One small step by someone who cares about an abuse of police authority. That's a good thing and Blasio should be commended for it, so long as he maintains the change. It's the same for all statists and the progress of police criminal actions and abuse is hardly abated by one small change in stop and frisk policies. Witness how you attack "right wingers" as if that assuages your guilt for not caring about the rise of police brutality in the US. Since you like yes or no answers, are you for or against the increasing militarism of police forces at all levels? Just give a yes or no, nothing else.
YES Increasing police militarism only strengthens the police state. If you are a true conservative who wishes t lessen government intrusionism you should oppose it as well. The suggestion that I have a guilt complex over people's failure to be consistent in the application of their so called principles is silly and only serves to prove my point. Thanks for the validation.
Opposition to drones? You obviously missed my defense of Occupy Wall Street. ------------- You keep bringing up and projecting your own guilt. -------------------- The issue of withdrawal from the ME has been addressed - and as noted it is Republicans who are saying Obama has "retreated". Those on the right who now call for an end to the war have done so only AFTER Obama was elected as they wish to obstruct his agenda. A fact lost on you. --------------------- Transparency in government - again you missed my calls for dissolution of the Pentagon. That is the first and best way to reduce the state. ---------------- Medical marijuana? Obama has called for a cessation of prosecution of these cases. This is why some states have been emboldened to enact laws which allow its sale and use. Without Obama at the helm this would not have happened. How did you conveniently miss that fact? There are lots of recriminations in your comments which are full of emotionalism and lack substance. You claim or appear to claim to be liberal - but you direct more criticism at them than at the right wing. Obviously, you're not quite as open minded or principled as you claim to be.
Changing another member's name is a violation of the forum rules. It also means it doesn't show up in my quotes feed. I'm not a conservative. I am anti-state. I don't see how that equates to conservative, which is most decidedly not anti-state. I have always been quite liberal. If you believe that liberal is pro-state or pro-Democrat only, then I challenge you to prove that assertion. In fact, I think it is the very opposite of liberal to be in favor of using the police powers of the state to benefit one party at the expense of another. Forgive me if my strawman was attacking your strawman. Perhaps if you stopped attacking us for being something we aren't, we wouldn't do the same to you.
The progressive outcry over Obama's war of terror in the middle east has been barely a peep as compared to the protests against Bush's war of terror. If anything, the protests should be more vociferous than they were against Bush. And, I have yet to see the Vigil for Peace take up signs again. I do drive by the famous crosses in Lafayette, CA just about every day and they do keep up with the number of war deaths. Did you know that the count of injured in the wars in the Middle East is now close to 1 million US personnel? How many of those were under Obama's watch? Meanwhile, Fallujah is under the control of Al Quaida, giving lie to the idea that pulling out of those countries would made things worse. Apparently, invading them in the first place made things pretty bad. I have no guilt. I have opposed the wars on foreigners and the wars on drugs and wars on human behavior and the rise of the police state, and the rise of invasive government since I was very young. I have not wavered from my principles and I have only strengthened them. I do admit that at one time I believe in the Democrat party and the power of government to do good. I don't feel guilty for that; it's a mistake many people make. I thought he is Commander in Chief of the military. How can they obstruct his agenda? If he's strong, he'll do what he promised. If he's weak, like all political puppets (and that's every politician but for a very few), then he'll give in and tell his people that he's been "obstructed" so that you have someone to blame for your failure to elect a principled person (if you can find one), or stay out of politics altogether. I submit that the latter option is the wiser choice. It would be a very good start. War is the health of the state, after all, and if the War Department is gone, it will be harder to make war on others. However, there's the war on drugs which has raged for decades and has only made things worse. That needs to go as well. It's racist, devastating to civil liberties and natural rights and destroys many innocent lives. A sop. If anything, it obfuscates the real issue and allows those in government to become even more strict and punitive about other recreational use of drugs. Either you own yourself or you don't. If you can't put whatever it is that you want into your body, then whoever is stopping you is claiming ownership of your person. Do you accept their claim? He's been saying it for years, and yet his justice department was raiding clinics for many of those years. Only recently has his rhetoric started to be mirrored in reality. Meanwhile, many lives have been destroyed. Many more are destroyed by the war on drugs. As for your speculation that it would have been worse, that is mere speculation. Given that Clinton was the first to appoint a "Drug Czar" who was also a military general, I do not trust "liberals" to be anything less than authoritarian on the matter of sinful behaviors they don't like. We can thank Democrats as much as Republicans for Drug Lord Price Support Program and the police state it is creating. I'm just mirroring you. Do you read what you write? You came in here accusing me of being right wing and conservative and not opposing this or that without having an ounce of evidence for your charges. Don't go complaining when the same is done to you. It's pathetic.
