Archive for the ‘Police/law enforcement’ Category
Quote of the day
Saturday, February 4th, 2012The very same faction that pretended for years to be so distraught by Bush’s mere eavesdropping on and detention of accused Terrorists without due process is now perfectly content to have their own President kill accused Terrorists without due process, even when those targeted are their fellow citizens. —Glenn Greenwald, on ...
Maybe free speech is less popular than I thought
Friday, February 3rd, 2012I had a bizarre experience yesterday: I encountered two people who were wrong on the internet who asserted that words can harm people and so their (mis)use should be punishable by law. I don't mean using libel or slander to harm someone's reputation, which should not be considered crimes anyway. ...
PCIPA: another internet-censoring, privacy-violating bill that goes overboard
Wednesday, February 1st, 2012I was impressed by this article in The Atlantic by Conor Friedersdorf about the Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act of 2011 (PCIPA), The Legislation That Could Kill Internet Privacy for Good. This article was written on August 1, 2011, and apparently the bill, H.R. 1981, is almost a year ...
How long will the SOPA protests be successful?
Sunday, January 29th, 2012In my more cynical moods, I think that Westerners' complacency in political and economic matters and their comfort levels with life in general will make their recent victories against internet censorship mere footnotes to the history of State encroachment into our online lives. In other words, lawmakers, lobbyists, and other ...
Hypocrites silent as Obama authorizes military detention of American citizens
Monday, January 2nd, 2012One of the most unfortunate aspects of America's democratic process and its current state here at the beginning of 2012 is the nearly compete absence of discussion of some central issues by most people, along with their failure to acknowledge that those issues even exist and their complete hypocrisy regarding ...
Stop the Stop Online Piracy Act!
Saturday, November 12th, 2011The latest attempt from the parasites in Washington to limit the freedom of the internet and all of the benefits that stem from it is called the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Its more official, full name is Enforcing and Protecting American Rights Against Sites Intent on Theft and Exploitation ...
Amanda Knox’s acquittal
Thursday, October 6th, 2011I was extremely happy to learn that Amanda Knox had finally been acquitted of murdering her roommate Meredith Kercher in Italy in 2007 when they were exchange students. You could tell that justice prevailed because Nancy Grace thought the opposite. I thought the case against Amanda Knox was so circumstantial and ...
The existence of the TSA is the point
Monday, July 4th, 2011You might have read or heard about this story from Florida in which a 95-year-old wheelchair-bound woman was required to remove her adult diaper to be inspected by the Transportation Security Administration last month. You might not have heard that the 95-year-old woman was actually calm and acquiescent during the ...
Bin Laden reaction roundup
Sunday, May 8th, 2011I have been much more interested in the various and sundry reactions, mainly from Americans, to Osama bin Laden's killing than to the news itself. The whole situation ought to inspire quite a bit of mixed feelings from any libertarian, and even from any sensible, sympathetic human being. Notwithstanding the ...
End-of-the-month links
Saturday, April 30th, 2011Amazon.com's cancellation of its plans to open a South Carolina distribution center and high-tailing it out of town because the state legislature voted against giving the company a tax exemption are interesting from a libertarian perspective for a couple reasons. First, from a principled anti-tax standpoint, this is one of ...
Because in an anarchic society, gangs of thugs would kidnap newborn babies because of the beliefs or affiliations of the parents
Saturday, November 13th, 2010I postponed writing about this travesty because the only page I could find about it was at infowars.com, but the affidavit seems legit and there some videos about the story online, such as this Fox News clip. Basically, New Hampshire state thugs kidnapped Johnathon Irish's and Stephanie Taylor's newborn baby ...
Danah Boyd on the Craigslist “Adult Services” ban
Sunday, September 12th, 2010I liked this column by Danah Boyd at HuffPo explaining why censoring the "Adult Services" section of Craigslist, effectively forbidding women from prostituting themselves semi-openly, will harm women by protecting pimps, child traffickers, and other abusive scumbags: On Friday, under tremendous pressure from US attorneys general and public advocacy groups, Craigslist ...
