The Police Aren’t Legally Obligated To Protect You
Here is another chapter from Russ Kick’s classic bite-size Disinformation book 50 Things You’re Not Supposed to Know, published in 2003.
For more on Russ Kick, check out his website, The Memory Hole.
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Without even thinking about it, we take it as a given that the police must protect each of us. That’s their whole reason for existence, right?
While this might be true in a few jurisdictions in the U.S. and Canada, it is actually the exception, not the rule. In general, court decisions and state laws have held that cops don’t have to do a damn thing to help you when you’re in danger.
In the only book devoted exclusively to the subject, Dial 911 and Die, attorney Richard W. Stevens writes:
It was the most shocking thing I learned in law school. I was studying Torts in my first year at the University of San Diego School of Law, when I came upon the case of Hartzler v. City of San Jose. In that case I discovered the secret truth: the government owes no duty to protect individual citizens from criminal attack. Not only did the California courts hold to that rule, the California legislature had enacted a statute to make sure the courts couldn’t change the rule.
Man Arrested for Using Olympic Torch to Light Up
Think it was just a cigarette, but I guess you can’t mess with the Torch:
South Africa: Zuma Bodyguards Raise Spectre of ‘Police State’
From the Mail & Guardian:
The arrest of a student for “swearing” at President Jacob Zuma’s convoy is a tactic of a police state, not a democracy, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Wednesday.
DA leader Helen Zille said the way the police acted was a reminder of the actions of the apartheid-era security police.
“They are reminiscent of Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, which the African National Congress is increasingly trying to emulate,” said Zille.
Chumani Maxwele was arrested on Wednesday last week when he allegedly showed his middle finger to Zuma’s convoy while he was jogging in De Waal Street in Cape Town. He was arrested at gunpoint by police officers.
He allegedly had a bag pulled over his head and was first taken to Zuma’s residence, before he was taken to Rondebosch and…
No Joke: South Carolina Now Requires ‘Subversives’ to Register
Yes, the South is as messed up as you though it was. This new law from the birthplace of secession is utterly ridiculous, and it will be used as an excuse to arrest and imprison activists of all stripes. Also, I want to drive over to Columbia and pay five dollars to have the South Carolina Republican Party registered.
From The Raw Story:
Five-dollar registration fee for persons planning to overthrow U.S. government.
Terrorists who want to overthrow the United States government must now register with South Carolina’s Secretary of State and declare their intentions — or face a $25,000 fine and up to 10 years in prison.
The state’s “Subversive Activities Registration Act,” passed last year and now officially on the books, states that “every member of a subversive organization, or an organization…
The FBI Wants To Log Everything You Do Online
Samuel Axon writes on Mashable:
FBI Director Robert Mueller wants ISPs to track “origin and destination information” about their customers’ browsing habits and store them for authorities’ use for two years, according to a CNET report.
That would mean monitoring the IP addresses, domains and exact websites users visit, and then storing that information for months. If officials who support this measure get their way, federal, state and local law enforcement would be able to access the information via search warrant or subpoena.
Access to exact URLs would require deep-packet inspection, which could be a violation of the Wiretap Act. The courts would end up having to make a ruling one way or the other if authorities try it.
The argument in favor is that the FBI has long been able to do this…
U.S. Airport Security Plan Calls For 500 Body Scanners In 2011
“No wonder you’re having nightmares. You’re always watching the news.” – Lori in Total Recall
By Thomas Frank at USA Today:
Body scanners that look under airline passengers’ clothing for hidden weapons could be in nearly half the nation’s airport checkpoints by late 2011, according to an Obama administration plan announced Monday.
The $215 million proposal to acquire 500 scanners next year, combined with the 450 to be bought this year, marks the largest addition of airport-security equipment since immediately after the 9/11 attacks. There are only 40 body scanners in a total of 19 airports now.
“It’s a move in the right direction,” aviation-security consultant Douglas Laird said. “We need to scan all passengers.”
The push for more scanners accelerated after the failed Christmas Day attempt to bomb an airliner near Detroit. Suspect Umar…
Does the Fourth Amendment Cover ‘The Cloud’?
James Urquhart writes on CNet News:
One of the biggest issues facing individuals and corporations choosing to adopt public cloud computing (or any Internet service, for that matter) is the relative lack of clarity with respect to legal rights over data stored online. I’ve reported on this early legal landscape a couple of times, looking at decisions to relax expectations of privacy for e-mail stored online and the decision to allow the FBI to confiscate servers belonging to dozens of companies from a co-location facility whose owners were suspected of fraud.
