#19
Could it be something like Angie’s List, which as I understand has local users rate local service companies? In other words, you could have people self-report.

Self-reporting doesn’t get you very far. I mean, it’s a great source of anecdotes, much like this site is a great source of anecdotes for all sorts of police abuses.

If you tried to make data out of a self-reporting service, you would end up mostly with a chart showing where the people who know about the service are. If it got really widespread, that issue would become less of a problem, but that’s obviously very far down the line.

Ideally, the source(s) would be of the type that just automatically logs this stuff. Court logs, traffic ticket logs, the logs for whatever account receives fines… stuff that’s hidden – and for good reason (to the people doing the hiding).

Less ideally, if this stuff was reported on halfway consistently, newspaper archives could be parsed, where available. Of course, its not (anywhere I’m aware of), so this option is out.

On the other hand, I watch year after year of congress taking thousands of dollars from me personally and handing it directly to people decidedly less deserving of it than me, and that makes me wonder if it’s worth so much effort fighting to avoid having a few hundred dollars in cash or property stolen from me every few years. I mean, even if policemen steal my car several times in my life, that’s still only a tiny fraction of what congress will steal from me in my life.

Most all these cases began with a traffic stop and unsavvy drivers telling the cop how much money they are carrying, or display it when asked ( or told to )..or in allowing a search.

To protect ones’ rights and legal standing, NEVER give consent to any warrantless search, no matter how many bluffs and lies the cops tells..no matter that they threaten to delay you while they’ get a dog’…they are legally constrained ion what they do and if you answer NO questions whatsoever, which is youir absolute legal right after properly identyifying yourself and presenting all documents for the car..you will drive away with all your stuff OR you will have excellent standing to get it all back later, after you sue the scum.

When a cop asks’ Where are you going tonight?’, it is to get you to answer him and keep answering, no matter how intrusive he gets. the public is conditioned alreadey, terribly so,in the area of rights and standing up for them. most people are not prepared to look authority in the eye and say ‘ NO!!’.

Never volunteer any info on what you are carrying and never ever give consent to search. When the cops, who view public service as intimidating and threatening their employers, sadly, ask you why you are not giving up your precious rights, just say that you have a high expectation of privacy, even in your car. That is the language of appeals courts and is the best reason to never allow a search.

Also, saying NOTHING is the best way really…never answer any questions, ignore the cops until they either ask you to sign a ticket or go away or arrest you. No matter what happens, even if the cops violate your rights, if you follow the above advice at least your attorney will have the best chance possible of geting any evidence thrown out under the exclusionary rule, or get your property back from an open case of highway robbery.

The drivers affected by these scum cops and D.A’s gave in and should have called the cops bluff; in most cases they will relent as openly illegal actions on their part can lead to big trouble for them personally..and the few that do not back off can be made to pay the price later in a federal court.

never give up…never give in…practice standing firm to cops and telling them NO…hell NO!! No search…no answers to personal questions..and complain and file against any cops that go too far and violate your rights in any way. thats the only way we will ever reign in these robbers with badges.

Speaking of, I’m in NYC and someone told me that the FBI recently raided a G-20 protesters home in Queens…and supposedly they were trying to get him for posting alerts to other protesters on twitter about police activity during the protests, apparently the FBI is pushing for some sort of Patriot Act BS “conspiracy” violation. Anyone know anything more about this, or if police have ever in the past hassled people for alerting about stuff like check points, and other police activity?

I’m sure the FBI/police would try and hassle people for posting any sort of corrupt cop mapping program, but I don’t think it should stop anyone from doing it.

Standard criminal behavior, really.

This was all done manually, of course. No cool software or screen graphics.

http://www.assetforfeiturewatch.com/ME2/Default.asp

I’m going to see what I can find by online searches. If I find enough stories to establish that asset forfeiture abuse is a widespread enough problem to merit continuing, I’ll take the next step.

-ct-

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-10361909-233.html

that alert drivers to possible speed traps.

Too bad there isn’t enough data on the kinds of abuses from police available to make a similar one so that a person could avoid areas that would put them in danger of losing their cars/property.

I don’t think so. I was first attracted to become a lawyer at the age of 6 by Perry Mason’s attempts to protect the innocent. At the age of 9, I thought that I would be a lawyer working for Martin Luther King.

I started out in a DA’s office thinking I would prosecute people who raped and murdered little black boys and threw their bodies into a West Texas cotton field or people who dragged 21 year old girls out of their homes onto a West Texas road to rape and cut their throats. I quit the DA’s office after listening to the bragging of a DEA agent who liked to give attitude adjustment treatments.

Now I like to fight hospitals, pro bono, who want to take away life-sustaining treatments from those whose families object (or who object themselves). Plus, I know plenty of attorneys who are affiliate attorneys to the ACLU or Alliance Defense Fund or the Texas Home Schooling Association, the Home Schooling Legal Defense Association who fight for people’s rights.

Lawyers suck in general. In specific, there are plenty who want to preserve our rights.

If it’s not the office, I can’t see any claim that she would have use to those funds. That is, apart from the “we’re part of the system so the rules don’t apply” standard.

#1
ow about a new map cross-referenced to a highway map of the US showing municipalities or counties that have demonstrated themselves to be corrupt beyond repair (speed traps, asset forfeiture, etc.)…

Just an idea. If I knew how to work the software or if anyone could point me in the right direction, I could take a stab at it.

An interesting idea. However, the main problem is getting the data, in any form. If we could get that, any number of code monkeys (like me) could write a script to parse it into a readable aggregated form, and any number of design guys (not me) could take that and create a nice visual representation (that particular mapping software wouldn’t be very good, because to really be useful, you’d need tens or hundreds of thousands of datapoints).

Getting at the data in the first place is the hard part, because reporters just don’t find it interesting when another poor sap gets his car stolen by the cops, and the cops sure aren’t going to report it in any place plebs like us can see. I’d take a stab at the first half of this if there’s actually a halfway decent data source around.

The profession of lawyer attracts people who are essentially amoral, people who believe that life is simply about exploiting every hairline crack of advantage to one’s own advantage. Life’s a game, and they want to win at all costs and at every turn — and it’s a “good game” to the extent that they can outwit everyone without completely tearing up the rulebook.

These lawyers, including the DA in question, are just another example of high-functioning sociopaths.