It’s not your fucking business
Friday, August 20th, 2010Roger Clemens has been indicted for "obstruction of Congress" because he lied to them in 2008 when he told them, "Let me be clear. I have never taken steroids or hGH." The Imperial Federal Government has decided it can take people's lives, liberty, and property for putting certain substances into ...
Fish in a barrel 7
Monday, May 24th, 2010I've been a little depressed about how little time I have/make for blagging and reading about politics and economics this year, but it's because I'm working a lot, exercising five or six times a week, and watching things obsessively on DVD, like Star Trek and Futurama and True Blood. I ...
My jury duty experience
Sunday, March 21st, 2010I'd like to relate my limited experience as a potential juror and use this as a starting point for some thoughts about our criminal justice system. It might be a little anti-climactic, but it might also be worth the read. I'll leave out a lot of specifics because it is ...
Monopolistic law-enforcement systems are a racket
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009My friend got a new car, a white Subaru Legacy, to replace his old white Subaru Legacy. Apparently, Michigan law lets you transfer your old license plates to your new car in some (all?) situations, so he just took his license plate off of his old Legacy and put it ...
Amanda Knox: guilty…or is she?
Monday, December 7th, 2009I was very intrigued by this short video featuring an Italian lawyer, who has practiced in the U.S. and in Italy, explaining the differences between criminal trials (specifically, the judges and juries) in the two countries. He was being interviewed in the context of the conviction of Amanda Knox, the ...
Because in a free society, people would attack each other without provocation or fear of punishment from a higher legal authority
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009A man returns home from drinking one night to find part of his house on fire. He warns everyone, wakes them up, helps them outside, then goes back inside to rescue someone who, he had just learned, was asleep upstairs. Do the police officers at the end of the driveway ...
Anarchist Elliot Madison wrongfully arrested, robbed
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009In a continuation of law-enforcement agencies' general disdain for and dismissal of our civil liberties, Elliot Madison, a self-described anarchist, was arrested for using Twitter and a police scanner to help G20 protesters coordinate their efforts and avoid police officers. The charges on which he was held don't indicate any ...
Matthew Martens is pure evil
Thursday, July 9th, 2009Today's inductee into the Special Hell is Matthew Martens, the federal prosecutor who used illegal, underhanded, and downright evil tactics to railroad real estate attorney Victoria Sprouse in a travesty of a criminal trial. William L. Anderson sets the record straight with his usual excellence: The prosecution, led by Martens, convinced ...
Obama Defense Dept. advocates post-acquittal detentions
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009We'll see if this actually happens: Defense Department General Counsel Jeh Johnson moved the Obama administration into new territory from a civil liberties perspective. Asked by Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) the politically difficult but entirely fair question about whether terrorism detainees acquitted in courts could be released in the United States, ...
Quote of the day
Sunday, July 5th, 2009"Minarchy is the theory that free market capitalism is best protected by a socialist monopoly." —Less Antman, in response to Sheldon Richman's post
This just in: Americans are stupid
Friday, June 19th, 2009No, this isn't just stupid. It's stupid and evil and inhumane. As if electing complete idiots with no economic knowledge and no regard for individual rights to the presidency every four years for the last several decades weren't proof enough: A jury ruled in favor of the RIAA, against the ...
Fish in a barrel
Friday, June 19th, 2009Here are a few issues or news stories that I've come across recently that I could offer easy and obvious solutions or objections to, or that libertarianism has already provided an easy and obvious answer to: Philip Morris supports new FDA regulations on cigarettes. Why, when they've opposed previous interventions in ...
Toy guns aren’t weapons
Saturday, May 16th, 2009I have difficulty believing anyone actually supports zero-tolerance policies and extreme political correctness anymore—anyone, that is, except government bureaucrats. By "extreme" I mean atrocities such as this, which any sensible person would be outraged at: NEWTON COUNTY, Ga. -- The latest case of zero-tolerance at the public schools has a 10-year-old ...
