Tag: police state

Gov’t helicopter discovers ‘unauthorized’ church service, pastor put in handcuffs

The moment that local governments in the Western world began to issue guidance or full-on mandates for religious gatherings in the early days of the pandemic, many were concerned that society had stepped onto a slippery slope.

Fast-forward 15 months later, and we’re seeing pastors arrested in front of their children after their “underground” church services were discovered by a police helicopter.

This is the stuff of tyranny and totalitarianism, not Western-style democracy. Yet here we are.

This week, Pastor Tim Stephens of Fairview Baptist Church was arrested outside his home as his distressed children cried, all for holding a church service discovered the day before by a police helicopter.

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Texas Residents Had the Temperature Raised on Their Smart Thermostats Without Their Knowledge During a Heat Wave

Texas residents had the temperature in their homes raised on their web-connected smart thermostats without their permission during a heat wave.

Prior to their home temperatures being raised to 78 degrees, the state’s electricity operators had warned of another round of power shortages due to people running their air conditioners too much.

“The Big Brother temperature manipulation comes after the Texas energy grid failed this past winter when rolling blackouts left millions without power and 700 dead during February’s devastating winter storms,” the Daily Mail noted.

The report continues on to explain that “it turns out, people had handed over control of their thermostats – at least some people not realizing it – when they signed up for a sweepstakes called ‘Smart Savers Texas’ operated by a company called Energy Hub. The sweepstakes entered them into a contest to win free electricity for a year.”

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California Introduces COVID-19 Vaccine Verification System

California on Friday rolled out a new system that enables people to obtain proof of COVID-19 vaccination from the state’s health system and present it as proof of having gotten a jab.

“We’re better enabling California to verify their vaccination status to ensure our state is in a better position to encourage the best practices for reducing the spread of COVID-19,” California State Epidemiologist Dr. Erica Pan told reporters on a call.

The vaccine verification system, dubbed a “digital vaccine record,” will require people to enter several details like their name and date of birth to get a digital copy of their vaccination record. If their record is found, they will get a link that they can use to access their vaccination information, including the date or dates they received doses and a QR code confirming their record is authentic.

It’s the same information that people see on the paper card that many receive when they get a vaccine, but authorities are recommending the vaccinated keep their paper cards in a safe and secure location and use the digital pass instead.

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Florida Man Hit With Felony Charges For Leaving Tire Tracks on LGBT Crosswalk

A Florida man was hit with felony charges after leaving tire tracks on an LGBT crosswalk, with activists attempting to get authorities to elevate the charges to include “defacing a memorial.”

“Alexander Jerich, 20, turned himself in to police in Delray Beach, Florida, on Thursday,” reports RT. “Jerich was seen on Monday allegedly pulling onto the intersection in a pickup truck and spinning his rear tires for around 15 seconds, leaving black streaks across the rainbow stripes and sending clouds of smoke into the air.”

The charges against Jerich were elevated from misdemeanor to felony after authorities said there was “evidence of prejudice” in his actions.

However, this isn’t enough for LGBT activists, who are trying to make police hit Jerich with charges of “defacing a memorial” under a law passed by Governor Ron DeSantis in April that was intended to protect actual statues and memorials from being torn down by left-wing hate mobs.

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Feds accused of seizing $85 million from safe deposit boxes without ‘any legal basis’

Hundreds of people storing valuables in safe deposit boxes in Los Angeles may never see their cash, precious metals and heirlooms again, unless a federal judge intervenes in the next week.

Several are suing the government for seizing the contents of about 800 boxes as part of a March raid of the storage provider, U.S. Private Vaults (USPV), which was indicted for conspiracy to sell drugs and launder money. 

The Institute for Justice (IJ) is seeking class-action status for a May lawsuit by several owners alleging “shocking, unconscionable, and unconstitutional” behavior by the government. IJ attorney Robert Frommer accused the feds of an “$85 million cash grab” from people who were not accused of wrongdoing.

The civil forfeiture notices “do not identify any legal basis,” namely the “specific offense,” to justify each forfeiture, and thus violate due process rights, the public interest law firm said in an amended complaint filed last week. “Box holders thus do not know whether the government is accusing them of drug crimes, money laundering, structuring” or any crime at all.

“While this case is similar to many of our other forfeiture actions, it is also bigger because the government is trying to forfeit hundreds of safe deposit boxes all at one go,” IJ senior attorney Rob Johnson told Just the News. 

It’s also unusual for the government to keep fighting “tooth and nail” after innocent people contest the forfeitures, he wrote in an email. The feds appear intent to “make all these box holders prove their own innocence to get their property back” with no evidence of a crime. 

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Florida Supreme Court rejects ‘grow your own’ marijuana legalization initiative

The Florida Supreme Court has rejected a prospective citizen’s initiative to place a proposed constitutional amendment before voters in 2022 to legalize adult recreational marijuana and allow Floridians to “grow their own.”

In a 5-2 ruling Thursday, the court determined the prospective amendment’s ballot summary is “affirmatively misleading,” the second time since April the state’s highest court has issued that verdict to knock a marijuana legalization measure off the 2022 ballot.

Tampa-based Sensible Florida submitted its proposed amendment, Regulate Marijuana in a Manner Similar to Alcohol to Establish Age, Licensing, and Other Restrictions, to the Division of Elections on March 17, 2016.

The summary reads: “Regulates marijuana (hereinafter “cannabis”) for limited use and growing by persons 21 years of age or older. State shall adopt regulations to issue, renew, suspend, and revoke licenses for cannabis cultivation, product manufacturing, testing and retail facilities. Local governments may regulate facilities’ time, place and manner and, if state fails to timely act, may license facilities. Does not affect compassionate use of low-THC cannabis, nor immunize federal law violations.”

The proposed amendment would permit people to grow “six mature flowering cannabis plants per household member 21 years of age or older” and possess “the harvest therefrom, provided the growing takes place indoors or in a locked greenhouse and the cannabis grown is not made available for sale.”

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