Tag: crime

Bail Fund Promoted By Kamala Harris Helped Man Accused Of Sexually Penetrating A Child

A bail fund promoted by Sen. Kamala Harris helped a man accused of sexually assaulting an eight-year-old girl get out of jail in July, according to court documents obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The Minnesota Freedom Fund (MFF) also helped post bail in August for a man accused of assaulting a 71-year-old woman as he burglarized her home, court documents show. One week after his release the man was found to be in violation of his bail. The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office told the DCNF on Wednesday there is still an active felony warrant out for that man’s arrest.

Court documents reviewed by the DCNF reveal that the bail fund also provided support in June to a man who allegedly stomped on and robbed a victim on the streets of Minneapolis on May 25, the same day George Floyd died while in police custody.

During the nationwide wave of protests and riots following Floyd’s death, Harris, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, called on her followers to donate to the MFF in a June 1 tweet. The California senator said contributions to the fund would “help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota” against Floyd’s death.

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6 Other Times People Broke Into the U.S. Capitol

On Wednesday, protesters with a pro-Trump “Stop the Steal” rally broke through Capitol Police and breached the premises of the U.S. Capitol Building. Some of them even made it to the Capitol Rotunda and the Senate Floor. The U.S. Capitol has survived many invasions in the past, and it will endure through this one, as well.

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FBI COUNTERTERRORISM INFORMANT SPENT A DECADE COMMITTING FRAUD

Agbareia’s story is emblematic of a larger institutional problem at the FBI. Many of the bureau’s more than 15,000 informants commit crimes that go unpunished because the bureau views the informants’ work as valuable. The extent of this problem is largely unknown because the FBI is not required to report to Congress when informants violate the law without FBI authorization. According to policy, however, the bureau is supposed to notify the Justice Department of these violations. Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by USA Today, HuffPost, and the Daily Dot show that from 2010 to 2014, the FBI permitted informants to violate the law more than 20,000 times. The number of unauthorized crimes committed by informants like Agbareia that are ignored by the FBI has never been disclosed.

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‘BASICALLY CYBERBULLYING’: HOW COPS ABUSE SOCIAL MEDIA TO PUBLICLY HUMILIATE

Police departments have said that maintaining a presence on social media and direct engagement with the community builds trust and leads to arrests of people with outstanding warrants by soliciting crime tips. But a trend has emerged on social media accounts run by law enforcement: a hypermalicious form of voyeurism and public humiliation targeting people who have been arrested or just suspected of a crime. Critics argue that this form of “engagement” does not reduce recidivism and can often do more harm than good.

The Mobile County sheriff’s office deleted the post, telling a local NBC affiliate it had received threats to deputies’ safety. But despite the outcry, the office has continued the “Thug Thursday” Facebook series at the request of its followers, said Lori Myles, spokesperson for the sheriff’s office. 

“Our goal is making the arrest and getting that criminal off the street,” Myles said. “We use the definition of THUG as what is in the dictionary…a criminal.”

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Unsolved Murders On The Rise In 2020 Due To COVID-Related Challenges

It should come as no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention over the last year that police are solving less murders as a result of new challenges that have been created by Covid-19. 

In fact, homicides rose almost 40% for the country’s 10 largest police departments in the first 11 months of 2020, the Wall Street Journal reported this weekend. The report noted that detectives across the country have been “overwhelmed” by the rise in homicides after the rate had been falling since the 1990s.

Covid has made traditional police work, including face to face interviews, difficult to undertake. This comes amid a year where civil unrest has been high and the public’s trust of police has sunk. 

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‘This Is Atrocious’: Congress Crams Language to Criminalize Online Streaming, Meme-Sharing Into 5,500-Page Omnibus Bill

Lawmakers in Congress are under fire from digital rights campaigners for embedding three controversial changes to online copyright and trademark laws into the must-pass $2.3 trillion legislative package—which includes a $1.4 trillion omnibus spending bill and a $900 billion Covid-19 relief bill—that could receive floor votes in the House and Senate as early as Monday evening.

The punitive provisions crammed into the enormous bill (pdf), warned Evan Greer of the digital rights group Fight for the Future, “threaten ordinary Internet users with up to $30,000 in fines for engaging in everyday activity such as downloading an image and re-uploading it… [or] sharing memes.”

While the citizenry had almost no time to process the actual contents of the 5,593 page legislative text, Greer said Monday afternoon that the CASE Act, Felony Streaming Act, and Trademark Modernization Act “are in fact included in the must-pass omnibus spending bill.”

As Mike Masnick explained in a piece at TechDirt on Monday:

The CASE Act will supercharge copyright trolling exactly at a time when we need to fix the law to have less trolling. And the felony streaming bill (which was only just revealed last week with no debate or discussion) includes provisions that are so confusing and vague no one is sure if it makes sites like Twitch into felons.

“The fact that these are getting added to the must-pass government funding bill is just bad government,” Masnick added. “And congressional leadership should hear about this.”

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The COVID-19 Stimulus Bill Would Make Illegal Streaming a Felony

Congress looks to provide relief to U.S. citizens and small businesses, but the omnibus bill includes some legislative priorities for the entertainment industry as well.

Providing relief via direct assistance and loans to struggling individuals and businesses hit hard by COVID-19 has been a priority for federal lawmakers this past month. But a gigantic spending bill has also become the opportunity to smuggle in some other line items including those of special interest to the entertainment community.

Perhaps most surprising, according to the text of the bill being circulated, illegal streaming for commercial profit could become a felony.

It’s been less than two weeks since Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) released his proposal to increase the penalties for those who would dare stream unlicensed works. In doing so, the North Carolina Senator flirted with danger. About a decade ago, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar made a similar proposal before it ended up dying as people worried about sending Justin Bieber to jail. (No, seriously.) This time, Tillis’ attempt was winning better reviews for more narrowly tailoring the provisions towards commercial operators rather than users. That said, it’s had very little time to circulate before evidently becoming part of the spending package. If passed, illegal streaming could carry up to 10 years in jail.

That’s not the only copyright change either.

The spending bill also appears to adopt a long-discussed plan to create a small claims adjudication system within the U.S. Copyright Office.

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