Obama DOJ: Government officials are above the law
Friday, April 10th, 2009Literally. This is the legal doctrine the Obama regime's Department of Justice [sic] is invoking in its recommendation that Jewell v. National Security Agency be dismissed. Kevin Carson, in his column National Security: The Last Refuge of Scoundrels is incisive: If the Obama Justice Department’s legal doctrine is allowed to stand, ...
Tell me if I am being sexist, realistic, naive, all of the above…
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009I'll get right to the point: When I hear about a rape case or a rape accusation, my default reaction is to side with the accused man or boy until I hear compelling evidence of his guilt. My default reaction probably should be to side with no one and have ...
Pulitzer for Balko?
Monday, February 23rd, 2009Some commenters to this Radley Balko post suggested he deserves a nomination for the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. I think that would be fantastic. I have no idea what it takes to be nominated or to win a Pulitzer, but as far as I can tell he ought to ...
Unlawful imprisonment on airplanes
Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008Passengers aboard a TACA International Airlines flight were kept on board the plane for nearly 14 hours on November 30. It was supposed to be 4.5 hours. Radley Balko asks, "How is holding someone in an enclosed airplaine on a tarmac with no circulating air and little food or water ...
Minarchist states and basic necessities
Saturday, November 15th, 2008What are the most basic necessities of life, of survival? I'd say food, water, and shelter. In our modern world, a fourth good one to add to the list would be medicine. I think it's fair to say that without these four and certainly without the first three being available ...
Early English law screwed the masses to benefit the aristocracy
Thursday, November 13th, 2008In my ongoing and very occasional progression through Bruce Benson's masterpiece The Enterprise of Law, I am learning more and more about the origins of authoritarian (State-originated and -enforced) law and its usurpation of customary (community-originated and reciprocal-incentive-enforced) law in Medieval England. The main thrust of chapter 3 is that ...
Cops mistake hypoglycemia for drunkenness, beat man into coma
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008Detroit resident Ernest Giglen was beaten by police officers who mistook his hypoglycemia as drunkenness, which led to his entering a hypoglycemic coma. I haven't heard of any police officers beating a diabetic man during a hypoglycemic shock before, preventing him from getting to the hospital quickly and making his ...
Authoritarian law engenders conflict, discourages voluntary interaction
Friday, September 19th, 2008From chapter 3 of Bruce Benson's The Enterprise of Law, "The Rise of Authoritarian Law": When government becomes involved in the enterprise of law, both the rules of conduct and the institutions for enforcement are likely to change. The primary functions of governments are to act as a mechanism to take ...
Agents of the State are better than everyone else
Monday, September 15th, 2008An LRC reader writes in disgust to Lew Rockwell: Please don't use my name because, as you know, i am a news reporter for [a certain TV station], and it could get me in trouble. I am outraged at what I have seen about the horrific train wreck that killed about 20 ...
Customary law must be widely accepted and evolves for the better
Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008After my long essay about customary "law" and the market of preferences, decency, and reputations in internet content providers, Tim Swanson posted a comment recommending The Enterprise of Law by the economist Bruce L. Benson. This book is about customary vs. governmental law and the market for law-enforcement services in ...
Jury nullification protects people from the State
Saturday, August 16th, 2008Prosecutors and judges have an alarming tendency to empower the State over individuals. Tim Lynch of the Cato Institute reports on a juror who was removed from a jury by the judge, against the protests of the defense, for attempting to protest the very law the defendant was accused of ...
Paul Craig Roberts on the “terrorist watch list”
Sunday, July 20th, 2008Paul Craig Roberts violates Godwin's Rule but still manages to make excellent points in a good column about the ludicrous terrorist watch list and no-fly list maintained by the Department of Homeland Security. That's real talent. Money quote: The ACLU says that "putting a million names on a watch list is ...
