Tag: Shut Up Slave

A New Way to Bypass the Fourth Amendment

We’ve witnessed the Fourth Amendment’s inability to protect privacy with the recent National Security Agency’s (NSA) surveillance fiasco. But sometimes the state likes to create a good deal of legal justifications for its willful violation of our privacy. North Carolina has found a clever way of searing vehicles while ignore people’s Fourth Amendment privileges (because let’s not kid ourselves, the Bill or Right is now a set of privileges), hire private security officers to do the searching:

Security guard Brett Hunter received no training as to estimating speed or handling drunk drivers, but he was tasked with issuing speeding tickets to people driving through the community. When Hunter saw Weaver’s Acura through his rearview mirror, he guessed that the car was traveling at 25 MPH in a 15 MPH zone. He turned on his flashing lights and forced Weaver to pull over.

“I’m Officer Hunter from Metro Public Safety,” Hunter said as he asked Weaver for his driver’s license.

After noticing slurred speech and other signs of intoxication, Hunter ordered Weaver out of the car to sit on the curb while he called the police. Hunter also wrote an HOA speeding ticket. About ten minutes later, a university police officer arrived, only to realize she lacked jurisdiction. Thirty-five minutes into the traffic stop, a Wilmington Police Detective arrived, confirmed the signs of intoxication and took Weaver into custody for driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI),

At trial, New Hanover County Superior Court Judge W. Allen Cobb Jr found the security guard was acting under the authority of the state and therefore was bound to the same reasonable suspicion standard that applies to police officers conducting a traffic stop.

“His show of apparent lawful authority (flashing lights, uniform, badge, and gun) intimidated defendant and made him feel compelled to wait outside his car for 45 minutes until WPD arrived,” Judge Cobb found.

The appellate panel rejected this reasoning, arguing that rental cops are not bound by such restrictions.

“A traffic stop conducted entirely by a nonstate actor is not subject to reasonable suspicion because the Fourth Amendment does not apply,” Judge Rick Elmore wrote for the appellate panel.

The first problem with this case is that the “officer” pulled over the individual for speeding even though he had no equipment to determine the driver’s speed. That alone should have rendered the entire encounter unlawful and got the case thrown out. But it appears that rental cops aren’t abound by the same laws as state cops are. This creates an interesting problem. What would happen if an actual cop had a rental cop ride along during patrols? If the actual cop pulled somebody over and sent the rental cop to deal with the actual encounter would the driver’s Fourth Amendment privileges be rendered irrelevant? Could actual cops send rental cops out to violate people’s so-called rights in other cases? How far can rental cops go?

This ruling is worrisome in that it creates another loophole to get around people’s privacy. And if history is any indicator we know that the state will abuse every single loophole it creates for itself.

Language Discrimination

Bad news everyone. Studying Arabic is now grounds to be detained at the airport:

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A former college student who was detained for several hours at an airport after he was found carrying Arabic language flashcards had his bid to sue federal agents rejected by a federal appeals court.

Nicholas George sought to sue three Transportation Security Administration agents and two FBI agents over the August 2009 stop at Philadelphia International Airport, saying they violated his free speech rights and conducted an improper search and arrest based on the flashcards and a book critical of American policy in the Middle East.

A district judge rejected the agents’ assertion of immunity, but the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that ruling in a decision issued Tuesday.

George was returning from his home in a Philadelphia suburb to Pomona College in California, where he was studying Arabic, when TSA agents saw the words “bomb” and “terrorist” among his flashcards and called police. George was detained for nearly five hours, two of them in handcuffs in a city police station at the airport.

Obviously Mr. George was a terrorist. After all, who else would be carrying Arabic flash cards with words like “bomb” and “terrorist” printed on them? Well, besides somebody studying to become a military translator. Or somebody who has an invested interest in reading Arabic manuals on guerrilla warfare purely for curiosity’s sake. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) went bonkers when it first started but it’s rather sickening to think that we still have that horrible agency around even though it hasn’t prevented a single terrorist wannabe from boarding an airplane.

The War on Unpatented Drugs Claims Another Victim

Another person was killed in the state’s war on unpatentable drugs. This time the death was caused by a negligently discharged round fired by a cop performing a heavily armed raid:

At about 10:30 p.m. on December 11th, a group of cops calling themselves the U.S. 23 Task Force swarmed the residence and prepared to break in and capture people for possessing drugs.   One of the officers, Sgt. Brett McKnight, an 11-year-veteran of the Ross County Sheriff’s Office, negligently handled his weapon and fired a round through the exterior wall of the mobile home.

