Free Republic

They are meant to reduce crime by helping police spot problems. By the end of the year, 40 cameras will cover 31 locations in the area. It's part of a plan first announced in January by Dallas Police. Grant money will cover the 840-thousand dollar price tag for the cameras. Police will monitor the cameras from their headquarters and City Hall. Some residents feel apprehensive about the surveillance, seeing it as an invasion of privacy. But others say the cameras could help curb petty crime and random violence.

(New Haven-WTNH, Sept. 19, 2006 10:45 PM) _ A student's refusal to walk through a safety detector earns him a trip home. For some the installation of metal detectors in schools is to better protect those inside. One New Haven student is refusing to walk the walk, questioning whether his rights are being violated. The district says it is like the right to enter a courtroom or get on a plane. It's new policy to keep young people safe. For this New Haven student it's all about his fourth amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. Nick...

In New Jersey, one's home is not one's castle after all. The real castle, it turns out, is the car. The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled 4-3 yesterday that police do not need a reason to ask permission to search someone's home. The same court four years ago issued rules saying police must have a good reason before asking motorists if they can search their cars. Yesterday the court said the rules for cars -- which prohibit police from asking motorists if they can conduct a search unless they have "a reasonable and articulable suspicion" of criminal activity -- are...

This is story that would have made the front pages in ordinary times;but,happening as it did - on the 5th anniversary of 9/11 weekend - it went unremarked. Owing to the circumstances, Hugo Chavez might have been rather unhappy-and this might account for some of his snarky remarks this week !

AUBURN -- The man behind the wheel of the speeding vehicle thrashed in the throes of a grand mal seizure, but it seemed that only Jill Crowell recognized that fact. Early-morning traffic rolled en masse in both directions along the four lanes of Center Street as drivers scurried to their jobs, but the 2000 Chevrolet Blazer never slowed. Drivers pounded horns and wrestled with their steering wheels as the runaway vehicle tore into the roadway from a McDonald's parking lot. Crowell, one car back from the scene, heard the horns and saw the brake lights. But what she saw inside...

"Police blotter" is a weekly CNET News.com report on the intersection of technology and the law. What: A business traveler protests the warrantless search and seizure of his laptop by Homeland Security at the U.S.-Canada border. When: 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rules on July 24. Outcome: Three-judge panel unanimously says that border police may conduct random searches of laptops without search warrants or probable cause. These searches can include seizing the laptop and subjecting it to extensive forensic analysis. What happened, according to court documents: In January 2004, Stuart Romm traveled to Las Vegas to attend a training seminar...

It's not been a bad week for the pro-firearms side of the ideological battle for America. On Monday, a California judge struck down San Francisco's ban on handgun possession by city residents. Proposition H was struck down after Superior Court Judge James Warren found that this latest attempt at handgun banning in San Franciso exceeded the powers of the local government; intruding into areas of law that were the sole purview of the State of California. Hence, Proposition H was tossed. Still no word on an appeal, but having had the same type of law struck down twice since the...

In some countries the use of eminent domain can be a life or death issue. Last June, in the small village of Shengyou, China, six people were killed and 50 injured in a bloody clash between farmers and hundreds of armed thugs sent by government operatives to seize their land. This was just one of thousands of disputes over land appropriation that take place each year in China Fueling these conflicts is the ambiguous nature of property ownership in China. The rights of farmers who hold land collectively are not made clear under Chinese law. Although farmers can acquire property...

WASHINGTON - When the US Supreme Court ruled in June that private homes may be seized to make room for commercial development projects, the decision ignited a firestorm of criticism. Outraged property-rights activists said the 5-to-4 opinion in Kelo v. New London would render homes and businesses nationwide vulnerable to government land-grabs to foster economic revitalization. Some ranked it among the high court's worst decisions, calling it this generation's Dred Scott. Now, six months later, the debate over property rights is still raging, but it is about to enter a new, more deliberative phase as state legislatures prepare to open...

  Dear Friend of the ACU:Kiss your civil liberties and right to privacy goodbye! Do you believe that you should be compelled to carry a National ID Card that is imprinted with your fingerprint or your DNA imprint or other highly personal and private information?Do you believe that you should be required to produce this ID card on demand -- when you go to the grocery store or cross state lines or pay your taxes or at the whim of some petty government bureaucrat?This is not science fiction folks -- nor is it a scene out of a futuristic "B-movie"...

