Tag: police state

Inside The UN Plan To Control Speech Online

A powerful United Nations agency has unveiled a plan to regulate social media and online communication while cracking down on what it describes as “false information” and “conspiracy theories,” sparking alarm among free-speech advocates and top U.S. lawmakers.

In its 59-page report released this month, the U.N. Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization (UNESCO) outlined a series of “concrete measures which must be implemented by all stakeholders: governments, regulatory authorities, civil society, and the platforms themselves.”

This approach includes the imposition of global policies, through institutions such as governments and businesses, designed to stop the spread of various forms of speech while promoting objectives such as “cultural diversity” and “gender equality.”

In particular, the U.N. agency aims to create an “Internet of Trust” by targeting what it calls “misinformation,” “disinformation,” “hate speech,” and “conspiracy theories.”

Examples of expression flagged to be stopped or restricted include concerns about elections, public health measures, and advocacy that could constitute “incitement to discrimination.”

Critics are warning that allegations of “disinformation” and “conspiracy theories” have increasingly been used by powerful forces in government and Big Tech to silence true information and even core political speech.

Just this month, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee released a report blasting the “pseudoscience of disinformation.”

Among other concerns, the committee found this “pseudoscience” has been “weaponized” by what lawmakers refer to as the “Censorship Industrial Complex.”

The goal: silence constitutionally protected political speech, mostly by conservatives.

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Conor McGregor Being Investigated For ‘Online Hate Speech’ For Comments on Mass Migration

Martial artist superstar Conor McGregor is being investigated by Irish authorities for ‘online hate speech’ after he expressed anger at children being stabbed in Dublin.

Over the last week, McGregor has been outspoken about the impact mass migration is having on his homeland, remarking, “Ireland, we are at war,” in relation to the chronic housing shortage that has made basic living unaffordable for many citizens.

“Do not let any irish property be took over unannounced. Evaporate said property. It’s a war,” he added.

Following the stabbing of three children by an Algerian migrant in Dublin, the former UFC champion condemned authorities for targeting Irish people who staged fiery but mostly peaceful protests in response.

“Innocent children ruthlessly stabbed by a mentally deranged non-national in Dublin, Ireland today,” he posted on X. “Our chief of police had this to say on the riots in the aftermath. Drew, not good enough. There is grave danger among us in Ireland that should never be here in the first place.”

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Bodycam footage shows elderly Atlanta deacon being fatally tased by police

Bodycam video footage of the interaction between an Atlanta deacon and a police officer has been released, clarifying what exactly happened in the moments leading up to the officer fatally tasing the man.

The incident took place on 10 August, when the 62-year-old deacon, Johnny Hollman, was getting arrested by Officer Kiran Kimbrough after a minor car crash.

The bodycam footage, which spans almost an hour, captures Officer Kimbrough talking to Hollman and the other driver at the scene of the collision.

Hollman repeatedly insisted that the other driver hit him. The exchange escalated after the officer told the deacon that he didn’t turn his car properly, again blaming him for the crash.

At one point, the officer, who has since been fired, can be heard repeatedly telling Hollman: “Sign the ticket.” Although Hollman clearly doesn’t want to sign it, he eventually concedes as the officer approaches him, saying he’ll sign the ticket. That’s when the physical altercation begins.

The officer tried grabbing Hollman’s arm, but Hollman swatted his arm away, while complaining, “My right arm really hurts, man.” Seconds later, Hollman is on the ground, with the officer’s hands pressed up against his back.

“I ain’t doing nothing,” Hollman yelled. “Why are you hurting me like this, man?”

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A Secret Phone Surveillance Program is Spying on Millions of Americans

According to a letter obtained by WIRED, a little-known surveillance program called Data Analytical Services (DAS) has been secretly collecting and analyzing more than a trillion domestic phone records within the U.S. each year. The program, which was formerly known as Hemisphere, is run by the telecom giant AT&T in coordination with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.

The program uses a technique known as chain analysis, which targets not only those in direct phone contact with a criminal suspect but anyone with whom those individuals have been in contact as well. This means that innocent people who have no connection to any crime can have their phone records swept up and scrutinized by the authorities.

The program allows law enforcement agencies to access the records of any calls that use AT&T’s infrastructure, which covers a large portion of the country. The records include the phone numbers, dates, times, durations and locations of the calls, as well as the names and addresses of the subscribers.

