We have been following the continuing abuse of citizens who are detained or arrested for filming police in public. (For prior columns, click here and here). Despite consistent rulings upholding the right of citizens to film police in public, these abuses continue. There is a new case out of Miami of a citizen, freelance disc jockey Lazaro Estrada, who was arrested for obstruction of justice despite the fact that witnesses say that he was merely taping an arrest at a store.
Category: Society
James Kottak, the drummer for the rock band Scorpions, has been sentenced to one month in jail in the United Arab Emirates for conduct offensive to Islam. This reportedly included raising his middle finger and insulting the faith.
For many, the use of the word “literally” is literally the bane of their existence. People often use it for emphasis when the literal meaning of the sentence could not possibly be true. Take statement of Vice President Joe Biden who loves to use the word and, on Monday, told a crowd that he has met “literally every” world leader at my school, George Washington University. It was funny enough that Carrie Dann of NBC News had to tweet it.
Continue reading “Biden: I Have Met “Literally Every” World Leader”
We previously discussed the racist comments of Clippers owner Donald Sterling. We discussed the possible sanctions under the NBA rules, which are confidential. This afternoon NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced that Clippers owner Donald Sterling will be suspended for life and fined $2.5 million. That blows away any prior sanction of the NBA.
There is yet another victory for the national security state under President Obama. The Obama Administration has succeeded, with the help of Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein, in quietly removing a provision that would seem unobjectionable to a President who pledged “the most transparent Administration in history.” The provision simply required disclosure of the number of people killed each year by U.S. drone attacks. Not the details mind you. Just the figure. That sent the intelligence community into outrage over having to tell the public how many people have been killed in just this one area. The result was that it was simply stripped out of the Senate bill without a vote or debate.
Beaver County Common Pleas Judge Gus Kwidis is under file this week after he ordered the home of a widow, Eileen Battisti sold for failure to pay $6.30 in unpaid interest to the county. Kwidis ruled that Battisti had ample notice and only has herself to blame for losing her home. Others see the blame lying elsewhere in a decision that elevated a de minimus violation above simple justice.
Former Illinois State Rep. Keith Farnham, 66, was the co-sponsor of two bills to increase the punishment for child pornography may soon regret the effort. He has been charged with child pornography crimes related to hundreds of images and videos on his personal and state-owned computers as well as graphic online chats. In one such chat, he allegedly wrote that “12 is about as old as i can handle . . . i love them at 6 7 8.” In another chat, he allegedly bragged about sexually molesting a 6-year-old girl. He is not charged with that rape. In the sick and bizarre world of child porn, such a claim may have been a form of bragging than a true admission of a rape. Farnham resigned from office shortly after his state office was raided. He said that he needed to resign due to health concerns.
For many civil libertarians, the American political system appears caught in a vicious loop. While Americans are demanding change and hold both parties at record lows, the party elite have changed nothing. (Indeed, a new poll shows the Democrats at a new low and now in danger of losing not just the White House but Congress). The leading candidate for the Democrats is Hillary Clinton (who has also been shown to have low numbers in recent polls). The Republicans are pushing another Bush. For many libertarians and civil libertarians, Clinton is a non-starter. She supported the wars under Bush as well as the Libyan intervention under Obama. She is the very face of the Democratic establishment for many. That image was reinforced last week at the University of Connecticut, when Clinton discussed Edward Snowden and expressed utter confusion why he would ever do what he did.
There is a highly disturbing story and photos out of Tennessee where a police officer is shown choking a college student, Jarod Dotson, 22, who does not appear to be resisting. The police had been called to a party at the University of Tennessee and police reported that bottles were thrown at officers. However, in this picture, there appears no risk or resistance for the officer, Deputy Sheriff Frank Phillips.
