We have another case of police arresting a citizen because he filmed them in public. This one however is with a twist (and a flip).
Continue reading “Florida Police Arrest Prankster Not For Prank But Filming Prank”
Category: Criminal law
We have been discussing the epidemic of rape in India, including the grotesque recent gang rape of a woman on a bus who died from internal injuries. The attitude of Indian officials has ranged from the disgusting to the bizarre. Now we can add the rape of a Swiss 39-year-old woman who was gang raped and her husband beaten up after camping near a Hindu temple. A spokesman for Madhya Pradesh police department promptly said that the woman and her husband brought on the rape by camping in the wrong spot. This week a British woman fractured both legs and suffered head injuries after jumping from her hotel window to escape being raped by the owner.
Continue reading “India Police Spokesman Blames Swiss Couple In Gang Rape”
Last week, Attorney General Eric Holder left no question about the Administration’s support of the abusive treatment of Aaron Swartz by US Attorney Carmen Ortiz and Deputy US Attorney Stephen Heymann. Heymann was previously linked to a suicide in another prosecution. We have discussed the abusive prosecution earlier and Swartz’s suicide after months of unrelenting threats and coercion. Holder heralded the treatment of Swartz as an example of the “good use of prosecutorial discretion.” Swartz’s girlfriend has come forward to denounce Holder and the Obama Administration for its misrepresentations in the case.
Continue reading “Holder Defends Swartz Abuse As Example Of Good Prosecutorial Discretion”
What was expected to be a simple correction of its domestic violence statute in Utah to include non-married couples, triggered a disturbing outburst of homophobic and extremist views. The bill was opposed by the Gun Owners of America.
We have another case of a citizen cleared of a charge after review of a videotape. Officer Derek Middendorf of the Melbourne Florida Police is shown in the tape attacking Albert Flowers, 66, without provocation. As shown in the video below, he not only attacked Flowers but tried to disable his dash camera before the attack. After Middendorf assaults Flowers, another officer tasers Flowers in the face.
We have continued to chronicle the arrest and prosecution of citizens for merely filming police in public. Some prosecutors like Anita Alvarez in Chicago have fought hard to send citizens to jail for videotaping police in public, though courts have continued to support the obvious right to such filming. This video shows that police in other countries like Australia are showing the carrying out the same abusive measures.
Continue reading “Australian Police Abuse Man Filming An Alleged Case of Racial Profiling”
Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and Egyptian diplomats denounced the United Nation’s document calling for the protection of women as contrary to Islamic principles and Egypt is demanding that the resolution include an exception for countries that view the provisions are contrary to their values. The Egyptians called the document “deceitful” and the ruin of traditional families.
A local sharia court has added a stoning death to this year’s record after a Pakistani soldier was found to have had an affair with a local woman in Northwesterd Kurram. To make matters worse, Anwar Din, 27, is a Sunni and Intizar Bibi, 19, is a Shiite girl.
We previously saw how Chinese environmental officials are struggling to pull dead pigs out of the river in Shanghai while assuring people that the tsunami of dead pigs has no effect on drinking the water. Now the body count is up from 900 to 6000 and some articles suggest the number is more like 9000. Yet, Chinese officials insist that they are unable to locate the source.
We previously discussed the case of Lisa and Anthony “A.J.” Demaree who had their three children taken away from them after a Walmart employee reported them to the police as child pornographers for innocent pictures in a bathtub on a vacation. The absurd reaction of Walmart led to their then 5, 4 and 1 1/2 year old daughters being taken away for a month and put the family through a ridiculous criminal process due to the equally negligent acts of the police and prosecutors. Their case is now before the Ninth Circuit in seeking to be able to present their claims to a jury.
This is not the advertising that Thomas Lewis Edwards was looking for in placing the ad for his firm. Edwards, a DUI lawyer, had his recent mug shot posted next to his law firm advertisement. You guessed it: he was arrested for DUI.
The family and neighbors of Arthur Dixon, 43, has raised questions over his death after two St. Petersburg police officers shot him to death after he brandished scissors in a confrontation. Police were called to the home to deal with Dixon who was threatening suicide and had doused himself with gasoline. Firefighters refused to enter the home and family and friends were cleaning up the gasoline and talking to Dixon when police arrived and ordered them to leave. An hour later, Dixon was dead.
At first, this article sounded like a reform in the making out of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: the government is considering a moratorium on beheadings. However, the reason is not some sudden modernization and rejection of medieval Sharia laws. Saudi is facing a labor crisis of sorts: there are too few swordsmen to dispatch the guilty.
Continue reading “Saudi Arabia Considers Halt On Beheadings . . . Due To Shortage of Swordsmen”
It appears that the thin blue line defense still works. A video recently showed Louisville police officer David Graham striking handcuffed John R. Sanders, 19. However, the jury that convicted Graham proceeded to fine him just $2 — $1 for each of the two charges.
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
This blog, like many others has an internal search function that will lead you to past stories. It is located beneath the smiling countenance of our proprietor on the upper right. If you enter SWAT into search, you see that the first archive page shows 19 stories involving SWAT raids that were unnecessary and/or unwarranted. In those raids 4 people and 9 dogs were shot in error by the SWAT Team. Just a catalog of the shootings belies the terror that these raids can instill in people who are merely residing within their homes. Many of the articles detail doors suddenly smashed open, flash grenades and gas grenades tossed into the home, people thrown to the floor handcuffed and left for hours in that position, by invading SWAT teams that either had the wrong house, faulty leads and or in some cases enforcing what were clearly civil warrants. In one instance in California a SWAT raid was carried out due to the suspicion of a defaulted student loan. http://jonathanturley.org/2011/06/08/california-family-hit-with-swat-raid-ordered-by-the-department-of-education/
I believe that the rise of these SWAT teams is leading this country towards martial law and what we all commonly understand is a “police state” as repressive as any we’ve seen in the past century. We have seen constant encroachment on our citizens Constitutional protections and a continued erosion of “the Bill of Rights”. Free Speech, the right to peacefully assemble, Habeas Corpus and safety from unwarranted intrusion in our own homes, among others, have been steadily eroded under various guises, be it the drug war, or national security. In my opinion the SWAT team concept, which militarizes our police forces, is leading this nation to what I see as a state of Martial Law. Despite ones place on the currently inflamed political spectrum, this is a problem that I think concerns us all as citizens, not as partisans. I will present to you sufficient proof of my belief, the majority of which will come from what can be fairly described as a “Libertarian Think Tank” and which was founded by Charles Koch, among others. When I find myself on the same side on an issue as the Cato Institute, then I know with certainty that my fears are well grounded and unrelated to any personal partisanship of my own. Continue reading “SWAT: Is America Coming Under Martial Law?”