----------- invading them in the first place made things pretty bad This is precisely what I have said from Day One. The progressive outcry over Obama's war of terror in the middle east has been barely a peep as compared to the protests against Bush's war of terror. Your observation cannot be more wrong. How can anyone have missed Occupy Wall Street? We discussed it ad infinitum on this forum. You are too misinformed to have a discussion on this topic. I believe in the Democrat party and the power of government to do good Our Founding Fathers declared government exists to promote good. FDR did not invent the ideas behind his New Deal. Nor did his cousin Teddy Roosevelt. As we discussed on another thread, the idea behind government building up the infrastructure to promote the commonwealth was discussed by Washington when he promoted the idea of building up the Potomac river basin and by the Report on Manufacturers. We have gone over this several times. Commander in chief There are limits to his authority and the obstructionist Congress is to blame. In fact some have gone on record as saying they hope his administration fails and that they would spare no effort to do so. mirroring you Nonsense. Get your facts straight and stop with the silly recriminations and emotionalism.
No.... - - - Updated - - - I don't believe we should let the Commanders in Chief of the several State Militias, off the hook.
So this forum is the be all and end all of information? Wow, I did not know that. I'm surprised that it doesn't dominate Google search rankings for news, and your opinion on war and Obama taken as gospel by all of the media talking heads. I shall never read any other source of news or information again, oh Enlightened One. Well, if they said it, it must be true! After all, they were intellectual giants, incapable of ever being wrong and likely channeling God's own Truth. Well, as we know, the first GW was the most intellectual of them all. Appeal to Authority That's politics. If he cannot handle what he has created in his political career, he shouldn't be doing so in the first place. I can't think of one great man in politics who did not have great adversaries and yet they still managed great things. Here the Whiner-In-Chief and his drone followers struggle to get around a bunch of old biddies in Congress. The man is all puff and promise and no action. He has no political backbone. Oh look. The pot stamps its feet and calls the kettle black. Here's some highlights from your postings on this thread: Recrimination: "If you are the principled "conservatives" that you claim to be then you would have addressed the issue before I brought it up. Instead of bad mouthing me or the TRUTH I mentioned you would have the guts and character to admit to your faults. " Emotionalism (can't avoid the ad hominem and strawmen): "Because of your endless lies and hate you right wingers can never and will never win a debate. " By the way, I asked you once what your principles are. You never answered the question. You complained about the Patriot Act, but that's emotionalism. You just don't like it. What *reason* do you have to be against it and do you apply that *reason* consistently to all facets of politics or just the things that you don't like? You seem to think you know when someone is on the right wing or left wing, but you are simply stuck in the left/right paradigm. That suggests to me a lack of objective principle and merely an adherence to partisan positions. Logical consistency would fail you if you had to defend your positions, so you go on the attack.
are you going to contribute in some positive way in this thread? Are you here to derail the Police State thread for some obscure reason? This is not a political hack thread, this thread is about police corruption and abuse of power. It isn't about left or right, it's about presenting plausible examples of the advancing Police Powers. I'm asking nicely, please post examples. video, newsfeed, articles, that demonstrate that indeed we are living in a Police State. If you have a contrary story or example that police aren't thugs and bullies, post them here as well. If you have examples, feel free to attack THEM, not us. You said it best, we are in this together. You put up some really good articles, you might find it a friendlier clime.
I am not going to do your homework for you. Just click on the search button and you will find numerous posts I have made in defense of OWS, 2d Amendment rights, condemnations of COINTELPRO, and my attacks on other forms of government intrusionism. It's all there and I will not repeat them as a favor to you.
Why not end our War on Crime and "starve the beast" regarding any entitlement to a Police State USA, for all.
