Judge quashes murder charges against New Orleans police in Katrina shootings

CBCNews

The district attorney's office in New Orleans is considering whether to appeal a judge's decision to toss out murder and attempted murder charges against seven police officers for a shooting in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

In quashing the indictments Wednesday, District Judge Raymond Bigelow agreed with defence arguments that prosecutors violated state law by divulging secret grand jury testimony to a police officer who was a witness in the case.

Survivors of the Sept. 4, 2005, shootings have said the officers fired at unarmed people crossing the Danziger Bridge to get food at a grocery store.
Ronald Madison, a 40-year-old mentally disabled man, and James Brissette, 19, were killed and four other people were wounded.
The officers admitted to shooting at people on the bridge, but said they were fired upon first.

Fairfax County to Conduct Video Surveillance on High School Lunch Lines

FirstTheyIgnoreYou.blogspot

Michael Alison Chandler

Washington Post

August 6, 2008

For the first time, video cameras will monitor Fairfax County high school cafeterias this fall to keep students from pilfering chicken wraps or veggie burgers in the lunch line.

The region’s largest school system is turning to video surveillance, already widely used on school buses and outside school buildings, to combat what officials say has become a pervasive problem: food theft. The school system’s food and nutrition services department estimated that $1.2 million worth of prepared food was lifted from cafeterias in the past school year.

Board members decided last month that they could no longer swallow such losses, given a $150 million school budget shortfall and rising food prices. They approved a one-year tryout for cafeteria cameras at Annandale, Mount Vernon and Westfield high schools and Lake Braddock, Robinson and South County secondary schools.

SOURCE: Washington Post

Eye scans, fingerprints to control NZ borders

Prison Planet

Border control staff will be able to use iris scans and finger printing to check passengers’ identities under major changes to New Zealand immigration rules.

Despite criticism from Amnesty International at the level of secrecy permitted, the changes look set to become law, with the National Party pledging its support.

Police ’spend 25 years’ filling in stop and search forms

Telegraph UK

Police officers spent the equivalent of 25 years filling in stop and search forms last year.

Officers carried out 1.87 million “stops” on members of the public in 2006/07, up from 1.4 million.
Each stop and search form takes an estimated seven minutes each to fill in.

Police 'stop and accounts' Rise by 1/3

Guardian UK

Police used their powers to stop nearly two million members of the public in the street and demand they account for their behaviour or actions, Ministry of Justice figures published today revealed.

The “stop and account” statistics, being published for the first time, reveal the scale of police use of the powers, and show that black people are two and a half times more likely than whites to be questioned on the street.

Hidden spy camera to catch fly-tippers is taken to rubbish dump

Telegraph UK

The expensive camera was placed inside a black bag beside a notorious illegal fly-tipping site. The disguise was so good that workers for Chichester District Council, West Sussex, cleared the camera believing it was genuine rubbish.

A spokesman for Privacy International, the human rights group formed as a watchdog on surveillance and invasions of privacy, said: "It would be hilarious if it wasn't so sad. It just goes to show why local authorities require greater scrutiny and accountability."

Glenn Spagnuolo, Recreate 68, and the Denver Blood-bath

RedState.com

The Democratic National Convention in August promises to be a literal 'blood-bath' thanks to folks like Glenn Spagnuolo and his brainchild, Recreate 68. Denver police (all 1400 of them) and a contingent of 300 'borrowed officer' from Aurora will be ill-prepared to deal with the thousands of protesters who will be present on Denver's streets. Spagnuolo says that if there is any violence it will be the fault of the Denver police dept. Of course it will.Recreate 68 is a mere umbrella organization for the varied anarchist groups intending to 'disrupt' both the DNC in Denver and the RNC in September. Unless Denver and Minneapolis authorities boost their manpower on the streets Spagnuolo will get exactly what he and his ilk want - a blood-bath.

US Teacher Suspended for letting students read Bestseller

Guardian

An Indiana teacher who used a much lauded bestseller, The Freedom Writers Diary, to try to inspire under-performing high-school students has been suspended from her job without pay for 18 months.

