TSA Booty, Part II: Money, Money, Money! - A passenger here, an empty pocket there proves that "spare" change left at airport security checkpoints adds up quite nicely.
TESTIMONY: Laptop Searches (and other violations of Privacy) at the U.S. Borders - Transcript of statement by Peter Swire (Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress Action Fund and Professor of Law, Moritz College of Law, Ohio State University) before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights & Property re: border agents' search and seizure of laptops and other computing devices returning to the U.S.
"Enhanced Patdowns" - TSA responds on its blog to reports and critics regarding the "new" enhanced patdowns at U.S. airports.
Terry-Level Suspicion for Laptop Searches - DHS is sued by the American Civil Liberties Union, the New York Civil Liberties Union and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers over suspicionless laptop searches; plaintiffs are asking the federal court to require the government have reasonable suspicion as antecedent justification.
Unconstitutional: Baggy Pants Law(s)? - A law that criminalizes wearing baggy pants is under fire in Florida and the fashion industry weighs in with expert opinion.
Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani's Daughter Arrested for Shoplifting - Imagine the reaction any OTHER parent of an adult shoplifting arrestee would receive when asking for respect of "privacy" after the arrestee's crime was captured on camera? Imagine a store's management making phone calls after learning the identity of the caught shoplifter and "declining" to press charges (which are not theirs to decline)?
VIDEO: War on Drugs as New Jim Crow, Part 1 - Democracy Now! interviews Law Professor Michelle Alexander, who speaks of "The New Jim Cross: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness," her new book re: the spawned racial politics and "Southern Strategy" of the Reagan Administration carried forth by both Democratic and Republican administrations.
SCOTUS Blog - The popular blog maintained by lawyers from the law firms of Akin Gump and Howe & Russell.
BLOG: Wall Street Journal Law Blog - From the Wall Street Times, a blog "on the cases, trends and personalities of interest to the business community."
BLOG: American Constitution Society for Law and Policy - Podcasts, video, links, scholarship, and other useful information from the organization that takes a"forward-looking" perspective on the U.S. Constitution, thanks to the "vision" of the framers and the "wisdom" of "forward-looking" leaders.
BLOG: Transportation Security Administration - Official blog of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, sponsored "to facilitate an ongoing dialogue on innovations in security, technology and the checkpoint screening process."
BLOG POST: "Stop Resisting" - Digby's take in "Hullabaloo" on the Marin Sheriff Department's tasering Peter McFarland inside his home, as well as the legitimacy of videotaping on-duty police.
Consent To A Warrantless Search of Your Home? - Boston police plan to seize illegal handguns via "requesting" warrantless home searches of parents who live with children in "high-crime areas."
The iPhone as a "Container?" ABSTRACT: Adam Gershowitz - Should the search incident to arrest exception to the warrant requirement allow police the ability to open a suspect's iPhone's multiple applications, including call history, cell phone contacts, e-mails, pictures, and browsing history?
SLIP OPINION: Berghuis v. Thomkins - "Miranda" modified: Now, 1) if a suspect does not want to talk to police s/he must say so (silence and lack of cooperation are ambiguous) and 2) if a suspect answers a suggestive question with a one-word response that amounts to a confession, by itself, that will be understood as a waiver of the Fifth Amendment right to silence; specific waiver no longer required.
PODCAST: This American Life - Episode: "Pro Se" explores the pitfalls and potential triumphs of self-representation.
ANIMATION: "Public Defender" - Humorous illustration of what public defense counsel can be up against when fighting on behalf of (which can also mean against) their clients!
A Slice of Pizza Captured the Los Angeles "Grim Sleeper" - Based on DNA gathered from a discarded bit of pizza (after obtaining DNA via a new "familial search" law), a suspected serial killer of multiple young women was finally arrested after decades 10 victims.
North Carolina DNA Lab Misrepresents Evidence and Results - Falsehoods, missing evidence, and deception surround a crime lab responsible for providing evidence in support of defendants' criminal culpability when, in some cases, the evidence was questionable, weak, or utterly absent.