The DAS program raises serious concerns about the privacy and civil liberties of millions of Americans. It operates without any judicial oversight or public accountability and violates the Fourth Amendment, which protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures.

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County Eminent Domains the Strip Club Next Door to Make Room for More Parking

North Carolina strip club patrons might not be able to touch the dancers, but nothing stops the government from seizing the building they work in.

That’s the revealing truth in an eminent domain case out of Wilmington, North Carolina, where the New Hanover County government (which contains Wilmington) is trying to seize the neighboring Cheetah Premier Gentlemen’s Club to build what it claims is much-needed parking.

“The county identified a need to expand parking facilities to better accommodate our citizens when visiting the newly constructed government center. Exercising eminent domain to acquire the neighboring property is a legal and measured step towards fulfilling this need,” said County Manager Chris Coudriet in an emailed statement to Reason earlier this month.

The county commission voted to authorize eminent domain of the Cheetah Club during its late Monday night meeting on November 6. The resolution authorized the county to spend $2.36 million acquiring the club.

Conspicuously, the resolution authorizing the seizure of the club wasn’t on the commission’s agenda, and was only introduced in the final minutes of the meeting by Coudriet, reports local public radio station WHQR. The station also reports that Coudriet referred to the property only by its tax ID number and didn’t mention why the property was being seized, other than to say it was for public use.

That left the owners of both the business and the underlying property blindsided.

Property owner Jerry Reid describes the eminent domain resolution as “coming out of the blue.” Michael Barber, a lawyer for the owners of the Cheetah Club likewise said the first time he heard about the seizure was early Tuesday morning, after the commission vote.

The presence of such an “adult” business next to the county center of government has caused its fair share of embarrassment. One county commissioner told the local Port City Daily that “the optics have always been an issue.” North Carolina State Treasurer Dale Folwell also criticized county commissioners about their offices’ proximity to a strip club at a hearing earlier this year.

The sudden, seemingly surreptitious effort to seize the club has Barber speculating that the eminent domain effort has more to do with public appearances than public facilities.

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THE “TERRORIST,” THE RAPIST, AND ME

THE FBI STING had elements of a B-movie production. Federal agents used a car chop shop in Seattle that was an FBI front, placed a prayer rug and a copy of the Quran inside the office, and designated it the scene for the final bust. The FBI’s informant was a registered sex offender named Robert Childs, who had told agents that his friend Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif had a vague plan for a terrorist attack on a military base in Washington state. The FBI furnished Childs with weapons, including assault rifles and grenades.

At the chop shop, Childs met with Abdul-Latif and his friend Walli Mujahidh, who had a mental illness, and showed them the weapons he’d acquired for their supposed attack. The guns and grenades had been disabled, and hidden FBI cameras captured Abdul-Latif and Mujahidh holding rifles, even though neither man knew how to use them. “He didn’t even understand how to work the breech,” Childs would later tell me, referring to Abdul-Latif’s inability to load the firearm.

Suddenly, FBI agents, dressed in tactical uniforms, tossed in a smoke grenade and charged toward the men; they handcuffed Childs as part of the show.

“When the feds rushed in, I knew it was Robert Childs,” Abdul-Latif later told me. “I knew he’d set us up.” As Abdul-Latif saw it, Childs had manipulated and betrayed him for money. The FBI, meanwhile, described Childs as valiant. “But for the courage of the cooperating witness, and the efforts of multiple agencies working long and intense hours, the subjects might have been able to carry out their brutal plan,” Laura Laughlin, then the FBI’s special agent-in-charge in Seattle, said in a 2011 press release. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer later described Childs as “the unlikely hero” of the bust.

After years of talking to both men and sorting through conflicting claims, I can finally explain the origins of this high-profile case that the FBI and the Justice Department have misrepresented to the public and the courts. The FBI hired a convicted sex offender as an informant, even as a rape kit with his DNA sat untested on a shelf. They paid him $90,000 to set up his friend and his friend’s mentally ill buddy in a terrorism plot concocted from nothing more than an over-the-top statement by Abdul-Latif, landing both Abdul-Latif and Mujahidh in prison. A decade later, Childs is in prison as well, serving a life sentence for the crime documented by the rape kit that the Seattle Police Department left untested for 13 years.

Last winter, with nothing left to lose, Childs contacted Abdul-Latif and me to come clean about the FBI terrorism sting he’d helped engineer.

