Know Your Rights – How to Respond When Police Tell You to Stop Filming

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Something I wish I had more time to devote to here at Liberty Blitzkrieg is the topic of “know your rights.” Despite the establishment’s relentless assault on the Bill of Rights, the American citizen still enjoys more liberties than a large percentage of the world’s population. Nevertheless, as important as it is to have these rights, it is equally important to flex them. If we don’t constantly exercise our rights, they’ll ultimately fall victim to atrophy like a vestigial organ.

While the smartphone has proven an excellent tool for the surveillance state, its video function has conversely served as a powerful civil rights tool. So much so that police will often lie to citizens about their right to film them in public, and one State Representative from Texas went so far to try to ban the filing of police (see: Meet Jason Villalba – The Texas State Representative Who Introduced a Bill that Criminalizes Citizens Filming Police).

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South Carolina Cop to Be Charged with Murder for Shooting Man 8 Times in the Back as He Ran Away

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The officer, Michael T. Slager, 33, said he had feared for his life because the man had taken his stun gun in a scuffle after a traffic stop on Saturday. A video, however, shows the officer firing eight times as the man, Walter L. Scott, 50, fled. The North Charleston mayor announced the state charges at a news conference Tuesday evening.

The video, which was taken by a bystander and provided to The New York Times by the Scott family’s lawyer, presents a different account. The video begins in the vacant lot, apparently moments after Officer Slager fired his Taser. Wires, which carry the electrical current from the stun gun, appear to be extending from Mr. Scott’s body as the two men tussle and Mr. Scott turns to run.

Something — it is not clear whether it is the stun gun — is either tossed or knocked to the ground behind the two men, and Officer Slager draws his gun, the video shows. When the officer fires, Mr. Scott appears to be 15 to 20 feet away and fleeing. He falls after the last of eight shots.

The officer then runs back toward where the initial scuffle occurred and picks something up off the ground. Moments later, he drops an object near Mr. Scott’s body, the video shows.

– From the New York Times article: South Carolina Officer Is Charged With Murder in Black Man’s Death

The video at the end of this story is really hard to watch. Not just because we see a police officer gunning down a man as he ran away, but because he repeatedly yells at a dead body to “put his hands behind his back,” and then seemingly plants his taser by the corpse to cover up the crime.

Just like with banker theft, unless people are held accountable with serious jail time, the criminality will not only continue, it will get worse. The rule of law must be restored and applied equally to the rich and powerful, or we are truly doomed as a society.

Coincidentally, this horrific incident came to light on the same day I posted that: U.S. Police Kill More Civilians in March than UK Police Killed in 100 Years.

Now from the New York Times:

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U.S. Police Kill More Civilians in March than UK Police Killed in 100 Years

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The following statistics seem impossible to believe. While I wonder how accurately the UK has been tracking these numbers historically, the enormous spread seems much too large to ignore, and is a national embarrassment that should be dealt with immediately.

From the Free Thought Project:

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A Thanksgiving Message

Screen Shot 2014-11-27 at 11.24.24 AMTwo years ago, I wrote a Thanksgiving message here at Liberty Blitzkrieg. It was published at a time when I was beginning a transformation away from deep fear and pessimism, to a much more positive perspective on our future potential as a species. While the road ahead is likely to be quite rocky, I strongly believe we will emerge much better off on the other side.

I ended the 2012 piece with the following quote, which I want to share again today.

Live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart.
Trouble no one about his religion.
Respect others in their views and demand that they respect yours.
Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life.
Seek to make your life long and of service to your people.
Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.
Always give a word or sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend,
or even a stranger, if in a lonely place.
Show respect to all people, but grovel to none.
When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light,
for your life, for your strength.
Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living.
If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself.
Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools
and robs the spirit of its vision.
When your time comes to die,
be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear of death,
so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time
to live their lives over again in a different way.
Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home.

– Tecumseh
(1768-1813) Shawnee Chief

With warmth, peace and love on this Thanksgiving Day,
Michael Krieger

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It’s Not Just the Police – The Feds are Also Militarizing Public Schools with Grenade Launchers, M16s and Tanks

Screen Shot 2014-09-17 at 12.35.53 PMEvents last month in Ferguson, Missouri (read my detailed thoughts here) forced Americans to confront the frightening reality that many of of the nation’s police departments have been quietly, but consistently, militarizing over the past couple of decades. It’s one thing to intellectually understand that this has happened, it’s quite another to see cops deploy tanks and point sniper rifles at peacefully protesting U.S. citizens.

Just as disturbing as the scenes themselves, is the fact that this has been happening for so long under the 1033 transfer program with only muted criticism. The program was originated in the late 1990’s under the National Defense Authorization Act of 1997 (recall that the NDAA is also being used to allow for the indefinite detention of American citizens without trial), and it allows for the transfer of excess Department of Defense equipment to domestic police. In other words, it has been public policy for almost two decades to militarize the police.