Police State: Watch Iowa Cops Go SWAT On Family Home During Fruitless Warrant Raid February 6, 2014 by Ben Bullard An Iowa family is confused and angry in the wake of a recent brush with America’s highly evolved military police, who executed a search warrant on their home by suiting up a dozen officers in tactical gear, battering down the door and generally treating everyone as though violence was an expected outcome. The police were looking for someone who had used a credit card to fraudulently buy stuff. They found nothing like that. Thankfully, a surveillance video captured a significant portion of the raid. It doesn’t bear out the cops’ claim that they knocked on the door and gave homeowner Sally Prince adequate time to open it. It does show a cop destroying one closed-circuit security camera outside, and another attempting to cover up a camera inside the house. [video=youtube;32vyRPfiXzo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32vyRPfiXzo&feature=player_embedded[/video] Iowa’s WHO-TV reported on the shock raid Monday, including plenty of surveillance video that clearly illustrates the extent of the SWAT-style overkill. “Sally Prince is afraid to stay in her Des Moines home,” reported the station’s Aaron Brilbeck. “She isn’t afraid of burglars breaking in — she’s afraid of the police.” “I’ve been so traumatized. I don’t sleep at night,” Prince says. On Thursday, Ankeny police executed a search warrant looking for someone they suspected of using stolen credit cards to buy clothes and electronics. The whole search was caught on surveillance video. Ankeny police tell us they knocked first, but the video shows one officer pounding on the side of the house and seconds later, officers use a battering ram to force their way in. The video also shows an officer destroying a security camera outside the home. Two people in the house were arrested on unrelated charges, and the family says none of the items listed on the warrant were [sic] found. The raid, although conducted by police from the town of Ankeny, took place at a home inside the Des Moines police jurisdiction “because the alleged theft took place in Ankeny, but the suspects live in Des Moines.” Ankeny police captain Makai Echer said the squad made a tactical decision to use force to gain entry because the department believed the occupants’ criminal records justified it. Here’s WHO-TV’s report on the occupants’ criminal past: Monday, we reported one of the four people listed, Richard Forestier Adair, had no real criminal record. But the name on the warrant is apparently wrong. Adair’s middle name is Foster and he does have a long criminal record but very few violent arrests. Adair has two assault convictions about 14 years ago and a domestic assault conviction in 2002. A police spokeswoman also said officers believed there was a gun in the home. The man [Justin Ross] who lives there, who does not have a criminal record, does have a weapons permit. Ross, Prince’s son, was in the bathroom and was legally armed at the time. A cop kicked the door once; it didn’t open. He got it on the second try. The time between those two kicks may have made the difference between Ross living and dying, because he realized the situation as the cop was kicking away, and went from a defensive stance, with his weapon drawn, to a submissive one. “I stood up; I drew my weapon; I started to get myself together to come out the door,” explained Ross. “I heard somebody out in the main room say ‘police’ — and I re-holstered my weapon, I sat back down and I put my hands in my lap.” If he hadn’t quickly holstered his gun, said Ross, “I would’ve been standing there with my weapon drawn, pointed at the doorway, and they probably would’ve shot me.” “This was over… property purchased with a stolen credit card,” said Prince. “It doesn’t make any sense that they would go to such extremes for something that simple.” The search yielded nothing named in the search warrant. Two people living in the house, Miranda Scigliano and Richard Adair, were arrested on unrelated charges. Scigliano was taken in for probation violation; Adair for possession of drugs with intent to deliver. http://personalliberty.com/2014/02/...on-family-home-during-fruitless-warrant-raid/ Lets see............Why did they tear the cameras down and cover them up? Is that indicative of their knowing what they were doing was illegal and unlawful? If they had nothing to hide, why did they hide? And I bet no apologies for the busted door or damaged property...and I just loooooooooove that old excuse, "it's an ongoing investigation, we cannot comment (and we never will) Apparently this woman is in fear of recriminations from another police department for their (*)(*)(*)(*)-up...... Has this become so common place that we have become complacent and tolerant to the point that cops act without fear of recrimination? That old parable about "glad it wasn't me....." only lasts until it's YOUR door they are blowing up 5 bucks says the fellow who was charged with intent to deal is let go.
