Your Government Doesn’t Love You – Page 126

Police Considering Charging Michael Brown’s Father for Inciting a Riot

What happens when a police officer kills you son and you react emotionally? The police may decided to charge you with inciting a riot:

(CNN) — Michael Brown’s stepfather was hurt and angry when he urged a crowd in Ferguson, Missouri, last week to “Burn this bitch down,” his wife and attorney say, but that hasn’t stopped authorities from launching an investigation into whether he incited a riot.

Following the announcement that the grand jury would not indict Officer Darren Wilson in his stepson’s death, Louis Head stepped onto a platform above the crowd and embraced his wife, Brown’s mother. He then turned to the demonstrators — some of them shouting “F— the police!” — and yelled, “Burn this motherf—er down!” and “Burn this bitch down!”

[…]

The police chief told TV and radio host Sean Hannity something similar Monday, but he didn’t classify the probe as formal.

“We are pursuing those comments, and there’s a lot of discussion going on about that right now, but I really can’t get into that at this time,” he said.

But police aren’t singling out Head, Jackson told Hannity.

“We can’t let all that happened in Ferguson and Dellwood and the community die. Everyone who is responsible for taking away people’s property, their livelihoods, their jobs, their businesses — every single one of them needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” he said.

I have a few problems with this.

First, the idea that one can be charged with inciting a riot. That charge, in my opinion, is bullshit. When people decided to riot who is to blame? The rioters as they were the people who rioted. Nobody else is responsible for their behavior. Claiming that inciting a riot is a criminal offense absolves, at least in part, rioters of responsibility by insinuating they were only acting because somebody else made them act.

Second, insinuating that a grieving individual should express their anger in a logical manner. I’m not a fan of calls for violence but when a kid is killed and the parent(s) feels as though the justice system failed to deliver justice I can understand them being a bit upset. In fact I can understand them being so upset that they would say angry things aimed at the person(s) they felt wronged them. If Michael Brown’s father had actually done something wrong, like tossed a Molotov cocktail at a house, there would be grounds for seeking redress for his misdeed. But all he did was say some unsurprising words considering the situation.

Third, charging Michael Brown’s father with inciting a riot is likely to start more riots. Right now the riots have calmed down. I’ve been told that the police are supposed to be keepers of the peace. If that is the case shouldn’t they leave things alone at this point in the hopes of avoiding more civil unrest? Especially when the person they’re looking at charging didn’t do anything wrong?

The only reason Ferguson police are even considering charging Michael Brown’s father, as far as I can tell, is pure spite. They want somebody’s head, besides their own, over these riots. Since Michael Brown is very dead and they won’t dare blame themselves for instigating the matter in the first place that leaves a family member of Brown’s (sins of the father, sins of the son). I hope they don’t charge him simply because I would like to see some semblance of tranquility in Ferguson but the police in that city have already proven themselves to be less than concerned with maintaining the peace.

They Call It a Shield for a Reason

Do you know why they refer to a police badge as a shield? Because it defends against liability even when you murder somebody:

A grand jury has not charged a New York City police officer over the death of Eric Garner, who died after being placed in a chokehold by the officer.

Does anybody remember the heinous crime Garner committed that lead to officer killjoy murdering him? That’s right, he sold an untaxed cigarette. Everybody who has ever claimed that the state doesn’t kill people for not paying taxes can kindly shut the fuck up now.

What makes this ruling even more egregious is that the coroner ruled the act homicide:

Footage of the incident shows New York Police Department Officer Daniel Pantaleo placing Garner in the chokehold that was the main cause of death according to the coroner, who further ruled the death a “homicide.” (Police at the scene initially claimed that the asthmatic, 350-pound Garner had suffered a heart attack). Like Wilson, Pantaleo was not indicted.

That probably has something to do with the fact that even the New York Police Department (NYPD), one of the most psychopathic police departments in this country, prohibits officers from using choke holds:

Yet clearly something has gone horribly wrong when a man lies dead after being confronted for selling cigarettes to willing buyers. Especially since, as even Bratton has acknowledged, the chokehold applied by the restraining officer is prohibited by the NYPD’s own rulebook. Does the commissioner really control his officers, and is it time to rethink nanny state policies that create flourishing underground markets?

But the grand jury decided it was all good, which raises an important point. People, especially the tough on crime crowd, like to claim that grand juries are examples of justice at work but in reality they’re just another arm of the state meant to intimidate the people into rolling over. In fact it’s very rare for grand juries to not indite, unless the accused has a shield of course.

Edward Snowden Receives the Swedish Right Livelihood Award

There are still a lot of ignorant worshipers of the state who see Edward Snowden as a traitor I think a majority of the people who have heard of him recognize him for what he is: a hero. And while the United States government tries to find a way to get Snowden back stateside so he can be given the Chelsey Manning treatment other governments are giving him award:

Whistleblower Edward Snowden received several standing ovations in the Swedish parliament after being given the Right Livelihood award for his revelations of the scale of state surveillance.

