[eXpat]

"The end justifies the means" nice

Chief Apologizes To Bystanders Detained During Suspect Search
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he Wells Fargo at Chambers and Hampden was robbed just before closing time on Saturday. Shortly afterwards police shut down the intersection of Buckley and Iliff just southeast of the bank, corralling nearly two dozen cars in search for the suspect.

Police Chief Daniel Oates on Monday apologized to the innocent bystanders that got caught up in the search for the suspect. Oates also said the ends justify the means since the suspect was caught.
About 19 vehicles were stopped Saturday afternoon for about two hours.

Oates would not discuss the tracking technology used, but called it a “virtual certainty” that the suspect was among the 40 people stopped and handcuffed.

[Rod_Cloutier]

One of the rare times I was watching TV was tonight, (way too hot to sleep), and the only thing 'on' is COPS.

I watched the police in N.M. do a random traffic stop and send an obviously poor couple both to jail for having crystal meth in their car.

Some immediate concerns came to mind:

1) The woman said they had kids at home and who would raise and take care of the kids with them both in jail? The officer's reply was shocking, 'your kids will be old enough to drive themselves before you will get out of prison'.

2) They searched the couple's car without a search warrant!! If there was even a hint of the rights of individuals not to be searched without cause it was not present in this 'random traffic stop'. Both husband and wife should plead search without a warrant in court and they should both be let off.

3) Why does the government go after minor drug or traffic offences, when billionaire bankers are on a multi-year rampage of mortgage and securities fraud with no prosecutions forthcoming? This in itself is a major miscarriage of priorities.

I be first to switch the tube back on to watch the police go after the Wall Street crooks. Police destroying a small poor family in New Mexico was hard to watch and made me very sad for them.

[Keith_McClary]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'a')nal probes, three enemas, two body X-rays and a colonoscopy because police thought he was hiding drugs, according a federal lawsuit. In El Paso, a woman crossing the border was stripped searched, vaginally probed then taken to the hospital for more invasive tests, a forced bowel movement, X-rays and scans

[rangerone314]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', '[')url=http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/bestoftv/2013/11/06/nr-live-jackson-police-tase-father-who-tried-to-save-son-from-fire.cnn.html]Cops tase dad while son trapped in fire[/url]

Police stun and handcuff a father who attempted to go into his burning home to save his 3-year-old son. The kid dies.

[Keith_McClary]

American Writers are Self-Censoring to Avoid NSA Scrutiny
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'P')ublished Tuesday by the group PEN America—an organization of writers dedicated to advancing literature and promoting free speech for writers around the world—surveyed 520 American writers and found they are "not only overwhelmingly worried about government surveillance, but are engaging in self-censorship as a result."

"[D]uring the Nixon years," one respondent wrote, "I took it for granted that the administration had an eye on me, and if it didn’t, I wasn’t doing my job. For a political cartoonist, active early on against Vietnam, one expected tax audits and phone taps. Irritating, but not intimidating. I view the current situation as far more serious, and the culpability and defensiveness of the president and his people deeply and cynically disturbing.”
...
The report notes, "writers reported self-censoring on subjects including military affairs, the Middle East North Africa region, mass incarceration, drug policies, pornography, the Occupy movement, the study of certain languages, and criticism of the U.S. government."

Further, many writers said they "assume that their communications are being monitored," and have thus changed their behavior in many ways which, according to the authors, "curtail their freedom of expression and restrict the free flow of information."
...
And other PEN writers shared their experiences with self-censorship:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')s a writer and journalist who deals with the Middle East and the Iraq War in particular, I suspect I am being monitored. As a writer who has exposed sexual violence in the military, and who speaks widely on the subject, likewise.

I would hesitate to express in writing understanding for anti-American sentiments abroad, as I suspect that expressing such understanding might make me suspect in the eyes of the American security apparatus.