"The Dilemma of the Criminal Defendant With a Criminal Record" - (SSRN abstract) John H. Blume (Cornell Law School) challenges "conventional wisdom" that innocent defendants will testify at their criminal trials, given the significant risk that impeachment of the defendants' credibility will also provide jurors the opportunity to infer present guilt based on past crimes.
Prison Economies - When prisons in rural America close, an explanation of why "short-term economic distress" may occur.
GPS as an Investigatory Tool - Global positioning system devices increasingly used, by law enforcement and per Katz to investigate or develop criminal suspicion.
Police Using GPS in Crime-Solving - Police benefit from Americans' use of GPS and now rely upon this technology to track suspects' whereabouts and thereabouts in furtherance of criminal investigations.
DECISION: U.S. v. Maynard - D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decision holding
the government's use of a GPS device violated the Fourth Amendment. Note how the federal court distinguishes the use of a beeper in Knotts vs. the use of the GPS here (beginning on p. 17) and "plain view" observations (beginning on p. 23).
VIDEO: Government May Use GPS To Track Movements - US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said law enforcement agents can sneak onto a person’s property, plant a GPS device on their vehicle, and track their every movements.
GPS By Police Upheld By California Court - US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held law enforcement agents can sneak onto a person’s property, plant a GPS device on their vehicle, and track their every movements. The court’s ruling means the spying is legal in California and eight other Western states.
D.C. Circuit: United States v. Maynard - U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit decision; HELD: Fourth Amendment applies to government's month-long tracking of a car's movements -- via attached GPS device.
GRAPHIC: Criminal Bagginess - How low can your pants go in Flint, Michigan? A police department chart depicting, inter alia, criminal bagginess -- leading to, if convicted, a minimum of 93 days to a maximum of one year in jail, and/or up to $500.00 in fines -- looks like.
U.S.: "Most Punitive Country in the World" - Equal Justice Initiative story reports that the United States has the world's highest incarceration rate, locking up five times more people per capita than Britain, nine times more than Germany, and 12 times more than Japan.
Consent To A Warrentless Search of Your Home? - Boston police plan to seize illegal handguns via "requesting" warrantless home searches of parents who live with children in "high-crime areas."
EDITORIAL: Arizona's Immigration Law & SCOTUS as Enabler - A NYT's editorial penned by Dean Kevin Johnson (UC Davis) and Gabriel "Jack" Chin (University of Arizona), noting how SCOTUS precedent gives legal foundation to Arizona's use of a suspect's "Mexican appearance" in its controversial (and challenged) immigration law.
"Securing" the (Southern) Border - $600 million dollar bill to send more agents, drones, and money to stop the tide of those undocumented from entering the U.S. via the southern border.
U.S. May Sue Arizona's Sheriff - Why the United States may sue the poster boy for Arizona's anti-illegal immigrant movement and immigration law: allegations of meritless corruption investigations of officials who have criticized his policies or opposed his requests.
No Hate Crime Charge for Seattle Officer - Despite shouting, inter alia, "I'll beat the Mexican piss out of you," and other ethnic slurs while he and another officer beat, stomped, and kicked a Latino man, a Seattle, WA officer will not be charged with the felony crime of malicious harassment, as prosecutors concluded that he "did not intentionally target or assault a person because of their race or national origin."
AUDIO: Prison Industry Push Behind Arizona's Immigration Controversies? - NPR, after several months analyzing hundreds of pages of campaign finance reports, lobbying documents and corporate records, has discovered the "quiet, behind-the-scenes effort" to pass Arizona Senate Bill 1070 by an industry that stands to benefit from it: the private prison industry.
Informants: Lifeblood AND Poison? - Discusses -- by way of the recent arrests of Brooklyn police officers -- the ethical, legal, and constitutional trickiness of police recruitment, cultivation, and management of confidential informants, aka "snitches."
CONVICTED: Cops' Cover-ups, Planted Evidence, and False Reports After Killing - The back story, cover-up, unraveling, and aftermath of an Atlanta, GA police department's purposeful cover-up of the wrongful killing of Ms. Kathryn Johnston, a 92 year old woman, innocent of criminal wrongdoing, in an unjustified home invasion that started with a manufactured informant's "tip."
