Fusion Centers & Clowns, Doesn’t Anyone See The Irony?

Fox 17

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) – Apparently, Tennesseans need to be on high alert for clowns.

A warning was given by the Tennessee Department of Safety and the Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) on Saturday. The agencies took to Twitter posting, “Watch for clowns in your area. They could be child predators seeking kids” and “Watch for clowns trying to lure children into the woods. They are possibly predators.”   Continue reading “Clown warning issued in Middle Tennessee”

NBC News – by Jon Schuppe

The family of a suburban Baltimore man who died after a violent scuffle with police is planning his funeral while waiting to learn what exactly killed him.

Tawon Boyd, 21 — who had himself called 911 for assistance — died Wednesday, three days after an early morning encounter with police at his home in Middle River, Maryland that ended with an officer hitting him in the head and others climbing on top of him to subdue him, according to police.   Continue reading “Baltimore Family Waits for Answers in Tawon Boyd Death After Police Scuffle”

Bloomberg

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration is one of those federal agencies that tends to inspire intense reactions among the traveling public. It’s a bureaucracy that interacts with millions of passengers each day, requiring their shoes, jackets, laptops—and time.

Virtually all this occurs at airports, with about 80 percent of the agency’s $7.4 billion budget spent on aviation security. Only 2 percent of the TSA’s funding goes to surface transportation, according to a report by the Office of Inspector General earlier this month. Congress is looking to change that.
 Continue reading “After New York Attack, Congress Wants TSA to Secure Amtrak, Buses”

It’s Ironic And Sad, This Is Police State America  On Display For All To See!

Courthouse News Service – by Jeff D. Gorman

An off-duty cop who was detained after being mistaken for a terrorist was not falsely arrested, the Oklahoma Court of Appeals ruled.

Joshua Shaw was at an Oklahoma City pub with a female officer in December 2012. They were talking about going to the gun range and shooting their weapons.   Continue reading “Off-Duty Cop Mistaken for a Terrorist Has No Case”

New York Daily News – by Christopher Brennan

The Louisiana officer who killed a 6-year-old autistic child said that he fired shots at the boy’s father in self-defense.

Derrick Stafford, a deputy city marshal in Marksville, has asked a judge to throw out the second-degree murder charge for shooting Jeremy Mardis last November.

Both Stafford and deputy Norris Greenhouse Jr. said that they did not know that the child was in the front seat before opening fire.   Continue reading “Louisiana officer accused of murdering 6-year-old in car says he fired in self-defense”

Tech Dirt – by Tim Cushing

Drive it like you stole seized it.

Documents provided by Outside Legal Counsel show the department seized the Ostipow’s 1965 Chevy Nova SS on April 24, 2008, when the vehicle’s mileage was 73,865. [Sheriff William L.] Federspiel, who signed the vehicle title transfer form, sold the partially restored muscle car over a year later on June 4, 2009, for $1,500.
Continue reading “Before Forfeiture Is Finalized, Sheriff Racks Up 54k Miles On Seized Vehicle, Sells It To Private Buyer”

Ars Technica – by CYRUS FARIVAR

A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday against Defense Distributed, the Texas organization that promotes 3D-printed guns, in a lawsuit that it brought last year against the State Department.

In a 2-1 decision, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals was not persuaded that Defense Distributed’s right to free speech under the First Amendment outweighs national security concerns.   Continue reading “Court: With 3D printer gun files, national security interest trumps free speech”

MassPrivateI

Argonne Labs and DHS are installing over 500 spying devices called the ‘Array of Things‘ (AoT) throughout Chicago and plan to install them in cities across the country.  Plans are in the works to replicate the project in the coming years in more than a dozen other cities.

Two cameras mounted in each AoT box will collect data on vehicle and foot traffic, standing water, sky color and cloud cover. They claim the photos taken by the cameras will automatically be deleted within “tens of minutes.”    Continue reading “‘Array of Things’ collects facial biometrics and license plates images”

The Verge – by Colin Lecher

The White House’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology said in a report released Tuesday that widely used forensic techniques may not pass scientific muster, and should be reviewed for accuracy.

The advisory group’s report said “feature-comparison” forensic techniques like bite mark comparison, analysis of firearms, and methods for DNA comparison should be better scrutinized, and new techniques should be given more attention for scientific validity in the future.   Continue reading “Forensic techniques sending people to prison may not be scientifically valid”

Tenth Amendment Center – by Mike Maharrey

FRANKFORT, Ky. (Sept. 20, 2016) – A bill prefiled for the 2017 legislative session would direct the state to refuse to enforce any foreign law that conflicts with U.S. or Kentucky constitutions, nullifying such laws in effect in the commonwealth.

