Our Creeping Police State: How Going to the Mall of America Can Land You in an FBI Counterterrorism Report | Civil Liberties September 7, 2011 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. On May 1, 2008, at 4:59 p.m., Brad Kleinerman entered the spooky world of homeland security. As he shopped for a children’s watch inside the sprawling Mall of America, two security guards approached and began questioning him. The reason: Guards thought he might pose a threat because they believed he had been looking at them in a suspicious way. Najam Qureshi, owner of a kiosk that sold items from his native Pakistan, also had his own experience with authorities after his father left a cell phone on a table in the food court. The consequence: An FBI agent showed up at the family’s home, asking if they knew anyone who might want to hurt the United States. Mall of America officials say their security unit stops and questions on average up to 1,200 people each year. In many cases, the written reports were filed without the knowledge of those interviewed by security.
Teen Girl Forced to Give Cop Oral Sex -- What the Sick Abuse of Authority Says About Our Rape Culture | News & Politics September 6, 2011 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. In our authority-oriented society, we're expected to put our trust in certain powerful figures: the police officers charged with protecting us, the clergy charged with guiding us. So why is a culture of sexual abuse so rampant in many outposts of these kinds of institutions? The answer lies in the question: wherever there is unquestioned power and authority, we'll see sexual abuse, because in our "rape culture" rape is above all about power, domination, and violence. Over Labor Day weekend, a chilling story came to light in Kansas City, Missouri. From Courthouse news service: A teen-age girl says a Jackson County police officer forced her to give him oral sex in his squad car after he found her and some friends in a park after curfew. It's important that this brave girl is taking her claims to court--because her problem isn't an isolated one.
Prosecutors seek student emails in Northwestern wrongful conviction case August 10, 2011 More than 500 emails between beleaguered Northwestern University journalism professor David Protess and his students detailing their effort to free a man serving a life sentence should not be protected under state law that shields journalists from revealing unpublished work, Cook County prosecutors argued Tuesday. In seeking the release of the communications, Assistant State's Attorney Celeste Stack said the student journalists investigating the alleged innocence of Anthony McKinney were essentially "generating evidence" at the behest of Northwestern's Center on Wrongful Convictions, not acting as working reporters. "There was no business of collecting news for publication," Stack told Criminal Courts Judge Diane Cannon. Lawyers for the Medill School of Journalism argued that the state's law shielding reporters is broad and covers not only mainstream news media but also "advocacy journalism" that crusades for a cause or takes a certain point of view. jmeisner@tribune.com
Judge rules Northwestern students must turn over emails in murder case September 07, 2011 | By Jason Meisner | Tribune reporter A Cook County judge today ordered that more than 500 emails between former Northwestern University journalism professor David Protess and his students detailing their efforts to free a man serving a life sentence should be turned over to prosecutors. After two years of legal wrangling, Judge Diane Cannon ruled that the Medill School of Journalism students were “acting as investigators in a criminal proceeding.” “In this case, the Medill students worked at the direction of Anthony McKinney’s attorneys, conducting interviews, gathering evidence,” Cannon said. “While a book may be written or an article published…the information is subject to the rules of discovery.” It has been almost three years since Northwestern lawyers petitioned for a new trial for McKinney, convicted of a 1978 shotgun slaying in Harvey. “It’s been a frustrating two years, but it was an important issue,” Stack said.
Judge: Medill students acting as investigators, not protected by Ill. shield law ILLINOIS — More than 500 emails chronicling the efforts of a Northwestern University journalism professor and his students to free a man serving a life sentence are not covered under Illinois’ shield law, a judge ruled Wednesday. After a two-year legal dispute, Cook County Judge Diane Cannon ruled that Medill School of Journalism students and former Innocence Project instructor David Protess were “acting as investigators in a criminal proceeding,” not journalists, when their class delved into the case of Anthony McKinney. Cannon ruled that the Medill students were working under the direction of McKinney’s lawyers while gathering evidence and conducting interviews and were not entitled to reporter’s privilege protection, The Chicago Tribune reported. Northwestern spokesman Alan Cubbage said the school was pleased overall with what the judgment meant for student journalism. Protess, who has since left the university, said he is “deeply disappointed” by the decision.
