Corruption Corner – Page 40

I’m Sure He Deserved It

The war on drugs not approved by the state is one of the most vicious acts the state has taken. We have an almost unfathomable number of people rotting in prisons because they were found guilty of a decree (not a crime, a crime requires a victim). Worse yet, the state also finds it acceptable to punish the innocent:

The DEA left a student in a holding cell without food, water, or a bathroom for five days. Daniel Chong slept over at a friend’s house after celebrating April 20th, a day that marijuana users set aside to smoke pot. The DEA raided the house the next day and took him and eight others down to a local DEA office to answers questions. After he was told he was free to go, he was placed into a holding cell.

Chong screamed and pounded on the walls for help, but no one came to let him out, even after hearing people enter and exit the building. Since he was left without water, he was forced to drink his own urine and ate a white powdery substance found in his cell that turned out to be methamphetamine.

An innocent man locked in a cell for five days without food or water… but the jailers managed to toss some methamphetamine. What next, are they doing to charge him with using the meth? I wouldn’t put it past the state honestly. His kidnapping also lead to his attempted suicide:

After all of this, he tried to take his own life by breaking his own glasses, swallowing part of the glass and trying to carve his arms with the glass. When the agents finally discovered him, he was unresponsive and was sent to intensive care.

Yup, this is the war on drugs ladies and gentlemen. Your tax dollars are being used to bring violence against nonviolent individual.

Even the Mainstream Media is Noticing the FBI’s Penchent for Stopping Its Own Terror Plots

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) dirty little secret is that the terrorist plots they’ve “stopped” have all been ones of their own creation. Earlier this year the FBI “stopped” a bombing attempt on the United States Capitol, which was made possible by the FBI who not only encouraged the supposed bomber but gave him the “bomb” to as well. This practice has become so common that even the New York Times is no longer able to overlook it:

THE United States has been narrowly saved from lethal terrorist plots in recent years — or so it has seemed. A would-be suicide bomber was intercepted on his way to the Capitol; a scheme to bomb synagogues and shoot Stinger missiles at military aircraft was developed by men in Newburgh, N.Y.; and a fanciful idea to fly explosive-laden model planes into the Pentagon and the Capitol was hatched in Massachusetts.

But all these dramas were facilitated by the F.B.I., whose undercover agents and informers posed as terrorists offering a dummy missile, fake C-4 explosives, a disarmed suicide vest and rudimentary training. Suspects naïvely played their parts until they were arrested.

[…]

This is legal, but is it legitimate? Without the F.B.I., would the culprits commit violence on their own? Is cultivating potential terrorists the best use of the manpower designed to find the real ones? Judging by their official answers, the F.B.I. and the Justice Department are sure of themselves — too sure, perhaps.

The FBI knows two things: nobody pays attention to the details of stories anymore and fear is the state’s most powerful weapon. Point one relates to how easy it is for the FBI to pull off their little scams. They know 90% of the population isn’t going to bother looking into the details of any story about terrorist plots stopped by the FBI. In addition that 90% won’t listen to the 10% of us who do look into the details because they think we’re crazy conspiracy theorists. Point two’s value is pretty obvious, if people are afraid they’ll submit to the state in the hopes of receiving protection from the communist muslim extremist terrorists who are bent on bring Sharia law by bombing our country.

For the FBI it’s a pretty sweet scam… until people start to notice. Eventually even the 90% who pay no attention to the details of these stories wake up and notice something is amiss. Usually this happens when some mainstream media source finally reports on it, such as the case with this New York Times article. It looks like the FBI may have to find another way of cowing the American public into obedience.

We’re with the Government, We’re Here to Take Your Stuff

What happens when changing the labor laws to make it nearly impossible for an independent farm to function isn’t enough? If you’re the state you just start doing what you’re good at, stealing their money:

Now, Obama has the Dept. of Justice going after small farmers under the post-911 “Bank Secrecy Act” which makes it a crime to deposit less than $10,000 when you earned more than that.

“The level we deposited was what it was and it was about the same every week,” Randy Sowers told Frederick News. The Sowers own and run South Mountain Creamery in Middletown, Maryland.

Admittedly, when the Sowers earned over $10,000 in February, and learned they’d have to fill out paperwork at the bank for such large deposits, they simply rolled the deposits over to keep them below the none-of-your-fucking-business amount, rather than waste time on bureaucratic red tape aimed at flagging terrorism or other illegal activities.

