Police State Thread

[DTdr2]

Wisconsin's dirty prosecutors pull a Putin: Column

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opini...ted-by-democratic-prosecutors-column/26081903

When Vladimir Putin sends government thugs to raid opposition offices, the world clucks its tongue. But, after all, Putin's a corrupt dictator, so what do you expect?

But in Wisconsin, Democratic prosecutors were raiding political opponents' homes and, in a worse-than-Putin twist, they were making sure the world didn't even find out, by requiring their targets to keep quiet. As David French notes in National Review, "As if the home invasion, the appropriation of private property, and the verbal abuse weren't enough, next came ominous warnings. Don't call your lawyer. Don't tell anyone about this raid. Not even your mother, your father, or your closest friends. ... This was the on-the-ground reality of the so-called John Doe investigations, expansive and secret criminal proceedings that directly targeted Wisconsin residents because of their relationship to Scott Walker, their support for Act 10, and their advocacy of conservative reform."

Is this un-American? Yes, yes it is. And the prosecutors involved — who were attacking supporters of legislation that was intended to rein in unions' power in the state — deserve to be punished. Abusing law enforcement powers to punish political opponents, and to discourage contributions to political enemies, is a crime, and it should also be grounds for disbarment.

If Republican officials treated political opponents this way it would be national news. But when Wisconsin's Democraticapparat behaved like Putin's thugs, it got little attention from the "mainstream" media. One of the good things about Scott Walker's presidential run is that it will bring these abuses national attention. They deserve it, and the perpetrators deserve punishment.

 

[kawilt]

We seem to be doing more and more things here in this country, and around the world, that could be called "un- American", whatever that means anymore!

 

[TheGuy85]

We seem to be doing more and more things here in this country, and around the world, that could be called "un- American", whatever that means anymore!

We used to like avoiding unnecessary wars too. And a social security number used to only be used for social security purposes as well. Assigning people numbers at birth doesn't seem very American either. But what would I know, me being an American and all.

 

[kawilt]

You don't have to get your child numbered at birth. You don't even have to name the child at the hospital, you can wait and name him/her and then register the name with the county. BUT, if he doesn't get a government registration # (ssn) It's a little difficult to get a job later on.

 

[flenser]

You don't have to get your child numbered at birth. You don't even have to name the child at the hospital, you can wait and name him/her and then register the name with the county. BUT, if he doesn't get a government registration # (ssn) It's a little difficult to get a job later on.

Pretty soon they'll just chip newborns with a little rfid included in the first mandatory vaccination : )

 

[kawilt]

I think your pretty close to the mark flenser.
Isn't this already being done on a voluntary bases? In adults>

 

[TheGuy85]

You don't have to get your child numbered at birth. You don't even have to name the child at the hospital, you can wait and name him/her and then register the name with the county. BUT, if he doesn't get a government registration # (ssn) It's a little difficult to get a job later on.

Yeah it bothers me that employers (with you're consent) can ask to use you're ssn# to do a background check. Obviously you can refuse but like you said good luck finding a job. Background checks have become very common and very inexpensive. But if they didn't have an ssn# to work with I believe it would make background checks harder. But employers should not be able to use you're ssn# for this purpose. Or rather ssn# shouldn't even exist for this reason.

 

[kawilt]

About 50 or 60 years ago you could get a job and nobody would ask for a SS No. If you applied for one it would come in the mail and at the bottom of the card in bold type it said "NOT TO BE USED AS IDENTIFICATION". Now, I'm not about to say this was some sort of conspiracy, God forbid . But look at the shit your in now. Somebody tell me please, just what "freedoms" do you think you have now in doing ANYTHING that doesn't require some sort of permission or license?

 

[54chev]

Make that injured AFTER arrest..


http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/blog/bs-md-freddie-gray-20150419-story.html

Gray's family's lawyer on Sunday said the city is trying to "absolve" itself of any wrongdoing.

"We believe the police are keeping the circumstances of Freddie's death secret until they develop a version of events that will absolve them of all responsibility," http://bsun.md/1EhbA0G. "However, his family and the citizens of Baltimore deserve to know the real truth; and we will not stop until we get justice for Freddie."

The statement went on to say Gray was healthy at the time of the arrest, which Murphy said occurred "without any evidence he had committed a crime." Murphy said Gray's spine was "80 percent severed at his neck" when he was in custody. Murphy said Gray "lapsed into a coma, died, was resuscitated, stayed in a coma and on Monday, underwent extensive surgery at Shock Trauma to save his life.

"He clung to life for seven days" before dying Sunday morning, Murphy said.

Four bicycle officers tried to stop Gray about 9 a.m. on April 12 in the 1600 block of W. North Ave. for an alleged violation that police have not disclosed. He ran, police said, and the officers caught him and restrained him on the ground while awaiting backup.

