Archive for the 'Police State' Category
Britain: Government Plans Radical Privatization for Police
March 5th, 2012I like this moment of clarity from the unnamed West Midlands police authority spokesman: “Combining with the business sector is aimed at totally transforming the way the force currently does business – improving the service provided to the public.” Law enforcement = business. If you start thinking about Mussolini and corporatism as you read the […]
U.S. Court Approves Warrantless Searches of Cell Phones
March 2nd, 2012Via: Reuters: U.S. police can search a cell phone for its number without having a warrant, according to a federal appeals court ruling. Officers in Indiana found a number of cell phones at the scene of a drug bust, and searched each phone for its telephone number. Having the numbers allowed the government to subpoena […]
White House Pumped Millions Into NYPD’s Muslim Surveillance Programs
February 28th, 2012Via: CBS: Millions of dollars in White House money has helped pay for New York Police Department programs that put entire American Muslim neighborhoods under surveillance. The money is part of a little-known grant intended to help law enforcement fight drug crimes. Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Bush and Obama administrations […]
FBI Turns Off Thousands of GPS Devices After Supreme Court Ruling
February 26th, 2012Via: Wall Street Journal: The Supreme Court’s recent ruling overturning the warrantless use of GPS tracking devices has caused a “sea change” inside the U.S. Justice Department, according to FBI General Counsel Andrew Weissmann. Mr. Weissmann, speaking at a University of San Francisco conference called “Big Brother in the 21st Century” on Friday, said that […]
Corrections Corporation of America Wants to Buy State Owned Prisons and Then Get States to Commit to Keeping Them Full of Prisoners
February 23rd, 2012Via: ACLU: Recently we learned that the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the largest private prison company in the country, sent a letter to 48 state governors offering to buy up their state-owned and operated prisons and put them under CCA control. If offering cash-strapped states a quick infusion of money by taking control of […]
Laser ‘Dazzler’ Weapon Approved for Use by Police and Coast Guard
February 20th, 2012Via: New Scientist: THE US police and coastguard may soon start using laser “dazzlers” like those the American and British militaries have employed for years at checkpoints in Iraq and Afghanistan. At the SHOT Show last month in Las Vegas, Nevada, B.E. Meyers Electro-Optics of Redmond, Washington, unveiled the first laser dazzler that has been […]
NYPD Monitored Muslim Students All Over Northeast
February 19th, 2012Via: AP: The New York Police Department monitored Muslim college students far more broadly than previously known, at schools far beyond the city limits, including the elite Ivy League colleges of Yale and the University of Pennsylvania, The Associated Press has learned. Police talked with local authorities about professors 480 kilometres away in Buffalo and […]
NYPD “Stop and Frisks” Hit All-Time High
February 15th, 2012Via: NBC: The number of so-called “stop and frisks” is rising. City police officers stopped and questioned 684,330 people on the street last year, a record since the NYPD began yearly tallies of the tactic in 2002 and a 14 percent increase over 2010. It couldn’t be determined how many people were patted down during […]
Canada: Proposal Would Create Massive Surveillance System
February 14th, 2012Via: The Montreal Gazette: Police will get much easier access to the web-surfing habits and personal information of all Canadians if a new law – expected to be introduced in the House of Commons next week – passes. Privacy watchdogs caution if the so-called Lawful Access law is passed, it would give police access to […]
After Two Year Federal Undercover Investigation, Judge Stops Amish Farmer’s Sale of Raw Milk to Maryland
February 14th, 2012Via: Lancaster Online: A federal District Court judge has ordered a Kinzers farmer to stop selling raw milk to customers in Maryland. Judge Lawrence Stengel issued a permanent injunction Feb. 2 barring Amish dairyman Daniel Allgyer from sending the unpasteurized beverage across state lines to Grassfed on The Hill, a Washington, D.C.-area buying club. The […]