The bullet traveled into the residence and struck a woman sitting on a couch. Krystal Marie Barrows, 35, of Chillicothe, was “in critical condition” and flown by helicopter to Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center, where she died the following day.

No one inside the home fired back, the Chillicothe Gazette reported. Six individuals were arrested for prohibition crimes.

This is ridiculous. The police murdered somebody yet still had the gall to arrest six people for engaging in a victimless activity. That’s pretty sick. But this does go to show the dangers involved in not having a dog these days. It seems that police are satisfied with killing a dog in place of a person when one is available but when one isn’t available the police seem to escalate to killing people. Let this be a lesson. If you partake in verboten substances or don’t and think your dwelling may be targeted by a wrong address no-knock raid get yourself a dog and name it Bullet Catcher. It may save your life.

Giving the Corporate Partners a Cut

A few days ago the state’s corporate partners in surveillance were getting uppidy because their profits were being threatened by the National Security Agency’s (NSA) fast and loose strategy to spy on everybody. The primary mistake made by the NSA is not cutting its corporate partners in on the game. It sounds like the White House is no longer going to standby and allow this mistake to continue:

A White House panel has recommended significant curbs on the National Security Agency’s sweeping electronic surveillance programmes.

Among its 46 recommendations, the five-member panel said the NSA should cease storing vast amounts of data on calls processed by US phone companies.

We’re supposed to read that and believe that the White House has moved in to curtail the NSA’s surveillance apparatus. But what its recommendation really means is that the spying will continue but the corporate partners will get a piece of the action by storing the data and, almost certainly, charging the NSA for access.

If the White House continues pushing this strategy and includes companies like Google, Microsoft, and Apple it will almost certainly satisfy its corporate partners.

St. Louis is Now Waging War Against the Homeless

In another chapter of the state’s war against the homeless we have officials working for the city of St. Louis shutting down a church event that provided meals to the homeless:

ST. LOUIS • Churches on the Streets may have served its last hot supper. At least for now.

The city Health Department on Monday told organizers of the group that serves food to the homeless Monday nights at a vacant train depot near the St. Louis riverfront that they must stop serving hot food because they don’t have a permit.

The city’s edict came a day after the group was featured on the front page of the Post-Dispatch. The group has been providing home-cooked meals, clothing and supplies to the homeless for more than a year. Before each meal, Edward “Pastor Paul” Gonnella, a recovered crack addict and ex-convict, delivers short sermons to the homeless in hopes getting them off the streets.

Organizers thought they didn’t need a permit to serve food because they have been meeting at the old Cotton Belt Rail Depot, which is private property.

Not so, says Pat Mahoney, an environmental health supervisor with the city Health Department. She said the group must have a permit to serve hot food to the public even though its volunteers are doing it on private property. She said the group is allowed to distribute pre-packaged meals.

But the real icing on the cake is this paragraph:

Mahoney said the city considers the group’s activities different from other outdoor gatherings, such as a tailgate party before Rams football games, because those are more private in nature and aren’t inviting the public. Churches that host fish frys also must have permits.

You can server hot meals if it relates to a football game without city permission but you can’t server hot meals to people who have nothing unless you get permission from the city. Once again we see the American attitude that the oligarchs, in this case the owners and operators of football stadiums, received special treatment while those with nothing get shafted precisely because they have nothing.

If the organizers apply for a permit I’m sure the city will either deny it or charge enough that the churches can’t reasonably afford it. This isn’t just about paying to play, it’s about the way cities deal with the homeless. City governments about interested in providing assistence to the homeless, they’re only interested in making the lives of the homeless so miserable that they move somewhere else and become somebody else’s problem.

They Hate Us for Our Freedom

Remember the propaganda released shortly after 9/11? We were told that the terrorists attacked us because they hated us for our freedom. It was such bullshit that I was surprised that so many people lapped it up. But they didn’t hate us for our freedoms then and they don’t hate us for our freedoms now. They hate us because of shit like this:

(Reuters) – Fifteen people on their way to a wedding in Yemen were killed in an air strike after their party was mistaken for an al Qaeda convoy, local security officials said on Thursday.

The officials did not identify the plane in the strike in central al-Bayda province, but tribal and local media sources said that it was a drone.

“An air strike missed its target and hit a wedding car convoy, ten people were killed immediately and another five who were injured died after being admitted to the hospital,” one security official said.

Five more people were injured, the officials said.

European countries and the United States have been fucking over the Middle East for over a ages. It’s pretty easy for anybody with a pair of eyes and a few neurons to see why so many people in the Middle East hate the United States. Bombing operations like this will only make the situation worse.

