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Megaphone

Germans protest against new police powers of surveillance, arrest and detention

Kate Laycock
Open Democracy
Mon, 09 Jul 2018 13:40 UTC
Germany protests police
© Juergen Schwarz / Getty ImagesUltras of Borussia Dortmund march amongst other protesters to denounce a new law that would give police more powers on July 7, 2018, in Dusseldorf, Germany. The law, being enacted by the state legislature of North Rhine-Westphalia, would allow police greater abilities that affect surveillance, arrests and the use of electronic ankle bracelets.
Legal moves to increase police powers in the name of fighting terrorism are hardly new territory for Europe. The UK's 2016 Investigatory Powers Act is one recent example; Emmanuel Macron's 2017 antiterrorism law, which ended France's state of emergency by writing many of its provisions permanently into law, is another. But when Germany starts granting its police sweeping new powers of surveillance, arrest and detention, the symbolic and constitutional implications are extremely concerning.

Region by Region

That is precisely what is currently happening, although Germany's federal structure disguises the fact. Of the sixteen states that make up the Federal Republic of Germany, only one (Thüringen) has not announced any plans to tighten its police laws. In May, 30,000 people took to the streets of Munich to protest a new law giving the Bavarian police unprecedented powers of surveillance, undercover policing and - most eyecatchingly - the right to carry hand-grenades. To no avail: the law was passed by the CSU majority in the Bavarian parliament: the same majority that in recent weeks threatened to unilaterally instruct the police to defy federal government policy and turn away refugees at the Austrian border.

Last Saturday, an estimated 20,000 demonstrators marched in Düsseldorf to protest a similar piece of police legislation in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), Germany's most populous federal state.
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Handcuffs

Legalized theft: Police seized property of close to 1,000 people in Michigan without being convicted or even charged with a crime

Scott Shackford
Reason
Wed, 11 Jul 2018 13:30 UTC
money forfeit
© Photographerlondon / Dreamstime.com
Close to 1,000 people in Michigan had their property seized by police or government officials last year even though they were neither convicted nor sometimes even charged with committing a crime.

That's the bad news. The good news is that we have this information at all. In 2015 Michigan passed legislation that mandated local law enforcement agencies report more information to the state about the extent of their seizures. The Department of State Police just released its first report that encompassed all agencies for a full calendar year.

Law enforcement agencies across the state seized more than $13 million in cash and property in 2017. And while State Police Director Kriste Etue claims in the report's introduction that all those seized assets were "amassed by drug traffickers," that's not really what the numbers show.

Tom Gantert, managing editor of Michigan Capitol Confidential, which is published by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, drilled down into the report and noted that 956 people who had their money or property seized last year were not convicted of a crime. Of those, 736 people were not even charged with a crime for which property forfeiture was permitted. And yet such forfeiture happened, quite frequently. To put it in larger context, it happened to 14 percent of the people who had their stuff taken.

Comment: At least some other states have amended the practice. See also:

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Car Black

Arizona lawmaker brags to cop about driving up to 140 miles per hour while claiming immunity


RT
Fri, 13 Jul 2018 13:35 UTC
Paul Mosley
© KLPZ / YouTube
Driving at 140mph is, it seems, an acceptable speed for an Arizona lawmaker to cruise home to his wife and seven kids. Abusing his statewide immunity, Paul Mosley was filmed bragging to a cop about his high-speed adventures.

"I go 130, 140, 120. I come down I-10, I was going 120 almost, you know, if there was no traffic," Mosley, a Republican member of the Arizona House of Representatives told the officer, after being stopped for speeding, body cam footage obtained by ParkerLiveOnline shows.

Initially pulled over just north of Parker, AZ, for doing 97mph in a 55 zone, Mosley tried to evade the harsh hand of the law by waiving his legislative ID at the La Paz County Sheriff's Deputy, claiming he is immune from prosecution.

