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A large police SWAT team showed up to a peaceful demonstration in Ferguson, Missouri and the scene is getting increasingly tense, reports Huffington Post's Ryan J. Reilly, who is currently on the ground. Soon after the team of more than 70 officers came on the scene, they told protesters they needed to leave the area and that "this [was] not open for discussion," Reilly tweeted. MSNBC reporter Trymain Lee tweeted that police told the crowd, "Go home, return to your vehicles. The protesters responded, "Mike can't go home!" "Your right to assembly is not being denied," the police said later...

The continuing crisis in Ferguson, Mo., has everyone talking about police militarization again. So while we’re on the topic, have a look at the horrifying video above from Doraville, Ga. The video depicts a SWAT training operation for a downed officer. At least as of this writing, the video was posted on the front page of the Doraville Police Department Web site. The audio and effects were added by a YouTube user who goes by Patriotsix6. He uploaded the video in 2009. The images at the beginning and end are from The Punisher, the fictional character described by Wikipedia as...

Role models are so important, don't you think? They model behavior for us so that we know how to conduct ourselves on our twisty, winding path through life. So when Special Police Officer Richard Recine of the Borough of Helmetta, New Jersey, see President Obama decimate the friggin' constitution, he knows it's time to do some decimating of his own. Writes Sergio Bichao of the Home News Tribune: A New Jersey police officer was caught on camera telling a resident that police don't have to follow the Constitution because President Obama doesn't, either. Special Police Officer Richard Recine, of the...

<p>Barry Township, Michigan, with a population of about 4,000, has four full-time police officers, four part-time officers, two Humvees, two armored personnel carriers (free, courtesy of the Defense Department's 1033 program)—and, until recently, about three dozen unpaid but armed and empowered reserve police officers patrolling the streets. All those cops need to find something to do with themselves, and many of the people of Barry Township are more than a bit bent out of shape that they've been on the receiving end of that something.</p>

Critics 'should neither be allowed nor enabled' to speak ill of Hillary. Political journalists are going to love the Hillary Clinton presidency. Judging by the way Team Clinton has responded to a series of books that are critical of the elderly homeowner and her philandering husband, it will be a real treat to cover them in the White House (again). According to Politico, for example, public relations representatives for the Clinton family have issued a joint statement condemning the recent publication of “trashy” books by Ed Klein, Daniel Halper, and Ronald Kessler, all of which reflect less than favorably...

TOTTENVILLE (WABC) -- The New York Medical Examiner has ruled Eric Garner died from a chokehold used by a police officer during his arrest for selling untaxed, loose cigarettes last month, calling it a homicide. The autopsy found that Garner, 43, died as a result of compression of neck, compression of chest and prone positioning during physical restraint by police. Mayor Bill de Blasio released the following statement. "On behalf of all New Yorkers, I extend my deepest sympathies to the family of Eric Garner ... My administration will continue to work with all involved authorities, including the Richmond County...

Ah, another glorious moment in America’s drug war. Three San Antonio Police officers are being investigated for possibly using excessive force, after a May 20 incident in west San Antonio left a man with injuries to his face, skull and neck. Roger Carlos was in the 10600 block of Westover Hills Boulevard taking photos of a building that will soon be home to his wife’s medical practice, when he was approached by three officers around 2:30 p.m. The officers were identified as an undercover drug task force officer and two SAPD SWAT members. According to an SAPD incident report released...

The embattled town of Campbell police chief pleaded no contest Friday to a misdemeanor that accused him of using a tea party activist’s information online during work hours to retaliate for a federal lawsuit brought against him. “I understand that there is a political context to this case, but my view of it is not political,” Monroe County Circuit Judge David Rice said. “I view it as a criminal case.” After months of conflict between the town, police and tea party activists, Chief Tim Kelemen in January and March used La Crosse tea party activist Greg Luce’s name, address, phone...

On the radio now

NEW YORK — Heaps of baby photos, fitness selfies, medical records and resumes are among thousands of private communications scooped up and stored by NSA spy programs. That’s according to new disclosures based on documents Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor, gave to The Washington Post — disclosures that show just how easy it is for Americans’ private conversations to be swept into the spy agency’s traps. Snowden provided the Post with what it said were 160,000 intercepted conversations, including e-mails, instant messages, photographs, social network posts and other documents. The trove included messages exchanged from 2009 through...