Snowden, who is in exile in Russia, addressed the parliament by video from Moscow. In a symbolic gesture, his family and supporters said no one picked up the award on his behalf in the hope that one day he might be free to travel to Sweden to receive it in person.

His father, Lon, who was in the chamber for what was an emotional ceremony, said: “I am thankful for the support of the Right Livelihood award and the Swedish parliament. The award will remain here in expectation that some time – sooner or later – he will come to Stockholm to accept the award.”

I also hope that he can someday leave Russia and claim is award. Sadly the wrath of the United States government is long lived and Snowden will likely die of old age before his transgressions are forgotten.

You May Not Be Free But Encryption Works

The feds have been throwing a hissy fit since Apple and Google both announced that device encryption will be enabled by default on all of their mobile devices. Members of the Department of Justice have even gone so far as to imply that Apple (and, likely, Google) are marketing their devices to criminals and will ultimately be responsible for the death of a child (when all else fails just think of the children). But many people still wonder if these public tantrums are just for show. Do the feds have magical super-quantum-hyperdrive-computers that can crack any form of encryption ever?

Further evidence indicates they do not. Courts documents have been found showing how desperate the feds are getting in order to break device encryption:

OAKLAND, CA—Newly discovered court documents from two federal criminal cases in New York and California that remain otherwise sealed suggest that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is pursuing an unusual legal strategy to compel cellphone makers to assist investigations.

In both cases, the seized phones—one of which is an iPhone 5S—are encrypted and cannot be cracked by federal authorities. Prosecutors have now invoked the All Writs Act, an 18th-century federal law that simply allows courts to issue a writ, or order, which compels a person or company to do something.

A magical piece of paper that can compel you to do work for the state? Obviously we live in the freest country on Earth! While this story is further evidence that we’re little more than serfs in the eyes of the state it also shows that encryption works.

I know a lot of conspiracy theorists believe that the feds have magical computers that can break any form of encryption by utilizing subspace frequencies or some sort of bullshit like that. If that is true then the state must either be trying to keep it hush hush by not utilizing it (which would make it useless) or it costs a small fortune to operate (which makes it almost useless) because coercing people with the court system is terribly inefficient. So I think these court documents are a good indication that device encryption works pretty well and that’s reassuring.

Obviously rubber-hose cryptanalysis, which issuing legal threats is certainly a form of, is very effective so the question will become whether or not Apple is technically capable of bypassing the iPhone 5S’s encryption. Hopefully it is not.

Ferguson is Not In a State of Anarchy

I guess it needs to be said again. Ferguson is not in a state of anarchy. What Ferguson is in is a state of, well, statism. Due to the fact that the same entity that controls the police also controls the courts there is a severe lack of trust amongst the people. This is an inevitable side-effect of any system where one group of people hold power over other people. Eventually the subjugated people feel as though they have no options so they lash out.

Coercive hierarchy is a bitch.

Ferguson Goes About as Expected

The grand jury decided not to indite Darren Wilson to the surprise of nobody (what with Mr. Wilson having that magical liability deflecting badge). Also surprising nobody is the reaction, which involves a whole lot of civil unrest. I don’t have much to say on this that I haven’t already. When you have a small handful of people holding a monopoly on “justice” few proles are going to take it seriously.

Anyways this kind of new always puts me in an Arch Enemy mood so here you go:

Not that I’m ever not in an Arch Enemy mood.

State Sponsored Fat Shaming

I know that I’m getting old because I can now say “Back when I was a kid.” Anyways, back when I was a kid we had it pounded into our skulls that you never, ever insulted a person’s weight. This went double if that person was a girl. As it turns out constant bombardment by various media outlets telling girls what the ideal figure was resulted in a lot of eating disorders. So the creed of the day became “Everybody is beautiful” and “True beauty comes from within.”

Now the message is changing. Fat shaming is in. In fact fat shaming is now state sponsored! This may have something to do with the state getting itself more embedded in healthcare and therefore wanting to reduce expenses by getting people to ~~kill themselves with anorexia or bulimia~~ losing weight. And since sources are now claiming obesity is costing the healthcare industry as much as smoking you can bet the state is going to be ramping up its fat shaming propaganda post haste:

The worldwide cost of obesity is about the same as smoking or armed conflict and greater than both alcoholism and climate change, research has suggested.

I don’t look forward to the new wave of eating disorders this is likely to cause.

California Desperately Needs Slave Laborers

The neoliberal paradise of California has a problem. That problem is a shipload of prisoners and only a small rowboat of prisons. This problem actually got so bad at the Nazgûl ruled that a population limit had to be set for the state’s prisons. Well the state’s prison system is not happy about being ordered to free a bunch of its prisoners. Can you guess what it isn’t happy? If you think it has anything to do with potentially dangerous individuals being released onto the street you would be incorrect (since the people being considered for release are nonviolent offenders). It’s because they desperately needs the prisoners for slave labor:

Out of California’s years-long litigation over reducing the population of prisons deemed unconstitutionally overcrowded by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2010, another obstacle to addressing the U.S. epidemic of mass incarceration has emerged: The utility of cheap prison labor.

