Bill O’Reilly botches statistics, history in effort to justify “stop and frisks” of innocent blacks and Hispanics.
Federal magistrate revokes man’s parole, orders him jailed for criticizing the federal prosecutors in his case.
I have to agree with this piece. The alleged foiled terror plot in New York is looking flimsier and flimsier. It’s one thing to have an informant infiltrate and report an existing terror plot. It’s another when–as a couple of these cases have appeared now–the informant is the one who does most of the organizing and motivating. As one emailer put it, terrorists who pose an actual threat to us probably aren’t dumb enough to get suckered into something like this.
Former Alabama deputy pleads guilty to stealing $90,000 in confiscated drug money. He’ll avoid prison time if he can figure out a way to pay it all back.
Man could get 15 years in prison after agreeing to a plea bargain where he’ll plead guilty to one count each of “Possession of Obscene Visual Representation of the Sexual Abuse of Children”, and “Mailing Obscene Matter.” His crime? He ordered manga comic books through the mail. So these were drawings. No actual children depicted. It’s also not clear from the article if the comic books actually explicitly identified the “victimized” cartoon characters as minors, or if they merely had some characteristics of minors.
Free the Hops wins! Alabamans can now, finally, enjoy beer that really does “drink pretty good.”
Arizona woman dies after being put in an unshaded outdoor jail cell in the Arizona heat for four hours. She was doing time for prostitution.
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on Sunday, May 24th, 2009 at 9:07 am by Radley Balko
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TheAgitator.com
I was suspicious of the NY terror plot from the beginning. I always wait to hear to what extent the government is involved in the activities and, as usual, they were apparently deeply into this one.
Coincidentally, I’m almost always skeptical of federal white collar criminal investigations since, in the end, instead of charging the suspects with a real crime, they only prosecute for lying to the government. I think it’s part of the strategy where, once the feds decide you’re a target, they’re going to destroy you whether you did anything wrong or not. Better that than admitting they fucked up.
Good for Dr. Hill. Glad there is a voice of reason at Fox.
If comic books can be porn, what about that episode of The Simpsons where Milhouse and Lisa kiss? Can Matt Groening go to prison now?
I’m going to have to stop and count to ten (or maybe a million) before I render a comprehensive opinion on the child porn item, otherwise I’ll just burst into flames and go spiraling out of control on another caffeine-fueled tirade about how stupid I am for not being able to see the manga exemption in the First Amendment, ultimately culminating in the violent detonation of an artery in my brain leaving the walls of my computer room a bloody brain-spattered horror scene.
Expression of an act is not the same as the act itself and as long as people and government confuse the two, there is no free expression in the U.S. There is only expression that has not yet been repressed. If you don’t give a rats ass when they suppress expression you don’t like, then don’t cry later when they suppress expression you value. If you think there’s a line, then you’ve just surrendered free expression to the tyranny of the majority.
That Arizona woman who died in the hot sun? That was in Phoenix—Maricopa county—run by that prick Joe Arpaio. You’d think that calling yourself “America’s Toughest Sheriff” would come back to haunt Arpaio during civil lawsuits over in-custody deaths, but it just doesn’t happen.
Arizona is a big place; so, how did I just know it had to be “America’s Toughest Sheriff” that was involved?
Dear Sheriff Toughguy: Try your hand at real criminals instead of locking up drunks and streetwalkers in your chicken coop.
Anyone who has ever worked in serious heat knows that heat kills. I have a few months experience with Arizona summer, and it’s more dangerous than the Georgia heat I grew up with – your sweat tends to evaporate so fast you don’t realize just how hot and dehydrated you really are. An outside jail? No shade? WTF? Jeez. Seriously, are they that hard up for cell space, or are they just trying to teach suspects a lesson? That should at least be manslaughter if the former and murder if the latter IMO.
Of course, here in Maryland they can break apparently detainees necks without repercussions, so perhaps I shouldn’t be casting stones.
Five bucks says that leaving people in the outdoor cell for too long is a routine form of punishment at the jail.
Of course, the investigation isn’t going to consider similar incidents, just this case in isolation, allowing them to conclude it was just an unfortunate accident, rather than a murder.
“It’s another when–as a couple of these cases have appeared now–the informant is the one who does most of the organizing and motivating.”
Blast from the past (60′s and 70′s):
How can you spot the Fed? He’s the one always trying to get you to blow something up.
Bill O’Reilly is still a blowhard idiot? Who’d a thunk it?
In the one with the revocation of parole, the guy violated a gag order. You may think the order was unconstitutional or illegal, but there was a court order which had not been appealed telling him not to say anything about the case. You do go to jail for violating a court order.
Witch! Burn him!
The child porn hysteria of the last 10-20 years will one day be as ridiculed as the Salem witch trials are today. There were NO children victimized, which is the ONLY valid reason for censorship of “child porn”.
As far as I’m concerned, a flat chested porn star dressing up as a schoolgirl and playing the role of Cross Eyed Mary in a porn flick is not child pornography.
Peter @ #12 –
That’s kind of what I got out of the article as well.
Back in the sixties, you could spot the fed because he was the one trying to get people to blow things up.
The more things change…
re: Virtual Child Porn. How does that law get around Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition?
Lemmee fire up the ol’ crystal ball and take a peek.
Hmmm. “We reviewed the unfortunate incident and have determined that the corrections officers were not at fault. They have been returned to full duty. We are also holding remedial training for all officers on the dangers of long term exposure to the Arizona mid day sun to ensure this isolated incident is not repeated”.
“Can Matt Groening go to prison now?”
One can hope. It would be one of those things that would actually be a cause celebre to get crap like this altered. It’s a shame that the guy pleaded out, but feds tend to make sure that the other prisoners are told to make this guy’s life a living hell.