Residents Accuse Police Of Roadside Strip Searches In Georgia February 3, 2014 by Ben Bullard Residents approached Atlanta media last week to complain about illegal roadside strip searches at the hands of multiple police departments in Georgia. A subsequent investigative report confirmed their allegations. WSB-TV in Atlanta obtained dash-cam video of one traffic stop in which an officer turned his attention to one of the passengers after coming up empty on a consensual vehicle search for drugs. Police in Forest Park, Ga., pulled over the wife — not named in the report — of Terry Phillips, who was riding as a passenger, on suspicion of driving with a suspended registration. But instead of conducting their business through the window, they ordered Phillips out of the car. From WSB-TV: “He was like, ‘Just unbuckle all your clothes,’ and put his hands down inside my pants,” said Terry Phillips. Forest Park Police had pulled over Phillips’ wife for a suspended registration. Phillips consented to a search, however on the officer’s dashboard camera recording Phillips can clearly be heard protesting when he realized the extent of the officer’s intentions. “That’s illegal, man, you can’t do that. You can’t do that,” said Phillips to the officer. The officer continued. “That’s a general strip-search, which you’re not allowed to do,” said Mark Bullman, Phillips’ attorney. “Unless it’s an emergency or it’s done in a controlled environment by professional people were other people aren’t there to look in a public setting. …You can’t be moving people’s clothing and opening them, particularly in situations where there’s not been a custodial arrest.” Police must obtain a warrant to conduct a strip search, and those must be performed under controlled circumstances, after a suspect has been taken into custody, in order for any uncovered evidence to stand up to admissibility challenges during prosecution. This was just fishing — and it isn’t an isolated occurrence. “Driver after driver told investigative reporter Jodie Fleischer officers searched inside their pants while they were stopped for minor traffic violations,” reports WSB-TV. “In several cases, the invasive searches targeted passengers who were riding in the car.” http://personalliberty.com/2014/02/03/residents-accuse-police-of-roadside-strip-searches-in-georgia/ here's another fine example of cops doing whatever pleases them. Sub-human mother f*****s oh, but they get protection when they do this......animals! Tell me when did the Constitution in the State of Georgia suspend the "needs a warrant" program?
Some of the targets supplied to the DHS to desensitize police from "atypical" threats which include people in their homes.
I would have to say that I fully agree that we are living in a police state but not necessarily because of abuses by police. I say we are living in a police state because we are constantly spied upon by the government. They pretty much watch our every move as was revealed by Edward Snowden. Also, the IRS was shown to be targeting conservatives within the past year. I also read about the government impeding upon the rights of the press. Undoubtedly there are likely countless other examples of our freedom and rights being violated. I'll be honest with you, if things don't change, I wouldn't be surprised if we aren't living in an authoritarian dictatorship within the next couple of decades.
This issue is perhaps, currently, the most rapidly degrading freedom in the US. It is already common in just about every other country world-wide. Many lawful citizens of these countries already accept un-warranted searches and succumb without fail to searches of their property, person, and home. Don't like it? Educate yourself on local laws and freedoms.
Rights in even controvesial forms of private property are secured in State Constitutions with federal precedent in support.
Drunk off-duty deputy tries to arrest female soldier at bar when she wouldn't go home with him. http://www.policestateusa.com/2013/dr... COLUMBIA, SC -- A drunken sheriff's deputy was recorded during a strange and inappropriate altercation when he tried to arrest a female soldier at a Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant in Columbia. On October 7th, 23-year-old Brittany Ball, a USMC member out of Fort Jackson, was allegedly upset at the restaurant when approached by Richland County Deputy Paul Allen Derrick. She apparently turned down his advances and the two began to argue. Derrick, a 17 year veteran, left the restaurant to go retrieve handcuffs and his gun from his vehicle, then returning to try and arrest Ball. He was recorded screaming at her and barking orders as he twisted her arms behind her back. Columbia police arrived and saw the video and ordered Derrick release Ball, then took Derrick into custody and charged him with assault and battery. Sheriff Leon Lott initially backed Derrick, saying that he had authority to make an arrest, suggesting that Ball was "resisting". After a week of pressure and reasoning, Sheriff Lott placed Derrick on leave without pay. [video=youtube;DkhrWZ6twjw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkhrWZ6twjw[/video]
so much top say about this, but first, thanks for this post. So the chief tried to back up a foul play, did he? He needs to be fired as well. This is typical of the other side of the thin blue line. Corruption trying to hide more corruption. Hey you cop loving libs, what ya gonna do when they come for your women?
Woman who recorded traffic stop spends night in jail A woman pulled over a traffic stop, who ended up getting physically injured after admitting she was recording the incident, spends the night in jail. http://www.local10.com/news/woman-who-recorded-traffic-stop-spends-night-in-jail/24532912 Here is another tyrant who needs to be fired and jailed.
I agree. If he worked in the S.S. or the Stassi, he probably would have been employee of the month more than once.
