ACLU - RISE UP TIMES

Power Loves the Dark | Police Nationwide Are Secretly Exploiting Intrusive Technologies With the Feds’ Complicity

In Chicago, for instance, the police notoriously opposed the release of dashcam video in the shooting death of Laquan McDonald, citing the supposed imperative of an “ongoing investigation.” After more than a year of such resistance, a judge finally ordered the video made public. Only then did the scandal of seeing Officer Jason Van Dyke unnecessarily pump 16 bullets into the 17-year-old’s body explode into national consciousness.

2,000 Cases in Baltimore Could Be Overturned Because of Unlawful Police and Prosecutor Collusion

From the article: “It shocks the conscience that a police commissioner and an elected State’s Attorney would conspire to commit obstruction of justice unless the FBI told them they could disclose.”

Minneapolis: Cop Caught on Video Telling Black Teen ‘If You Fuck with Me, I’m Going to Break Your Legs’

A recently released report details the racial arrest patterns in Minneapolis and concludes that African Americans are more likely than white people to be arrested for low-level offenses. Here is just one example of police racism. By Ian Millhiser | ThinkProgress | News Investigation NationofChange.org May 30, 2015 Editor's Note: This video is excerpted from the More

Glenn Greenwald |”On Patriot Act Renewal” and “Anonymous Fearmongering”

"This is Glenn Greenwald with the Intercept, and my guest today is Jameel Jaffer, the Deputy Legal Director of the ACLU, and we are here to discuss the still intensifying drama in the Senate and the House over the debate concerning reauthorization of the Patriot Act, key provisions of which are scheduled to expire on June 1st."

Thor Benson: Why Wikimedia Just Might Win Its Lawsuit Over NSA Surveillance

From the article: “We believe that the NSA’s upstream surveillance has a chilling effect not only on Wikimedia’s writers and editors but on all of our plaintiffs,” Gorski said. “As a general matter, the private communications of innocent Americans don’t belong in the government’s hands, and if people know the NSA is watching, they’re going to hesitate before visiting controversial websites, before discussing controversial issues or investigating online politically sensitive questions.”

▶ Bruce Gagnon: Everyone Knows Israel Has the Bomb (Uri Avnery, The Speech)

WHAT DID the speech not contain?

Raw Story: New York Times calls for Cheney, Bush officials to be investigated and prosecuted for torture

“These are, simply, crimes. They are prohibited by federal law, which defines torture as the intentional infliction of “severe physical or mental pain or suffering.” Former Vice President Dick Cheney (ABC TOM BOGGIONI RawStory.com December 22, 2014 In a blistering editorial published in the Monday [sic] edition of the New York Times, the editorial page More

Obama: America “Exceptional” So We Don’t Prosecute Torturers

Legal experts and human rights advocates says prosecutions must follow Senate's report on CIA torture as president says grave violations of domestic and international law should be kept "where they belong—in the past" By Jon Queally, staff writer Common Dreams December 10, 2014 Despite executive summary of Senate panel's report on Tuesday, President Obama is still unwilling to More

U.N. torture watchdog urges U.S. crackdown on police brutality

The panel's first review of the U.S. record on preventing torture since 2006 followed racially-tinged unrest in cities across the country this week sparked by a Ferguson, Missouri grand jury's decision not to charge a white police officer for the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager. BY STEPHANIE NEBEHAY Reuters GENEVA Nov 28, 2014 Activists More

▶ Invasion of the Data Snatchers

New technologies are making it easier for private companies and the government to learn about everything we do - in our homes, in our cars, in stores, and within our communities. As they collect vast amounts of data about us, things are getting truly spooky! [youtube=http://youtu.be/OnuH-yO0BJE] Data snatchers?? They are NOT science fiction. And they’re More

ACLU: Free Speech for Some Means Free Speech for None

Our defense of speech regardless of speaker comes down to a simple truth: once you give the government the ability to silence unpopular speech, no one is safe. First Amendment By Gabe Rottman, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office October 22, 2014 In honor of Free Speech Week, let's take a moment to acknowledge the obvious. More

Thor Benson: Putting the Police Under Surveillance

"Thankfully, many black Americans are rising up against a society that allows them to be killed for selling cigarettes or walking in the street, but it remains to be seen whether those not in danger will join the struggle." By Thor Benson truthdig.com August 21, 2014 Shutterstock In some places in America, a black man More

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