“Structuring,” explains Overlawyered.com, “is the federal criminal offense of splitting up bank deposits so as to keep them under a threshold such as $10,000 above which banks have to report transactions to the government.”

While being questioned, the Sowers were finally presented with a seizure order and advised that the feds had already emptied their bank account of $70,000. The Dept. of Justice has since sued to keep $63,000 of the Sowers’ money, though they committed no crime other than maintaining their privacy.

This just goes to show that there is a law for everything. If you don’t want to fill out a ton of pointless paperwork when depositing $10,000 or more you’re committing a criminal act by making multiple smaller deposits. At this point it’s probably smarter to build your own valut to store you cash in because it certainly isn’t safe at the bank.

You also have to love the fact that the Department of Justice (DoJ) is suing the farmer to keep most of the ill-gotten money even though the farmers have committed no crime. Guilty until proven, well, guilty is the motto in this country.

TSA Caught Smuggling Drugs

Although bat shit crazy Torgerson believes we should be grateful to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) I would rather point out their failures to demonstrate why they should be disbanded. In the lastest scam the TSA were caught running a drug smuggling operation:

Four current and former security screeners at Los Angeles international airport have been arrested and charged with drug-trafficking and bribery.

The four accepted cash to allow large shipments of cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana through X-ray machines, the US justice department said.

[…]

Two of the four accused are current employees of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), while the other two used to work for the organisation.

The current employees, John Whitfield, 23, and Capeline McKinney, 25, are accused of allowing shipments of more than 20kg (44lb) to pass through a screening area while they were on shift.

Former TSA screener Joy White, 27, is accused of a similar offence, while Naral Richardson, 30, is alleged to have made arrangements for shipments to pass unhindered.

Other individuals named in the indictment are accused of being part of the smuggling ring, several working as drug mules.

Between sexually molesting young children, old woman, and anybody who piques the interest of an agent it’s nice to know the TSA still finds time to perform other acts of depravity. This also demonstrates the futility of the TSA since any terrorist wanting to blow up a plane just needs to find an agent willing to accept large quantities of cash to ignore any explosive device traveling through the scanner.

Silence Citizen

People often believe we live in a free country where the freedom of speech is respected. It’s not true, the United States censors people all of the time but isn’t as blatant about it as some states. Instead of outright censoring political dissidence the United States uses various laws and procedures claimed to be in place for safety reasons to determine who can and can’t speak as on blogger found out:

The North Carolina Board of Dietetics/Nutrition is threatening to send a blogger to jail for recounting publicly his battle against diabetes and encouraging others to follow his lifestyle.

Chapter 90, Article 25 of the North Carolina General Statutes makes it a misdemeanor to “practice dietetics or nutrition” without a license. According to the law, “practicing” nutrition includes “assessing the nutritional needs of individuals and groups” and “providing nutrition counseling.”

Steve Cooksey has learned that the definition, at least in the eyes of the state board, is expansive.

When he was hospitalized with diabetes in February 2009, he decided to avoid the fate of his grandmother, who eventually died of the disease. He embraced the low-carb, high-protein Paleo diet, also known as the “caveman” or “hunter-gatherer” diet. The diet, he said, made him drug- and insulin-free within 30 days. By May of that year, he had lost 45 pounds and decided to start a blog about his success.

But this past January the state diatetics and nutrition board decided Cooksey’s blog — Diabetes-Warrior.net — violated state law. The nutritional advice Cooksey provides on the site amounts to “practicing nutrition,” the board’s director says, and in North Carolina that’s something you need a license to do.

Isn’t that a nice little scam to censor speech? First you require anybody practicing dietetics or nutrition to be licensed and then you make the act of providing nutritional “counseling” without said license illegal. Since counseling is a pretty good catch-all term that can be applied to any advocacy you can effectively prevent individuals from speaking about a topic unless they’re approved by the state.

No Good Cop Goes Unpunished

If you’re being attacked by a police officer defending yourself will likely lead to your death. What happens when a police officer tries to stop a fellow police officer from attacking an innocent person though? The defender is deemed “psychologically unfit” to be a police officer:

So why aren’t those good cops busy tasering their off-base colleagues? Or at least giving them a good thumping?

The answer, it appears is “Regina Tasca.” She’s a Bogota, New Jersey, police officer who responded to a medical call to transport an emotionally disturbed young man to the hospital. As per protocol, she called for backup. Two officers from Ridgefield arrived on the scene, and proceeded to whomp on Kyle, the guy they were supposedly helping.

