Tag: police state

It is Now Illegal to Film Near Police Officers in Arizona

Frequent readers of the Free Thought Project know that filming the cops is not a crime. Despite this being a widely known provision — held up with multiple court precedents — cops continue to violate the First Amendment protected right of citizens to film the police. Earlier this year, the Arizona House Appropriations Committee approved a bill that would criminalize filming cops on the job, dealing a massive blow to First Amendment rights. The following month, the Senate passed it, and on Wednesday, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed it into law.

On Sept. 24 it will be illegal to record the police in Arizona within an 8-foot distance.

Republican Representative John Kavanaugh, who is a former police officer, was the lead sponsor of the legislation. According to the new law, it is illegal “for a person to knowingly make a video recording of law enforcement activity, including the handling of an emotionally disturbed person, if the person does not have the permission of the law enforcement officer” and is within 8 feet of the cop.

Kavanaugh originally stipulated a 15 foot radius, however it was later amended after multiple objections. But for many, this is still too far.

As Valera Voce, points out, the law also classifies unlawful video recording of law enforcement activity as a petty offense, unless a person fails to comply with a verbal warning of a violation or has been previously convicted of a violation in which case an offense is a class 3 misdemeanor. A class 3 misdemeanor comes with a minimum of 30 days in jail. Finally, the bill explicitly declares that it “does not establish a right, or authorize any person, to make a video recording of a law enforcement officer.”

“It’s crazy thinking about that for a second. The video that led to the criminal conviction of the police officer who killed George Floyd would itself be a criminal act. And that makes no sense whatsoever,” attorney Dan Barr told FOX 10.

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UK communications regulator tells tech platforms to prepare for online censorship bill before it’s even passed

The Office of Communications (Ofcom), UK’s broadcasting and telecommunications authority, has issued a roadmap for tech companies to start preparing to implement the Online Safety Bill.

That’s despite the fact that the bill is still in parliamentary procedure and is yet to pass.

In fact, Ofcom refers to this democratic procedure, the outcome of which should be unknown until MPs vote on the proposal, as a mere technicality: “A countdown to a safer life online.”

Ofcom announced the roadmap document on Twitter, saying that it has presented its plans for the first 100 days of acting as online safety regulator – for when it starts overseeing the implementation of a law that does not yet exist.

And many civil and digital rights advocates are adamant that it should not exist, referring sometimes to the bill as “a censor’s charter.”

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16-Year-Old Dutch Protester Shot at by Police Under Investigation For Manslaughter

The 16-year-old demonstrator who was shot at by police during a farmers protest in the Netherlands says he is under investigation for manslaughter.

The incident occurred on Tuesday night in the northern town of Heerenveen when Jouke Hospes had live rounds fired at his tractor during the protest.

Authorities immediately claimed that Hospes had deliberately tried to drive his vehicle into officers, but video footage of the confrontation shows this did not happen.

Hospes described how the incident began, saying farmers were already starting to leave the area when they were confronted by armed police.

“Behind me, it was clear, so I decided to go around it. I calmly crossed the sidewalk and drove very calmly. I went to see if traffic was approaching and if I could cross the road. I was driving [slowly], and suddenly I heard a PANG in my right ear. I thought there soon would be a second one.”

“I didn’t have any damage, so I thought it was a rubber bullet… However, I stopped for a while at Oudehaske, and when I was walking around the tractor, I saw a hole in the iron. All kinds of thoughts went through my head.”

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Facebook shared deleted user data with cops, fired worker who raised alarms: lawsuit

Facebook employees were able to access deleted user data and share details with law enforcement agencies, according to allegations included in an explosive lawsuit filed by an ex-employee who said he was ousted for raising concerns about the practice.

Brennan Lawson, a former member of Facebook’s global escalations team, said he became concerned after learning in 2018 about a new tool that allowed content screeners to view data from the social media firm’s Messenger app — even if the user had deleted it.

The lawsuit alleges that the protocol allowed workers “to circumvent Facebook’s normal privacy protocols” in a way that the platform’s users were not aware was possible. The tool was reportedly employed to assist law enforcement officials during investigations into social media activity.

“Law enforcement would ask questions about the suspect’s use of the platform, such as who the suspect was messaging, when messages were sent, and even what those messages contained,” Lawson claims in the suit, according to Bloomberg.

“To keep Facebook in the good graces of the government, the Escalations Team would utilize the back-end protocol to provide answers for the law enforcement agency and then determine how much to share,” Lawson adds.

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Rogue Cops: The Supreme Court Is Turning America Into a Constitution-Free Zone

“No one should get used to their rights. Predicting with certainty which ones, if any, will go, or when, is impossible.”—Mary R. Ziegler, legal historian

The Supreme Court has spoken: there will be no consequences for cops who brutalize the citizenry and no justice for the victims of police brutality.

Although the Court’s 2021-22 rulings on qualified immunity for police who engage in official misconduct were largely overshadowed by its politically polarizing rulings on abortion, gun ownership and religion, they were no less devastating.

The doctrine of qualified immunity was intended to insulate government officials from frivolous lawsuits, but the real purpose of qualified immunity is to ensure that government officials are not held accountable for official misconduct.

