The NSA surveillance of millions of emails and phone calls. The
dogged pursuit of whistleblower Edward Snowden across the globe,
regardless of the diplomatic fallout. And the sentencing of Bradley
Manning to 35 years in prison for giving a cache of government files to the website WikiLeaks. Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg sees these events as signs that the United States is becoming a police state.
"We have not only the capability of a police state, but certain beginnings of it right now," Ellsberg told HuffPost Live Wednesday.
"And I absolutely agree with Edward Snowden. It's worth a person's
life, prospect of assassination, or life in prison or life in exile --
it's worth that to try to restore our liberties and make this a
democratic country."
Ellsberg was a military analyst with the RAND Corporation in 1969
when he secretly copied thousands of classified documents about U.S.
decision-making during the Vietnam War. In 1971, he leaked the files
(known as the Pentagon Papers) to The New York Times and 18 other
newspapers.
Although the Nixon administration tried to prevent the publication of the files, the Supreme Court ruled in New York Times Co. v. United States that the newspaper could continue publishing the files.
Read on...
Your resource for news, research, opinion and comment in the world of Criminology and Criminal Justice, brought to you by the Criminology Library, Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies, University of Toronto
Showing posts with label police state. Show all posts
Showing posts with label police state. Show all posts
Are We Living in a Police State?
When people think of Denver, many think of skiing and, since the last election, marijuana. But from here in the Mile High City, things seem a bit different. In the day to day operation of the city, we aren’t as much defined by snow and pot as we are by the fact that we live under the rule of an increasingly brutal police force. It is a police force that our political leaders are more than happy to deploy to punish undesirables, and worse, that the most powerful media organ is more than happy to defend.
We have become, in short, a national cautionary tale – one that no doubt epitomizes similar trends throughout the country.
Read on...
SWATTING Fratboys
Fergawdsakes:
Right. As Radley Balko points out:
Read on...
“The purpose for creating the UNCC SWAT Team is to protect the community and prevent the loss of life,” said Lieutenant Josh Huffman of Campus Police. “We must be prepared to respond to high risk situations such as those tragedies that occurred at Virginia Tech and Columbine.” . . .
Right. As Radley Balko points out:
Read on...
U.S. Says Americans Are MILITARY Targets in the War on Terror … And that the Prez Alone Can Decide Who Is a Target
As everyone realizes by now, Congress' push for indefinite detention includes American citizens on American soil. As Huffington post notes:
The debate also has left many Americans scratching their heads as to whether Congress is actually attempting to authorize the indefinite detention of Americans by the military without charges. But proponents -- led by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) and Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee -- say that is exactly what the war on terror requires. They argued that the bill simply codifies precedents set by the Supreme Court and removes uncertainty, which they said would better protect the country.
Here is John McCain justifying sending Americans to Guantanamo:
Congress to Vote Next Week on EXPLICITLY Creating a Police State
IF YOU THOUGHT POLICE BRUTALITY WAS BAD … WAIT UNTIL YOU SEE WHAT CONGRESS WANTS TO DO NEXT WEEK
The police brutality against peaceful protesters in Berkeley, Davis, Oakland and elsewhere is bad enough.
But next week, Congress will vote on explicitly creating a police state.
The ACLU’s Washington legislative office explains:
The Senate is gearing up for a vote on Monday or Tuesday that goes to the very heart of who we are as Americans. The Senate will be voting on a bill that will direct American military resources not at an enemy shooting at our military in a war zone, but at American citizens and other civilians far from any battlefield — even people in the United States itself.
The Senate is going to vote on whether Congress will give this president—and every future president — the power to order the military to pick up and imprison without charge or trial civilians anywhere in the world.
Boy, I hope Harper doesn't read this. Tom
UPDATE on Police State | “SWAT” Team Breaks Down Door, Detains Man for Wife’s Defaulted Student Loans
Just updated the earlier post on Police State | SWAT Team Breaks Down Door, Detains Man for Wife’s Defaulted Student Loans...
From the original source...
