AP Phone Records Subpoenaed

WASHINGTON, May 14, 2012 by Jacquie Kubin

This is not the first time AP has come under government scrutiny. Or that the Justice Department has sought the phone records of reporters.

The news gathering organization Associated Press has announced that the Justice Department “secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press” in what the news cooperative’s top executive called a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into how news organizations gather the news.

But it is hardly the first time the Justice Department has flexed its muscle to demand reporter source information.

In September of 2008, Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) asked then Attorney General John Ashcroft for “documents related to the government subpoena of an Associated Press reporter’s telephone records.”

The focus of that investigation included the subpoena of now Washington Times editor John Solomon in an attempt to identify law enforcement officials that had given information on a wiretap intercept of NJ Sen. Robert Torricelli’s conversation to the Associated Press.

At that time, Grassley wrote to Ashcroft saying:

“I know you share with me the belief that the protection of the freedom of the press is a central pillar of our democracy. There is no question that efforts by the Justice Department to subpoena the records of a reporter should be done with caution and only when the needs of justice are great.”

“Going after reporters’ telephone records with a subpoena should happen almost never,” Grassley stated in a further written statement. “When it does, the bar should be very high and the circumstances extraordinary. It should never happen until every other avenue is exhausted.”

The response to the 2001 DOJ request was strong, with The Washington Post editorializing that, “The Justice Department has a legitimate interest in uncovering the source of leaks in sensitive investigations. … So if officials who saw the AP’s story wanted to know who was responsible, the instinct was understandable. It was, however, an instinct that should have been resisted or pursued by other means.”

In May of 2006, Time magazine was ordered to turn over documents relating to the defense of vice president Dick Cheney’s former Chief of Staff, I. Lewis “Scooter’ Libby. The order by U.S. District Reggie B. Walton said that, citing a lack of relevancy, former Time reporter Miller would not have to provide notebooks, calendars, or phone records, to lawyers for Libby.

Walton further opined, “The First Amendment does not protect a news reporter or that reporter’s news organization from producing documents … in a criminal case.”

In 2004 US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald issued subpoenas for the phone records of New York Times reporters Philip Shenon and Judith Miller. Fitzgerald asserted that the reporters alerted Islamic Charities, under investigation for funding terrorist operations, to a 2001 planned government raid of their offices and blocking of assets. (“2nd Circuit OKs look at Times’ phone records,” Associated Press, Aug. 1, 2006)

On Feb. 24, 2005, a federal judge ruled in favor of the Times, saying that the paper had a First Amendment right to protect the confidentiality of its sources by refusing to give up its phone records to the government.

A divided three-judge panel of the 2nd Circuit later overturned the lower court’s decision and ruled that the government could inspect the reporters’ phone records. (Aug. 1, 2006).

This most recent effort by the government to obtain reporter’s phone records included records of incoming and outgoings calls, including the length of each call, for both work and personal phone number of reporters in AP offices in New York, Washington and Hartford, Conn. and the AP reporters phones in the House of Representatives press gallery.

The government’s recent sweep resulted in the gathering of records from more than 20 separate telephone lines assigned to AP and AP journalists during the period of April and May of 2012. The Justice Department offers no “explanation for the seizure” according to AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt who calls the seizure “extraordinary.”

Pruitt wrote AG Eric Holder saying:

“There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters. These records potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the newsgathering activities undertaken by the AP during a two-month period, provide a road map to AP’s newsgathering operations, and disclose information about AP’s activities and operations that the government has no conceivable right to know,” Pruitt said.

Pruitt is asking for the destruction of all records being held by the AG.

The Government is saying the records are necessary to conduct a criminal investigation where an AP reporter gathered leaked information pertaining to a May 7, 2012 story concerning a foiled Yemen terror action stopping an airliner bomb plot scheduled for around the one-year anniversary of the May 2, 2011, killing of Osama bin Laden.

The plot was significant because the White House had told the public it had “no credible information that terrorist organizations, including al-Qaida, are plotting attacks in the U.S. to coincide with the (May 2) anniversary of bin Laden’s death.”

Associated Press had, at the request of the government’s citing that release of the story would jeopardize national security, held the story until government officials told the news agency that releasing the story was no longer an endangerment to national security.

CIA director John Brennan talked about the AP story and leaks investigation in written testimony to the Senate:

“The irresponsible and damaging leak of classified information was made … when someone informed the Associated Press that the U.S. Government had intercepted an IED (improvised explosive device) that was supposed to be used in an attack and that the U.S. Government currently had that IED in its possession and was analyzing it,” he said.

He also defended the White House’s plan to discuss the plot immediately afterward. “Once someone leaked information about interdiction of the IED and that the IED was actually in our possession, it was imperative to inform the American people consistent with Government policy that there was never any danger to the American people associated with this al-Qa’ida plot,” Brennan noted.

Brennan has said that the FBI investigated whether he was AP’s source, which he has denied calling the release of information about the terror plot to the media an “unauthorized and dangerous disclosure of classified information.”

