Tag: police state

Court docs show US govt knew about – and used – Chicago ‘black site’

Scandals don’t get much more disturbing than that of Homan Square. In 2015, the Guardian revealed Chicago Police had allegedly employed torture and days-long unlawful detention at the secretive “black site”-like Homan Square facility, a nondescript warehouse located in Chicago’s West-side Garfield Park neighborhood. Outraged and alarmed by these revelations, politicians and activists clamored for the US Department of Justice to investigate human rights abuses at the facility, which still operates today.

Despite the pleading, the DOJ elected not to investigate Homan Square, and instead conducted a broad investigation of Chicago Police Department use of force practices.

The DOJ’s failure to thoroughly examine the alleged abuses at Homan left onlookers confused. Investigating the CPD’s use of force was important, of course, but why wouldn’t the DOJ also investigate the Homan Square facility given the severity of the allegations?

One of the main figures pushing for a DOJ probe of Homan Square was then-Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin, who sent letters to the Department asking them to investigate the facility. Asked whether he ever received an explanation as to why the DOJ didn’t investigate the facility, Boykin said: “I did not, which is surprising right?”

Noir News has examined an element of the Homan Square story that provides important context regarding the Department’s decision: the Department of Justice was inside Homan Square all along, well aware of its use for extrajudicial detention, conducted its own interrogations in the facility, and is implicated in at least one of its most egregious abuse cases, that of Angel Perez.

Perez alleged CPD officers took him to Homan Square and pressured him to act as a cooperating witness in an investigation of alleged drug dealer Dwayne Payne. Namely, the officers wanted Perez to set up a drug purchase with Payne. Perez said he was taken to a room on the second floor of Homan Square, handcuffed to a bar, and placed in ankle shackles for several hours. Officers allegedly threatened to plant evidence on Perez and send “him to the Cook County jail to be raped by gang members.”

After refusing to cooperate in the investigation, Perez alleges he was physically and verbally tortured by the officers for hours and that they refused to grant him access to a lawyer. One of the officers told Perez, “‘I hear that a big black nigger dick feels like a gun up your ass.’” Then an officer “inserted a cold metal object, believed to be one of [the] officer’s service revolvers, into the plaintiff’s rectum causing the plaintiff severe pain and humiliation.” Finally, Perez relented and agreed to buy heroin from Payne for the officers.

Importantly, Perez’s lawsuit and The Guardian’s reporting on the matter solely implicated the CPD. But as Noir News has discovered, a 2022 court order reveals the investigation that resulted in Perez’s detention and torture at Homan Square wasn’t just a CPD operation. Rather, the investigation of Payne, the alleged drug dealer, was a “joint investigation with the USAO [United States Attorneys’ Office].” The United States Attorneys’ Office is an arm of the Department of Justice.

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Study: Concealed Carriers Stop More Active Shooters Than Police Do

Data compiled by the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) shows that armed civilians stop more mass shootings than police do.

American Thinker pointed to the CPRC data last week week, noting not only that concealed carriers stop more mass shootings that do police, but that concealed carriers do so with “fewer mistakes.”

CPRC president John Lott Jr. observed that his group did a “deep dive into active shooter scenarios between 2014 and 2023” and found:

Not only do permit holders succeed in stopping active shooters at a higher rate, but law enforcement officers face significantly greater risks when intervening. Our research found police were nearly six times more likely to be killed and 17 percent more likely to be wounded than armed civilians.

Lott explained, “From 2014 to 2023, CPRC researchers found that armed civilians stopped 180 of 515 active shooting cases. Of the attacks in places where people were allowed to carry, we found that permit holders stopped 158 of the 307 instances.” In all those instances, an innocent bystander was shot only one time.

On the other hand, “In the 156 cases stopped by law enforcement, we found police accidentally shot the wrong person in four cases, killing fellow officers twice and civilians twice.”

Lott summarized, “These findings highlight a reality that is often ignored: responsible gun owners save lives. Concealed handgun permit holders aren’t reckless vigilantes, but they are law-abiding citizens who step up in moments of crisis when seconds matter and police are minutes away.”

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Australian Politician Admits ‘Free Speech’ is Incompatible With a ‘Multicultural’ Society

Australian politician Chris Minns inadvertently said the quiet part out loud when he admitted that the existence of true “free speech” is incompatible with a multicultural society.