However, while I’ve argued before that the government has yet to apply the right metaphor to the modern world of networked applications and data, there has been little literature that has actually dissected the problem in detail. Even worse, I’ve seen…
Recording Police With Your Cellphone Gets You Arrested in Boston
Daniel Rowinski writes in the Boston Globe:
Simon Glik, a lawyer, was walking down Tremont Street in Boston when he saw three police officers struggling to extract a plastic bag from a teenager’s mouth. Thinking their force seemed excessive for a drug arrest, Glik pulled out his cellphone and began recording.
Within minutes, Glik said, he was in handcuffs.
“One of the officers asked me whether my phone had audio recording capabilities,’’ Glik, 33, said recently of the incident, which took place in October 2007. Glik acknowledged that it did, and then, he said, “my phone was seized, and I was arrested.’’
The charge? Illegal electronic surveillance.
Jon Surmacz, 34, experienced a similar situation. Thinking that Boston police officers were unnecessarily rough while breaking up a holiday party in Brighton he was attending in December…
Chuck Norris Hunts for Obama’s ‘Secret Vault’ With An Interpol Conspiracy Theory
First Obama wants to kill Baby Jesus with his health care plan, now Chuck says the president’s coming after YOU with the help of some European cops. Maybe he’s been secretly testing out scripts for a return to the big screen…
Michael Isikoff writes on Newsweek’s Declassified:
The conspiracy theories about President Obama’s executive order on Interpol are getting wilder by the day.
Invoking no less an authority than Glenn Beck, movie tough guy (and political activist) Chuck Norris has taken aim at Obama’s Dec. 17 executive order extending certain “privileges, exemptions, and immunities” to Interpol, otherwise known as the International Police Organization, based in Lyon, France.
As we reported last weekend, thanks in part to the comments of Beck and Newt Gingrich (as well as the National Review’s Andrew McCarthy) the order has spawned a rash of…
‘Don’t Daze Me, Bro!’ Meet A Non-Lethal Weapon from Homeland Security
So as the court system starts to regulate more and more the use of tasers by police, I have a feeling these “non-lethal” options will come into more widespread use. Here’s a video from some folks who made of a version of the Dazzler. The clip from the Homeland Security conference is pretty astounding:
Our first open source Homeland Security non-lethal weapon project — The “THE BEDAZZLER: A Do-it-yourself Handheld LED-Incapacitator”. After attending a conference where the $1 million “sea-sick flashlight” (named “THE DAZZLER”) was demonstrated by the US Dept. of Homeland Security, we decided to create our own version. For under $250, you can build your own dazzler…
Yes this project does indeed cause: Nausea, dizziness, headache, flashblindness, eye pain and (occasional?) vomiting! So don’t use it on your friends or pets…
So Being Naked at Home is Now A John Dillinger-esque Crime?
Kashmir Hill writes on True/Slant:
Sometimes it’s nice to walk around your house naked. I, for one, don’t particularly like to do it when there are strangers in the house, but I have interviewed people who do.
But what if the strangers are outside your house and look through your windows and see you naked? For an au natural Virginia man, this scenario has resulted in a conviction for indecent exposure.
Findlaw defines indecent exposure as “purposefully display[ing] one’s genitals in public, causing others to be alarmed or offended.” Erick Williamson, 29, was in his private home, but he was viewable from the public streets. A judge decided Friday that this means Williamson is guilty.
Erick Williamson was having a cup of coffee in the buff one October morning. A woman drove by and…
Your Right to Photograph in Public
Kurt Nimmo writes on InfoWars:
Infowars has posted numerous stories and videos documenting police and security guards harassing photographers and videographers in public spaces. In the United States, it is entirely legal for you to photograph people, buildings, infrastructure, and even criminal activity in public, so long as you do not interfere with the police. You don’t need permission and the cops cannot legally stop you or confiscate your camera, film, or video tape.
Earlier this year, Aaron Dykes was threatened with arrest in downtown Kansas City, Missouri after filming the local branch of the private Federal Reserve building. Security guards working for the Fed approached Infowars reporters at a city park that houses the National WWI memorial and demanded that they provide their names and disclose why they were filming the building.