Van der Sloot's "Alleged Confession" - Theories on why this high-profile suspect allegedly confessed to killing after successfully avoiding indictment on the high-profile Natalee Holladay disappearance in 2005.
PODCAST: How "NYPD Blue" Helped Overturn Miranda - NPR interview -- post-Berghuis -- with NYPD Blue co-producer David Milch, who consulted with an actual police officer, who insisted that, on the streets and in "real life," Miranda warnings are mostly a fiction and NEVER as regularly given or protective as TV portrays and society believes.
VIDEO: ACS Discusses Miranda Post-Berghuis - Constitutional law experts discuss -- via an American Constitution Society panel -- Miranda's future in light of the recent court rulings, such as Berghuis, and the administration's announcement that it would seek a broad exception to the Miranda rule.
LAPD Maps Muslims - Documents reveal that the Los Angeles police department intends to use demographic data to identify "Muslims communities," sparking religious profiling criticism.
TESTIMONY: Laptop Searches (and other violations of Privacy) at the U.S. Borders - Transcript of statement by Peter Swire (Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress Action Fund and Professor of Law, Moritz College of Law, Ohio State University) before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights & Property re: border agents' search and seizure of laptops and other computing devices returning to the U.S.
William Stuntz's Case for a "Police "Surge" - Making a case for a domestic surge - a la the military surge/troop increase in Afghanistan -- in so-called high-crime neighborhoods as an investment in their future and reduction in crime.
PODCAST: ACLU on FBI's New Domestic Spying Powers - Salon.com's Glenn Greenwald and the ACLU's Mike German discuss the new powers to conduct, inter alia, suspicionless searches of Americans' activities.
AUDIO PODCAST: America's Forgotten War - 5-Part NPR series examines the progress and the challenges in the war on drugs via: 1. six months interviewing more than 100 people — including former drug czars, former addicts and drug smugglers, and Drug Enforcement Administration agents and 2) reports on how incarceration of drug offenders in the late 1980s and early '90s is affecting American cities today.
South Carolina Troopers Use Cruisers to Hit Suspects - Video footage via dashboard-mounted cruiser cameras record South Carolina troopers' race-based policing tactic of intentionally hitting Black suspects fleeing on foot.
VIDEO: BART Transit Officer Kills Rider - Cell phone camera footage of BART transit officer shooting and killing subway passenger, Oscar Grant. Clip shows witness who videotaped the encounter with her cell phone explaining the course of events leading up to and after the shooting.
"Video Vigilante" - Urging video use by citizens to combat police officer violations.
Ex-Cop Pleads Guilty in Post-Katrina Killings - Former police lieutenant Michael Lohman pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in connection with the police officer killings of two and injuring of four civilians in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
CRIMINAL COMPLAINT: Obstruction of Justice - Lohman's indictment charging conspiring to obstruct justice re: the "legally unjustified" killings of two and injuring of four civilians, post-Hurricane Katrina.
Videos Will Dominate BART Killing Trial - Videos recorded by several people aboard a BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) subway train chronicle the events leading up to the 2009 New Year's Day shooting are being relied upon by attorneys on both sides to help prove their case.
VIDEO: NY Police Beats an Iraq War Vet - Video that triggered investigation and criminal charges against NYPD officers for assault and falsifying police report re: the incident.
"Killed By the Cops" - A report showing that U.S. Blacks and increasingly Latinos are disproportionately represented in national "death-by-cop" statistics.
BLOG POST & VIDEO: The "Big Shove Cop" - Critiques the conduct of Officer Patrick Pogan, infamous for his pushing a cyclist from his bike during Critical Mass street protest (ultimately convicted for filing a false instrument) AND the second officer who "merely" stands by and watches his colleague's actions.
VIDEO: The "Big Shove Cop" - Police Officer Patrick Pogan videotaped violently shoving and arresting bicyclist Christopher Long during the Critical Mass protest.
BLOG POST & VIDEO: The "Big Shove Cop" - Critiques the sentencing judge, who ordered "The Big Shove" former NYPD Officer Patrick Pogan sentenced to a conditional discharge, rejecting both Pogan's lawyer's (who asked for community service) and the prosecutor's request (jail and probation).