The Premier of New South Wales tacitly admitted that in order to uphold the myth that ‘diversity is our greatest strength’, the freedom to say it isn’t must be censored.

“I recognize and I fully said from the beginning, we don’t have the same freedom of speech laws that they have in the United States, and the reason for that is that we want to hold together a multicultural community and have people live in peace,” said Minns.

The politician made the comments in the context of new hate speech laws in Australia that were rushed through off the back of a hysterical moral panic based on a completely fraudulent narrative.

The new legislation was introduced in response to a supposed terror attack plot on a childcare center near a synagogue on the outskirts of Sydney.

However, it subsequently emerged that the attack was actually a “criminal con job,” according to police, and that wasn’t politically or racially motivated at all.

“The entire operation wasn’t about mass destruction. It was a scam,” reports Reclaim the Net. “The alleged mastermind, reportedly a figure nestled deep within Australia’s criminal underworld, was running a spectacular bluff. The plan? Create an artificial crisis, let the media and politicians whip themselves into a frenzy, and then swoop in as the “hero” with inside information — possibly to negotiate a reduced sentence, distract police from other crimes, or simply revel in the chaos.

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LRAD Cannon ‘Sonic Weapon’ Allegedly Deployed Against Protesters in Serbia

Footage out of Serbia over the weekend captured the moment a suspected military-grade sonic weapon was deployed to disrupt protests, reports claim.

Video from a peaceful anti-government demonstration in Belgrade on Saturday showed hundreds of thousands of attendees standing in the streets participating in a silent protest, as a loud jet engine-like noise roared through the streets prompting demonstrators to flee in panic, with some reporting hearing loss.

“Somewhere behind us it suddenly sounded like a building or a huge block of stone had fallen from the sky,” one of the demonstrators told Serbian news site Raskrikavanje. “Me and my friend immediately looked at each other and asked – what’s going on?”

They went on to describe: “You have the feeling that it is coming towards you, that something is going to step on you from behind, so you run from the side – and yet you have the feeling that you will die anyway because it is huge and it will cut us all down”.

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Florida Senate Panel Takes Up Bill To Restrict Hemp Products

For the third year in a row, Florida lawmakers have begun debating a proposal to regulate THC-derived hemp products, which have evolved into a multibillion-dollar industry in the Sunshine State.

In addition to banning Delta-8 products and restricting the amount of Delta-9 THC levels in hemp products to 5 milligrams per serving and 50 milligrams per package, the latest proposal from Polk County Republican Sen. Colleen Burton (SB 438) includes for the first time regulations on hemp-infused drinks, which have surged in popularity over the past year.

The proposal would restrict the amount of THC per bottle or cans to no more than 5 milligrams. It would ban those drinks being sold at any locations other than ones already licensed to sell alcoholic beverages, adding additional prohibitions and requirements.

“Liquor stores and restaurants that would like to sell these products, they have come to us and asked us to provide some regulations so that they know that the products that they are selling have gone through the rigor of the testing and will all be held to the same standards,” Burton said in introducing the bill to the Senate Agriculture Committee on Monday afternoon.

But that provision received some pushback.

“Requiring us to carry a liquor license when we’re a non-alcoholic bottle shop kind of goes against what we built,” said Caitlyn Smith, co-owner of Herban Flow in St. Petersburg, which bills itself as Florida’s first non-alcoholic bottle shop.

Her husband and co-founder, Michael Smith, said that he is five years’ sober and the last thing that he wants is for his store to be regulated as a liquor store when it isn’t one.

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Idaho Lawmakers Hold Hearing On Bill To Legalize Medical Marijuana

Jeremy Kitzhaber, a U.S. Air Force veteran, held up a blue lunch bag to a committee of Idaho lawmakers on Monday that he uses to store the drugs meant to soothe his pain, including hydrocodone, morphine and oxycodone.

Kitzhaber has a rare type of stage four cancer that he developed while transporting radioactive and hazardous materials in the military. He can take those strong opioids at any point in the day—in addition to the drugs he takes to keep his cancer from growing and manage his bowel movement and anxiety. However, the one drug he cannot legally take is marijuana.

Idaho has some of the strictest laws against any kind of marijuana usage, but an informational hearing held in the Idaho House Health and Welfare Committee opened the discussion for Kitzhaber to advocate for a bill to legalize medical marijuana for Idahoans living with chronic pain and answer lawmakers’ questions about what legalizing marijuana would look like in Idaho.