Dykes…
G20 Report Lays Down the Law to Police on Use of Force
From The Guardian:
A blueprint for wholesale reform of British policing to create a service “anchored in public consent” was unveiled today by the inquiry prompted by Scotland Yard’s controversial handling of the G20 protests in London.
Denis O’Connor, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary, used his report to demand wide-ranging reforms and a return to an ideal of policing based on “approachability, impartiality, accountability and … minimum force”.
The findings received almost unanimous support across the political spectrum. The prime minister, Gordon Brown, said the government would “take the action” needed to reassure the public that policing is fair.
The report – instigated after the Guardian revealed that a newspaper seller, Ian Tomlinson, had died after an attack by a police officer – was broader and more critical than many had expected.
O’Connor warned of a…
British Police Arrest People ‘Just For The DNA’
Strangely enough, this page is no longer on MSNBC. Here the cached version via Google, MSNBC via Reuters:
More than three-quarters of young black men are on system, watchdog says
Britain has built the world’s biggest DNA database without proper political debate and police routinely arrest people just to get their DNA profiles onto the system, the genetics watchdog said in a report on Tuesday.
The Human Genetics Commission, which advises the government on the social, legal and ethical aspects of genetics, called for a review of the database and said new laws must be passed to govern its use.
In a damning report, the commission said “function creep” had transformed the system from a DNA store for offenders into a database of suspects.
Was on MSNBC via Reuters, also on USA Today
Asperger’s Syndrome Runaway Spends 11 Days Hiding in NYC Subways
With all the survelliance technology, the authorities couldn’t find this kid? KIRK SEMPLE writes in the NY Times:
Day after day, night after night, Francisco Hernandez Jr. rode the subway. He had a MetroCard, $10 in his pocket and a book bag on his lap. As the human tide flowed and ebbed around him, he sat impassively, a gangly 13-year-old boy in glasses and a red hoodie, speaking to no one.
Francisco Hernandez’s mother, Marisela García, displaying a poster seeking help.
After getting in trouble in class in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, and fearing another scolding at home, he had sought refuge in the subway system. He removed the battery from his cellphone. “I didn’t want anyone to scream at me,” he said.
All told, Francisco disappeared for 11 days last month — a stretch he…
New York Police Now Tracking Mobile Phones
Rocco Parascandola reports in the Daily News:
The NYPD is amassing a database of cell phone users, instructing cops to log serial numbers from suspects’ phones in hopes of connecting them to past or future crimes.
In the era of disposable, anonymous cell phones, the file could be a treasure-trove for detectives investigating drug rings and other criminal enterprises, police sources say.
“It’s used to help build cases,” one source said of the new initiative.
“It doesn’t replace the human element, like debriefing prisoners, but it’s another tool to use that we didn’t have in the past.”
A recent internal memo says that when cops make an arrest, they should remove the suspect’s cell phone battery to avoid leakage – then jot down the International Mobile Equipment Identity number…
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Fascism by the Numbers
Klint Finley, Mutate:
As a follow-up to my recent post Is It Too Late to Stop Fascism in the US?, I worked from the definition of fascism proposed by Robert Paxton.
There are several other definitions of fascism, many of which are listed on the Wikipedia entry Definitions of Fascism. I’ve decided to go through the definitions that include specific lists of criteria and see which of them the United States fits.
I’ve made the case before that when Ronald Reagan signed the Military Cooperation with Law Enforcement Officials Act, he was quietly declaring martial law and creating a police state (and that the US has never really lived up to its liberal democratic ideals). I’m sure those with more knowledge of the right-wing populist movement of the 70s that culminated in Reagan’s election…
The Ashes of Waco – Out There Radio: Episode 19 & 20
Out There Radio – Episode 19 & 20: The Ashes of Waco
Website • iTunes • Direct Download (part 1, part 2) • RSS
Part 1 of our interview with Dick J. Reavis, Journalism Professor at NC State and one of the leading experts on the Waco tragedy. His book, “The Ashes of Waco,” was one of the first works to point out many of the problems with the raid, seige, and fire at the the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, TX, in the spring of 1993. Part 1 features the background of the case as well as the story up to the day after the raid.
Dick J. Reavis teaches journalism at North Carolina State University. He is the author the “The Ashes of Waco”, one of the most important books about the 1993 tragedy…