Carrying a Firearms is Apparently a Gateway Crime

Remember when your teachers tried to scare you away from cannabis by claiming it was the gateway drug? Supposedly smoking cannabis would lead to your also snorting cocaine, dropping acid, and injecting heroine. Following that line of thinking Garry McCarthy, the Chicago police superintendent, had something to say about those of us who carry a firearm:

Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy says that’s more than any major city and he says if you can reduce weapons you will reduce crime.

“Carrying a loaded firearm is the gateway crime to committing a murder,” McCarthy said.

If that’s the case then receiving a badge must be a gateway crime as well because it seems that the Chicago Police Department has a rather interesting history of criminal behavior [PDF].

In all seriousness I do understand McCarthy’s attitude. Police officers often seem to have a desire to commit murder and other violent crimes. Were I surrounded by police officers every day, especially Chicago police officers, I would probably hypothesize that carrying a gun is what drives their desire to commit violent acts. But when you’re not involving in the police machinery the picture looks quite different. Most non-state agents who carry firearms are quite peaceful.

Jennifer Zilavy is an Asshole

I don’t know Jennifer Zilavy personally but I already know that she’s an asshole. Who is she? She’s the city attorney for Madison, Wisconsin. Why is she an asshole? Because of her attitude towards men:

“There’s no way that (sexual assault) will not happen,” assistant city attorney Jennifer Zilavy said. “No offense to men, but I don’t know any man who wants to just snuggle.”

The attitude that either gender is a slave to its emotions irritates me. Both men and women are capable of controlling their behavior. Men can choose not to commit sexual assault just as women can choose not to cower in fear when confronted with violence. I would go so far as to say controlling one’s behavior is a prerequisite for being considered and adult.

If people want to pay money for cuddling they should be allowed to. A vast majority of men aren’t prowling the streets in the hopes of finding a woman to rape. Any business that operates on the concept of selling a cuddling buddy for an hour isn’t going to standby if one of its employees starts getting out of hand. The fear mongering being drummed up by Zilavy is both sexist and fictitious.

Streamlining the Killing Floor

What tools do the police need for these times of dwindling violent crime? How about a more streamlined process to kill the convicted? Apparently that’s what the unions representing police officer in Poway, California think is needed:

POWAY — A coalition of local law enforcement members met Thursday to discuss backing changes to California’s death penalty process, from streamlining appeals to finding an acceptable execution method.

“The death penalty, I believe, is broken in California. I also believe it can certainly be fixed,” Matt Clay, president of the Deputy Sheriff’s Association of San Diego County, told reporters.

Members of unions representing sheriff’s deputies, police officers and prosecutors in the county met in Poway with Assemblyman Brian Jones, R-Santee, as well as survivors of murder victims whose killers remain on death row to talk about backing a proposed death penalty initiative.

I guess better wages and benefits are no longer wanted. It makes sense. Modern policing really reflect thuggery more than it reflects peace keeping. Thuggery requires threats and there’s no better threat than death. Therefore it makes sense that the best way to help today’s police departments is to make it easier for them to threaten suspects with the death penalty.

We live in some seriously fucked up times.

Exploiting the Mentally Disabled to Enforce Gun Control

When people develop the attitude that the ends always justify the means the doors open for some really heinous acts. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) has developed a history of questionable actions during its existence. Recent revelations with Operation Fast and Furious, where the ATF and other federal agencies provided firearms to Mexican drug cartels, show just how wicked the agency’s enforcement methodologies have become. But I believe it has outdone itself. This time the ATF tatooed a mentally disabled teenager and used him in a sting operation:

They would even pay him and a friend $150 apiece if they agreed to turn their bodies into walking billboards.

Key, who is mentally disabled, was swayed.

He and his friend, Marquis Glover, liked Squid’s. It was their hangout. The 19-year-olds spent many afternoons there playing Xbox and chatting with the owner, “Squid,” and the store clerks.

So they took the money and got the ink etched on their necks, tentacles creeping down to their collarbones.

It would be months before the young men learned the whole thing was a setup. The guys running Squid’s were actually undercover ATF agents conducting a sting to get guns away from criminals and drugs off the street.

The tattoos had been sponsored by the U.S. government; advertisements for a fake storefront.

The teens found out as they were arrested and booked into jail.

Statists often ask who would take care of the mentally disabled without a government. I want to know who is protecting and providing for them now. The state seems to have a knack for exploiting the mentally disabled in its never ending quest to control our lives. This case not only shows the state’s willingness to exploit the vulnerable but also how corrupt the ATF has become. None of the high ups in charge of approving operations decided this idea was too extreme? Is the agency really operated entirely by psychopaths? Judging by the actions of the agency over the last several years I’m left to believe that it is.