Questions surround feds' raid of Stockton home
Wright said he later went to Stockton Mayor Ann Johnston and Stockton Police Department, but learned the city of Stockton had nothing to do with the search warrant.
U.S. Department of Education spokesman Justin Hamilton confirmed for News10 Wednesday morning federal agents with the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), not local S.W.A.T., served the search warrant. Hamilton would not say specifically why the raid took place except that it was part of an ongoing criminal investigation.
Hamilton said the search was not related to student loans in default as reported in the local media.
OIG is a semi-independent branch of the education department that executes warrants for criminal offenses such as student aid fraud, embezzlement of federal aid and bribery, according to Hamilton. The agency serves 30 to 35 search warrants a year.
Has America Become a Corporate Police State?
In just the last few years, the Corporate Police State has reared its head at every level of government.
Corporate Police State," it's a fraught -- some might even say, overwrought -- term. But in its purest, apolitical form, it simply describes the periodic commingling of state and corporate power to protect private interests.
Corporate Police State," it's a fraught -- some might even say, overwrought -- term. But in its purest, apolitical form, it simply describes the periodic commingling of state and corporate power to protect private interests.
In the American psyche, any discussion of that phenomenon typically brings one of three images to mind. There's the Old Corporate Police State -- the sepia-toned America of decades long past, a place where state militias murder striking mine workers on behalf of Gilded Age barons and Congress empowers the government to forcibly ban work stoppages that defy corporate executives' wishes. There's the Fictional Future Corporate Police State -- that smoldering bombed-out world depicted in "Robocop," "Fortress" and every other dystopian flick in Hollywood's post-apocalyptic catalog. And there's the Foreign Corporate Police State -- think Dubai, Singapore, Monaco and every other lavish enclave defined by lots of rich people, lots of corporate headquarters, lots of heavily armed cops -- and almost no civil liberties.
Gonzalo Lira: Is the U.S. a Fascist Police-State?
By Gonzalo Lira, a novelist and filmmaker (and economist) currently living in Chile and writing at Gonzalo Lira
I lived in Chile during the Pinochet dictatorship—I can spot a fascist police-state when I see one.
The United States is a fascist police-state.
Harsh words—incendiary, even. And none too clever of me, to use such language: Time was, the crazies and reactionaries wearing tin-foil hats who flung around such a characterization of the United States were disqualified by sensible people as being hysterical nutters—rightfully so.
But with yesterday’s Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project decision (No. 08-1498, also 09-89) of the Supreme Court, coupled with last week’s Arar v. Ashcroft denial of certiorari (No. 09-923), the case for claiming that the U.S. is a fascist police-state just got a whole lot stronger.
First of all, what is a “fascist police-state”?
A police-state uses the law as a mechanism to control any challenges to its power by the citizenry, rather than as a mechanism to insure a civil society among the individuals. The state decides the laws, is the sole arbiter of the law, and can selectively (and capriciously) decide to enforce the law to the benefit or detriment of one individual or group or another.
A police state right here in the good ole USA....
by jewel33
Fri Jan 09, 2009 at 02:22:02 AM PST
and nothing is being done about it.
A bit of background:
Maricopa County, AZ has a hard-line sheriff whose name is Joe Arpaio. You may have heard a bit about him in the news ... he's the sheriff who has taken the immigration policy into his own hands - routinely targeting the large Latino population of his county for DWL (Driving While Latino). These traffic stops often result in rounding up "illegals" and placing them in his tent city (since there's not enough room in the jail for all of the people his deputies round up). He has been lauded and hailed by anti-immigration folk as "tough on crime". Many say that if someone is breaking the law by being in our country illegally, they deserve to be harassed and thrown into jail. Heck, the guy even has a new reality series of his very own!
How does he know that the people he rounds up are illegal? Well, he asks them for their citizenship papers, birth certificate, or Social Security cards, and you know how many of us actually carry those on us while we're driving to and from work and from the store. Many innocent people are being put in jail for days at a time, and heaven help anyone who opposes his reign of terror.
There's more to his madness...below the fold....
Read on...
