Category: Police State

There goes that argument

~ susie

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Remember, senators are hardly allowed to say anything at all about what they know. So we need to support the ones who stand up and criticize the intelligence establishment, because the NSA needs to be reigned in:

WASHINGTON — Colorado Sen. Mark Udall (D) said on Sunday that any arguments against reform of the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs crumbled this past week, following the release of a White House report that criticized the programs and a judge’s ruling that questioned their constitutionality. Speaking on ABC’s “This Week,” Udall said, “The arguments for the status quo fell apart this week in Washington.”

“It’s now time to really fundamentally reform the way in which the NSA operates,” he said.

Udall pointed to the 46 recommendations contained in the White House panel’s report. They include the establishment of an independent privacy panel, the presence of public advocates at secret surveillance court hearings, and better protections for whistleblowers.

Also this week, a federal judge ruled that the NSA’s massive telephone metadata dragnet is likely unconstitutional because it violates the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable search and seizure. Documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden earlier this year revealed that the spy agency collects information on tens of millions of phone calls by private citizens worldwide.

As a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Udall has long been aware of the NSA’s surveillance programs, but until Snowden made the highly classified programs public, Udall was forbidden to discuss them. Nevertheless, he said he feels like he has “been shouting from the wilderness” for years about the NSA violations of privacy.

‘Oh, you’re gonna shoot me?’

~ susie ~ 3 Comments
Texas campus cop empties gun on unarmed student: ‘Oh, you’re gonna shoot me?’ (via Raw Story )

A campus police officer in San Antonio, Texas is under investigation after shooting and killing an unarmed student at an off-campus traffic stop. At a press conference on Friday, Lt. Cindy Pruitt of the Alamo Heights Police Department said that an altercation…

Continue reading “‘Oh, you’re gonna shoot me?’” →

Two gunshots on a summer night

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

The NY Times did a great job with this story about the death of a cop’s girlfriend — and how it was first ruled a suicide.

This is exactly the scenario I faced more than two decades ago when I was hit with a million-dollar libel suit from a cop whose girlfriend was pronounced a suicide under similarly suspicious circumstances. As the editor for that section, I’d be inundated with calls from people who knew the couple and talked about the cop’s violence, his past stalking of exes and his boasts that he could kill her and make her look like a suicide.

I didn’t write all that. I didn’t even write the main story. I simply wrote a sidebar piece, and here was the million-dollar quote: “Sources close to the couple say the relationship was marked with heavy drinking and violence.”

It was almost two years to the day since the story ran that I got served with the subpoena. As you can imagine, I was shocked.

Here was the thing. I didn’t know whether this cop killed his girlfriend; I only knew that the way the cops and public officials were handling it was off. Not normal. My sidebar was only meant to prod the D.A. into doing his job.

The former white collar prosecutor who was assigned to my libel case didn’t believe me. “I think someone’s been watching too much television,” he said when I told him there was a coverup. “Why would anyone cover up for this officer?” I explained to him that the cop’s father was an official in a town that was a toxic-waste dump for Mafia trucking companies, but he thought I was being dramatic.
Continue reading “Two gunshots on a summer night” →

Now he’ll get paid for feeling victimized

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

This guy is creepy and scary:

Pennsylvania ‘libtard’-hating chief charging $25 a month to serve in ‘militia’ (via Raw Story )

Gilberton, Pennsylvania Police Chief Mark Kessler is organizing what he calls a “professional” militia while awaiting the final decision on his job status. The Patriot News reported on Thursday that Kessler, who is still the subject of a termination…

Continue reading “Now he’ll get paid for feeling victimized” →

WTF is happening with NM cops?

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

First, there was the colonoscopy story. Now this, in which a cop opens fire on a minivan full of kids:

Several New Mexico State Police officers are under investigation after at least one of them fired shots at a minivan full of children last month.

According to KRQE, an officer pulled over Oriana Ferrell in Taos for going 71 mph in a 55 mph zone on Oct. 28. Ferrell had brought her five children from Tennessee on an educational trip.

Dashcam footage obtained by KRQE late last week shows Ferrell and the officer arguing over the ticket before she drives off. The officer chases the mother down and pulls her over again.