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Poverty Profiteering Part 2 – The Business Model of Exploiting the Poor in St. Louis County

The officer found that Bolden had four arrest warrants in three separate jurisdictions: the towns of Florissant and Hazelwood in St. Louis County and the town of Foristell in St. Charles County. All of the warrants were for failure to appear in court for traffic violations. Bolden hadn’t appeared in court because she didn’t have the money. A couple of those fines were for speeding, one was for failure to wear her seatbelt and most of the rest were for what defense attorneys in the St. Louis area have come to call “poverty violations” — driving with a suspended license, expired plates, expired registration and a failure to provide proof of insurance.

“These aren’t violent criminals,” says Thomas Harvey, another of the three co-founders of ArchCity Defenders. “These are people who make the same mistakes you or I do — speeding, not wearing a seatbelt, forgetting to get your car inspected on time. The difference is that they don’t have the money to pay the fines. Or they have kids, or jobs that don’t allow them to take time off for two or three court appearances. When you can’t pay the fines, you get fined for that, too. And when you can’t get to court, you get an arrest warrant.”

– From Radley Balko’s excellent article in the Washington Post, How Municipalities in St. Louis County, Mo., Profit from Poverty

The following article is the second in a series exploring the increasing business of “Poverty Profiteering.” The first one, which stuck a particular chord with several readers can be found here: Poverty Profiteering in 2014 – Introducing Private Probation Companies

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Poverty Profiteering in 2014 – Introducing Private Probation Companies

As N.P.R. reported in May, services that “were once free, including those that are constitutionally required,” are now frequently billed to offenders: the cost of a public defender, room and board when jailed, probation and parole supervision, electronic monitoring devices, arrest warrants, drug and alcohol testing, and D.N.A. sampling. This can go to extraordinary lengths: in Washington state, N.P.R. found, offenders even “get charged a fee for a jury trial — with a 12-person jury costing $250, twice the fee for a six-person jury.”

– From Tuesday’s New York Times op-ed, The Expanding World of Poverty Capitalism 

We’ve all heard about the private prison industry by now. An idea so insane and so rampant with perverse incentives that no civilized society would ever allow such a concept to take hold. Yet taken hold it has in the Banana Republic formally known as America.

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Twitter Changes its Timeline Algorithm – Here’s What You Need to Know

Screen Shot 2014-08-20 at 10.15.30 AMEver since I took the plunge and joined Twitter a little over two years ago I’ve had an unbroken love affair with the microblogging site. Prior to Twitter, I had essentially zero presence on, or interaction with, any social media. Although I tried Facebook in the distant past, I found it to be generally useless and uninteresting. As such, I was very hesitant to try something new; however, after consistent badgering by friends I ultimately relented and haven’t looked back since.

Twitter can be used for all sorts of purposes, but for those who are interested in staying up to date on certain topics, pundits, or breaking news generally, it can be a very serious and effective tool.

That is how I use Twitter. It’s my direct link into the thought processes of some of the smartest minds in the world. It is also where people in the thick of things choose to share “what’s happening” in real time before they share it anywhere else. This is incredibly valuable.

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Jamie Dimon’s Big $13 Billion Secret – The Truth Behind the JP Morgan Settlement

“Afterward, West went into the office, where his first meeting of the day was with Holder and James Cole, the deputy attorney general, in Holder’s conference room. Just as he was telling the two men about his call with Dimon, his cellphone rang. It was Dimon again. West took the call, pacing back and forth at the far end of the room. Dimon proposed a meeting on September 26 and assured him that the bank would come back with a significantly increased offer. West agreed to recommend that Holder postpone the filing of Wagner’s complaint and meet with Dimon. That was an unprecedented move. It’s not every day that the attorney general of the United States postpones the filing of a civil complaint against a powerful Wall Street bank at the request of its CEO so that the two sides can cut a deal in private. Whatever was in Wagner’s complaint, Jamie Dimon did not want it to become public knowledge.”

– From William Cohan’s excellent article, Jamie Dimon’s $13 Billion Secret

Those of us who have been following the outrageous, unaccountable theft and criminality of the banking industry for many years reacted in a similar manner to the announcement of a $13 settlement late last year between JP Morgan and the Department of Justice. The first thought that crossed our minds was “no criminal prosecutions, another settlement of course.” Then, once the reality of the size of the settlement sunk in, we couldn’t help but come to the conclusion that no organization is going to cough up $13 billion unless there is some serious criminality at play.

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Human Rights Watch USA – Amnesty International Deploys in America

“We criticize dictators for quelling dissent and silencing protestors with tactics like curfews, we’ll certainly speak out when it’s happening in our own backyard. The people of Ferguson have the right to protest peacefully the lack of accountability for Michael Brown’s shooting.”

– Amnesty International USA’s executive director, Steven W. Hawkins

I’m sure most of you have heard by now of Missouri Governor Jay Nixon’s decision to deploy the National Guard to the unrest in Ferguson, but what you may not have heard is that human rights organization Amnesty International is also on the ground. In fact, it has been there for several days now and is quite disturbed by what is happening.

Specifically,  Amnesty International USA announced on August 14, that it had sent a 12-person human rights delegation to Ferguson. Yet while the organization has been there for several days, it wasn’t until last night that I started seeing considerable media coverage on the subject. Buzzfeed went so far as to say that some of the resources deployed have never before been used in the United States:

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