VIDEO: Denver Police Beat A Cop's Son - Caught on law enforcement's video surveillance cameras: Denver, CO police -- accused of using excessive force against one young man bounced from a nightclub -- turned their attention to the young man's friend, who is on the phone, reporting the violence to his deputy police officer dad.
VIDEO: The Post-Beating Celebration - Graphic video and accompanying story of how two New Mexico police officers decided that, post-abuse, they needed a bit of celebration. It's unclear which lost them their jobs.
VIDEO: Cops Planting Drugs on Suspect? - You be the judge. Dash cam films a traffic stop and Terry (perhaps) frisk(s) of a suspect. During the searching of the suspect (and use of force via repeated canine dog bites), one officer signals another, leading to the searching officer's movement to his own pocket, back to the suspect's pant pocket, and the sudden declaration of "found" marijuana.
Chicago's Top Torturer: Convicted - Decorated former Chicago police lieutenant suffocated, shocked and beat confessions out of scores of suspects convicted of federal perjury and obstruction of justice charges for lying about the torture.
CONVICTED: Cops' Cover-ups, Planted Evidence, and False Reports After Killing - The back story, cover-up, unraveling, and aftermath of an Atlanta, GA police department's purposeful cover-up of the wrongful killing of Ms. Kathryn Johnston, a 92 year old woman, innocent of criminal wrongdoing, in an unjustified home invasion that started with a manufactured informant's "tip."
WEBSITE: NYPD v. NYPD - Website for NYPD officers who have suffered punishment (suspension, demotion, poor assignments) for not meeting ticketing and arrest quotas and for disclosing NYPD corruption. Featuring, inter alia, Officer Schoolcraft, the subject of a recent "This American Life" segment, "The Right to Remain Silent."
"The NYPD Tapes: Inside Bed-Stuy's 81st Precinct" - The multi-part story of NYPD Officer Adrian Schoolcraft, who carried an audio recorder initially to protect himself from the civilian complaints that can result from street encounters. But then, Schoolcraft began documenting things happening in the precinct that bothered him, running afoul of precinct politics, his peers, and his supervisors, leading ultimately to his arrest, a retaliation lawsuit, and multiple investigations of his precinct and his bosses.
"Personal Space Invaders": Slate.com - Identifies scientific and technological advances of 2007 that encroach upon, threaten, or potentially trump individual privacy. Also provides useful hyperlinks to related source information and articles (regarding, e.g., surveillance cameras, human chip implants, and mind-reading).
Harvey Weinstein's Garbage: Revealed! - Perusing the movie mogul's Tribeca trash uncovers intriguing communications about the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow, Michael Moore,Bob Iger, Woody Allen, Alicia Keys, Nicole Kidman, Tommy Hilfiger, and the inimitable television reality show, "Project Runway."
VIDEO: Europeans Protest "Big Brother" - Continent-wide protests break out in Europe to reclaim privacy against increased and pervasive governmental surveillance.
Massachusetts Police & License Plate Recognition - How one state's police are tracking ALL cars on the road, suspicious and suspicionless alike, learning all sorts of private information about drivers.
Officer "Hunch" or Proper Policing? - A detective relies upon her faimiliarity with a neighborhood's funeral home folkways and a rape victim's description to nab a suspect.
Police Raid Mayor's Home and Kill His Pets - Detailed story of suburban D.C. mayor's home being invaded and dogs shot dead by law enforcement officers without a warrant, yet on the trail of a delivered box left upon the mayor's front porch.
Guess-timating Speeding Drivers - New Ohio state law regards officers' guessing of a motorists' speed can suffice to support traffic tickets' issuance.
PODCAST: "The Right to Remain Silent" - In Act Two, Ira Glass takes on a NYPD officer who began carrying an audio recorder to protect himself against false claims by citizens, only to learn that the recordings would soon protect him against fellow officers and supervisors. A riveting must-listen (Act Two starts at 17:52), that involves creating "reasonable suspicion" and "probable cause" against the mostly Black residents of a small, urban NY neighborhood.
CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT: 1st-Grader Handcuffed - Southern Poverty Law Center and Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana file a class action lawsuit against the New Orleans school district for shackling and handcuffing very young (early elementary school-aged) children for minor school violations.