The second traffic stop eventually escalates into a struggle, with the officer trying to pull the African-American mother out of the vehicle and her 14-year-old son getting out to defend his mom. But the boy returns to the minivan after the officer aims a Taser at him.

“Sir, I pulled back over, I didn’t run away,” Ferrell pleads at one point. “You see my children. I’m not doing anything wrong. I’m just trying to take them to the Rio Grande.”

Eventually both the mother and the son struggle with the officer before getting back in the minivan. The officer then uses his baton to smash the passenger side window where the 14-year-old boy is sitting.

As the family attempts to flee, a second officer fires at least three shots at the vehicle.

I guess “driving while black” is an offense everywhere.

This might be the worse thing you read today

~ susie ~ 3 Comments

This story from New Mexico is just insane, and show just how out of control the “War on Drugs” has gotten:

Eckert’s attorney, Shannon Kennedy, said in an interview with KOB that after law enforcement asked him to step out of the vehicle, he appeared to be clenching his buttocks. Law enforcement thought that was probable cause to suspect that Eckert was hiding narcotics in his anal cavity. While officers detained Eckert, they secured a search warrant from a judge that allowed for an anal cavity search.

The lawsuit claims that Deming Police tried taking Eckert to an emergency room in Deming, but a doctor there refused to perform the anal cavity search citing it was “unethical.”

But physicians at the Gila Regional Medical Center in Silver City agreed to perform the procedure and a few hours later, Eckert was admitted.

While there, Eckert was subjected to repeated and humiliating forced medical procedures. A review of Eckert’s medical records, which he released to KOB, and details in the lawsuit show the following happened:

1. Eckert’s abdominal area was x-rayed; no narcotics were found.
2. Doctors then performed an exam of Eckert’s anus with their fingers; no narcotics were found.
3. Doctors performed a second exam of Eckert’s anus with their fingers; no narcotics were found.
4. Doctors penetrated Eckert’s anus to insert an enema. Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers. Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool. No narcotics were found.
5. Doctors penetrated Eckert’s anus to insert an enema a second time. Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers. Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool. No narcotics were found.
6. Doctors penetrated Eckert’s anus to insert an enema a third time. Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers. Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool. No narcotics were found.
7. Doctors then x-rayed Eckert again; no narcotics were found.
8. Doctors prepared Eckert for surgery, sedated him, and then performed a colonoscopy where a scope with a camera was inserted into Eckert’s anus, rectum, colon, and large intestines. No narcotics were found.

Throughout this ordeal, Eckert protested and never gave doctors at the Gila Regional Medical Center consent to perform any of these medical procedures.

“If the officers in Hidalgo County and the City of Deming are seeking warrants for anal cavity searches based on how they’re standing and the warrant allows doctors at the Gila Hospital of Horrors to go in and do enemas and colonoscopies without consent, then anyone can be seized and that’s why the public needs to know about this,” Kennedy said.

And just to add insult to injury, Eckert WAS BILLED FOR ALL THE TESTS. Unbelievable.
Via Ed Tayter

Smart enough, but not too smart. This explains so much!

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

In case you ever wondered:

It’s long been rumored amongst law enforcement critics, but did you know that police departments officially disqualify high-scoring applicants? That’s not to say that all cops are stupid… Just that if you’re too smart, the police simply won’t hire you.

The policy became solidified as a concrete federal ruling almost a decade and a half ago with little fanfare from the mainstream media. Back in 1999, a Federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by a police applicant who was barred from the New London, Connecticut police force. The reason for the disqualification was literally because he had scored “too high” on an intelligence test. The department made it clear, they didn’t want the bottom of the barrel in terms of intelligence, but they didn’t want anyone “too smart” either.

The ruling made public in September of the same year, with the ruling judge Peter C. Dorsey of the United States District Court in New Haven confirming that it was in fact the case that the plaintiff, Robert Jordan, 48, who has a bachelor’s degree in literature, was denied an opportunity to even interview for a job with the New London Police Department, solely because of his high test scores.

Judge Dorsey, however, ruled that Mr. Jordan that there was no protection offered to intelligent people from discriminatory hiring practices by individual police departments. Why? Because, Dorsey explained, it was proven that police departments held all to this same standard and thus rejected all applicants who scored high.