This guy, Joe Arpaio, has been in the media for years. I'm always surprised that he is still the sheriff. Check it out. Lots of video. Tom
Fri Jan 09, 2009 at 02:22:02 AM PST
and nothing is being done about it.
A bit of background:
Maricopa County, AZ has a hard-line sheriff whose name is Joe Arpaio. You may have heard a bit about him in the news ... he's the sheriff who has taken the immigration policy into his own hands - routinely targeting the large Latino population of his county for DWL (Driving While Latino). These traffic stops often result in rounding up "illegals" and placing them in his tent city (since there's not enough room in the jail for all of the people his deputies round up). He has been lauded and hailed by anti-immigration folk as "tough on crime". Many say that if someone is breaking the law by being in our country illegally, they deserve to be harassed and thrown into jail. Heck, the guy even has a new reality series of his very own!
How does he know that the people he rounds up are illegal? Well, he asks them for their citizenship papers, birth certificate, or Social Security cards, and you know how many of us actually carry those on us while we're driving to and from work and from the store. Many innocent people are being put in jail for days at a time, and heaven help anyone who opposes his reign of terror.
There's more to his madness...below the fold....
Read on...
This guy, Joe Arpaio, has been in the media for years. I'm always surprised that he is still the sheriff. Check it out. Lots of video. Tom
Police Spied on Activists Through '07
Protest groups say they haven't gotten the full story from state
by Liz F. Kay
Documents released yesterday show that state police spying of nonviolent protest groups took place in 2007, more than a year after law enforcement officials said much-criticized surveillance of death-penalty activists had ended.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the spying to light this year, also determined that some political activists who appear never to have set foot in Maryland were included in databases that list them as potential terrorists.
Activists say they still aren't getting complete information from state police about 53 people identified as possible terrorists during a covert operation in 2005 and 2006, despite pledges of cooperation from the O'Malley administration. They say they'll keep demanding documents and are considering legal action.
Read on...
by Liz F. Kay
Documents released yesterday show that state police spying of nonviolent protest groups took place in 2007, more than a year after law enforcement officials said much-criticized surveillance of death-penalty activists had ended.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the spying to light this year, also determined that some political activists who appear never to have set foot in Maryland were included in databases that list them as potential terrorists.
Activists say they still aren't getting complete information from state police about 53 people identified as possible terrorists during a covert operation in 2005 and 2006, despite pledges of cooperation from the O'Malley administration. They say they'll keep demanding documents and are considering legal action.
Read on...
Will Wall Street's Meltdown Turn America Into a Police State?
By Scott Thill, AlterNet. Posted September 30, 2008.
Failing banks? Endless war? Call Homeland Security. "Raw capitalism is dead." -- Henry Paulson, U.S. Treasury secretary
"Can't we just all go out and say things are OK?" -- President Bush, to congressional leaders during bailout negotiations
I'm not much of an Army Times reader, but after reading that a brigade was shipping from Iraq in October to serve as "an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks" in the homeland right before the election, my antennae perked up. Same as they did when I read that an electoral college doomsday scenario exists in which Dick Cheney casts the deciding vote that gives McCain-Palin the White House.
That is, if Cheney and Bush don't take it for themselves. That may sound like fantasy, but don't kill the messenger. They are all strands of the Gordian knot the Bush administration has tied around the neck of the American people for the last two presidential terms, best represented today by the failed bailout of banks, brokers and other complicit parties that have since jacked the American people out of trillions. And while the Army Times revelation or election doomsday may turn out to be paranoia rather than prescience, the evidence just isn't there.
We've just seen the present U.S. administration/congress get rid of posse comitatus and habeas corpus without a murmur from the media, or the public. Tom
Failing banks? Endless war? Call Homeland Security. "Raw capitalism is dead." -- Henry Paulson, U.S. Treasury secretary
"Can't we just all go out and say things are OK?" -- President Bush, to congressional leaders during bailout negotiations
I'm not much of an Army Times reader, but after reading that a brigade was shipping from Iraq in October to serve as "an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks" in the homeland right before the election, my antennae perked up. Same as they did when I read that an electoral college doomsday scenario exists in which Dick Cheney casts the deciding vote that gives McCain-Palin the White House.