DWI arrest at BAC 0%
Saturday, July 5th, 2008Radley Balko blags about an Arizona designated driver who was arrested for DWI with a blood-alcohol content of 0%. Balko and the newspaper columnist he cites both thought the arresting officer might have been getting back at the designated driver's husband, a lawyer who defeated the officer in a DWI ...
Kill switches and remote control
Friday, July 4th, 2008Bruce Schneier, the computer-security guru whom Brad at WendyMcElroy.com often links to, wrote a pretty chilling post on kill switches and remote control. This type of technology is an example of why government is not your only enemy, but its creation of the national-security state enables private companies and individuals ...
Lynch mobs, stones, and glass houses
Friday, July 4th, 2008I urge you to read this column published at Wendy McElroy's website ifeminists.net, written by one WolfmanMac, about the increasing criminalization of being male: Lynch mobs, stones, and glass houses. The nuanced insight and analysis of one man's child-porn charges in particular and society's attitude about sexual predators in general ...
An anecdotal story about incompetent police and gun control
Thursday, July 3rd, 2008On the WRIF-Detroit morning show I heard a story from a caller about a ridiculous ordeal he went through as a result of his attempts to protect his next-door neighbor's property. He called in response to the show's discussion about Joe Horn, a 61-year-old Texas man (not an Atlanta Falcons ...
Gonzalo Guizan: another death by drug war
Friday, June 13th, 2008Radley Balko writes of another victim of the paramilitary-style drug raids that Republocrats and their myrmidon voters continue to support in the name of protecting our liberties or our morals or some such. On May 18, police in Easton, Connecticut conducted a heavily-armed drug raid on the home of Ronald Terebesi, ...
Wendy McElroy: the State discourages helpfulness and decency
Sunday, June 8th, 2008Many libertarians have come to consider the police and other law-enforcement divisions of the State as the most directly vicious and physically dangerous branches of the State to deal with. Wendy McElroy wrote about why you should never voluntarily talk to agents of the State or offer them any unnecessary ...
Why I oppose monopolistic justice (sic) systems
Thursday, June 5th, 2008The only remaining halfway-decent argument against the unregulated free market that I've encountered is that private police, courts, and retribution systems would be unaccountable to the actual justice of natural law and result in an increase in unchecked use of force against innocents. This would happen, they say, because there ...
Child faces prosecution for calling the Cult of Scientology a cult
Saturday, May 24th, 2008Jacob Sullum reports at Reason's Hit and Run that a British teenager has been summoned to court and faces a fine (and, presumably, a mark on his criminal record) for holding a sign outside of the Cult of Scientology London headquarters with the word "cult" on it. I don't understand ...
Juror conscription is not a civic duty
Friday, May 23rd, 2008I wonder if anyone but myself, who is pretty thoroughly obsessed with quotations from famous figures throughout history, enjoys our random quote generator that Kel put at the top of our page. (He didn't write the code, he just put it up there; the plugin is by Dustin Barnes.) I ...
To the Home Office, everyone is a terrorist suspect
Thursday, May 22nd, 2008It's a shame George Orwell didn't foresee the advent of computers and the computer age because if he had, 1984 would have been so much more frightening. The Home Office of Great Britain plans to create "Big brother" database for phones calls, emails and web use. This fascism hasn't been ...
Protest = Terrorism
Tuesday, May 20th, 2008That's the point we're coming to under this national-security state in 21st-century America. Republicans and Democrats and the people who continue to support them like a battered wife who won't leave her abusive husband are to blame. Karen De Coster on the LRC blag: If you are going to St. ...
Anarchy and law and order
Saturday, May 17th, 2008That's it. Anthony Gregory is my favorite political writer. Living, that is. I mean, no one could ever surpass Bastiat, Mencken, and Rothbard. His latest achievement is a beautiful explanation of how anarchy would promote order and natural law better than Statism does. I urge everyone of every political variety to ...
“But the State has to protect the children!”
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008"Or else stupid and negligent parents would cause all sorts of harm to them!" It is an understandable position, one I used to take in my darker, minarchist days. However, it is hard to deny the reality that often, the harm that a parent does to a child is not even ...