In Egbert v. Boule, the Court gave total immunity to Border Patrol agents who beat up a bed-and-breakfast owner, in the process carving out a massive exception to the Fourth Amendment for border police (and by extension, other federal police) who unconstitutionally use excessive force. As journalist Ian Millhiser concludes, “Egbert v. Boule is a severe blow to the proposition that law enforcement must obey the Constitution.”

In Cope v. Cogdill, the Court let stand a Fifth Circuit ruling that granted qualified immunity to jail officials who watched a suicidal inmate strangle himself without intervening or calling for help. Likewise, in Ramirez v. Guadarrama, the Court let stand a lower court ruling granting qualified immunity to police officers who fired their tasers at a suicidal man who had doused himself in gasoline, causing the man to burst into flames.

Both Cope and Ramirez move the goal posts for the kind of misconduct that merits qualified immunity, suggesting that even sheer incompetence is excusable when it involves a cop.

It’s a chilling reminder that in the American police state, ‘we the people’ are at the mercy of law enforcement officers who have almost absolute discretion to decide who is a threat, what constitutes resistance, and how harshly they can deal with the citizens they were appointed to ‘serve and protect.”

This is how unarmed Americans keep dying at the hands of militarized police.

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From Today, All New Vehicles In The EU Will Have Surveillance Black Boxes

From today, all new vehicles sold in the EU will have mandatory black boxes fitted that record technical data and will be accessible by authorities, greasing the skids for surveillance-powered speed-limiting technology.

While for the time being, drivers can opt-out of using the feature, privacy advocates fear the technology will become mandatory once it is properly rolled out.

Back in 2019, the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) announced that July 6 would mark the day when all car manufacturers would be forced to fit new models with a system that keeps track of technical data.

The data recorded will include “the vehicle’s speed, braking, steering wheel angle, its incline on the road, and whether the vehicle’s various safety systems were in operation, starting with seatbelts.”

Although insurance companies won’t have immediate access to the data, it will be available to law enforcement.

Authorities claim the data will be “anonymized,” meaning the information can’t be used to identify the owner of the vehicle, although only the incredibly naive would plausibly believe that.

Such systems are expected to eventually include speed-limiting technology.

As Reclaim the Net’s Didi Rankovic explains, the most common method of speed limiting technology is Intelligent Speed Assistant (ISA).

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“We Can Find a Reason to Pull You Over” — Cop Admits Police Can Make Up Reasons to Extort You

Every year in the ostensible land of the free, millions of Americans are extorted, arrested, caged, beaten, and even killed for traffic “offenses” which have no victim — like no seat belt, dark window tint, and even something as trivial as having an air freshener hanging from their rear view mirror.

Traffic stops in the land of the free, are a means of bolstering the prison industrial complex by extracting revenue from those who can pay and incarcerating others who cannot. When someone attempts to resist being forced to pay, they are beaten, imprisoned and killed.

For those too poor to pay their tickets, routine traffic stops end up in repeated imprisonment due to mounting fines or even violent encounters. It is a vicious cycle that ends with debtor’s prisons, hospital stays, and funerals.

If traffic stops actually made Americans safer, we would see declines in accidents and careless driving — but this is not the case at all. What’s more, as the following case illustrates, a “violation” need not exist in order for cops to extort you, because they can simply make something up.

A police officer in Washington state is under investigation after he admitted in a TikTok video that he can pull people over for anything and that he will use this power whenever he wants — especially against people who don’t immediately prostrate themselves before his almighty “Author-i-TIE!”

In the 40 second clip which has since been deleted from the platform, Federal Way officer Straus is seen ranting about citizens failing to move out of his way when he drives his police car. He doesn’t mention emergency situations and was simply talking about driving.

“PSA to everyone out there, I’m speaking for myself but I’m probably speaking for other officers out there if we’re driving on the freeway in our police car, get the f*** out of the way,” said Straus. “If us officers stay behind you long enough, we can find a reason to pull you over.”

When he says he speaks for other officers, he’s not exaggerating. Police officers all too often pull people over for the most ridiculous reasons and many times, it is done solely out of spite or profiling. 

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Canada’s Health Minister Demands COVID Booster Shots Every 9 Months to Keep Vaccine Status ‘Up-to-Date’

Last month, Canada moved the needle for the concept of being “fully vaccinated” for its citizens, saying “two doses don’t work anymore,” and now requires three doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to qualify.

The nation’s totaliarian health authorities took to Canada’s CTV to make the announcement. He noted there is now a transition to a new definition of up-to-date vaccinations.

Last June 30, Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos told reporters that Canadians will be required to get a booster shot every nine months, possibly forever, in order to meet the government’s definition of “up-to-date” vaccinations.

“The immunity conferred by a primary series of two doses of vaccines administered in 2021 has now waned,” Duclos said during the press conference.

“Scientific studies clearly show that our protection from the initial two-dose vaccine decreases over time,” he clarified.

Duclos then told the reporters that Omicron taught us that we would never be completely protected against COVID-19 because the virus is constantly evolving.

“The virus evolves and Omicron cruelly made us aware that we will never be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Like the virus, our immunity also evolves, and Omicron made us understand that two doses are no longer enough. We have to maintain our vaccinations up to date,” he argued.

Duclos made it clear that “up-to-date” means Canadians should get a booster shot every nine months as the term “fully vaccinated” no longer makes sense.

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