That is, if Cheney and Bush don't take it for themselves. That may sound like fantasy, but don't kill the messenger. They are all strands of the Gordian knot the Bush administration has tied around the neck of the American people for the last two presidential terms, best represented today by the failed bailout of banks, brokers and other complicit parties that have since jacked the American people out of trillions. And while the Army Times revelation or election doomsday may turn out to be paranoia rather than prescience, the evidence just isn't there.
We've just seen the present U.S. administration/congress get rid of posse comitatus and habeas corpus without a murmur from the media, or the public. Tom
Incredible Documentary Footage of Mass Arrest in St. Paul
Posted by Laura Flanders,
Firedoglake at 3:47 AM on September 19, 2008.
Newly released footage, which was buried to avoid confiscation, shows riot cops arresting and abusing a giant group of people for nothing.
Now that we've had a few weeks to settle, a look back at Labor Day in the Twin Cities. Labor Day was of course also Day One of the Republican National Convention. Video was released today of an apparent mass arrest of utterly peaceful concert goers at the SEIU Labor Day concert.
My personal favorite moment in the tape is an off-camera exchange. Police in riot gear have surrounded loungers in a waterfront park. They announce, "Ladies and Gentlemen, You're Under Arrest" and you hear one young woman say incredulously "Are you serious?"
Yep, I'm afraid they are.
Read on...
Watching this video makes me want to puke. Follow the link to the video. The United States of America. Tom
Firedoglake at 3:47 AM on September 19, 2008.
Newly released footage, which was buried to avoid confiscation, shows riot cops arresting and abusing a giant group of people for nothing.
Now that we've had a few weeks to settle, a look back at Labor Day in the Twin Cities. Labor Day was of course also Day One of the Republican National Convention. Video was released today of an apparent mass arrest of utterly peaceful concert goers at the SEIU Labor Day concert.
My personal favorite moment in the tape is an off-camera exchange. Police in riot gear have surrounded loungers in a waterfront park. They announce, "Ladies and Gentlemen, You're Under Arrest" and you hear one young woman say incredulously "Are you serious?"
Yep, I'm afraid they are.
Read on...
Watching this video makes me want to puke. Follow the link to the video. The United States of America. Tom
What Illegal 'Things' Was the Government Doing in 2001-2004?
by Glenn Greenwald
For the second consecutive day, The Washington Post has published an excerpt from reporter Barton Gellman's new book on the Cheney Vice Presidency, and it provides still more details on the intense confrontation in March, 2004 between the Bush Justice Department and the Cheney-led White House over the DOJ's refusal to certify the legality of the NSA's domestic spying activities. As has been known ever since Deputy Attorney General James Comey testified before the Senate in May, 2007, all of the top-level DOJ officials -- including Attorney General John Ashcroft, Comey and FBI Director Robert Mueller -- told President Bush they would resign immediately because Bush ordered the NSA surveillance program to continue even after his own Justice Department told him it was patently illegal. Comey drafted his resignation letter, calling Bush's spying activities "an apocalyptic situation" because he had "been asked to be a part of something that is fundamentally wrong."
Such an en masse resignation in the middle of an election year was averted only when Bush finally agreed to change certain aspects of the surveillance program in order to persuade these DOJ officials to endorse its legality. The illegal NSA spying program revealed by The New York Times in December, 2005 that created so much political controversy -- whereby the Bush administration was spying on Americans without the warrants required by law -- was a program that was actually endorsed and authorized by these same DOJ officials. The program we learned about was the "compromise" program that Bush implemented in 2004 in order to avoid their resignation. That's how extreme -- what right-wing, executive-power-loving ideologues -- these DOJ officials are: they are the ones who authorized and endorsed the illegal NSA program that we came to learn about.