[…]

Even worse, Kyle was never charged, nor arrested, for any offense. Tasca says it’s because he never threatened, did not have a weapon, and indeed never resisted and was not violent. Eventually Tasca was able to pry the punching Ridgefield Park officer off Kyle, as seen in a picture taken by the Kyle’s mother, who also later commended Tasca in a phone call.

You know what comes next, right? Yeah. After physically intervening against two violent colleagues-in-blue, Tasca’a job is at stake. She faces a departmental trial on charges that she’s “psychologically unfit” to be a police officer.

I suppose that could be true. It all depends on what you’re looking for in your police officers — and what kind of cops you’re trying to screen out.

I think the last line is telling, the cop that was actually trying to defend the innocent person is being considered “psychologically unfit” which leads one to ponder what kind of psychological profile police departments are looking for. Perhaps they want the violent bullies patrolling the streets and beating on bystanders.

Get Them Started Early

The hardest part about implementing a police state is getting the people to fully submit to it. Sure we see mindless submission to the state left and right but if the state inconveniences the populace too much the populace will eventually give the state a jolly old send off. What you really need to do is get people used to the police state while they’re still young, which is what Texas has been doing:

He is looking down on a courtroom full of teenagers and their parents who are facing “Class C” misdemeanour offences for skipping school.

At the truancy courts of Dallas in Texas, absence from class or repeated late arrivals are punishable with fines of up to $500 (£316).

“A Class C misdemeanour is the lowest level of all the criminal offences, it would be the equivalent of a traffic ticket or not abiding by a stop sign on the street,” says Judge Sholden, who can also hand out sanctions like essays and book reports in his sentence.

The use of the court system to correct student behaviour is a popular policy used in schools across Texas.

A recent study put the number of Class C tickets issued to young people at around 300,000 per year.

Using the judicial system to punish students for skipping class? If that doesn’t scream police state what does? But wait, there’s more:

“I ran into a mother recently whose daughter wrote her name on a school desk in highlighter and she was given a felony conviction for that.

Felony. Conviction. Because a girl wrote here name on her desk with a highlighter she is barred the right to own firearms and vote (unless Texas expunges juvenile convictions, including felonies, when a kid becomes and adult but that is becoming rare). Back in my day (now I’m sounding old) we were merely made to clean off the graffiti and sent on our way. Instead of ruining the life of a student for nothing more than easily washed off graffiti we simply had to correct our wrong, which is how it should be.

Of course this kind of school disciplinary system has two benefits to the state; it gets students used to the police state and raises money. If skipping class can net you a fine of $500, how much money do you think is brought in through fines in the Texas school system? I’m guessing it’s quite a bit. After all, fines exist for the sole purpose of raising money for the state.

I’m guessing this method of dealing with transgressions by school kids will spread beyond Texas, it’s just too authoritarian not to.

Because Police Oversight is Overrated

Even though the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) has a rather colorful history that demonstrated a need for oversight the goons at the state capitol have decided police oversight is unnecessary:

A state law enacted over the opposition of city leaders has significantly reduced the power of the Minneapolis panel that investigates police misconduct, throwing the city’s 22-year-old system of civilian police oversight into doubt.

The bill to prohibit the Minneapolis Civilian Review Authority (CRA) from issuing “findings of fact” was introduced at the request of the Minneapolis Police Federation, the politically influential police union, and won overwhelming bipartisan support in the Minnesota Senate and House. Despite appeals from Mayor R.T. Rybak’s office and City Council members, Gov. Mark Dayton signed the bill into law Thursday.

“I fully share the desire to assure the highest standards of police conduct,” Dayton said in a statement Friday. “However, serious concerns have been expressed about the Minneapolis Civilian Review Authority, prompting the city to begin its own review. This will be an opportunity to improve the authority’s procedures, so that it can better carry out its important responsibilities.”

Serious concerns have been expressed about the Minneapolis Civilian Review Authority? What kind of concerns? Did they stumble across another Gang Task Force-esque blunder and had to be shut up before it was brought to light?

I’m sure MPD will enjoy their new reign, free of any pesky oversight by mere civilians.