Kitzhaber has been working on legislation to legalize marijuana for six years, and this year, Reps. Ilana Rubel (D-Boise), and Jordan Redman (R-Coeur d’Alene), named House Bill 401, or the “Sgt. Kitzhaber Medical Cannabis Act,” after him. The sponsors introduced it as a personal bill, meaning it has no chance of advancing this session and is intended to send a message.

What would medical marijuana look like in Idaho?

Unlike most of its neighboring states, marijuana is recreationally and medically illegal in Idaho.

During the 2025 legislative session alone, lawmakers passed at least two pieces of legislation aimed to restrict marijuana usage in Idaho. This includes a bill signed by the governor and set to take effect July 1 to implement a $300 minimum fine for individuals found possessing less than three ounces marijuana.

Another piece of legislation passed in both chambers is a proposed amendment to the Idaho Constitution that, if approved by voters, would make it so that only the Idaho Legislature has the power to legalize marijuana and other narcotics.

House Bill 401 is modeled after Utah’s legislation, Rubel told the committee, who said Idaho lawmakers should at some point consider this type of legislation.

The bill would move marijuana from a Schedule I drug to a Schedule II controlled substance. It would allow medical practitioners to give medical cannabis cards to patients who are at least 21 years old and diagnosed with qualifying conditions such as cancer, ALS, AIDS, Crohn’s disease, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and other debilitating illnesses. The card would be valid for up to one year, and renewal must be sought after.

Under the bill, individuals with medical cannabis cards would not be subject to prosecution for certain amounts of marijuana possession.

“The bill does not legalize cannabis, it only decriminalizes it,” Kitzhaber said.

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House Judiciary Committee Investigates Biden-Harris AI Censorship Allegations with New Subpoenas

Political trends and circumstances change, as do US administrations – but the House Judiciary Committee chaired by Jim Jordan continues to “soldier on” in its multi-year, comprehensive bid to get to the bottom of the activities by the Biden-Harris White House aimed at pressuring tech companies to its political advantage.

In the past, these investigations produced some spectacular results – such as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg publicly admitting to his company relenting to that pressure, stating he regretted that – and that the tech giant would reverse the policies that facilitated compliance with the former government.

The latest set of the Committee’s subpoenas concern companies developing AI tech. The subpoenas have been sent to Adobe, Alphabet, Amazon, Anthropic PBC, Apple, Cohere, International Business Machines Corp., Inflection AI, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, Open AI, Palantir Technologies, Salesforce, Scale AI, and Stability AI.

We obtained a copy of one of the letters for you here.

The Committee wants all documents and communications that the previous administration had with these companies concerning content “moderation and suppression” – i.e., collusion with the aim of censoring lawful speech – to be preserved and presented. The timeframe is January 2020 to January 2025.

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What Hunters Should Know About Colorado’s First-in-the-Nation Gun Ban

Colorado is poised to become the first state in the nation to ban entire categories of rifles, pistols, and shotguns based solely on their operating systems and without regard for cosmetic features like collapsible stocks or pistol grips.

However, recent amendments to the legislation have created loopholes that would make it easier for hunters to continue owning these now-banned types of firearms. These amendments earned the support of Governor Jared Polis and passed the state Senate on a narrow 19-15 vote.

Now, the bill heads to the state House of Representatives, where the Democrats supermajority all but assures the bill’s passage.

Sportsmen’s groups have decried the legislation as an attack on Second Amendment rights and warn it could impact conservation funding moving forward.

“Modern sporting rifles and semi-automatic shotguns are not only important to our hunting heritage but are highly popular in the recreational shooting community which is widely credited as the source of roughly 80% of conservation funding generated through the Pittman-Robertson Act,” said the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation. “This legislation would severely undermine our hunting heritage, firearm rights, and would negatively impact the American System of Conservation Funding.”

The bill’s supporters argue that the legislation is necessary to prevent mass shootings, and they refuse to characterize the bill as a “ban.”

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Minnesota Judge Rules That Native American Man Can Be Prosecuted Over Marijuana Possession On Reservation Despite State Legalization

A Minnesota district court judge ruled that the state may prosecute Native Americans on most reservations for possessing large amounts of marijuana, allowing a felony case against a White Earth man to proceed.