Regarding that poor woman who died in Arizona: she was in a State Prison, not the Maricopa County Jail. As much as I detest that prick Arpaio, he had nothing to do with this one. However, Arpasshole’s disdain for the lives of “bad people” is not his alone, it seems to be shared by many of the LE and Prison officer community (not to mention a large portion of the public).
The Supremes struck down CPPA in 2002 declaring that it’s not child porn if it doesn’t depict an actual child. The case here is different because it’s prosecuted under obscenity laws that were instituted in 2003. Technically it’s not child porn.
Greg N. A thorough explanation of the laws (including this case) is here.
@7 and @9
Well, from experience, I do know that jail guards here in Seattle do place detainees in rooms that are exposed to weather that don’t have climate controls as a form of punishment. Though, in the case I witnessed it was a particularly cold winter night and the two guys were sent in without blankets and handcuffed to a wall. They came back two hours later unable to stop shivering… all just for not shutting up after lights-out.
So it definitely isn’t a far stretch to think they do the same thing elsewhere… the infamous hot-box of old prison movie fame may indeed seem to be alive and well.
Dave Krueger…ultimately culminating in the violent detonation of an artery in my brain leaving the walls of my computer room a bloody brain-spattered horror scene.”
Again? lol
The lady who died in Arizona prison was a prostitute. I’d be angry if she had been fined. I’m pissed she was imprisoned.* I’m outraged that she died for trying to make a buck or two performing an in demand service that harmed nobody.
More than two goddam years. Look at her picture and ask yourself, is protecting ourselves from seeing sad people like this soliciting business in a seedy neighborhood what prisons are for?
The cop who stole 90 kilobucks ain’t gonna do a day.
Prostitution laws are proof that persecution and hate are alive and thriving in the land of the free.
The NY “Terror Plot” looks a lot like FBI agents acting as agents provocateurs. As Frank noted @ #15, this is like a replay of the 1960s.
OTOH, the alleged plotters do seem to have acheived new highs (lows?) in stupidity.
if soldiers are ‘dying for our freedoms’- they’re dying in vain.
27 months for prostitution? in a free country?
having your parole revoked for criticizing the govt? in a free country?
you can lose 15 years of your life for possession of pornographic comic books? in a free country?
it looks like the cops are free to steal and run amok over us… it looks like Bill O’Reilly and his fascist douchebag cronies are free to lie and manipulate to further their racist agendas… it looks like pricks like Sheriff Joe can continue torturing and humiliating people (who’ve harmed no one but themselves) without any fear of consequences…
what soldier in his right mind would sign up to defend this shit? wait, maybe they’re signing up to defend the douchebags’ freedom to run over us…
Dave,
I guess my question is, how can the statute under which this guy is being prosecuted survive a challenge, given the reasoning in the Free Speech Coalition case? I can’t see why any of the reasoning that was used to strike down CPPA wouldn’t apply to this statute as well.
CPPA was struck down because it tied to ban material which was neither child porn involving real children nor obscene. Supposedly, Section 1466A corrects that defect by requiring the material be obscene.
I hate to be ‘that guy’ but I wonder if the alternet folks et al would have the same opinions if it were white supremacists who were goaded into such an action in New York.
To be clear, I am 100% that Balko would.
The act of planting explosives, even if fake, shows a level of initiative and mens rea that is much more clear in this case than the other well known – and I definitely will say more questionable – ones (e.g ft dix, miami/sear tower)
comic book obscenity conviction has precedent
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Diana
“Diana was sentenced to a three-year probation, during which time his residence was subject to inspection to determine if he was in possession of or was creating obscene material.”
IIRC there was some back & forth about how Mr Diana was supposed to know ahead of time if something he was considering creating was obscene…leading to an actual thought crime type situation.
Not directly on topic, but–
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/Cops-decry-parking-tickets-during-court-visits-45366392.html
Huzza! At least some good news coming out of Alabama. And the link on the deputy story is broken. I’m kind of curious if it’s the same guy who arrested me for resisting arrest back in 2004.
The hysteria of child abuse or child pron and “hate crimes” will be remembered as bringing forth to reality the Thought Crime.
Right now you can go to jail for the artistic scribbling of an illegal thought or viewing a smattering of electrons on a screen depicting an illegal act. You need not victimize anyone for a “crime” to occur. Only the representation of a crime or the thought of it makes you guilty of Thought Crime.
Orwell was indeed a prophet.
Was that “female” prostitute really Gary Busey?
$90K story is a dead link, but found it here:
http://www.cullmantimes.com/cnhi/cullmantimes/homepage/local_story_141083738.html?keyword=leadpicturestory
I wish Dreyfuss would have left “since 9/11 not a single American has even been punched in the nose by an angry Muslim” out of the article, since there have been quite a few muslim-esque folks who have hurt and even killed a few people by, usually, running into crowds with SUVs, as well as with the occasional firearm. I left a comment to that end.
“You want the truth? You want the truYOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH!”
Apparently.
http://frontpagemagazine.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=110
Call it what you will, but it’s much more than a ‘punch in the nose’.
woog , the truth is your’e a delusional threadjacker , kill yerself , do it now , do it hard !!
To give an idea of just how different Japanese cultural norms are from American ones, in Japan, the age a person may legally engage in consensual sex is 13 (barring local prefectural laws) . Needless to say, this is reflected in popular entertainment, such as manga.
What that says about Japan is left to the reader. What this incident says to the US taxpayer is that despite all the horrendous debt we have accumulated (and Japan, incidentally, holds a huge amount of it), the US Federal government still thinks it’s flush enough to engage in this kind of prosecutorial nonsense. Rome is burning, and Uncle is p!ss!ng on the fires in the little waste-baskets. Damned silly…