USA: Excessive and lethal force? Amnesty International's concerns about deaths and ill-treatment involving police use of tasers - Amnesty International
Topic: Civil Liberties
5:34 am EST, Nov 25, 2006
Police are always going to side with police. That's why all these investigations don't mean crap to me what they decide.
Psych nurses, doctors, and techs deal with uncooperative, cussing, spitting people every day and don't hurt them.
What always scared me is that the techs with sadistic power trips that I fired for patient abuse almost ALWAYS got their next jobs as cops. Honest.
The police should NOT be the ones to investigate this.
This video terrified me. The guy is heard saying he has a medical condition! Now, as some of you know, I have a severe neurological condition. I look healthy most days, sometimes though I cannot walk. It varies, but anyway, I look ok a lot of days. No one could tell that there is no myelin on a lot of my stupid nerves.
Now, I had a nerve conduction test where they used LOW level shocks on me to test my nerves. They had to crank it up to get a response - my nerves are either NOTHING, or they overload. I didn't feel it - then it was over the top painful. Yet, I am sure that is less than being tazed.
Anyway, with that medically supervised test that involved getting shocks - I could not walk at all for 2 days. I still have nightmares from that.
So, I have argued repeatedly that they should be illegal. I am scared terribly of those things. I am perhaps more scared of them than a gun, as the police seem to think that they are 'safe' and a gun 'dangerous.' Maybe for some people...
Now, I thought that they were an ALTERNATIVE to a gun. Would you shoot someone for studying?
Yes they ARE doing random laptop searches at borders
Topic: Civil Liberties
12:04 am EDT, Aug 1, 2006
I flew into SFO (San Francisco) from Asia in May 2006.
I went straight to the customs agent as I had no luggage.
The agent asked to go through my only bag.
I gave him my bag.
The agent took out my laptop and turned it on.
He then asked for my password
He said that he wanted to verify that I had no illegal content on my hard drive...
While operating my laptop he said that we was tasked with preventing illegal pornographic material from entering the United States
Travis Kalanick Red Swoosh, Inc. Founder, CEO
I can't think of anything that could destroy by mood when returning to the country more throughly.
I don't think the problem here is people are thinking pre-9/11, versus post-9/11. I think the problem is that they are not thinking trans-9/11. I'm starting to feel my freedoms and liberties are under far more threat from our government, than terrorists. And this really pains and distresses me..
Every time I came through SFO customs when returning to the US, after going over my paperwork, the customs agent always say something along the lines of "welcome home" as they sent me on my way. I always replied with something like "I'm happy to be home", and left the airport with a warm happy fuzzy feeling fitting of arriving home in San Francisco. If this is the "welcome home" of today, home is becoming far less welcoming.
What the hell is going on? This is the direct equivalent of going through and reading someone's papers.
One thing our nation has a great history of, is coming out in force whenever freedoms and liberties are not what they should be. Many of the events that have driven people in large numbers to rally around The Mall in DC have surrounded civil rights movements, anti-war movements, et cetera. Now, I just wonder how many years before a point of critical mass is hit, and the masses come to the conclusion in concert that things are not going in the right direction. Just because this is a slow erosion taking place, doesn't mean it's going to go unnoticed and unopposed. It just means it will be a straw that breaks the camel's back...
I'm filing this under civil liberties because I believe that DFCS often violates the civil liberties of citizens in its sometimes overzealous intrusion into family affairs, as a few cases brought by the ACLU have shown. Clearly though, they've not brought enough.
In this case, a younger Bortz child died. The autopsy ruled the autopsy as consistent with an accidental death, and the cause of death was accidental.
Yet, Atlanta DFCS removed this older child from the family -totally, as they were burying their baby.
I know this family and they are a very good family. If this nightmare of government intrusion could happen to them - it could happen to ANYONE.
The case has clearly shown me that DFCS officials are not elected or accountable. Money, money, money and power often lie at the heart of their decisions, with a steadfast refusal to admit that they could ever be wrong.
Tommorow is the big day for the EFF's AT&T NSA spying case. There is a public hearing in the morning to determine whether or not the Federal Government will be able to assert the State Secret's Privilege to squash the case. Wired has tons of coverage, including information from the EFF's exhibits, which I'm linking here.
The normal work force of unionized technicians in the office are forbidden to enter the "secret room," which has a special combination lock on the main door. The telltale sign of an illicit government spy operation is the fact that only people with security clearance from the National Security Agency can enter this room.
The above-referenced document includes a diagram (PDF 3) showing the splitting of the light signal, a portion of which is diverted to "SG3 Secure Room," i.e., the so-called "Study Group" spy room.
Since the San Francisco "secret room" is numbered 3, the implication is that there are at least several more in other cities (Seattle, San Jose, Los Angeles and San Diego are some of the rumored locations), which likely are spread across the United States.
Now, the description offered here would be valid for a CALEA compliance room. The existance of these things doesn't demonstrate what is being surveilled or why or with what authority. But the technical information is likely of interest to the geeks on this site, including the tool used for collecting data (which is a common CALEA compliance tool). There is also a picture of the room.
The State Secrets Option, BTW, is the nuclear option in law. If this case proceeds it will be a watershed event, particularly given that this option was accepted in the rendition case of Maher Arar. Getting tortured by a foreign government is a bit more serious then getting your phone tapped.
Of course, consideration of this matter leads one rapidly to worry that that if the intelligence or security establishment commits a crime, and you are the victim of that crime, you have no recourse. This tends to incidate that the realm of intelligence and national security is an autonomous zone, where the only real law is "trust us."
Mothers in domestic violence shelters face losing their children
Topic: Civil Liberties
10:56 am EDT, Apr 16, 2006
"Domestic violence shelter directors say the state is increasingly taking children away from women who have done nothing more than move to a shelter to escape a violent home...
...Thomas said the domestic violence professionals on her staff agreed that the Cabinet removals were appropriate in only about five of the 50 cases, in which mothers had other problems, such as drug addiction, in addition to domestic violence.
Thomas said she knows of three cases in the 17-county area in which the state found new adoptive families for infants who were taken from domestic violence victims at the hospital immediately after birth."
Report: State unjustly terminates parental rights for federal money
Topic: Civil Liberties
10:50 am EDT, Apr 16, 2006
"Kentucky's inspector general is investigating complaints that some state child protection officials are using foster children as "bartering items" in an adoption push that a recent report equated to the "black-market selling of children."
Veteran state social workers and other professionals who work with vulnerable families allege that, under federal pressure to increase the number of Kentucky foster children who are adopted, some administrators in the Cabinet for Health and Family Services are inappropriately recommending to courts that the rights of biological parents be terminated."
Just got word that a segment on this story will air on WSB News in Atlanta (Channel 2) at 11 PM. Please spread the word to everyone you know! Don and Rachel Bortz, and Randi St. Denis were interviewed earlier this evening.
(If you saw my earlier post about this-DFCS stating that they don't have to do what judges say.)