"I informed Mosley that 97 mph in a 55mph zone is considered criminal speed. Mosley stated he was just in a hurry to get home to surprise his family in Lake Havasu City, Arizona," the deputy's report of the accident read. "Mosley also told me that I should just let him go and that I shouldn't waste any more of my time dealing with him due to his immunity as a government official."
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Sheriff

Cop with an extremely violent history murders his estranged wife and her boyfriend before committing suicide

Jack Burns
The Free Thought Project
Thu, 12 Jul 2018 13:26 UTC
cop suicide
Just over 3 years ago, we brought you the shocking story of how two Georgia cops brutally assassinated a mentally-ill drug addict in a low-speed chase and got away with the murder scot-free. Now, one of the alleged murderers has made headlines once again-this time, because he killed three people, including himself.

Lt. Robert C. Sasser shot and killed his estranged wife, her boyfriend, and then himself in a triangle of murder and suicide last week. The officer's unthinkable actions come years after the killing of Caroline Small, in which he and his partner, Michael T. Simpson, unloaded their service pistols into Small's face even after her car's tires had been completely destroyed by spike strips and was pinned between a light pole and two police cruisers.

Now, critics contend had the officer and his partner been arrested for the cold-blooded murder of an unarmed woman and mother of two, Sasser's estranged wife and her boyfriend would still be alive today

Fast-forward to 2018, and Sasser's legal troubles mostly involved domestic abuse charges filed by his wife on May 13. She claimed that Sasser attempted to force his way into her home, beat her, and threatened her. Once again, he was given a privileged pass on justice and allowed to go free on bond.
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Stock Down

Easier to start a business in former Soviet republic than in some US states, says economist

Tess Bonn
The Hill
Fri, 13 Jul 2018 13:17 UTC
closed sign business
It's easier to get a business license in Estonia than in some U.S. states, according to American economist Richard Rahn.

Rahn, who is the chairman of the Institute for Global Economic Growth, says despite starting a business in most states being relatively easy, it all comes down to the kind of business someone is trying to open.

"You have all of these little rules and regulations that say you want to be a flower arranger," Rahn told Hill.TV "Rising" co-host Buck Sexton.

Rahn pointed to Louisiana as a prime example of how challenging regulations can be for aspiring business owners.

"In the state of Louisiana there was a state licensing board that would determine if Buck Sexton knew how to put flowers in a vase in a proper way," Rahn said.

Comment: Nothing like the crushing weight of bureaucracy to strangle the small business owner to death. See also: Collapse: The nine dynamics of decay, the lifestyle of bureaucracy

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Eye 2

Horrific: California couple punch their 30-week unborn baby to death - charges unlikely due to abortion law


Life Site
Mon, 02 Jul 2018 13:17 UTC
pregnant woman
© West Coast Surfer / Global Look Press
(Society for the Protection of Unborn Children) - The parents of a baby girl who died of catastrophic injuries shortly after birth have been accused of deliberately killing her, according to court documents.

The unnamed couple arrived at Kern Medical in Bakersfield, California to give birth on 24th May. The woman was about 30 weeks pregnant.

Horrendous attack

Medical staff found that the baby girl was suffering from a fractured skull and spinal injuries, "traumatic injuries... that led to the child's death" shortly afterwards. They also noticed "severe bruising" on the woman's stomach, and, suspicious of her explanation that she'd fallen while mopping, called the police.

During the police interview, the woman admitted that having decided together that they didn't want the baby, she and her boyfriend agreed for him to beat her in an attempt to kill the baby.

Police say she told them he struck her stomach with his fists "at least 10 times," and squeezed her, after which she "stopped feeling the baby move."

In a separate interview, police say the boyfriend denied hurting the woman or the unborn child.
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Network

Cleanup: Obama loses 2 Million followers in Twitter's crackdown on fake accounts

Will Sommer & Kevin Poulsen.
Daily Beast
Fri, 13 Jul 2018 12:27 UTC
Former President Barack Obama lost more than 2 million Twitter followers on Thursday as the social-networking platform launched a new crackdown on fake accounts, according to a preliminary analysis from The Daily Beast.
Obama
© Reuters
At press time, the Twitter purge had cost Obama 2,346,119 followers, or more than two percent of his audience on the site. With more than 101 million remaining followers, Obama remains the third most-followed person on the site, a few million followers behind singers Katy Perry and Justin Bieber.

