A California officer has been accused of shooting and killing Hans Kevin Arellano, 22, (left) after a confrontation where the unarmed man called the officer a “bitch.” The shooting was captured on a cell phone video and the witness says that the shooting was unprovoked and unjustified.
Continue reading “California Officer Shoots Unarmed Homeless Man”
We previously discussed the infamous case of Tawana Brawley and Al Sharpton, now a MSNBC host. In 1987, Brawley, a black teenager, falsely accused a prosecutor, a New York police officer and a state trooper of a racist attack and rape. The racial animus was fueled actively by Al Sharpton who used the case to propelled himself into national fame or infamy. She later recanted and a court ordered damages to be paid by both Brawley and Sharpton — neither of whom paid. The falsely accused former Dutchess County prosecutor Steven Pagones tracked down Brawley living in Virginia and working as a nurse last year. He is owed $190,000 in damages against Brawley, now 40.
Continue reading “Tawana Brawley’s Wages Garnished For Defamation Damages From Infamous Hoax Case”
The desperate efforts of Congress to change the public view of Edward Snowden appears to be continuing. This week someone in the Senate attempted to change the description of Snowden as a “dissident” to a “traitor” on Wikipedia. The White House and congressional leaders are clearly alarmed that many view Snowden as a whistleblower. The media groups like NPR previously yielded to pressure not to call Snowden a whistleblower and instead use the less flattering term “leaker.” However, that is not enough because it does not seem to have helped.
Millikin University is facing a challenging controversy over one of its faculty, Professor James St. James. It turns out that James St. James is not his original name which was James Gordon Wolcott. The problem is that Wolcott is a former state mental patient who killed his family in 1967. St. James effectively reinvented himself with remarkable (and commendable) success — ultimately not just teaching but heading the university’s Department of Behavioral Sciences. The university is standing by him as people call for his removal from the faculty.
Orange County Sheriff’s Deputy Juan Tavera is facing a bizarre charge this week for allegedly spraying a teenager’s pizza with pepper spray without his knowledge in a routine traffic stop.
While Colorado has legalized marijuana and other states are moving to decriminalize or legalize its use, Texas takes a hard approach to pot. That was more than evident in the tragedy surrounding the death of a two-year-old little girl named Alexandria Hill who died from injuries in an abusive foster home after she was taken away due to her parent’s use of marijuana.
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
Drivers are subject to license suspension for a variety of legitimate reasons: Conviction for a criminal traffic offense; interests of safety; and for other administrative violations. Essentially it could be ranked into two categories: safety or punitive. While the former is generally not controversial, the implementation of the latter is generally understood to be reasonable. But, in some situations it can be argued by some to be a form of bondage involving what leads to a multi-year ordeal of suspension where the licensee is held in demand for increasing levels of penalties owed to the state, placing what could be argued to be a vicious cycle of artificially created debt that many find difficult to satisfy.
A significant issue in several states lies with the revolving door of driver license suspensions. A typical example would be a defendant who is cited for a violation and receives a license suspension as a penalty. Often there is a monetary fine that must be paid in addition to other sanctions to receive the license reinstatement. Often times these fines are of such cost that those subject to license suspension have difficulty paying and therefore their license and consequently their livelihood is taken away. Often what starts as a simple traffic ticket that goes unpaid leads to effectively a debt bondage, where the driver is required to pay increasing fines, interest, and assessments with little for relief.
Continue reading “Driver License Suspension: Debt Bondage for Modern Times?”
Submitted By: Mike Spindell, Guest Blogger
As you know part of my contribution as a guest blogger has been the fact that I write much from personal experience. This particular blog is one that I’ve thought about for awhile and have had some trepidation in writing because as you will see it touches on a very sensitive topic for most males. As a boy coming of age in the 1950’s one of the unvoiced, but omnipresent topics was male homosexuality. For a male growing up in that period, among the most upsetting epithets you could be called was queer. This was especially disturbing for those entering puberty, which in the 50’s context was coming into the macho essence of your own self worth. If you were queer you were deemed to be less of a male, a wimp, a fag and most essentially a loathsome pervert who did disgusting things with other males. People were bullied and beaten at school while being called degrading names. Even though I was always big for my age, I was a gentle and sensitive boy and while when attacked I would always fight back, I would be throwing punches through tears of frustration and rage at the injustice of it all. As I cried and fought, all those demeaning epithets would be hurled at me by the jeering bystanders. If I had the temerity to be winning, then other boys would attack me from behind. Finally, a teacher or Administrator would break it up, many times though my rescuer would sneer at the fact that my crying was “unmanly”. Continue reading “Call Me Queer”
We have been following the threats to arrest gay athletes in Russia under the new anti-homosexual laws of the Putin regime — a threat repeated recently by a minister despite assurances from the International Olympic Committee. One official however suggested it may be suspended for the games. Now there are reports The Putin governments alliance with the Russian Orthodox Church has expressed itself in the abusive prosecution of the band Pussy Riot as well as the crackdown on gays and lesbians. Now these reports detail videotapes of gay men being forced to drink urine and abused as a “cure” of their homosexuality.