Ordinary Internet users, American and non-American alike, far outnumber legally targeted foreigners in the communications intercepted by the National Security Agency from U.S. digital networks, according to a four-month investigation by The Washington Post. Nine of 10 account holders found in a large cache of intercepted conversations, which former NSA contractor Edward Snowden provided in full to The Post, were not the intended surveillance targets but were caught in a net the agency had cast for somebody else.

https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=9fc3a01217d03b0354e1e18b69aa7bad&tab=core&_cview=0Firearms Solicitation Number: USDAOIGWEA-5-7-14 Agency: Department of Agriculture Office: Office of the Inspector General Location: Procurement Branch Original Synopsis May 07, 2014 2:03 pm Solicitation Number: USDAOIGWEA-5-7-14 Notice Type: Sources Sought Synopsis: Added: May 07, 2014 2:03 pm The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of Inspector General, located in Washington, DC, pursuant to the authority of FAR Part 13, has a requirement for the commerical acquisition of submachine guns, .40 Cal. S&W, ambidextrous safety, semi-automatic or 2 shot burts trigger group, Tritium night sights for front and rear, rails for attachment of flashlight (front under fore grip) and scope (top...

The other shoe just dropped when it comes to how the federal government illegally spies on Americans. Last summer, the details of the NSA's "backdoor searches" were revealed. This involved big collections of content and metadata (so, no, not "just metadata" as meaningless as that phrase is) that were collected under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act (FAA). This is part of the program that the infamous PRISM effort operates under, and which allows the NSA to collect all sorts of content, including communications to, from or about a "target" -- where a "target" can be incredibly loosely defined...

A pre-dawn raid of a Florida home was characterized as “a routine training exercise” by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson. The raid took place on June 10 when a dozen heavily armed Department of Homeland Security troops broke into Kari Edwards home and held her and her live-in boyfriend at gun point while they searched the premises. The invading DHS officers disabled the home’s security cameras as they thoroughly trashed the premises. “I realize that from Ms. Edwards’ perspective the incident may have been harrowing,” Johnson acknowledged. “But we mustn’t lose sight of the big picture. Inflicting momentary fear and...

The Pentagon has donated hundreds of MRAP vehicles to police departments nationwide. Snip: Historians looking back at this period in America’s development will consider it to be profoundly odd that at the exact moment when violent crime hit a 50-year low, the nation’s police departments began to gear up as if the country were expecting invasion — and, on occasion, to behave as if one were underway. The ACLU reported recently that SWAT teams in the United States conduct around 45,000 raids each year, only 7 percent of which have anything whatsoever to do with the hostage situations with...

There are seven characteristics I can think of that define a sociopath, although I'm sure the list could be extended. 1) Sociopaths completely lack a conscience or any capacity for real regret about hurting people. Although they pretend the opposite. 2) Sociopaths put their own desires and wants on a totally different level from those of other people. Their wants are incommensurate. They truly believe their ends justify their means. Although they pretend the opposite. 3) Sociopaths consider themselves superior to everyone else, because they aren't burdened by the emotions and ethics others have – they're above all that. They're...

After our house burned down in Wisconsin a few months ago, my husband and I packed our four young kids and all our belongings into a gold minivan and drove to my sister-in-law’s place, just outside of Atlanta. On the back windshield, we pasted six stick figures: a dad, a mom, three young girls, and one baby boy. That minivan was sitting in the front driveway of my sister-in-law’s place the night a SWAT team broke in, looking for a small amount of drugs they thought my husband’s nephew had. Some of my kids’ toys were in the front yard,...

As it turns out, a number of SWAT teams in the Bay State are operated by what are called law enforcement councils, or LECs. These LECs are funded by several police agencies in a given geographic area and overseen by an executive board, which is usually made up of police chiefs from member police departments -------------- Some of these LECs have also apparently incorporated as 501(c)(3) organizations. And it’s here that we run into problems. According to the ACLU, the LECs are claiming that the 501(c)(3) status means that they’re private corporations, not government agencies.

HOMESTEAD, FL — EXCLUSIVE — A Florida couple was traumatized after a dozen heavily armed SWAT agents crashed through their front door, flash-banged their cat, aimed rifles at them and searched their home without explanation. * * * * * The raid took place in the pre-dawn hours of June 10th, 2014. At approximately 6:16 a.m., Kari Edwards and her live-in boyfriend were intruded upon by men dressed in full SWAT gear and wielding rifles. After smashing down the couple’s front door, agents tossed concussion grenades and proceeded into the home. “They busted in like I was a terrorist or...

United Nations Career Opportunities page: Posting Title: Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Officer, P4 Job Code Title: DISARMAMENT, DEMOBILIZATION AND REINTEGRATION OFFICER Department/ Office: Department of Peacekeeping Operations Duty Station: NEW YORK According to the United Nations information page on ‘DDR’ operations, the New York post will involve various aspects related to the process by which a governing organization would confiscate firearms, all of which target what the U.N. calls “small arms.”