Other major political accounts were also hit by the purge, with President Trump losing 325,038 followers so far, a 0.7-percent decrease. As the first day of the Twitter purge wrapped up, Trump had more than 53 million followers left.

Comment: We don't know the criteria twitter used to purge the accounts, it looks politicians are not alone in these purges.
Katy Perry, the most popular user on all of Twitter, saw about 3 million followers disappear, bringing her total down to 107 million. Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift lost about 2 million each. Social media maven Kim Kardashian West lost about 1.5 million followers.

Some users quickly took notice, like 2012 presidential candidate Herman Cain, who tweeted, "...And just like that, 10K followers vanish." He added in another tweet, "Look, if they're genuinely fake or dead accounts, I have no problem with it. ...But how do we know?"
These twitter fake account counts are another proof that there is no fake social media influence in the election of Trump or "Russian meddling in the US elections".

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Pistol

Gun battle between Mexican soldiers and drug cartel outside Wal-Mart near border with Texas

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Fri, 13 Jul 2018 09:40 UTC
Soldados montan guardia en el penal de Topo Chico en Monterrey, Mexico, el 11 de febrero de 2016.
© Daniel Becerril / ReutersMexican soldiers outside Topo Chico jail in Monterrey, Mexico, February 11, 2016.
Laredo Morning Times, a daily newspaper based in Texas, said a series of gun battles erupted earlier this week in west Nuevo Laredo, a city that resides across from Laredo, Texas, and ended near a Wal-Mart shopping center in the Sister City by Avenida Reforma and Bulevar Emiliano Zapata.

Mexican soldiers military
© Breitbart Texas / Cartel Chronicles
According to Breitbart News, the violence began Tuesday morning when Mexican military forces conducted a series of raids aimed at capturing the leadership of the Los Zetas faction called Cartel Del Noreste. Cartel gunmen immediately responded, setting off numerous gun battles across the region in the neighborhoods called Nueva Era, Voluntad y Trabajo, and La Fe, which some of these areas are less than one mile away from Texas.

Comment: The Mexican president elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador has promised a different approach:

Mexican President-elect AMLO to seek negotiated peace in drug war

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No Entry

US drowning in trash after China refuses to import Western recyclables


RT
Fri, 13 Jul 2018 11:53 UTC
trash recycling waste dump
© Brian Snyder / Reuters
Hundreds of tons of waste that Americans believed they were recycling is now piling up in processing plants or being dumped into landfills, as China's decision to stop buying garbage for environmental reasons begins to bite.

Beijing's 2017 decision to ban imports of 24 varieties of trash brought to light the real destination of most Western recyclables: They were shipped to Chinese factories, where they would be cleaned up and repurposed into raw materials. China bought half of all US scrap last year, and has recycled 72 percent of all the world's plastic since 1992, according to a study in the journal Science Advances.

All of that abruptly came to a halt when China decided to stop almost all imports of paper and plastic waste, and have set a .5 percent ceiling on contaminants in cardboard and metal waste, which most US trash processing plants have been unable to meet.
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Snakes in Suits

House Dems introduce bill to abolish ICE


RT
Fri, 13 Jul 2018 11:53 UTC
abolish ICE protest
© Joshua Roberts / ReutersProtesters call for the abolition of ICE outside the Justice Department, Washington DC
The far left's calls to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) took one step closer to reality, as progressive House Democrats introduced a bill that would disband the agency and shift its duties to other agencies.

The bill, sponsored by Democrat Representatives Mark Pocan (Wisconsin), Pramila Jayapal (Washington) and Adriano Espaillat (New York) is the first effort by liberal Democrats to legislate the controversial agency out of existence, and was introduced on Thursday.

Its sponsors argue that ICE has become a "militarized" deportation force, used by the Trump administration to "terrorize our communities" with "unchecked power," according to Pocan.

Comment: Further reading: Antifa: Growth of an American Insurgency

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