4th Amendment Takes Two More Hits
Police are supposed to need a warrant to search your house, but the courts have previously carved out an exception for "exigent circumstances", where (for example) the police think that a person inside...
View Article"You Have No Right to Challenge Me"
This video says it all. A Philadelphia officer draws his gun on a man walking down the street merely because the guy has a pistol holstered on his waist (which is not illegal in Philly if you have a...
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Marine Survives War in Iraq, Killed in War on Drugs
Jose Guerena, a 26-year-old marine who had completed two tours of duty in Iraq, was gunned down by a SWAT team in Arizona. His wife had told him she had seen someone lurking outside his home, and after...
View ArticleDebt Collectors Haul Father Out of House at Gunpoint
Heavily armed debt collectors break down a man's door, haul him outside in his underwear, throw him to the ground, plant a knee in his back, and in front of his three kids, demand to know the...
View ArticleLife Imitates Art Imitates Life
Via this story about a police officer who feels he was retaliated against by his department when he arrested a DA for drunk driving comes this gem:Zinstein was later told in a visit from a Personnel...
View ArticleEven Police Dogs Have More Rights Than You
Based on the increasing number of police stories I'm beginning to accumulate here, it may seem obvious to most that police officers are entitled to (or at least believe they are entitled to) many more...
View ArticleThey Aren't Even Pretending Anymore
Congress is moving to ban the sale of genetically modified salmon that grow twice as fast as regular salmon on one-tenth of the feed. The reason?[Alaska Republican Rep. Don] Young argued that the...
View ArticleState Police and Feds Collude to Steal from Gamblers
This is insane. Every time I think the government couldn't sink any lower, I am amazed at the new scams they come up with.Maryland Police teamed up with the feds to create a fake online poker payment...
View ArticleMeet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss
Remember when Bush trotted out the old "if you're not with us, you're against us" canard with respect to the Iraq war, that the Democrats rightly objected to because it was complete crap? Well, now...
View ArticleOhio Police Tase, Pepper Spray, and Beat Mentally Handicapped Kid
More heros:Hooper "apparently took Jesse's speech impediment for disrespect ... [and] began yelling at Jesse after Jesse attempted to communicate with him[.] Jesse, being a minor and mentally...
View ArticleWe Live In Interesting Times
Inactivity is activity.Equality is inequality.Bombings are not hostilitiesIf you have the chance, make sure your children all attend law school. It's the only way to warp a person's brain enough to...
View ArticleDrinking in Indiana? Don't Use a Designated Driver!
The Indiana Supreme Court concludes that the passenger seat of a car is still a public place, and thus the very same police officer that just pulled your designated driver over for anything under the...
View ArticleHow Speedy Is Speedy?
This being Independence Day weekend and all, it seems like the perfect time to talk about the sixth amendment to the constitution, including, among other things, your right to a speedy trial. The...
View ArticlePublic Education: Trying Desparately to Hold Children Back
Cato makes a stunning catch when reviewing a Wired piece about Khan academy:Even if Khan is truly liberating students to advance at their own pace, it’s not clear that the schools will be able to cope....
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CBO Projections
I saw a chart of CBO-projected government spending/revenue to 2021 in a meeting the other day, and the numbers are so hilarious that I wonder if anyone actually buys this stuff. I've taken the liberty...
View ArticleArmed Federal Marshals Raid Gibson Guitars
Hostage situation? Employee gone postal? Nope, the government was concerned with the type of wood being used in Gibson's guitars, which Gibson claims are licensed and imported appropriately from India....
View ArticleUnbelievable
Via Radley Balko comes this unbelievable story that can only be summarized as follows:1. Cop has suspect for fraudulent charges on her husband's credit card.2. Cop stages a takedown of the alleged...
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Funny How That Works
You know how we desperately needed the Patriot Act passed, so that law enforcement officers could act to protect us from the big, bad terrorists without bothering with little things like warrants ahead...
View ArticleEnvironmental Progress
So, apparently we now pay corporations and corrupt foreign governments to beat people and burn them alive in their homes, so that we can re-purpose the arable land they own towards trees and away from...
View ArticleIt's Not About Safety, It's About Power
Washington D.C. cops are now arresting people who are caught driving with expired tags. Does forgetting to pay your yearly protection money "tag fee" constitute a threat to public safety, or merely to...
View ArticleTexas Makes It A Felony To Steal an Aluminum Can
Via the removal of a clause in a statute obviously meant to combat the theft of copper wiring and such, Texas has now made it a felony to steal an aluminum can . . . or a penny (pre-1982). That means...
View Article4th Amendment Takes Another Hit
Every time I think they couldn't possibly weaken the 4th any more than they have already, something like this comes along.So the cops have a suspect for a burglary and want DNA evidence, but they don't...
View ArticleThat Word . . . I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means
Police officer causes traffic accident. Higher up police officer gives him a ticket for breaking the law. Even higher up police officer voids the ticket. Why, you might ask?"In the interest of...
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