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'Booked on Suspicion'

In Louis Jordan’s classic song, “Saturday Night Fish Fry,” which recounts a riotous party on Rampart Street eventually raided by the police, the hapless protagonist is nabbed by the cops and “booked on suspicion.”
Posted in civil liberties, Equality/Justice

Taser Advice: Don't Aim at Target's Chest

Critics, including civil-rights lawyers and human-rights advocates, called the training bulletin an admission by Taser that its guns could cause cardiac arrest. They called it a stunning reversal for the company, which for years has maintained that the gun was incapable of inducing a cardiac arrest. (Image: Metro.co.uk)

The maker of Taser stun guns is advising police officers to avoid shooting suspects in the chest with the 50,000-volt weapon, saying that it could pose an extremely low risk of an "adverse cardiac event."

The advisory, issued in an Oct. 12 training bulletin, is the first time that Taser International has suggested there is any risk of a cardiac arrest related to the discharge of its stun gun.

Posted in civil liberties, tasers

Nurses to Sue Over H1N1 Shots

Vials of Influenza A(H1N1) monovalent vaccine are pictured on the labelling collection table at Sanofi Pasteur plant in Swiftwater, Pennsylvania, in this recent photograph released to Reuters on September 29, 2009. A group of nurses in Albany plan to file a lawsuit against state Health Commissioner Dr. Richard Daines to prevent the mandatory vaccination of New York's health care workers with the H1N1 flu virus. (REUTERS/Sanofi-Aventis/Handout)

ALBANY -- Lorna Patterson is willing to take on New York's top health official for her right to be flu vaccine-free.

The registered nurse in Albany Medical Center's emergency room is among a group of nurses who plan to file a lawsuit against state Health Commissioner Dr. Richard Daines to prevent the mandatory vaccination of New York's health care workers with the H1N1 flu virus.

"It takes away our freedom of choice," Patterson told reporters during a news conference Monday. "Our health is being affected."

Posted in civil liberties

Watch What You Tweet

A social worker from New York City was arrested last week while in Pittsburgh for the G-20 protests, then subjected to an FBI raid this week at home -- all for using Twitter. Elliot Madison faces charges of hindering apprehension or prosecution, criminal use of a communication facility and possession of instruments of crime. He was posting to a Twitter feed (or tweeting, as it is called) publicly available information about police activities around the G-20 protests, including information about where police had issued orders to disperse.

Posted in civil liberties, protest

Announcing National Use Zazi to Gain New Surveillance Powers Day!

The last line of this article on how the Najibullah Zazi arrest was a victory for the Obama Administration's approach to terrorism boasts that the Administration didn't have a John Ashcroft-style press conference on the day of the arrest.

Posted in civil liberties, journalism

Men Arrested for G-20 Twittering say It's Free Speech

A line of policemen blocks the street during a protest march during the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania September 25, 2009. Police have arrested two New York men for using Twitter to inform protesters in Pittsburgh about the movements of local officers.(REUTERS/Eric Thayer) The quick evolution of technology has changed the way Americans do almost everything, including how law enforcement combats crime, and consequently, how criminals elude law enforcement.

Those two concepts converged during the G-20 summit, when state police arrested two New York men for using Twitter to inform protesters in Pittsburgh about the movements of local officers.

Posted in civil liberties, protest

Electronic Border Control

Suppose you're returning home from a vacation in Cancun. A customs agent asks you to open your suitcase so he can check its contents. So far, so good.

Now, the agent asks you to log on to your laptop so he can read your e-mails and personal files and examine which Web sites you've visited. He makes a copy of your hard drive so the government can comb through its contents. You've done nothing to give the agent any cause for suspicion.

That can't be legal - can it?

Posted in civil liberties

Police Use of Acoustic Warfare Draws Ire of Civil Libertarians

In this Thursday Sept. 24, 2009, file photo an unidentified person holds his ears to avoid sound coming from the Long-Range Acoustic Device approaching from left during clashes between protesters and Pittsburgh police in Pittsburgh during the G-20 Summit . Police dispersed protesters at the Group of 20 summit last week with a Long-Range Acoustic Device that emits a beam of earsplitting alarm tones that the manufacturer likens to a \"spotlight of sound,\" but that legal groups called potentially dangerous. (AP Photo/Philip Scott Andrews, File)

PITTSBURGH — Police ordered protesters to disperse at the Group of 20 summit last week with a device that can beam earsplitting alarm tones and verbal instructions that the manufacturer likens to a "spotlight of sound," but that legal groups called potentially dangerous.

Posted in civil liberties, nonlethal weapons

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 28, 2009
4:13 PM

CONTACT: NAACP
Rachel Talbot Ross
(207) 210-1052

NAACP President CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous to Lead Voter Registration Drive at Maine Correctional Facilities

PORTLAND, Maine - September 28 - NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous will be leading a voter registration and NAACP membership drive in the Maine State Prison and the Bolduc Correctional Facility.

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Founded Feb. 12. 1909, the NAACP is the nation's oldest, largest and most widely recognized grassroots–based civil rights organization. Its more than half-million members and supporters throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities, conducting voter mobilization and monitoring equal opportunity in the public and private sectors.
NAACP Links:
Posted in civil liberties, inequality, prison system, voting

Honduras Suspends Civil Liberties

Honduras' ousted President Manuel Zelaya, holding up a copy of the Honduran Constitution, speaks during a press conference at the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, Monday, Sept. 28, 2009. Honduras' interim government leaders have suspended constitutionally guaranteed civil liberties in a pre-emptive strike against widespread rebellion Monday, three months to the day since they ousted Zelaya in a military-backed coup. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

Honduras' interim leaders have suspended key civil liberties, empowering police and soldiers to break up "unauthorised" public meetings, arrest people without warrants and restrict the news media.

The announcement came just hours after deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya called on supporters to stage mass marches today marking the three-month anniversary of the June 28 coup that ousted him. Mr Zelaya described the marches as "the final offensive" against the interim government.

Posted in civil liberties, Politics, protest, honduras
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