Ripple to six months of home confinement and 50 hours of community service.
Ripple went to the Bank of Labor — a block from the Kansas City, Kansas, police headquarters — last September and gave a note to a teller saying he had a gun and demanding money. After he was given money, Ripple waited for police. Continue reading “KCK man who robbed bank to get away from wife sentenced to home confinement, community service”
In what can only be described as an obscene joke, that’s being played out in schools, churches and police departments across the country. David Grossman, a former Army Colonel is teaching thousands of people about the psychology of killing.
When did it become acceptable to let former military personnel teach law enforcement, churches and schools to kill people? Continue reading “Army Colonel teaching churches, schools and police the joys of killing”
Tenth Amendment Center – by Mike Maharrey
RALEIGH, N.C. (June 12, 2017) – Last week, the North Carolina House passed a “Constitutional Carry” bill that would make it legal for most North Carolinians to carry a firearm without a license, and foster an environment hostile to federal gun control.
A coalition of four Republican representatives introduced House Bill 746 (H746) in April. Under the proposed law, any person who is a citizen of the United States and at least 18 years old would be able to legally carry a handgun, openly or concealed, without a concealed handgun permit in North Carolina unless provided otherwise by State law or by 18 U.S.C. § 922 or any other federal law. Continue reading “Permission Not Required: North Carolina House Passes “Constitutional Carry” Bill”
Do you want to know the dirty secret about how the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) confiscates suspected drug traffickers’ money? The truth is, it’s not hard: Agents just go to an airport and wait for cash to drop into their laps.
A March report by the Justice Department’s inspector general (I.G.) found the DEA seized a whopping $4 billion in cash over the past decade using civil asset forfeiture, mostly from airports, train stations, and bus terminals. Continue reading “The DEA’s Warrantless Cash Grab”
Washington’s Blog – by Eric Zuesse
Here is the evidence I’ve come across which indicates to me that the Google search-engine is now appallingly corrupt, and for which reason I am seeking (and hope to see in reader-comments at sites that publish this article) an alternative explanation for what presently appear to me to be systematic efforts by Google to hide crucial information and understanding from the public — to hide it so that the public can be manipulated to tolerate increasing control, by billionaires, of their governments (the diminution of democracy): Continue reading “Is Google’s search-engine now appallingly corrupt?”
FOURTEEN PEOPLE WERE arrested at an alt-right rally in Portland, Oregon, last weekend. A man named Todd Kelsay helped with one of the arrests. In videos and photographs posted online, Kelsay can be seen on his knees with a group of police officers, reaching behind one of their backs to retrieve a plastic handcuff to arrest an unidentified black-clad protester. In one video, Kelsay appears to be assisting three officers in cuffing the suspect. Continue reading “Militia Member Aids Police in Arresting Protester at Portland Alt-right Rally”
Miami Herald – by Joey Flechas
Kristen Rosen Gonzalez, a Miami Beach commissioner and congressional candidate, reacted to this weekend’s shooting in South Beach by blasting the city’s police chief in a strongly worded email obtained by the Miami Herald.
Just before 7 a.m. Tuesday, Rosen Gonzalez fired off an email to City Manager Jimmy Morales in which she questioned Police Chief Dan Oates’ leadership, suggested the city stop its body camera program and “give the cops back their bullets.” Continue reading “‘Give cops back their bullets, remove their body cams’ says Miami Beach commissioner”
Matterhorn Court Innovations, funded by the student-led Social Venture Fund housed in the Samuel Zell & Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of Michigan, wants to make our injustice system even more of a joke by letting people submit documents and testimony through their smartphones. (To see how Matterhorn works, click here.)
“Court Innovations expands access to the courts for citizens who cannot miss work or family care to attend court, or who fear coming to court because of their race, ethnicity, or immigration status. With its Matterhorn product, anyone can use a mobile phone or computer to resolve and negotiate infractions and lesser misdemeanors. Citizens use Matterhorn to resolve traffic and parking tickets, warrants, family court compliance, plea online, or file a small claims civil case.” Continue reading “Courts want the police and public to settle cases using smartphones”
WASHINGTON — Approximately a dozen police, fire and emergency agencies surrounding Washington, D.C. are using drones to capture criminal suspects and fight fires, but the unmanned aircraft systems also are sparking privacy concerns and legislation.
At least 347 state and local police, sheriff, fire and emergency units in the United States have acquired drones, according to an April report by Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College.
Continue reading “Drone usage by local police, fire departments quickly increasing”
LONGMONT, COLO. – Some powerful people in Longmont appear to have forgotten that the Constitution still exists.
The Longmont Housing Authority says it was using the homes of low-income residents to train police drug dogs. There weren’t warrants, but simply a notice that the landlord was coming, and a police officer and drug dog would be there, too. Continue reading “Longmont Housing Authority invited police to search low-income apartments without warrants”
JERSEY CITY – In a new video of a fiery crash that critically injured a West New York man Sunday night, police officers are seen kicking and dragging the man — who sources say was a victim in the two-car wreck — into the roadway.
City officials said Wednesday morning they have “serious concerns” about how police handled the pursuit that began sometime around 11 p.m. in the Greenville section of the city and ended about six miles away with an innocent man fighting for his life. Continue reading “Video shows cops kick innocent victim of fiery crash”