According to http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/blog/bs-md-ci-gilmor-homes-arrest-police-timeline-20150416-story.html, he was fine when he was loaded into a van to be taken to the district station, but was injured by the time he got out. He suffered a broken vertebra and an injured voice box, his family said.

full article

As far as I thought the cops tased the hell out of him and he had at least one broken leg before dragging him into the cop car. Because the arrest was videotaped after the arrest and just started filming as hes being dragged, of course it didnt happen. Right?

 

[TheGuy85]

As far as I thought the cops tased the hell out of him and he had at least one broken leg before dragging him into the cop car. Because the arrest was videotaped after the arrest and just started filming as hes being dragged, of course it didnt happen. Right?

Baltimore city cops are horrible. They beat on people who are compliant and don't run. But they really beat the hell out of runners and make sure they have trouble getting around for awhile (or maybe even permanently). Crushing some kid's spine is just another day at work for a Baltimore city cop.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Nonviolence as Compliance
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/04/nonviolence-as-compliance/391640/

Rioting broke out on Monday in Baltimore—an angry response to the death of Freddie Gray, a death my native city seems powerless to explain. Gray did not die mysteriously in some back alley but in the custody of the city's publicly appointed guardians of order. And yet the mayor of that city and the commissioner of that city's police still have no idea what happened. I suspect this is not because the mayor and police commissioner are bad people, but because the state of Maryland prioritizes http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2015/04/24/the-police-officers-bill-of-rights/ (the protection of police officers) charged with abuse over the citizens who fall under its purview.

The citizens who live in West Baltimore, where the rioting began, intuitively understand this.

...


The money paid out by the city to cover for the brutal acts of its police department would be enough to build "a state-of-the-art rec center or renovations at more than 30 playgrounds." Instead, the money was used to cover for the brutal acts of the city's police department and ensure they remained well beyond any semblance of justice.


Now, tonight, I turn on the news and I see politicians calling for young people in Baltimore to remain peaceful and "nonviolent." These well-intended pleas strike me as the right answer to the wrong question. To understand the question, it's worth remembering what, specifically, happened to Freddie Gray. An officer made eye contact with Gray. Gray, for unknown reasons, ran. The officer and his colleagues then detained Gray. They found him in possession of a switchblade. They arrested him while he yelled in pain. And then, within an hour, his spine was mostly severed. A week later, he was dead. What specifically was the crime here? What particular threat did Freddie Gray pose? Why is mere eye contact and then running worthy of detention at the hands of the state? Why is Freddie Gray dead?

 

[Wings_of_pain]

Cops mow down suicidal dude because they were afraid to confront him. Understandable I suppose, but wonder if using people as speed bumps is part of protocol?

 

[gtxcrush]

One of the douchiest cops of all time. Irony is, dude probably would have gotten off lighter if he would have shot him, at least that way he could have said he feared for his life.

My God!!....... Wat an ass!

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Freddie Gray: Don't let the 1% determine police reform for the 99%.
http://www.theguardian.com/commenti...-let-the-1-determine-police-reform-for-the-99

The history of policing in the US has been one of protecting private property, money and lives of the affluent and politically powerful, at least since the NYPD’s founding in 1845. Any new efforts at police reform – calls for which are growing stronger with each new death of an unarmed person of color at the hands of the police – will be unsuccessful if they exclude revisions to this most basic of reasons for the existence of modern law enforcement.

One can already imagine the White House bringing together a group of billionaire philanthropists, former politicians and Ivy League graduates trained in data mining to form a commission that would allow them to impose their own ideas of police reform across the country. New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton, now-former US attorney general Eric Holder, legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin and philanthropists such as Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg and George Soros are exactly the kind of figures who would populate this kind of body.

These self-chosen stewards would likely proceed to seek recommendations from a few handpicked law professors, ex-police officers and law enforcement agencies on how to raise policing standards. This group of leaders, technocrats and do-gooder billionaires may even come up with a workable value-added metrics system for evaluating police effectiveness annually – but their efforts would ultimately fail us.

We should never expect expert panels led by technocrats who are far removed from the poor and communities of color to address deep flaws in the police syste

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Computer scientist/Congressman: crypto backdoors are "technologically stupid," DA is "offensive"
http://boingboing.net/2015/05/01/computer-scientistcongressman.html

Rep Ted Lieu (D-CA) is a USAF reserve colonel, former member of the Judge Advocate General Corps and holds a computer science degree -- he's one of the four members of Congress with any formal computer science qualifications.

Lieu serves on the Oversight and Government Reform's subcommittee on information technology, which has been hearing testimony from law enforcement, attorneys general and other entities who want to end the use of effective cryptography by the US public, in order to eliminate technological impediments to surveillance.