The ruling is the first—though likely not the last—to address state law enforcement’s jurisdiction over marijuana in Indian Country since Minnesota legalized its recreational use in 2023.

Todd Thompson, a White Earth citizen, faces a felony possession charge with a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine for selling marijuana without a license from his tobacco store in Mahnomen on the White Earth reservation.

Mahnomen County sheriff’s deputies and White Earth tribal police raided his store on August 2, 2023, a day after recreational cannabis became legal in Minnesota, and seized about 7.5 pounds of cannabis, 433 grams of marijuana wax and $2,748 in cash along with Thompson’s cell phone and surveillance system.

Thompson asked Mahnomen County District Judge Seamus Duffy to dismiss the charge, arguing that the state doesn’t have the legal jurisdiction to prosecute him.

Under what’s called Public Law 280, Minnesota has the power to prosecute tribal members on certain reservations including White Earth’s for criminal acts but not civil or regulatory violations of state law. Thompson and his attorney, Claire Glenn, argued that after cannabis was legalized in Minnesota, possessing and selling the drug became a regulatory matter, not a criminal one.

The judge, in a ruling issued earlier this month, disagreed. He wrote that the possession of “non-personal, non-recreational amounts of marijuana in public is generally prohibited,” and that just because the state may issue licenses to businesses to sell marijuana, doesn’t mean it’s only a regulatory matter. He pointed to a case in which a White Earth man was convicted of possessing a pistol without a permit on tribal land.

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Police Chief Defends Use Of Lies And Torture To Obtain False Confession

A police chief in California has taken to social media to defend detectives who forced a man on medication for stress, depression and high blood pressure to confess to his own father’s murder — which never actually happened — through the use of what a federal judge called “psychological torture.”

“Were we perfect in how we handled the situation? Nobody ever is,” wrote Fontana Police Chief Michael Dorsey in a Nov. 7 statement posted to the department’s X account. “In situations like these, it is acceptable and perfectly legal to use different tactics and techniques, such as ruses, to elicit information from people suspected of potential criminal activity. That was done in this case in order to gain resolution.”

The problem: detectives were looking to gain resolution for a homicide that didn’t exist.

Thomas Perez Jr. was interrogated for 17 hours by the Fontana Police Department over the disappearance of his 71-year-old father in 2018, according to a civil rights lawsuit that he settled earlier this year with the city and an interview with CNN. He reported him missing on Aug. 8 of that year and was questioned that evening and the following day.

Detectives David Janusz and Kyle Guthrie claimed in a 2023 deposition for the civil case filed by Perez against the City of Fontana that their lieutenant had told them “something to the fact that they believed Thomas — or Mr. Perez — had killed his father.” The detectives both admitted that they had “a feeling” that Perez murdered his father but couldn’t prove it.

The pair allegedly took Perez to a coffee shop and drove him around town for hours while “berating” him about his dad’s disappearance and looking for places where he might have dumped a body, his suit said. They also allegedly denied requests by Perez to let him take medication he is prescribed for his stress, depression, high blood pressure and asthma.

At one point, the detectives even claimed to have recovered his dad’s remains, saying, “He has a toe tag on him,” according to the suit. Interrogation footage also shows them saying, “You know you killed him. You did.” A third cop, Detective Robert Miller, was also said to have been involved.

The City of Fontana wound up settling with Perez — paying him nearly $900,000 — after a federal judge in California’s Central District ruled in favor of letting his case move forward following a review of police footage from the interrogation.

“Perez’s mental state, among other factors, made him a vulnerable individual,” wrote Judge Dolly Gee, referring to the detectives’ interrogation tactics as “unconstitutional psychological torture” in her ruling.

“He was sleep deprived, mentally ill, and, significantly, undergoing symptoms of withdrawal from his psychiatric medications,” Gee said. “He was berated, worn down, and pressured into a false confession after 17 hours of questioning. (The officers) did this with full awareness of his compromised mental and physical state and need for his medications.”

In his X statement, Chief Dorsey explained that while the City of Fontana was ready to end its beef with Perez and put his case to rest after half a decade, he was not.

“Our police department recently settled a lawsuit that generated misleading, one-sided headlines, telling the story from the point-of-view of the plaintiff’s attorney,” Dorsey said.

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