Tag: police state

Kaine, Warner push for Virginia’s new gun control measures to become federal law

With Virginia’s controversial new gun control measures now in effect, the state’s Democratic U.S. senators want the state laws to become federal law.

Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, who is running for re-election, on Wednesday introduced the “Virginia Plan to Reduce Gun Violence Act of 2020” that would enact most of Virginia’s new gun control legislation nationally, including the state’s new “red flag” law, a one-handgun-a-month law and the required reporting of lost and stolen guns. The proposal is not likely to gain support in the Republican-controlled Senate or with the White House.

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Arizona child welfare workers fired after posing in ‘Professional Kidnapper’ shirts

On Tuesday, The Daily Beast reported that multiple employees with the Arizona Department of Child Safety (DCS) were terminated last month after posing for a photo wearing shirts that said “Professional Kidnapper” on the front.

The shirts also said “Do you know where your children are?” on the back, reported Blake Montgomery.

“When children are taken into state custody, parents and critics of the agency have been known to accuse Child Safety personnel of being ‘kidnappers,’” said the report. “The staffers are said to have worn the shirts during work hours. Christina Sanders, a former DCS unit supervisor, saw a picture of staffers in the parking lot of the Prescott, Arizona DCS bureau wearing the shirt and emailed the branch’s supervisor.”

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AS TRUMP THREATENS SECRET POLICE DEPLOYMENT NATIONWIDE, DEMOCRATS DEBATE EXPANDING SURVEILLANCE POWERS AND NEW MONEY FOR DHS

THE ROGUE DEPLOYMENT of secret federal police forces in Portland, Oregon, has added a new complication to negotiations over reauthorizing the Trump administration’s vast surveillance powers and appropriating new money for the Department of Homeland Security. In March, a sweeping set of government authorities to monitor people in the United States expired, and Congress continues to debate what limits should be put on such powers before reauthorizing them. And the House is debating its next DHS funding bill, with the Congressional Progressive Caucus pushing leadership not to bring it up for a vote given Trump’s abuse of power and DHS agents’ role in a Portland arrest. 

House Democratic leaders, however, are considering lumping in DHS funding with appropriations for the departments of Labor and Health and Human Services, making it more difficult for progressive Democrats to oppose. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., said that the CPC is urging leadership either to not bring up the bill at all or to break it off from Labor-HHS and allow for a separate vote.

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