Continue reading “Tennessee Officer Shown Choking An Unresisting Student Into Unconsciousness”
There is a truly shocking lawsuit that has been filed in Toronto in which Sharlene Simon, 42, is suing Brandon Majewski, 17, (left) despite the fact that he died in a terrible accident that also seriously injured his friend, Richard McLean, 16, and hurt Jake Roberts, 16. Simon struck the boys from behind in her SUV and she is now claiming emotional damages stemming from the fact that the boys were “incompetent bicyclists.” She is suing the boys, their families, the city, and even the brother of one of the boys in seeking $1.35 million. While we have seen a couple of truly despicable lawsuits, this one just may set a new low among bottom feeders.
I am still in shock over the racist rant of Clippers owner Donald Sterling this weekend. However, what is equally astonishing is that he was set to receive the lifetime achievement award from the NAACP at its upcoming 100th anniversary gala in Los Angeles. I am dumbfounded how someone who allegedly holds such hateful views would even maintain a basketball team in Los Angeles, but the thought that he might have received an award from the NAACP is truly otherworldly. The legal options for the NBA will now take center stage in the controversy. In the meantime, there is no conclusive proof that it was Sterling on the tapes, which is now the focus of the investigation.
Continue reading “Clippers Owner Will Not Receive NAACP Lifetime Achievement Award”
We have been discussing the Court’s ruling in the Michigan affirmative action case, Schuette v. BAMN. This included a recent column in CNN with two of my George Washington law students. This Sunday, civil rights attorney Shanta Driver went on Fox News Sunday to denounce the decision as “racist” and presumably anyone supporting the result. The comments caused quite a stir and highlights the continuing difficulty in discussing such issues — and the fear of some that they will be labeled racists if they support a color-blind admissions process.
While the government continues to arrest those who protest its policies, Iran has been faced with a novel form of protest by citizens who are shaving their heads in solidarity with prisoners being killed and brutalized in the nation’s prison complex. These include political detainees at the infamous Evin Prison who were shown on a recent video being beaten by Revolutionary Guards. At the center of the controversy is Gholam Hossein Esmaili, a true fanatic who went on television to deny all such allegations, say that his guards have been uniformly “polite” to detainees, and that the videotape is a conspiracy of the West to overthrow the government. While most countries would investigate him for possible criminal acts and certainly fire him for abuse, the Islamic Republic promoted him to head Tehran Province’s courts. That’s right, the mullahs felt that he was perfect to be put into the court system. In the meantime, the government shut down the Ebtekar Newspaper , which reported on aspects of the controversy. By the way, Evin Prison (left) under the reign of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi held a reported 1,500 detainees. Under Iran’s Islamic government, it hold a reportedly 15,000. While it holds conventional prisoners, it holds so many dissident intellectuals and professors that it is now nicknamed “Evin University.”
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty-(rafflaw)- Weekend Contributor
If you were like me, you may never have heard the term “Communications Management Units” before. They are basically a section of a prison where certain prisoners are housed with limited or no access to communications or family visitations. The reason very little was known about the CMU’s is that when they first were initiated at prisons in Indiana and Illinois, their existence was kept from the public.
“The units opened almost in secret in 2006 and 2008. Critics say they flouted federal law by not publishing the proposed rule and opening up a period for public comment.” Readers Supported News If a lawsuit filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights had not been filed in 2010, we may never have known much about these abusive tactics in our domestic prison system. Maybe the harshest aspect of being sent to the CMU was the realization that you may never know why you were sent there or how you could get out of it. Continue reading “Communications Management Units and Prisoners Rights”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
BBC News is reporting legislation is now going into effect that would expand the authority of secret police agencies and offer further immunities to its agents while at the same time proscribing punishments of up to ten years imprisonment for journalists who publish what the government considers secret information.
Opponents to Prime Minister Recep Erdogan charge that the measures were enacted to boost his authority and power and to facilitate his will to stifle evidence of his various acts of corruption.
The new law extends the ability of secret service agents to conduct foreign operations, tap phone conversations and to access data held by private and public institutions
Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party, has said the law has effectively turned Turkey into an “intelligence state”.
Continue reading “New Law In Turkey Expands Surveillance State And Cracks Down On Journalists”