I guess some jurisdictional questions are easier than others. Prosecutors often look at whether an interstate road was used in a crime, but what is the crime is the interstate road? It may sound like a Yakov Smirnoff skit (“In Russia, you don’t steal away on the road, the road . . . “) but in Syktyvkar, Russia a man was arrested for stealing 82 reinforced concrete slabs that made up a road outside of a city.
Continue reading “Highway Robbery: Russian Man Arrested For Stealing Road”
The Atlantic Magazine has an interesting article out this week on a little known effort by the Administration to stop Americans from listening to a speech in Mexico by Leon Trotsky that would be transmitted over a telephone line. Assistant Solicitor General Golden W. Bell wrote the memo below stating that the Administration had no such authority. That was before the Office of Legal Counsel and the rest of the Department became more ambitious and less principled. Today they can find interpretations to allow the circumvention of the separation of powers, the assassination of citizens, the establishment of a torture program, and the maintenance of an Imperial Presidency.
Continue reading “DOJ Memo Reveals Effort To Block Trotsky Speech”
It is now confirmed that NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has been granted temporary asylum in Russia and has left Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International airport. The United States continues to threaten any country that grants Snowden asylum and has been successful in pressuring U.S. media never to refer to him as a whistleblower. While MSNBC hosts mock Snowden and express disbelief why he doesn’t just trust that Obama will give him a fair trial, there is little reason for Snowden to trust those assurances when a president is claiming the right to kill citizens without trial, send some people to military tribunals, and routinely uses classification laws to force the dismissal of public interest lawsuits. What’s not to trust?
Continue reading “Snowden Granted Temporary Asylum In Russia”
This morning we have yet another article detailing a warrantless surveillance program by the National Security Agency that contradicts representations made by President Barack Obama and members of Congress. You may recall how Obama has tried to get citizens to embrace a new surveillance-friendly model of privacy after the disclosure of massive surveillance of citizens, including programs acquiring every call made by citizens. Various Democratic members came forward to admit that they knew of such programs and not to be afraid . . . they have our backs. Yet every story that has surfaced has contradicted claims that such programs are limited and do not involve the content of communications in emails and messages. The latest program being reported is called XKeyscore and is described as scouring emails, chat rooms, and browsing histories . . . all without a warrant. In the meantime, citizens in polls are saying that they are more concerned with the threat of their own government to their privacy than the threat of terrorism. Once again, citizens learned of this program not from their representative or their media but largely from the foreign press and the disclosures of Edward Snowden.
Russian Lawmaker Vitaly Milonov is promising to arrest Olympic athletes found to be in violation of the country’s new abusive anti-gay law. The “gay propaganda” law has led many to call for the games to be shifted from Russia since the host country would arrest athletes who are openly gay. In the meantime, a boycott of Russian vodka has picked up steam around the world in protest of the crackdown on gays and lesbians.
Continue reading “Russian Legislator Promises To Arrest Gay Olympic Athletes Under New Anti-Gay Law”
Raif Badawi, who started the ‘Free Saudi Liberals’ website to discuss the role of religion in Saudi Arabia, has been sentenced to a Saudi “court” to seven years in prison and 600 lashes for his engaging in free speech. It is the latest outrage from our closest Arab ally. Yet, we continue to treat Iran as part of the axis of evil while our allies deny basic rights and enforce draconian Medieval laws against dissidents and non-believers.
Continue reading “Saudi Court Sentences Blogger To Seven Years And 600 Lashes Under Sharia Law”