In recent filings, lawyers for the state have resisted court orders that they expand parole programs, reasoning not that releasing inmates early is logistically impossible or would threaten public safety, but instead that prisons won’t have enough minimum security inmates left to perform inmate jobs.

[…]

The Department of Corrections didn’t like this idea, either. It argued that offering 2-for-1 credits to any inmates who perform other prison labor would mean more minimum security inmates would be released earlier, and they wouldn’t have as large of a labor pool. They would still need to fill those jobs by drawing candidates who could otherwise work fighting wildfires, and would be “forced to draw down its fire camp population to fill these vital MSF [Minimum Support Facility] positions.” In other words, they didn’t want to have to hire full-time employees to perform any of the work that inmates are now performing.”

I do appreciate it when the state is honest about its intentions. For far too long it has been claiming that prisons are about reforming criminals and segregating the violent people from the rest of society. In reality it’s about the massive prison-industrial complex that uses slave labor to cut the state’s expenses.

Face Jail Time for Teaching People to Pass a Bull Crap Test

File this post under everything is illegal. A man has been indicted for running a business that claims to teach people how to pass polygraph tests. Initially I thought he was being charged with fraud for false advertising but he’s actually being charged for attempting to defraud the government:

A former Oklahoma City police officer was indicted Thursday on accusations of teaching people to cheat on lie detector tests, the government announced Friday.

The 69-year-old Norman, Oklahoma, man is the owner of Polygraph.com and charged customers thousands of dollars for instructions on how to beat lie detector tests administered for federal employment suitability assessments, federal security background investigations, and internal federal agency investigations, court documents show.

According to the five-count indictment [PDF] lodged against Douglas Williams:

The purpose of the scheme was to defraud the United States and to obtain and maintain positions of Federal employment for Williams’ customers for which they did not qualify, and the salary attendant to such positions, through materially false and fraudulent statements and representations. A further purpose of the scheme was for Williams to enrich himself by assisting his customers—including, among others, Federal job applicants, applicants for Federal security clearances, and individuals under investigation by Federal law enforcement agencies—in deceiving the Federal government in order to obtain or maintain positions of Federal employment for which Williams’ customers did not qualify.

If I understand the state’s “logic” it’s claiming that since it uses polygraphs on employees anybody teaching individuals how to pass a polygraph is defrauding the state. Such a case may have some kind of merit if polygraphs actually worked. But they’re bullshit. People, as a group, have no consistent response to lying. The only reason polygraphs are at all effective is because people subjected to polygraph tests believe they’re effective. A skilled operator can convince a person being tested that the machine is telling him something and that’s often enough to get the person to divulge whatever it is they were lying about.

If government agencies are still using polygraphs to test employees then it is entirely at fault for using voodoo to verify the integrity of employees. Anybody teaching people how to pass a polygraph, as opposed to telling people that polygraphs are bullshit, are only guilty of lying by claiming that polygraphs are somehow effective.

Also, as an aside, you cannot defraud a thief and the state is the greatest thief of them all.

Freedom is Unconstitutional

Lysander Spooner meme gloriously stolen from the linked article.

The Constitution is holy scripture to many Americans. Within its pages lies the secrets everlasting freedom, prosperity, and happiness according to its worshipers. I’m not one of those worshipers. I used to be. But then I actually read the document and thought about what it actually said. Two clauses I like to point out as examples of the Constitution not being a government limiting document are Article III, which establishes the Supreme Court, and the Taxing and Spending Clause, which gives Congress the power to tax.

The Supreme Court has the final say in all legal arguments about interpretations of the Constitution. Because of that the document only means what the Supreme Court, which is part of the federal government the Constitution supposedly restrains, says it means. And the power to tax means Congress can ensure the federal government has as much money as it needs to do whatever it wants. Before the Constitution there were the Articles of Confederation, which didn’t grant the federal government the power to tax. That meant that the states had to voluntarily fund the federal government and gave them a convenient way to starve the beast should it get too big.

The wonderful writers over at The Art of Not Being Government wrote an excellent article, or as many constitutionalists will call it heresy, refuting some of the claims made about the Constitution. Especially noteworthy are the myths regarding the origin of the document. Many people mistakenly believe that the Constitution was created to protect individual liberty and create a small federal government. In reality it was a massive power grab perpetrated by individuals who really missed having a king to rule over all, as the Taxing and Spending Clause shows.

I recommend you click on the link and read the article. Especially if you are a constitutionalists. It makes some very good points that are seldom covered in any class or course on the Constitution.