Another BART protest planned for tonight in San Francisco by Amy Hollyfield, Jonathan Bloom, and Sergio Quintana SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Thursday evening, BART reopened the Powell Street Station after police shut it down when protesters swarmed the area in the sixth demonstration since BART police shot and killed a homeless man in July. This time, reporters and photographers were ordered to leave, but not all did. The aim of demonstrators this time around was to jam up the entry gates for passengers to get onto the platform below. The demonstration lasted about 20 minutes before BART police decided it was too dangerous because of the close quarters, so they closed the whole station down for about two hours. The main goal of this group called 'No Justice No BART' was to force BART into allowing passengers to ride the trains for free. Police in riot gear then circled the loudest of the group, then gave everyone else in the station three minutes to leave before they too would get arrested. For commuters, things came visibly frustrating. Tags:
Exclusion Zones Policing public space—with deadly results—in Portland, Ore. The cases of Keaton Otis and James Chasse show the race and class bias implicit in terms like “quality of life” and “livability”—at least as they are applied to law enforcement. On June 8, the Justice Department announced a civil rights investigation to see if police officers in Portland, Ore., were engaged in a “pattern or practice” of using excessive force against the mentally ill. The problems with the mental health system are real enough, but this focus may obscure other dynamics propelling police violence–specifically, those relating to race and class. Two high-profile cases in Portland help illustrate the point. The lonesome death of James Chasse James Chasse was a well-known figure in downtown Portland, a writer and musician with a history of mental illness and occasional homelessness. Officer Chris Humphreys approached; Chasse ran. His family sued and received a $1.6 million settlement. ‘He could be a gangster’ Hired guns
BART’S UNBALANCED VIEWS OF SAFETY AND SPEECH Jay Leiderman, Leiderman Devin PASTEBIN | #1 paste tool since 2002 create new paste trending pastes Pastebin launched a little side project called HostCabi.net, check it out ;-)Don't like ads? Public Pastes Untitled4 sec agoUntitled8 sec agoUntitled14 sec agoUntitled10 sec agoUntitled13 sec agoUntitled17 sec agoUntitled18 sec agowoogoo1 min ago Untitled By: a guest on Sep 12th, 2011 | syntax: None | size: 9.87 KB | hits: 3,902 | expires: Never download | raw | embed | report abuse | print Text below is selected. BART’S UNBALANCED VIEWS OF SAFETY AND SPEECHJay Leiderman, Leiderman Devine LLP, Ventura California @LeidermanDevine andEric Lindgren, Washington University of St. create a new version of this paste RAW Paste Data BART’S UNBALANCED VIEWS OF SAFETY AND SPEECH Jay Leiderman, Leiderman Devine LLP, Ventura California @LeidermanDevine and Eric Lindgren, Washington University of St. Pastebin.com Tools & Applications iPhone/iPad Windows Firefox Chrome WebOS Android Mac Opera Click.to WinPhone
Chicago Police Allegedly Beat Up Man Who Videotaped Them Dragging Man Outside of Squad Car 1, September 13, 2011 by jonathanturley Brad Williams has filed a lawsuit against the Chicago police department after he said he was beaten by police in response to his filming an officer holding and dragging a man outside of his squad car. As we have seen in other cases, one of the officers falsely told Williams that citizens were not allowed to film police officers in public, according to the complaint. He said that he was handcuffed and grabbed by the throat in the encounter. The eight-count suit claims excessive force, false arrest and imprisonment. The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit became the latest court in a recent decision to rule that police efforts to bar such videotaping is a violation of the First Amendment. These cases continue to occur because officers are not disciplined for such abuses. Source: WLSam Like this: Like Loading...
5 Kicked Out and 3 Arrested at Paul Ryan Town Hall For Asking Questions Paul Ryan held his PPV town hall event at Klemmer’s Banquet Hall in Milwaukee. When some protesters who had paid their $15 stood up and asked him questions about jobs and the Bush tax cuts, Ryan not only had them kicked out. He also had three of them arrested. Here is the video: The protesters got involved when Rep. This lady was shown the door. An older man got angry when Ryan mentioned entitlement programs, and said that he paid into unemployment, Medicare, and Social Security for 50 years, and got himself kicked out. CIA reviewing ties with New York police department Late Night FDL: OpBART-5, The Evolving Aerobic Version I came to San Francisco for OpBART-5 which, given the detention of journalists and students on Thursday, could have gone one of two ways: Very Badly or Okay. It was the latter, except for San Francisco Police Department Officer A. Mora striking a journalist’s camera. Guess Officer Mora missed the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling that it’s perfectly okey-dokey to videotape the police. There must be someone at the SFPD with a sense of humor or at least knows a good photo-op in the making: Officers were staged in front of a donut shop. There were about thirty protesters tops, only three Anons were present; the rest of the group was No Justice No BART, plus as many media–and at least three SFPD officers for every demonstrator and plenty of BART police in the stations. Welcome to Anonymous workout program The protesters stayed off the platforms and the police didn’t arrest them. I do have to say chanting Fuck the police! while flipping off law enforcement is childish. What can be done?
New Jersey Cop Attacked Woman Who Filmed Him at DWI Checkpoint Leslie Rosario and Jessamine Roman have filed suit against the Ridgefield Park Police Department, claiming that an officer assaulted Rosario when she refused to hand over her cell phone at a DWI checkpoint. The Record reports that Rosario filmed the stop as the car's driver, Juan Calle, was being administered a sobriety test: Rosario’s attorney, David Chazen, said in an order to show cause that Rosario took out her Blackberry phone and began recording the incident before Ridgefield Park Police Capt. DiNiro says that the light from Rosario's BlackBerry was a distraction, and that she scratched him when he tried to steal her phone. The two woman have requested that the Ridgefield Park PD release video from the police car camera and the jail. Reason.tv on the war on cameras: (H/t Carlos Miller)
The NYPD's secret spies Heavily armed New York police officers on the streets (Sergey Shpakovsky) NEW DETAILS continue to emerge about the New York Police Department's (NYPD) secret program for spying on Muslims, with the cooperation of the CIA. The CIA has now been forced to launch an investigation into the legality of its own actions, given that the agency is prohibited from spying on Americans. The NYPD's Islamophobic and racist surveillance tactics have become one of the most glaring examples of how the "war on terror" serves not only as a justification for imperialist war and occupation, but also for domestic political repression. The NYPD Intelligence Division has long been known to infiltrate mosques and engage in surveillance without a warrant or any evidence of a crime, inside and outside New York City. According to the AP, the Demographic Unit "maintained a list of 28 countries that, along with 'American Black Muslim,' the department labeled 'ancestries of interest.'"