Tag Archives: Bill of Rights

New report: In tough times, police property seizures rise

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“The past decade has seen a ‘meteoric, exponential increase’ in the use of the practice. The government does not measure the number of times per year that assets are seized. But one common measure of the practice is the amount of money in the asset forfeiture funds of the Department of Justice and the U.S. Treasury, the two agencies that typically perform forfeitures at the federal level. In 2008,there were less than $1.5 billion in the combined asset forfeiture funds of the Justice Department and the U.S. Treasury, according to the report. But by 2014, that number had tripled, to roughly $4.5 billion.”

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-police-property-seizures-20151110-story.html

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Supreme Court increases immunity for police who kill fleeing suspects

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“The Supreme Court made it harder Monday to sue police for using deadly force against fleeing suspects, ruling that officers are immune from lawsuits unless it is ‘beyond debate’ that a shooting was unjustified and clearly unreasonable.  By an 8-1 vote, the justices tossed out an excessive force suit against a Texas police officer who ignored his supervisor’s warning and took a high-powered rifle to a highway overpass to shoot at an approaching car. The officer said he hoped to stop the car but instead shot and killed the driver. The ruling bolsters previous decisions that give police the benefit of the doubt when they encounter a potentially dangerous situation.”

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-supreme-court-police-shootings-20151109-story.html

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Peter Schiff: Death of a Patriot

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“My father Irwin A. Schiff was born Feb. 23rd 1928, the 8th child and only son of Jewish immigrants, who had crossed the Atlantic twenty years earlier in search of freedom. As a result of their hope and courage my father was fortunate to have been born into the freest nation in the history of the world.  But when he passed away on Oct. 16th, 2015 at the age of 87, a political prisoner of that same nation, legally blind and shackled to a hospital bed in a guarded room in intensive care, the free nation he was born into had itself died years earlier.”

http://www.schiffradio.com/death-of-a-patriot/

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Irwin Schiff, RIP

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“Irwin Schiff, imprisoned for his resistance to the federal income tax, died yesterday. Efforts by his son, the noted financial commentator Peter Schiff, to secure his release from prison so that he could die with his family were unsuccessful. Schiff’s sad passing illustrates an essential truth about the state: if you resist its orders, you will be dealt with by force.”

https://mises.org/blog/irwin-schiff-rip

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Blogging about Cops Is Not a Crime – Even If You’re on Probation

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“Darren Chaker was under supervised release when he wrote on his personal blog that Ms. Leesa Fazal, an investigator with the Nevada Attorney General’s Office, was ‘forced out’ of her previous post with the Las Vegas Police Department.  That statement, according to the district court ultimately overseeing Chaker’s probation, was a violation of the requirement that he ‘not … disparage or defame others on the internet’ — and so Chaker was returned to prison.  If the anti-disparagement provision of Chaker’s supervised release becomes widespread, it could easily stifle valuable speech by activists and others.”

http://fee.org/anythingpeaceful/blogging-about-cops-is-not-a-crime-even-if-youre-on-probation/

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New law permits cop drones to fire beanbag rounds from the sky

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“Legal experts are very concerned that a new North Dakota law which allows law enforcement drones to be armed with so-called less-than-lethal weapons—including stun guns and beanbag rounds—could be highly problematic. Among other reasons, such weapons have been shown that they can, in fact, kill people.  North Dakota is believed to be the first state in the union to allow such weapons aboard state and local police drones. The law, known as House Bill 1328, which took effect earlier this month, imposes a significant pro-privacy victory: requiring that police and sheriff’s deputies get a warrant when deploying a drone for surveillance.”

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/08/new-law-permits-north-dakota-cop-drones-to-fire-bean-bag-rounds-from-the-sky/

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Georgia’s civil asset forfeiture ‘reform’ to go into effect

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“HB 233 was signed by Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal to reform civil asset forfeiture laws. The new legislation requires law enforcement agencies to be more transparent about how seized money is spent and requires the money to be used only for law enforcement purposes. However, the burden will still be on property owners to get their property back as law enforcement’s burden of proof is still low, requiring only a ‘preponderance of evidence,’ or 50 percent plus 1 in order to seize property.  One of the worst parts of Georgia’s civil asset forfeiture laws is instead of seized property going to a general state fund or the local governing body, the seized assets go to the law enforcement agency.”

http://watchdog.org/226638/civil-asset-forfeiture-reform-georgia/

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Leave “My Cash” Alone, Says Oklahoma Sheriff

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“After a concerned individual recounted his unfortunate encounters with Oklahoma police, Sheriff Edwards dismissed him as having ‘bad luck.’ It seems that Oklahomans must count on ‘luck’ not to be improperly targeted for their property.  SB 838 would also transfer the assets seized to the State General Fund and away from police department budgets. Edwards claimed that this money was critical to combatting drugs and other public health risks. However, a federal audit of Oklahoma law enforcement agencies show that large sums of seized assets are returned to agency personnel in the form of salaries and benefits, for administrative tasks, and non-law enforcement purposes.”

http://www.atr.org/leave-my-cash-alone-says-oklahoma-sheriff

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Police Shut Down Concert Because Rapper Appeared by Hologram

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“A change in the playlist [does not] justify the police shutting down the event, when the objection to the change was the inclusion of someone whose viewpoint the city disapproves of.  It appears that Chief Keef appeared by hologram because there was a warrant for his arrest, perhaps for missing a DUI court hearing or for failing to appear in a child support case; but while that would have justified the police arresting him if he appeared in person (since there would be a viewpoint-neutral justification for that, namely arresting someone for whom there is a warrant), that can’t justify the police stopping the holographic projection.”

http://fee.org/anythingpeaceful/detail/police-shut-down-concert-because-rappers-hologram-was-performing

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Ron Paul: Do We Need to Bring Back Internment Camps?

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10182011_Ron_Paul_article

“Last week, Retired General Wesley Clark, who was NATO commander during the US bombing of Serbia, proposed that ‘disloyal Americans’ be sent to internment camps for the ‘duration of the conflict.’ Discussing the recent military base shootings in Chattanooga, TN, in which five US service members were killed, Clark recalled the internment of American citizens during World War II who were merely suspected of having Nazi sympathies. He said: ‘back then we didn’t say ‘that was freedom of speech,’ we put him in a camp.’  He called for the government to identify people most likely to be radicalized so we can ‘cut this off at the beginning.’ That sounds like ‘pre-crime’!”

http://www.thedailybell.com/editorials/36439/Ron-Paul-Do-We-Need-to-Bring-Back-Internment-Camps/

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