After hearing some particularly technologically clueless and Constitutionally incoherent testimony from Suffolk County, Mass DA Daniel Conley, Lieu let him have it with both barrels. Lieu called the technological proposals for cryptographic back doors "technologically stupid," and the proposition that the state should prevent its citizens from being able to communicate in private "offensive."

"It's a fundamental misunderstanding of the problem. Why do you think Apple and Google are doing this? It's because the public is demanding it. People like me: privacy advocates. A public does not want a an out of surveillance state. It is the public that is asking for this. Apple and Google didn't do this because they thought they would make less money. This is a private sector response to government overreach.

Then you make another statement that somehow these companies are not credible because they collect private data. Here's the difference: Apple and Google don't have coercive power. District attorneys do, the FBI does, the NSA does, and to me it's very simple to draw a privacy balance when it comes to law enforcement and privacy: just follow the damn Constitution.

And because the NSA didn't do that and other law enforcement agencies didn't do that, you're seeing a vast public reaction to this. Because the NSA, your colleagues, have essentially violated the Fourth Amendment rights of every American citizen for years by seizing all of our phone records, by collecting our Internet traffic, that is now spilling over to other aspects of law enforcement. And if you want to get this fixed, I suggest you write to NSA: the FBI should tell the NSA, stop violating our rights. And then maybe you might have much more of the public on the side of supporting what law enforcement is asking for.

Then let me just conclude by saying I do agree with law enforcement that we live in a dangerous world. And that's why our founders put in the Constitution of the United States—that's why they put in the Fourth Amendment. Because they understand that an Orwellian overreaching federal government is one of the most dangerous things that this world can have. I yield back."

 

[Michael Scally MD]

BALTIMORE ACTIVISTS RECOUNT HOW POLICE UNIONS CRUSHED ACCOUNTABILITY REFORMS
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/05/01/police-union-influence-maryland-runs-deep/

 

[Michael Scally MD]

New ACLU Cellphone App Automatically Preserves Video of Police Encounters
http://www.thenation.com/blog/20588...tomatically-preserves-video-police-encounters

The ACLU in California today released a free smart-phone app that allows people to send cellphone videos of police encounters to the ACLU, automatically—and the ACLU will preserve the video footage, even if the cops seize the phone and delete the video or destroy the phone. The app, “Mobile Justice CA,” works for both iPhones and Android users. It’s available at Apple’s App Store and at Google Play.

 

[kawilt]

Computer scientist/Congressman: crypto backdoors are "technologically stupid," DA is "offensive"
http://boingboing.net/2015/05/01/computer-scientistcongressman.html

Rep Ted Lieu (D-CA) is a USAF reserve colonel, former member of the Judge Advocate General Corps and holds a computer science degree -- he's one of the four members of Congress with any formal computer science qualifications.

Lieu serves on the Oversight and Government Reform's subcommittee on information technology, which has been hearing testimony from law enforcement, attorneys general and other entities who want to end the use of effective cryptography by the US public, in order to eliminate technological impediments to surveillance.

After hearing some particularly technologically clueless and Constitutionally incoherent testimony from Suffolk County, Mass DA Daniel Conley, Lieu let him have it with both barrels. Lieu called the technological proposals for cryptographic back doors "technologically stupid," and the proposition that the state should prevent its citizens from being able to communicate in private "offensive."

"It's a fundamental misunderstanding of the problem. Why do you think Apple and Google are doing this? It's because the public is demanding it. People like me: privacy advocates. A public does not want a an out of surveillance state. It is the public that is asking for this. Apple and Google didn't do this because they thought they would make less money. This is a private sector response to government overreach.

Then you make another statement that somehow these companies are not credible because they collect private data. Here's the difference: Apple and Google don't have coercive power. District attorneys do, the FBI does, the NSA does, and to me it's very simple to draw a privacy balance when it comes to law enforcement and privacy: just follow the damn Constitution.

And because the NSA didn't do that and other law enforcement agencies didn't do that, you're seeing a vast public reaction to this. Because the NSA, your colleagues, have essentially violated the Fourth Amendment rights of every American citizen for years by seizing all of our phone records, by collecting our Internet traffic, that is now spilling over to other aspects of law enforcement. And if you want to get this fixed, I suggest you write to NSA: the FBI should tell the NSA, stop violating our rights. And then maybe you might have much more of the public on the side of supporting what law enforcement is asking for.

Then let me just conclude by saying I do agree with law enforcement that we live in a dangerous world. And that's why our founders put in the Constitution of the United States—that's why they put in the Fourth Amendment. Because they understand that an Orwellian overreaching federal government is one of the most dangerous things that this world can have. I yield back."

Somebody stick this guy in Hillary's spot.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

What to Say When the Police Tell You to Stop Filming Them
http://www.theatlantic.com/technolo...-police-tell-you-to-stop-filming-them/391610/

 

[Michael Scally MD]

I was there. Scary time. The police are more ready now if you know what I mean!!!