VIDEO: RFID Chips On Children? - Clothing worn by 240 Richmond, CA children in a HeadStart Program contain an RFID Chip that can be tracked. Democracy Now! hosts a debate on the use of the technology.
VIDEO: No Charges Against School For Remote Monitoring of Children - Suburban Philadelphia public school system monitored students by remotely activating the cameras on computer laptops issued to them. School officials claimed they were simply trying to recover missing or stolen computers. But evidence has emerged indicating the monitoring system was misused and captured images of partially dressed and even sleeping students.
Random Drug Dog Use in High Schools Challenged - High school's use of drug-detecting dogs randomly to search the Medomak Valley High School (and others) in Maine during a lock-down and training session on Oct. 25 challenged and questioned.
AUDIO: Criminal Juvenile Judge - Voices of the victims of Pennsylvania juvenile "justice" judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. who -- in the pithy words of one mother -- "was selling children." So much for that "neutral and detached" magistrate.
SENTENCE: Pennsylvania Judge Gets 28 Years - This former juvenile "justice" judge was found guilty of multiple racketeering and fraud charges for accepting millions of dollars in bribes from friends who owned detention centers to which he sent juveniles.
Fourth Amendment ... PARENTING? - Despite the relaxation of laws concerning marijuana use, in NYC, possession of amounts that wouldn’t even warrant a misdemeanor now costs parents their families.
Though marijuana use is double for whites what it is in minority communities, defense lawyers say they “rarely if ever” see charges filed against white parents. A spokesperson for the Administration for Children’s Services claims charges are only being brought where other indications of neglect are present, but lawyers counter saying the additional evidence is only being sought after the discovery of marijuana possession.
Biometrics: Bodies As National IDs? - Discussing "Next Generation Identification," the FBI's impending billion dollar expansion of its biometric database, aimed at increasing identification of suspects, domestically and abroad. Notes also the current use of biometrics by DHS (e.g., iris scans) at American airports, as well as potential use for police officers.
PODCAST: "The Supreme Court: Home to America's Highest Court" - C-SPAN documentary; includes interviews with currently sitting and former Justices (including recently appointed Justice Sotomayor) on the uniqueness and workings of the Court, opinion writing, oral arguments, dissenting, and many other aspects regarding the making of law via the highest Court in the land.
SCOTUS Blog - The popular blog maintained by lawyers from the law firms of Akin Gump and Howe & Russell.
Justice Sotomayor: "The Phone Call" - Justice Sotomayor describes the what she was told prior to President Obama's of her official nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court ... and her reaction to President Obama's call.
VIDEO - Solicitor General Elena Kagan accepts President Obama's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.
SLIP OPINION: Berghuis v. Thomkins - "Miranda" modified: Now, 1) if a suspect does not want to talk to police s/he must say so (silence and lack of cooperation are ambiguous) and 2) if a suspect answers a suggestive question with a one-word response that amounts to a confession, by itself, that will be understood as a waiver of the Fifth Amendment right to silence; specific waiver no longer required.
SLIP OPINION: Kentucky v. King - 8-1 decision that finds constitutional a breaking and entering of a home by the government if police hear what sounds like evidence being destroyed on the other side of the door/inside the location.
WEBSITE: C-SPAN's Supreme Court - Includes podcasts, streaming video, interviews, reviews, and other information regarding the workings of the highest court in the land.
VIRTUAL TOUR: SCOTUS - The places -- including the Robing Room, the Supreme Court's Library, and the West Plaza Pediment's "Equal Justice Under Law" inscription -- and a few faces of the U.S. Supreme Court, thanks to the work of C-SPAN's cameras and interviews.
SCOTUS "Experts" - Courtesy of C-SPAN, video snippets of those who have covered the U.S. Supreme Court and possess intimate knowledge of, inter alia, its rhythms, changes, collegiality, and the impact of a new Justice.
U.S. SCOTUS Media - A multimedia archive devoted to the Supreme Court of the United States and its work.
ABSTRACT: The iPhone Meets the Fourth Amendment, Adam Gershowitz - Should the search incident to arrest exception to the warrant requirement allow police the ability to open a suspect's iPhone's multiple applications, including call history, cell phone contacts, e-mails, pictures, and browsing history?
