Occupy Minnesota protesters showed their wounds and vented their anger Monday over what they say was a police “ambush” of a peaceful Easter eve protest. They are asking Minneapolis Mayor R.T Rybak to order police to stand down. The Mayor has agreed to meet with them Tuesday at 1pm. Saturday night, police arrested 12 activists…
Category: Liberty
Zimmerman’s attorneys withdraw from Trayvon Martin case, Shooter May Be On The Run
The attorneys for George Zimmerman, the Florida community watch volunteer who fatally shot unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin, said Tuesday they have lost touch with their client and are withdrawing from the case. Craig Sonner and Hal Uhrig said at a news conference outside the Seminole County Courthouse in Sanford, Fla., they heard that Zimmerman had contacted a special…
Arizona’s Private Prisons: A Bad Bargain
Since 1987, Arizona’s Department of Corrections has been legislatively mandated to produce cost and quality reviews for its private prisons, in part to judge how they compare with state-run facilities. The data on costs were collected, but in recent years, it took a lawsuit by the AFSC for the Department of Corrections to release quality…
Boycotts Hitting ALEC, Group Behind ‘Stand Your Ground’ Gun Laws
Two of America’s best-known companies, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, have dropped their memberships in the American Legislative Exchange Council, a low-profile conservative organization behind the national proliferation of “stand your ground” gun laws. ALEC promotes business-friendly legislation in state capitols and drafts model bills for state legislatures to adopt. They range from little-noticed pro-business bills to…
White Plains, NY Police Called On Medical Alert Shoot And Kill Black Veteran, 68
As the Trayvon Martin case draws national attention, we look at another fatal shooting of an African-American male that has received far less scrutiny. Kenneth Chamberlain, Sr., a 68-year-old African-American Marine veteran, was fatally shot in November by White Plains, NY, police who responded to a false alarm from his medical alert pendant. The officers…
Supreme Court Upholds Invasive Strip Searches
The Supreme Court ruled Monday that jailers may subject people arrested for minor offenses to invasive strip searches, siding with security needs over privacy rights. By a 5-4 vote, the court ruled against a New Jersey man who complained that strip searches in two county jails violated his civil rights. Justice Anthony Kennedy said in…
Illinois Traffic Stop Of Star Trek Fans Raises Concerns About Drug Searches, Police Dogs, Bad Cops
Asset forfeiture is the process by which law enforcement agencies can take possession of property suspected of being tied to illegal activity. Under these laws, the property itself is presumed to be guilty of criminal activity. Once the property has been seized, it’s up to the owner to prove he obtained the property legitimately. In…
Sanford police threaten to arrest reporters, Zimmerman still free
Sanford Police threatened to arrest members of the media who approach or ask questions off the clock. A press release sent out Wednesday said police would arrest journalists who attempt to make contact with city employees during non-working hours. They asked to not approach, call or email the city employees at home. Some city staffers…
Surveillance Video of George Zimmerman Shows No Blood Or Bruises
In this stunning footage obtained by ABC News, George Zimmerman is scene being brought into the police station for an interview. In none of the clear, well lit shots of his jacket and clean shaven head are there visible any cuts, scrapes, bruises, or even dirt or soil. video platform video management video solutions …
Sanford Police Recommended Charging Zimmerman
The Miami Herald reports that the Sanford Police Department, at the conclusion of its Trayvon Martin investigation, recommended that the prosecutor file charges against the shooter George Zimmerman. Angela Corey, the special prosecutor now assigned to the case, confirmed the report: READ MORE: via Sanford Police Recommended Charging Zimmerman | ThinkProgress.
Police chief steps down temporarily over handling of Trayvon Martin case[video]
Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee Jr. said Thursday that he would temporarily step down from his position over how the Trayvon Martin shooting case was handled. Police Capt. Scott O’Connor will run the department until an interim chief is appointed, City Manager Norton Bonaparte said. Lee and his department have come under withering criticism from…
No Justice for Trayvon Martin, No Peace
Martin’s killing was the latest in what some demonstrators described as a pattern of unarmed black men being killed, often by law enforcement. Last month, eighteen-year-old Ramarley Graham was killed by New York police officers in his grandmother’s Bronx home after they chased him. Officers claim they thought Graham was armed. On Wednesday many demonstrators…
DOJ: Florida Voting Restrictions May Discriminate Intentionally
New Florida laws that place harsh restrictions on third-party voter registration groups and limit the early voting period may have been passed with a discriminatory intent, lawyers with the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division suggested in a court filing on Tuesday. DOJ told the court that the federal government’s position was that Florida “has not…
Trayvon Martin Final Moments Captured During Phone Call With Teenage Girl
Just moments before Trayvon Martin was shot and killed, he was on his cellphone talking with a 16-year-old girl. For the first time, the girl is speaking out about the last, horrifying moments of Martin’s life. “He said this man was watching him, so he put his hoodie on. He said he lost the man,”…
Justice for Trayvon Martin
Here’s what we know: Trayvon Martin is dead. On February 26, during halftime of the NBA All-Star game, the 17-year-old high school junior went to a nearby store in the Orlando suburb where he was visiting his father and stepmother in order to buy some candy for his younger brother. He returned to his family…
Killing Of Fla. Teen Trayvon Martin Becomes National Story About Race [with 911 audio]
Now that 911 recordings show how a white Florida man continued to follow a 17-year-old black boy even after police advised him not to — and captured the sound of the man killing the unarmed youth with a shot to the chest in what the gunman says was an act of self defense during a…
Watch: Police Get Violent As OWS Retakes Zuccotti Park
On Saturday, hundreds of protesters marked the six-month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street by attempting to retake Zuccotti Park. By the end of the night, 73 had been arrested and the park forcefully cleared. In scenes that recalled the early days of the movement last fall, citizen journalists captured the New York City Police Department…
What Everyone Should Know About Trayvon Martin (1995-2012)
On February 26, 2012, a 17-year-old African-American named Trayvon Martin was shot and killed in Sanford, Florida. The shooter was George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old white man. Zimmerman admits killing Martin, but claims he was acting in self-defense. Three weeks after Martin’s death, no arrests have been made and Zimmerman remains free. Here is what everyone…
Texas Voter ID Law Blocked By Justice Department
The U.S. Department of Justice has blocked a new voter ID law from going into effect in Texas. The department says the state failed to show that the law would not deny or limit minorities right to vote. Its the second state voter ID law the department has blocked. Texas, like several other states, has…
86-Year-Old Ohio Veteran Can’t Vote After Government-Issued ID Is Rejected At Poll
Paul Carroll, an 86-year-old World War II veteran who has lived in the same Ohio town for four decades, was denied a chance to vote in the state’s primary contests today after a poll worker denied his form of identification, a recently-acquired photo ID from the Department of Veterans Affairs. The poll worker rejected the…