The Writers Diary, a series of true stories written by inner-city teenagers, was put together by a teacher, Erin Gruwell, and has been celebrated as a model for transforming young lives. It was made into a film with Hilary Swank last year.

Teachers' union officials say that a single board member objected to swearing in the book. The school board member allegedly persuaded the other six officials to ban Heermann from teaching the book. It remains available in school libraries.

Marine Martial Law Training in Indianapolis

Daily Newscaster

Under the guise of urban warfare training the 26th Expeditionary Unit an elite group of U.S. Marines will conduct a martial law training exercise at 26 “surrendered” locations in central Indiana from June 4th thru the 17th. While state officials and media are doing their best to assure the public that this military takeover of civilian property is somehow a good thing, ignoring the Posse Comitatus Act which fundamentally prohibits these types of exercises. These two weeks of training are also a contradiction of military tradition against deployments among the civilian population dating back to the end of the Civil War. Why then are the citizens of Indianapolis and six other Indiana towns being made to take part in two weeks of patrols and ambushes?

Police to seal off DC Neighborhoods

DCist.com

Can you say Police State? The Examiner has the scoop on a controversial new program announced today that would create so-called "Neighborhood Safety Zones" which would serve to partially seal off certain parts of the city. D.C. Police would set-up checkpoints in targeted areas, demand to see ID and refuse admittance to people who don't live there, work there or have a “legitimate reason” to be there. Wow. Just, wow.

The full description of this plan from the mayor's press release is below.
Photo by AlbinoFlea

The Neighborhood Safety Zone initiative has been developed to help increase security for those who live in high-crime areas around the city and to help residents reclaim their communities. The program will authorize the Metropolitan Police Department to set up public safety checks to help safeguard community members and create safer neighborhoods in the District by increasing police presence aimed at deterring crime.

The safety zones will be established only upon request by a District Commander where there is evidence to support the existence of neighborhood violent crime, such as intelligence, violent crime data, police reports and feedback and concerns from the affected community.

Potential Neighborhood Safety Zones must be approved by the Chief of Police, and will be in effect for a maximum of 10 days. Public safety checks will be established along the main thoroughfares of the established neighborhoods. Anyone driving into a designated area may be asked to show valid identification with a home address in that neighborhood, or to provide an explanation for entering the NSZ, such as attending church, a doctor’s appointment or visiting friends or relatives. Pedestrians will not be subject to the public safety checks.

“The Neighborhood Safety Zones is just another tool MPD will employ to stop crime before it happens. The Neighborhood Safety Zone initiative will help residents terrorized by violent crime to take back their neighborhoods,” said Chief Lanier.

Initiatives such as the Neighborhood Safety Zones have been accepted by federal courts as a legitimate law enforcement practice in keeping with the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment. The constitutionality of the NSZ initiative has been reviewed by the D.C. Office of the Attorney General.

The NSZ will be launched next week in the Trinidad area.

Invasion of the Cardboard Police!

Following hot on the heels of the Cardboard Policeman in Morrisons, we were keen to investigate this continuing invasion ... When we insisted upon speaking to the Shop Manager of Chesterfield Marks & Spencer to ask what was the meaning of this, she appeared not to know anything about it, and indeed asked us to take her to look at the cardboard policeman in her own shop window!?

She then telephoned her superior (presumably the area manager for M&S?) and came back to tell us that Chesterfield Police had positioned it there the day before "because we have dishonest customers". I told her that as a regular, honest customer, I felt intimidated and offended by the cardboard policeman, and asked her whether she was the shop manager, or were Chesterfield Police now responsible for window displays in M&S Chesterfield?

She seemed unable to formulate a response ... unbelievable - get us out of here!!! We don't know whether to laugh or cry!!!

Ex-cop: Officers routinely lied to obtain search warrants

ajc.com

A former Atlanta police officer testified Thursday that narcotics officers routinely lied under oath when seeking search warrants, a practice that led to police killing a 92-year-old woman.

Former Detective Gregg Junnier told a Fulton County jury that detectives would tell judges that they had verified their informants had bought cocaine from dealers by searching them for drugs before the buy took place.

"I have never seen anyone searched before they go into the house”. "I've never seen that done even though officers always swear to it," Junnier said. "It's done that way in 90 percent of the warrants that are written."