More Than 1 in 10 Americans: INCARCERATED - State and federal prisons and jails contain an all-time high of incarcerated individuals, making the U.S. the country that incarcerates at the highest rate in the world.
New York Minorities More Likely to Be Frisked - May 2010 New York Times story of the 2009 raw data by the Center for Constitutional Rights that, inter alia, nearly 490,000 blacks and Latinos were stopped by the police on the streets last year, compared with 53,000 whites. But once stopped, the arrest rates were virtually the same.
POLL: Americans' Awareness of SCOTUS - Recent findings -- via a C-SPAN/Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates Pollon survey -- of how aware U.S. public is of the highest court in the land.
Crack Tax? - New York's governor proposes a tax on marijuana, heroin, and cocaine; prepaid "tax stamps" would be affixed to bags of the substances, indicating that the dealer has complied with the tax law.
Officer Fido? - Dogs as "sworn police officers." Some do "take the oath!"
AUDIO PODCAST: Shaming Gang Members - From National Public Radio: Distributing flyers with suspected gang members' photos as a shaming tactic is a new weapon in Boston police officers' arsenal ... that may backfire.
Speeding Tickets from a Dead Officer? - What does a police officer's life -- or death -- have to do with his reasonable suspicion or probable cause?
Governmental Official Wrongly Seized By NYPD at the West Indian Parade - A NYC councilman and his aide -- both Black men -- were treated to the following treatment by NYPD: "It’s broad daylight, they get thrown to the ground, they both get arrested,” Mr. de Blasio said. “If that’s what happens to an elected official and a senior appointee, imagine what happens to a general member of the public.”
X-RAY: Inside a Smuggler's Body - 72 capsules of cocaine smuggled into an airport didn't quite make it to their destination. Check out the x-rays of the smuggler's at-capacity innards!
ANIMATION: Suppression Hearing: Officer's Testimony - Humorous video of a public defender cross-examining an arresting officer that incorporates what some might consider to be the absurdity of the Court's Fourth Amendment jurisprudence.
Don't tase ME, Bro!" - Officer sues his former employer over its "training by tasing" policy, claiming the mandatory shocking violates his constitutional rights.
New York Minorities More Likely to Be Frisked - May 2010 New York Times story of the 2009 raw data by the Center for Constitutional Rights that, inter alia, nearly 490,000 blacks and Latinos were stopped by the police on the streets last year, compared with 53,000 whites. But once stopped, the arrest rates were virtually the same.
NYPD's "Stop, Question, Frisk" - 52,000 stops over a few blocks' range in 4 years? This article discusses whether the impact of these stats help or hurt.
VIDEO: NYPD's "Stop, Question, Frisk" - NYT Video depiction of the NYPD's justification for 52,000 purported Terry stops and frisks occurring in 4 years over a few blocks' city realty.
EDITORIAL: Arizona's Immigration Law & SCOTUS as Enabler - A WaPo editorial penned by Dean Kevin Johnson (UC Davis) and Gabriel "Jack" Chin (University of Arizona), noting how SCOTUS precedent gives legal foundation to Arizona's use of a suspect's "Mexican appearance" in its controversial (and challenged) immigration law.
NY Limits Retention of Stop-and-Frisk Data - Despite opposition from the NYPD, New York's Governor David Paterson signed into law a bill passed by the Senate and Assembly that would limit the retention of personal data gathered by New York City's police to prohibit the police from saving people’s personal data in cases when no enforcement action was taken (the database would still include a record of the stop, including the person’s age and race and the location and reason for it, as the City Council required in 2001).
When in France... - France's constitutional court recently ordered in a landmark decision that French police be stripped of their power to arrest ordinary suspects and interrogate them for 48 hours without bringing charges or reading them their rights.
PROPOSED LEGISLATION: End Racial Profiling Act - Most recent iteration of the text of the bill repeatedly introduced by U.S. House of Representatives Member John Conyers to cease police race-based stop-and-frisk conduct.
REPORT: Targeting Blacks for Marijuana Use, 2004-08 - Drug Policy Alliance data supporting the practice of excessive/overpolicing of Blacks in California by Dr. Harry Levine, Queens College (NY) researcher.