This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things

Evidence, probably cause, reasonable suspicion, and due process are all things that were thrown out the door when the war on drugs began. The fact police departments are allowed to keep and seized evidence in drug related confiscations has meant there has been a great dead of drug confiscations (shocking, I know). A woman in Moorhead, Minnesota has just learned this lesson the hard way:

For the struggling waitress with five children, the $12,000 left at the table in a to-go box must have seemed too good to be true.

Moorhead police decided it was just that.

Now, the waitress is suing in Clay County District Court, claiming the cash was given to her and police shouldn’t have seized it as drug money.

“The thing that’s sad about it is here’s somebody who truly needs this gift … and now the government is getting in the way of it,” said the woman’s attorney, Craig Richie of Fargo.

Moorhead police Lt. Tory Jacobson said he couldn’t discuss the matter.

“We certainly have an ongoing investigation with it, with suspicion of narcotics or the involvement of narcotics investigators,” he said.

[…]

“Even though I desperately needed the money as my husband and I have 5 children, I feel I did the right thing by calling Moorhead Police,” she states in the lawsuit.

The lesson to take away from this story is never report cash gifts received to the state, they’ll just take it from you. What’s even worse is the fact this behavior is entirely legal thanks to United States Code 881(a)(6):

(a) Subject property

The following shall be subject to forfeiture to the United States and no property right shall exist in them:

[…]

(6) All moneys, negotiable instruments, securities, or other things of value furnished or intended to be furnished by any person in exchange for a controlled substance or listed chemical in violation of this subchapter, all proceeds traceable to such an exchange, and all moneys, negotiable instruments, and securities used or intended to be used to facilitate any violation of this subchapter.

Oh, it gets better. The above law has also been upheld in court:

Bundling and concealment of large amounts of currency, combined with other suspicious circumstances, supports a connection between money and drug trafficking. A plausible, but unlikely explanation by a claimant fails to show that the currency was not substantially connected to a narcotics offense. Judgment of the district court reversed.

Federal law basically gives a police officer sole discretion in deciding whether or not money in your possession is intended to be used to facilitate a violation of drug laws. When a random police officer mades this determination your right of ownership over that money is revoked by the state and they get to take it. The ruling in United States v. $124,000 in U.S. Currency states a plausible explanation on behalf of the police officer’s victim fails to show the money wasn’t substantially connected to a narcotics offense, so you’re truly guilty until proven innocent.

The war on drugs managed to destroy what little property rights remained in this country. One is no longer a self-owner as the state can dicate what you may or may not put into your body and any ownership of property outside of your body is also entirely ignored. While drug manufacturers and dealers made insane amounts of money because of the war on drugs the bigger criminal organization, the state, makes far more.

Never Ending Punishment

A phrase that used to be common in my area was, if you do the crime you do the time. Two things were implied by this saying: a person convicted of a crime would be punished and once the guilty person served their time they would be free to rejoin society as their debt had been paid. Unfortunately the last part isn’t recognized in our culture, especially if you’ve been charged with a felony.

I’ve been an outspoken critic of the law prohibiting all felons from owning firearms. What ground exists for banning a person charged with tax evasion from owning a firearm? None as far as I’m concerned. Yet in this country if you’re charged with a felony your life is suddenly worth less than other people’s. In fact your life is worth so little that it becomes a crime to defend yourself:

Anthony Robinson, 19, allegedly was trying to break into Wright’s home in the 6400 block of South Morgan Street to steal liquor about 6:30 a.m. Monday when Wright shot him in the leg, police said.

Wright was charged with unlawful use of a weapon, a felony, police said.

Robinson, of the 6600 block of South Wood, was charged with burglary. He appeared in bond court wearing a blue hospital gown that he held closed with one hand. Authorities said Wright had shot him in the ankle.

Court records showed Wright pleaded guilty to a 1990 theft charge and served two years on probation, and then served another 2-1/2 years on probation for a 1994 charge of unlawful use of a weapon.

Wright took measures to defend himself but, because he pleaded guilty to theft in 1990, will likely spend time in a cage for having the audacity to value his life over a person breaking into his home. This kind of thing is ridiculous. After ~22 years Wright is still being punished for his crime. ~22 years for pleading guilty to theft. Not only that but the state has also said that his life is now without value simply because he pleaded guilty to an act of theft.

How is tossing somebody convicted of theft in a cage for two and a half years and prohibiting him from defending his life in the futre justice? He should have been made to repay what he stole (I’d actually say he should be forced to repay double what he stole) and all costs of recovery and nothing more. Our so-called justice system does many things, but delivering justice isn’t one of them.