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Posts tagged as “police”

The Perpetuation of Poverty

By Joshua Kricker on September 1, 2013

Traffic stop in North Carolina
A traffic stop in Durham, North Carolina
Photo by Ildar Sagdejev
Anyone who has occasion to sit in the County District Courts of North Carolina, the state where I reside, can’t help but see and hear the endless parade of defendants appearing before the judge on routine traffic infractions resulting in the imposition of court costs and sometimes fines.

The court costs are generally $189.00. If someone is unable to pay, a late fee of $70.00 is tacked on and the privilege to operate a vehicle is revoked. If caught operating a vehicle while the privilege is revoked, that person could, until very recently, be subject to up to 120 days incarceration, even though the sole reason for the revocation was inability to pay a fine. The legislature, not long ago, amended the statute to repeal incarceration as a penalty, provided the reason for the revocation was neither Driving Under the Influence nor Reckless Driving.

Video: Police State In Anaheim, CA 7/29

By ITBT on August 1, 2012

Editor’s note: If you’ve been following the news you know that many citizens of Anaheim are unhappy after the police shot and killed an unarmed…

Feds Want to Crack Your Blackberry

By Christine Hall on September 29, 2010

If you’re wondering why Research In Motion (RIM), maker of the Blackberry, was loathe to cooperate with the authorities in Dubai and India when they demanded access to encrypted Blackberry calls, it’s because they knew no matter how little they cracked that door, it would eventually open wide. Need proof? Take a look at Monday’s New York Times in which we learn that the Feds want new regulations to force companies like RIM to design back doors into their offerings to allow easy wiretap access by law enforcement. It’ll be hard for RIM to say “no” to the U.S. when they’ve already said “yes” to other countries.

“Essentially, officials want Congress to require all services that enable communications — including encrypted e-mail transmitters like BlackBerry, social networking Web sites like Facebook and software that allows direct ‘peer to peer’ messaging like Skype – to be technically capable of complying if served with a wiretap order. The mandate would include being able to intercept and unscramble encrypted messages.”

Tea Party Television on CBS

By Christine Hall on September 26, 2010

The ends justify the means. At least that’s the message I’m getting from two new cop shows on CBS, both of which indicate it’s ok for law enforcement to step on every constitutional right, so long as charges stick and society is protected. It’s as if the Strike Team on The Shield is suddenly a shining example of good, effective police work.

Friday night, the Tiffany Network premiered Blue Bloods, the new Tom Selleck vehicle. A character driven police drama revolving around a family of New York City cops, the opening episode is immediately reminiscent of the old Dirty Harry movies with Clint Eastwood. Here the premise seems to be that the police could be doing their jobs a lot better if they weren’t hampered by obstructions like the constitution.

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