STUDY: Race-Based Policing By the LAPD - ACLU report data, executive summary, and conclusions regarding police practices that disproportionately target and affect Blacks and Latinos in Los Angeles, CA.
OP-ED: Race-baced Policing HARMS - The NYT's Bob Herbert lambasts the NYPD's racial profiling and resultant database as a scourge upon society and innocent citizens' well-being.
All Shook Up: Police Vehicles That Rumble - Washington D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department upgrades its fleet by adding vehicles equipped with the "Rumbler," a device that emits a vibrating frequency felt up to 200' away in order to assist police emergency travel.
MA High Speed Chase Policy - Pursuit vs. public safety: how Massachusetts balances these interests in police high-speed chases.
ABSTRACT: Lawrence Rosenthal's "Pragmatism, Originalism, Race, and the Case Against Terry v. Ohio - A criminal justice system that fails to keep disadvantaged persons of color safe, even as relatively wealthy whites live in security, can offer neither fairness nor legitimacy. Terry offered the police hope of a prophylactic approach to policing in which the authorities need not wait until a crime is committed to undertake measures to keep a community safe. ... The residents of high-crime, inner-city communities face threats to their safety that most of us would find unimaginable, and that surely those who framed the Fourth Amendment could never have imagined. Perhaps that is why so many rebel against the kind of stop-and-frisk regime undertaken in New York. The threat of violent crime that New York and other cities have faced, however, should be enough to expand one's imagination.
SCOTUS BLOG: City of Ontario v. Quon - Are an employee's text messages -- received and sent on an employer-provided device -- protected under the Fourth Amendment? Here's a primer on the issues before the Court.
NYPD's "Stop, Question, Frisk" - From the July 2010 NYT story detailing NYPD's justification for 52,000 stops in 4 years over several blocks (and reactions).
VIDEO: Chinese Police Shooting - Multiple gun shots fired to kill a hostage-taker armed only with scissors triggered commentary that celebrates and criticizes aggressive policing in China. Interesting/Complicating factors: 1) the hostage-taker stabbed a male victim with the scissors and took his (female) hostage after a botched robbery attempt, 2) the plainclothes officer is a woman (in "a white pantsuit and elegant scarf"), and 3) moments after the killing, the officer smiles and laughs.
VIDEO: ACS Discusses Miranda Post-Berghuis - Constitutional law experts discuss -- via an American Constitution Society panel -- Miranda's future in light of the recent court rulings, such as Berghuis, and the administration's announcement that it would seek a broad exception to the Miranda rule.
Increase in Prosecutions for Videotaping Police - Now that videotapes of police (mis)conduct have become hot items online on sites such as You Tube and in court, police are now seeking to kill -- or, at least confiscate -- the messenger. Others maintain that photography and videotaping are not crimes.
VIDEO: "Contempt of Cop?" - Here's what happens when you joke with your friend for being stopped while improperly riding a bike on a NYC sidewalk.
"Are Cameras the New Guns?" - States are beginning to outlaw recording police officers in reaction to, inter alia, videos going viral that depict what many consider to be evidence of police abuse and brutality.
Secret Warrants Issued Without Probable Cause - Courts divided on the issuance of secret warrants to allow federal agents' tracking of individuals' cellphones via the Pen Register and Stored Communications statutes on less than probable cause.
Identity Theft, Drug Smuggling, and No-Knock (or not) Warrant? - Questions arise after local police execute a no-knock entry of local mayor's home, kill his family's Labrador retrievers, and attempt to connect the mayor and his wife to a package containing 32 lbs. of marijuana delivered to the home . . . by the police.
Federal Court Rules on Cell "Privacy" - A three-judge, Third Circuit panel held that tracking cell phones "does not require the traditional probable-cause determination." (The court's decision, however, was focused on which federal privacy statutes apply.)
WEBSITE: American Constitution Society for Law and Policy - Podcasts, video, links, scholarship, and other useful information from the organization that takes a"forward-looking" perspective on the U.S. Constitution, thanks to the "vision" of the framers and the "wisdom" of "forward-looking" leaders.
