Tag: police state

Google repeatedly hands over user data to law enforcement without a warrant

Google is turning over user data to US law enforcement, even when requests for that come without a warrant, in the form of requests that are not court-ordered.

That emerges from information shared with the LA Times by an anonymous Google user, who said they were notified about this in an email from the tech giant, who said the request came from the Department of Homeland Security, without including the request itself in the email.

When this Google user asked to see the document, it turned out to be an administrative subpoena issued by the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), while the data the agency was requesting from Google included the user’s name, home, email, and IP addresses, as well as sources of payment associated with the account.

And here, the term “account” covers any Google service and app, such as Gmail, Google Pay, YouTube, etc.

In the original email that arrived from the giant’s Legal Investigations Support, the user was advised that this data would indeed be handed to the agency as requested unless they obtained a federal court stamped motion to quash the subpoena within seven days.

For most people, Just Futures’ co-founder Paromita Shah suggested, this is a task they would be unlikely to accomplish, as it requires hiring a lawyer and going to federal court, and do it all in such a short period
of time.

According to available data from the company’s transparency report covering the first half of 2020, Google received 15,500 subpoenas and complied in turning over “some data” in 83% percent of cases.

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‘Shock and Awe’: Feds Admit They are Prosecuting Jan. 6 Capitol Protesters to Create Chilling Effect on 1st Amendment

Federal prosecutor Michael Sherwin appeared on CBS News’ 60 Minutes on Sunday where he admitted that he charged as many people as quickly as possible regardless of the evidence to put a chilling effect on the 1st Amendment rights of Trump supporters.

“After the 6th, we had an inauguration on the 20th. So I wanted to ensure, and our office wanted to ensure that there was shock and awe that we could charge as many people as possible before the 20th,” Sherwin told CBS News. 

He added: “And it worked because we saw through media posts that people were afraid to come back to D.C. because they’re like, “If we go there, we’re gonna get charged.”’

Sherwin made it clear that the feds went after people who had gone viral regardless of whether they perpetrated any violence or committed any actual crime.

“So the first people we went after, I’m gonna call the internet stars, right? The low-hanging fruit. The ‘zip-tie guy,’ the ‘rebel flag guy,’ the ‘Camp Auschwitz guy.’ We wanted to take out those individuals that essentially were thumbing their noses at the public for what they did,” Sherwin said.

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A Single Buffalo Cop Has Shot 26 Dogs in Only 3 Years — A Dog Every 6 Weeks

Frequent readers of TFTP know too well how many beloved family pets are gunned down every year by public servants in the U.S. It happens so much that there is a term for it called “puppycide.” We have an endless archive of stories in which dogs meet their untimely ends at the end of a cop’s gun.

According to an unofficial count done by an independent research group, Ozymandias Media, a dog is shot by law enforcement every 98 minutes. That number could be higher too as many of the cases never make the media reports.

One cop in Buffalo has apparently made it his mission to make sure that rate stays as high as possible — that cop is Detective Joseph M. Cook.

Cook was the subject of a recently settled lawsuit against the Buffalo police department after they raided the home of Adam Arroyo back in 2013. According to the lawsuit, police were looking for alleged drug activity that day. When they raided the home, however, they found no such drugs but they did find Arroyo’s dog, Cindy.

The lawsuit states that Cindy was leashed up in the kitchen while Arroyo was at work when the raid took place. Arroyo explained that she had been getting bored when he was out and tore up some furniture, so he put her on a leash that day.

During the entirely fruitless and pointless raid, detective Cook found Cindy in the kitchen and shot her three times at point blank range, killing her. Cook maintains that the dog was off the leash when he confronted her but the settlement and Cook’s history tell a completely different story.

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6yo Boy Arrested, Forced to Go to Court for Picking a Flower at His Bus Stop

“Should a child that believes in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the tooth fairy be making life-altering decisions?” asked New Hanover County Chief District Court Judge Jay Corpening. This is a question which has come up repeatedly in the state of North Carolina as dozens of children as young a six are being processed into the criminal justice system. The latest case involves a 6-year-old boy who was arrested and forced to go to court because he picked a flower while waiting for the bus.

Attorney Julie Boyer’s child client was on trial for injury to real property after he stopped to pick a flower from a yard near his bus stop, according to The Herald-Sun. Illustrating the ridiculous nature of sending a child to court for picking a flower is the fact that he had no idea what was going on.

Boyer said she had to give the boy some crayons and a coloring book during the proceedings because he did not have the mental capacity to understand what was happening to him.

“I asked him to color a picture,” she said, “so he did.”

This is a serious problem and speaks to the archaic nature of the law in the state of North Carolina. Currently, the state’s juvenile system has the lowest minimum age in the world to enter the court system — which is six.

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Children Fined $436, Required to Work it Off at $10/Hour for Missing Online Classes

A new report out of the Guardian exposes an insidious scheme by police and school officials to fine students who miss too many online classes. Tracy Higgins was one of these parents who was shocked when police showed up at her home to issue her teenage son a $439 fine for missing zoom meetings for class.

Higgins told the Guardian the reason for the online absences was due to faulty school technology, including a Chromebook that wouldn’t charge. But police and the school district reportedly did not care, so Higgins’s son was extorted.

Debra Pratt, another mother from the same district was also confronted by armed agents of the state who showed up at her home to extort her son for the same reason. Her son Jason racked up 28 unexcused absences online, including while he was battling the coronavirus.

“I think it’s ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous, especially during a pandemic when there’s just too many other factors that are playing into this,” Pratt told the Guardian.

Pratt told the Guardian her son struggled to learn remotely which is a situation millions of children found themselves in during the pandemic. Sadly, millions of children are still not in school and these situations continue to play out.

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