Rep. Kim King (R-Harrodsburg) prefiled BR149 on Sept. 14. The legislation would specifically direct state courts, arbitrators, administrative agencies, or other adjudicative bodies or authorities in the state to refuse to enforce a foreign law if doing so would violate a right guaranteed by the Constitution of this state or of the United States.   Continue reading “Proposed Kentucky Bill Would Effectively Nullify Unconstitutional Foreign Laws in the State”

MuckRock – by JPat Brown

As part of our collaboration with Campaign Zero, MuckRock requested use of force policies from the 100 largest police departments in the country, including Tulsa PD. In the wake of the recent release of the video of the shooting of Terence Crutcher, we wanted to give you a chance to read the policy yourself.
Continue reading “Read Tulsa Police Department’s Use of Force policy”

Muckrock – by JPat Brown

A couple years ago, Robert Delaware requested from the NSA any entries from its Intellipedia – the agency’s internal answer to Wikipedia – regarding the micronation “The Conch Republic.” The agency later released four pages, which is a fairly impressive feat considering that, strictly speaking, the Conch Republic doesn’t exist.   Continue reading “The NSA has files on a country that doesn’t exist”

MassPrivateI

Police and the Border Patrol are using ‘general crime control checkpoints’ to harass and detain motorists across the country. Below, is a list of nine different checkpoints police use, to ticket and arrest citizens.   Continue reading “Police use TEN different types of checkpoints, with more on the way”

Activist Post – by Brandon Turbeville

In a series of reports floating around even some of the mainstream press organs, a video has emerged that reportedly shows U.S. “commandos” fleeing U.S.-backed rebels in the northern part of Syria.

The video shows what appears to be American soldiers riding in the backs of white Toyota pickups leaving the area that Turkish troops, with FSA terrorists in tow, recently conquered from “ISIS” militants. While many of the reports suggest that the soldiers are “fleeing” the scene, the men in the footage seem incredibly nonchalant for those who are trying to escape. Instead, they seem calm, even waving at the FSA terrorists shouting abuse at them as they drive away.   Continue reading “Video Shows American Soldiers Posing As “Rebels,” “Fleeing” Jihadists In Syria”

Breitbart – by Jack Hadfield

Jigsaw, a small subsidiary of Google, is working on multiple technological projects that would work to censor speech on the Internet and increase monitoring of its users, according to an article published on Wired.

Under a veil of protecting people from abuse by authoritarian regimes and “online trolls,” Jigsaw founder and president Jared Cohen is releasing a set of tools known as ‘Conversation AI.’   Continue reading “Google Developing Tools to Suppress Online Speech, Protect Elites’ Feelings”

Ars Technica – by Sean Gallagher

The New York City Police Department takes in millions of dollars in cash each year as evidence, often keeping the money through a procedure called civil forfeiture. But as New York City lawmakers pressed for greater transparency into how much was being seized and from whom, a department official claimed providing that information would be nearly impossible—because querying the 4-year old computer system that tracks evidence and property for the data would “lead to system crashes.”   Continue reading “NYPD can’t count cash they’ve seized because it would crash computers”

The Intercept – by Glen Greenwald

LAST WEEK, A MAJOR censorship controversy erupted when Facebook began deleting all posts containing the iconic photograph of the Vietnamese “Napalm Girl” on the ground that it violated the company’s ban on “child nudity.” Facebook even deleted a post from the prime minister of Norway, who posted the photograph in protest of the censorship. As outrage spread, Facebook ultimately reversed itself — acknowledging “the history and global importance of this image in documenting a particular moment in time” — but this episode illustrated many of the dangers I’ve previously highlighted in having private tech companies like Facebook, Twitter, and Google become the arbiters of what we can and cannot see.   Continue reading “Facebook Is Collaborating With the Israeli Government to Determine What Should Be Censored”

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – by Jesse Garza

A combative student at a Milwaukee elementary school was wounded Thursday when a police officer’s gun discharged during a struggle with the student, according to Milwaukee police.

The 13-year-old girl suffered a graze wound about 1 p.m. at Thoreau School, 7878 N. 60th St., according to a news release from the Milwaukee Police Department.   Continue reading “Student wounded when officer’s gun discharges”

Intellihub – by Shepard Ambellas

PERTH, Australia (INTELLIHUB) — A woman traveling through Australia on a connecting flight was horrified to find out that the airline she was aboard forcefully sprays all boarded passengers and staff with a toxic pesticide, an aerosol named d-Phenothrin. The new protocols come in wake of the newly emerging and likely staged Zika virus threat, which the Obama Admin has requested nearly $2 million in funding to fight.

Astonishingly, the woman, Petra Haluska, filmed the entire process from inside the cabin as humans were literally being bombed with the colorless spray like bugs.   Continue reading “Passengers hit with dual aerosol bug bombs while trapped inside airline cabin”