Domestic Terrorism

Protecting the People

This entry was posted in Domestic Terrorism Drug Laws Law Enforcement Libertarianism on by

Here is yet another example of why we should kick all the drug warriors off the dole and send them out to get real jobs:
hibiscus.jpg
Landscape contractor Blair Davis was in his northwest Harris County home around 2 p.m. Tuesday when there was a knock at his door.
Davis said he hadn’t even gotten his hand on the doorknob when it flew open and he was looking at the barrel of a pistol.
Behind the gun were about 10 members of the Harris County Organized Crime and Narcotics Task Force, who burst into the home, guns drawn, and began shouting at him to get down on the floor.
There on the floor, Davis said, it took a while to figure out that what had caused the swarm of lawmen to descend upon him was the hibiscus in his front yard.
Let’s put an end to domestic terrorism now!
Via Zombyboy and Jeff Trigg.
Photo: Meg Loucks/ Houston Chronicle

Administration Supports Increased Use of Lawyers

This entry was posted in bush Constitution Domestic Terrorism Law Enforcement on by

And the American Library Association is fighting back on our behalf:

Last week, the American Library Association learned that the Department of Justice asked the Government Printing Office Superintendent of Documents to instruct depository libraries to destroy five publications the Department has deemed not “appropriate for external use.” The Department of Justice has called for these five public documents, two of which are texts of federal statutes, to be removed from depository libraries and destroyed, making their content available only to those with access to a law office or law library.
The topics addressed in the named documents include information on how citizens can retrieve items that may have been confiscated by the government during an investigation. The documents to be removed and destroyed include: Civil and Criminal Forfeiture Procedure; Select Criminal Forfeiture Forms; Select Federal Asset Forfeiture Statutes; Asset forfeiture and money laundering resource directory; and Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000 (CAFRA).
Julia at Sisyphus Shrugged asks:
Can you think of any reason why our current ruling party would be trying to keep americans from having access to information about our laws?
Let’s see, here are a few possibilities:
1) They think ordinary citizens are too dumb to be able to read federal statutes without a lawyer to interpret?
2) Citizens have been making effective use of the material to protect their rights without the aid of lawyers?
3) If the feds make it hard to fact check their asses they can make things up as they go along with less concern?
4) An uninformed citizenry will make it easier to to fight the “war on terror.”
5) To help pay for Iraq (see 2 above).
Any more ideas?

Wasting the People’s Resources

This entry was posted in Constitution Domestic Terrorism Drug Laws Economics Law Enforcement Libertarianism on by

This kind of speaks for itself:

The Kentucky crime labs have actually eliminated a backlog of drug cases that have plagued our courts for years.
The six crime labs have handled 16,000 drug cases since January and no cases older than 60 days remain.
….
The six labs in the state have 140 analysts and support staff to handle cases from about 400 law enforcement agencies.
Their caseload nearly doubled from 20,700 in 1989 to 40,000 in 2003.
A lot of these cases also had to be sent to private labs to enable them to catch up.
But just in case it does not, contemplate these same resources being applied to health care or infrastructure projects or tracking down perpetrators who have actual committed a crime against someone else or simply leaving the money in the hands of the taxpayers it was taken from to make a local decision on how the money would be best used.
Via MAP Inc.

Everything Changed?

This entry was posted in Capitalism Constitution Democracy Domestic Terrorism Government Libertarianism Patriot Act US Politics on by

Point 14 of the things Mark Kleiman recently learned at an Executive Session on Gang Violence opens with:

14. On the other hand, gang violence accounts for more deaths each year than were killed on 9-11. Thinking about getting ready to think about it isn’t really a satisfactory response.
Why hasn’t this changed everything?
It is pretty clear that the policies of local, state, and federal governments over the past 100 years have not fulfilled the government’s obligations to the people. Perhaps it is time to make some fundamental changes in these entities to get them refocused on serving the people’s rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness rather than the faction de jour.

Homeland Insecurity II

This entry was posted in Constitution Domestic Terrorism Election 2004 Law Enforcement Libertarianism Patriot Act War on Terrorism on by

A few days ago I linked to a story by a student in Seattle who ran afoul of what appears to be some overzealous law enforcement folks.
Via Pacific Views I see that there are some legs on the story. From the Seattle Times:

On Monday night, the volume of Internet traffic to Ian Spiers’ Web site � www.brownequalsterrorist.com � crashed his server. Strangers from Chicago and New Zealand offered him space on their servers to get his story back online.
There is more at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.