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Hawaii Attorney General’s Office Defends Marijuana Legalization Proposal From Law Enforcement Attacks

The office of Hawaii’s attorney general is pushing back against criticism of the official’s recently released marijuana legalization plan, defending its public health and safety provisions as members of the law enforcement community voice opposition to the reform.

After announcing in April that her office would support efforts to enact legalization, Attorney General Anne Lopez (D) unveiled a comprehensive cannabis bill last week, earning praise from supporters in the legislature and mixed reactions from advocates who want to see it revised to more aggressively address equity issues and reduce criminalization.

On the other side of the debate, however, Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney Steve Alm says representatives of law enforcement are firmly against legalizing marijuana in general and the attorney general’s plan specifically, arguing that the current system of prohibition is “not broken,” and regulating adult-use cannabis would lead to increased hospitalizations without mitigating the illicit market.

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NY Gov Hochul Sends Warning to Social Media Execs about “Encoded Hate”

After announcing increased state surveillance efforts allegedly searching for “hate speech” aimed at Jewish, Muslim and Arab populations on social media, New York Governor Kathy Hochul sent a letter to major social media companies on November 21. In this letter, she calls upon the companies to increase their efforts to monitor and intervene on the speech of individuals using their platforms. In particular, she calls for the companies to stop the spread of hate with “active attention and, as necessary, responsiveness to the changing ways that messages of hate are communicated, sometimes in coded language.” (emphasis added)

No specifics were given as to what “coded language” refers to. This point is not trivial, as it is easy to see hate almost anywhere and in anything once claims of a “code” are invoked. Under the guise of altruistic efforts to stop “hate speech,” Big Government is once again pushing itself across the sacred line the First Amendment holds for free speech and press. There has been no clear information from the governor on what the limits will be on these new interventions or what oversight will be implemented to prevent government overreach.

The governor also directed the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services to develop and distribute a “media literacy toolkit” to help public school educators teach their students how to spot misinformation/disinformation/malinformation (“MDM”) online.

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Inside forced reunification camps: A court-ordered program for kids who have been abused by a parent, which involves them being held against their will until they admit that they made it all up and ultimately sent back to their abusers

A new documentary has laid bare the horrific trauma that children have claimed to have endured at the hands of forced reunification camps. 

The court-ordered program is designed to ‘safely’ and ‘timely’ help kids who have accused a parent of abusing them return to their homes without having to go into foster care.

But a series of teens and children who spent time at reunification camps claimed that the program lead to them being taken away and completely isolated from the people they trust, held against their will until they admitted that they made it all up, and ultimately sent back to the parents who they had accused of abuse.

In October 2022, a video that showed two kids being dragged into a car as they sobbed and pleaded for help while police officers watched on silently made its way around the web.

The devastating footage featured a group of men surrounding and carrying the visibly terrified children into a waiting vehicle, as they kicked, screamed, and begged not to be sent back to their ‘child molester’ mother.

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Courts Pave Way For New York Quarantine Camps

There is absolutely no way I can possibly sugar coat this, so I’ll just be frank… The NYS Supreme Court Appellate Division’s Fourth Judicial Department has issued their ruling in our quarantine lawsuit against Governor Hochul and her Department of Health, and they have ruled against the will of the people!

If you feel like you just got sucker-punched in the gut, join the club, my friends.

The court has dismissed our lawsuit, not because we are wrong in our arguments… no, no, indeed we are dead-right. In fact, the court did not even touch the merits of the case. How could they? Instead, the court unbelievably ruled that my plaintiffs somehow do not have standing to sue! If your brain is racing a hundred miles an hour right now trying to figure this out, don’t worry, you are definitely not alone.

Every single person I have told about this court ruling, from my plaintiffs, to fellow attorneys, to family members, and so on, has been downright flabbergasted. Rightfully so. One of my family members told me I needed to break it down for her, like she was a Kindergartener. I’ll do the same for you now, because this issue is so crucial for you to understand, and then for you to explain to others.

What the Appellate Division court is saying by reversing the lower court and then dismissing our case for lack of standing is that they believe that Senator George Borrello, Assemblyman Chris Tague, Congressman Mike Lawler, and the citizens’ group Uniting NYS did not have the right to bring this lawsuit last year against the Governor and her DOH for their heinous “Isolation and Quarantine Procedures” regulation.

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