DETROIT -- Red Wings defenseman Jiri Fischer had a seizure on the Detroit bench late in the first period of Monday night's game against the Nashville Predators and was listed in stable condition at a hospital. Fischer was given CPR at the bench by team physician Dr. Tony Colucci before the 25-year-old native of the Czech Republic was removed on a stretcher. The game was called off with no makeup date immediately announced. "His heart was stopped," Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "They hooked up the auto defibrillator and shocked him." Team spokesman John Hahn said Fischer was taken...

For the past few years, we've been hearing from the liberals about how the Patriot Act is trampling our constitutional rights. Yet, to the best of my knowledge, not one American citizen has lost his/her rights because of the Patriot Act. Now, with no declaration of martial law, the 2nd Amendment is being illegally and openly violated by the New Orleans Police Department. Yet there is not one whimper from the liberals about the Constitution being trampled.

A few months ago, this ranch was known as Camp Thunderbird, the headquarters of a paramilitary group that promised to use force to keep illegal immigrants from sneaking across the border with Mexico. Now, the 70-acre property about two miles from the border is being given to two immigrants whom the group caught trying to enter the United States illegally. The land transfer is being made to satisfy judgments in a lawsuit in which the immigrants had said that Casey Nethercott, the owner of the ranch and a former leader of the vigilante group Ranch Rescue, had harmed them. "Certainly...

SACRAMENTO – Government's historic power to take land has been exercised to clear out slumlords and revitalize decaying downtowns, as well as manipulated to uproot homeowners and mom and pop stores to make way for mega-malls and high-rises. Hit with scattered horror stories but convinced from her experiences on the San Diego City Council that eminent domain can be a valuable tool for progress, state Sen. Christine Kehoe says it's time to rethink how local governments use – and sometimes abuse – their broad powers of condemnation. The San Diego Democrat has introduced legislation that includes an immediate two-year moratorium...

Critical Areas Ordinance foes register name, taking it from less vocal property rights group Just who is the ``real'' Rural Majority?Ron Ewart of Fall City and Preston Drew of Carnation think it's rural folks like them. Foes of government, they oppose any regulation they figure tramples on their property rights. On their side are roughly 18,000 residents who signed petitions to do away with the county's controversial Critical Areas Ordinance and two other pieces of environmental regulation.What they didn't have was a catchy name that, as a bonus, carried great symbolic weight.They've got one now -- at the expense of...

The Homeowner & Property Protection Act A resolution to propose to the people of the State of California an amendment to the Constitution of the State, by amending Section 19 of Article I thereof, relating to eminent domain. WHEREAS, This measure shall be known and may be cited as “The Homeowner and Property Protection Act”; and WHEREAS, Eminent domain has been subject to widespread abuse in California, whereby local governmental entities have condemned property and transferred it, by sale, lease, or otherwise, to the control, management, or exploitation of private entities for private use and profit on the theory that...

A critic of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that governments may seize private property for economic development is suggesting the process be used to replace Justice David Souter's New Hampshire home with a hotel. "The justification for such an eminent domain action is that our hotel will better serve the public interest as it will bring in economic development and higher tax revenue to Weare," Logan Darrow Clements wrote in a fax to town officials in Weare Tuesday. [. . .] Clements is CEO of Los Angeles-based Freestar Media, which fights "abusive" government. "This is not a prank," he said...

Legalized Theft Mark Jurries II @ 8:11 pm Y'all have no doubt heard about the Supreme Court's decision to allow local governments to seize homes if it's proven to be in the public's interest. This is, as Thomas Fleming and Joseph Farah have pointed out, a trampling on a vital right, the right to land ownership. Essentially, this ruling takes the view that the government owns the land in practice, and can boot tenants out as it sees fit. While I generally don’t get all worked up over greedy businesses and what have you, it’s nonetheless obvious that unscrupulous...

Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker said Thursday’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling on private property rights will not affect state homeowners because of protections in the state constitution. Baker, in a statement released to media, said the Georgia Constitution and more than 100 years of state court precedent prevent condemnation for private purposes. "Fortunately for Georgians, our state constitution and state judiciary have consistently held that condemnation for private purposes is not acceptable under state law, a position that will be unaffected by today’s federal court ruling," Baker wrote.

Take a look at the picture used in AP's coverage of the Supreme Court Seizure ruling: Of course, Justice Scalia voted against this horrible ruling, but would you get that at first glimpse? Instead, the AP went and dug up an almost two-year old picture to propagandize that Antoin Scalia is slobbering at the thought of seizing your dear home.