It's kind of depressing when one looks at the amount of law breaking that has taken place in the Bush Administration, that the media and by extension the public really don't seem to care. The sheeple are sleep waking towards a police state. Tom
For the second consecutive day, The Washington Post has published an excerpt from reporter Barton Gellman's new book on the Cheney Vice Presidency, and it provides still more details on the intense confrontation in March, 2004 between the Bush Justice Department and the Cheney-led White House over the DOJ's refusal to certify the legality of the NSA's domestic spying activities. As has been known ever since Deputy Attorney General James Comey testified before the Senate in May, 2007, all of the top-level DOJ officials -- including Attorney General John Ashcroft, Comey and FBI Director Robert Mueller -- told President Bush they would resign immediately because Bush ordered the NSA surveillance program to continue even after his own Justice Department told him it was patently illegal. Comey drafted his resignation letter, calling Bush's spying activities "an apocalyptic situation" because he had "been asked to be a part of something that is fundamentally wrong."
Such an en masse resignation in the middle of an election year was averted only when Bush finally agreed to change certain aspects of the surveillance program in order to persuade these DOJ officials to endorse its legality. The illegal NSA spying program revealed by The New York Times in December, 2005 that created so much political controversy -- whereby the Bush administration was spying on Americans without the warrants required by law -- was a program that was actually endorsed and authorized by these same DOJ officials. The program we learned about was the "compromise" program that Bush implemented in 2004 in order to avoid their resignation. That's how extreme -- what right-wing, executive-power-loving ideologues -- these DOJ officials are: they are the ones who authorized and endorsed the illegal NSA program that we came to learn about.
It's kind of depressing when one looks at the amount of law breaking that has taken place in the Bush Administration, that the media and by extension the public really don't seem to care. The sheeple are sleep waking towards a police state. Tom
Update: Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar Released After Illegal Arrest at RNC
September 1, 2008
Contact: Mike Burke
Contact: Mike Burke
UPDATE
Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar Released After Illegal Arrest at RNC
Goodman Charged with Obstruction; Felony Riot Charges Pending Against Kouddous and Salazar
ST. PAUL--Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar have all been released from police custody in St. Paul following their illegal arrest by Minneapolis Police on Monday afternoon.
Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar Released After Illegal Arrest at RNC
Goodman Charged with Obstruction; Felony Riot Charges Pending Against Kouddous and Salazar
ST. PAUL--Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar have all been released from police custody in St. Paul following their illegal arrest by Minneapolis Police on Monday afternoon.
Looks like an outright attack on the freedom of the press. Be interesting to see how the main stream media covers this. Probably with a Yawn. Tom
Law and Order: Curfew America
War zone security has arrived in the US as cities are shut down at night by police struggling to control a deadly wave of gun crime. David Usborne reports from Hartford, Connecticut
by David Usborne
HARTFORD, Connecticut - The police state has not arrived quite yet but it may feel like it to the residents of some American cities, where a handful of embattled mayors and police chiefs are imposing strict and sometimes sweeping curfews as a last resort to quell new waves of gun violence this summer.
"We must do this because we cannot and will not tolerate innocent people, especially children, to be victims," insists Eddie Perez, the Mayor of Hartford, the capital of Connecticut, where a night-time curfew was introduced last week and will remain in effect for a month for those under 18 years old.
read on
This article from Commondreams.org highlights the ongoing U.S. infatuation with curfews. Its funny how popular they are when research shows they aren't very effective. Tom
by David Usborne
HARTFORD, Connecticut - The police state has not arrived quite yet but it may feel like it to the residents of some American cities, where a handful of embattled mayors and police chiefs are imposing strict and sometimes sweeping curfews as a last resort to quell new waves of gun violence this summer.
"We must do this because we cannot and will not tolerate innocent people, especially children, to be victims," insists Eddie Perez, the Mayor of Hartford, the capital of Connecticut, where a night-time curfew was introduced last week and will remain in effect for a month for those under 18 years old.
read on
This article from Commondreams.org highlights the ongoing U.S. infatuation with curfews. Its funny how popular they are when research shows they aren't very effective. Tom
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)