The Age of Criminalizing Children

American Chronicle

I remember when I was in school, misbehaving children received a visit to the principal´s office, detention, in-house or off grounds suspension, but now schools have police or "safety" officers on the grounds, quick to view our kids as hardened criminals. I´ve seen a few headlines of late about children being handcuffed in school and I wondered how often these "isolated" events happen and shockingly, with very little effort, I found case after case. I´m not talking about children who are threatening other students or bringing guns or knives to school, I have been dismayed to learn that simple and typical childhood behaviors are now introducing children to the criminal justice system.

Arrested for Videotaping a Police Beating

Source-The Phoenix.com

A do-gooder who recorded abusive Boston police officers was

himself arrested under a controversial ‘wiretapping’ law

This past October, when Simon Glik used his cell phone to record Boston police officers making what he thought was an overly forceful arrest on Tremont Street, he didn’t think he would be the one who ended up in the back of a police cruiser. But cops saw Glik using his cell phone’s camera with its sound-recording feature, so they arrested him for breaking the Massachusetts law that prohibits secret electronic recording, deemed “wiretapping.”

Seven Steps to a Homeland Security Campus

(Original article-alternet)

Free speech zones. Taser guns. Hidden cameras. Blackwater and other private security contractors... College campuses join the Homeland Security state.

Consider the ultimate gift in a homeland security country: the iTaser, a weapon with its own MP3 player and earphones that can deliver a 50,000 volt electrical charge while you catch your favorite tunes. This new Taser, on display at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, will be available, reports Richard Wray of the British Guardian, in "red, pink and even leopard print designs." Anyone carrying the iTaser will be able to make what may be the first homeland-security fashion statement in any one of the 43 states where Tasers are legal. The company that makes the weapon, Taser International, has already sold 160,000 less-stylish versions to private individuals. According to founder and company CEO Rick Smith, "Personal protection can be both fashionable and functionable."

Couple banned for life from shopping centre and branded 'terrorists' - for taking photos of their grandchildren

(Full Article-Daily Mail)

The couple were on a four-day break from their home in Spain and wanted to surprise their family by arriving at the centre, in Fareham, Hants, while they were shopping.

But when they went to take a photo, a security guard pounced and ordered them out.

The guard then insisted that cameras were banned because of the risk of a terrorist attack - and barred the bemused couple for life.

Microwave Beam Stops Cars Dead

(Full Article-Discovery News)

One beam pulsed in a burst lasting just 50 nanoseconds is enough to disrupt a vehicle's electrical system. The radiation can overload wires or damage or upset the car's central microprocessor.

A technology that would shut down a car's computer could not only reduce the number of car chases, but could also allow police officers to intentionally stop a car in a location where the offender might have difficulty running from on foot.

Parents Defend School's Use of Shock Therapy

(Full Article - NYT)

Nearly a year ago, New York made plans to ban the use of electric shocks as a punishment for bad behavior, a therapy used at a Massachusetts school where New York State had long sent some of its most challenging special education students.

While at Rotenberg, students must wear backpacks containing a device that allows a staff member to deliver a moderate shock to electrodes attached to the limbs, or in some cases palms, feet or torso, when the students engage in a prohibited behavior. Both the children’s parents and a court must consent to the shocks.

Tased at Best Buy

(Full Article-Central FL News 13)

Before she checked out, she got an upsetting phone call about her child and stepped outside to take the call.

When Officer Wright confronted Beeland, she yelled at her.
When they came back in the store, Wright repeatedly asked her to calm down and threatened to arrest and TASER her if she didn't.
As the video shows, Beeland continued to back away as the officer moved closer.
Beeland was then TASED and arrested.

War hero's daughter facing arrest for tackling yobs who 'trashed war memorial'

(Full Article-the Daily Mail)

When she spotted yobs vandalising a war memorial garden, Julie Lake sprang into action.

As the daughter of a Second World War RAF pilot – and granddaughter of one of the fallen in the 1914-18 war – she felt it was her duty to intervene. But, after giving the main culprit a talking- to and a 'cuff round the ear', she finds herself facing the prospect of being arrested for assault.