In 2001, when Solomon’s records were subpoenaed Invetigative Editors and Reporters (IRE) executive director Brant Houston wrote Ashcroft concluding that

“While we understand that the Attorney General has disqualified himself from the AP subpoena, we nevertheless believe that this incident may be part of an unsound trend and reflects a change of policy that has occurred at the Department. We seek assurance that the Justice Department will take heed in the future to give proper deference and consideration of the First Amendment and qualified privilege.” (see complete letter and DOJ response pdf above)

However, reporters do not enjoy Consitutional protection of their sources. The First Amendment states that “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…” which means that news media should not be subject to governmental censorship. That the government cannot block the press from publishing a story.

That does not, however, guarantee absolute protection for the newsgathering records that a journalist may develop in the development of that story.

Gosnell guilty of 1st-Degree murder

Washington, 5-13-13 by Jacquie Kubin

Physician Kermit Gosnell was convicted Monday of three counts of first-degree murder and could face execution in the deaths of three babies who were delivered alive after abortion attempts, and then killed by severing their spinal cords with scissors. Gosnell, 72, was also found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the overdose death of an abortion patient.

Physician Kermit Gosnell was convicted Monday of three counts of first-degree murder and could face execution in the deaths of three babies who were delivered alive after abortion attempts, and then killed by severing their spinal cords with scissors. Gosnell, 72, was also found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the overdose death of an abortion patient.
He was cleared in the death of a fourth baby, who prosecutors say let out a whimper before the doctor cut the spinal cord.

He was cleared in the death of a fourth baby, who prosecutors say let out a whimper before the doctor cut the spinal cord.

Over a 30-year career Gosnell performed thousands of abortions, some on patients as young as 13, earning he and his wife Pearl, a cosmetologist, about $1.8 million annually, much of it in cash.

Authorities found $250,000 hidden in a bedroom when they searched his house. As a result of his predatory practices, Gosnell was also able to acquire a beach home and several rental properties.

“He created an assembly line with no regard for these women whatsoever,” McDonough County (PA) Assistant District Attorney Ed Cameron said. “And he made money doing that.”

What may be the longest lasting impact to the abortion debate is that Gosnell portrayed himself as an advocate for the poor women living in the West Philadelphia neighborhood where is clinic was located. The clinic was sanctioned by Planned Parenthood, which apparently failed to do even the least rudimentary checks on Gosnell’s practice.

The jury deliberated for 10 days on what was a compiicated, emotionally charged case with multiple charges. Defense attorney Jack McMahon called it a “very difficult case” to defend and said there was “a little bit of feeling on the defense part of what salmon must feel swimming upstream.”

“There’s a lot of emotion. You have the baby factor, which is a big problem. The media has been overwhelmingly against him,” he said. But noting that Gosnell was cleared on some of the charges, McMahon said the jurors “obviously took their job seriously.”

Following the jury’s verdict, prosecutors showed restrained smiles while District Attorney Seth Williams declined comment, citing the court’s gag order.

Clinic employees testified that Gosnell routinely performed post 24-week abortions, past Pennsylvania’s legal time limit and that when babies were delivered “moving, whimpering or breathing” he murdered the newborns by “snipping” their spines at the base of the skull.

“Are you human?” prosecutor Cameron snarled during closing arguments. “To med these women up and stick knives in the backs of babies?”

His co-defendant, former clinic employee Eileen O’Neill, was convicted of taking part in a corrupt organization and illegally billing for her services as if she were a licensed doctor.

The toll of the trial was visible on the jury as, before the verdicts were read, the foreman let out a big sigh, while another juror could be seen visibly crying.

Over the two year investigation, details of unspeakable horrors and malfeasance emerged during what was first an investigation of simple prescription drug trafficking. Entering the clinic, investigators said it was a “foul-smelling “house of horrors” with bags and bottles of fetuses, including jars of severed feet, along with bloodstained furniture, dirty medical instruments, and cats roaming the premises.”

The trial of Kermit Gosnell, and the horrific conditions and inhumane practices committed in the clinic have energized both sides of the abortion debate.

Anti-abortion activists point to the fact that Pennsylvania authorities failed to conduct routine clinic inspections for more than 15 years by the time Gosnell’s facility was raided as proof that abortions should not be legal.

In the scandal’s aftermath, two top state health officials were fired, and tougher rules for clinics in Pennsylvania have been enacted.

“This has helped more people realize what abortion is really about,” said David O’Steen, executive director of the National Right to Life Committee. He said he hopes the case results in more states passing bills that prohibit abortion “once the unborn child can feel pain.”

Supporters of legalized abortion said the case was a preview of what poor, desperate young women could face if abortion is driven underground with more restrictive laws.

“Kermit Gosnell has been found guilty and will get what he deserves. Now, let’s make sure these women are vindicated by delivering what all women deserve: access to the full range of health services including safe, high-quality and legal abortion care,” said Ilyse G. Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America.

The trial also ignited debate when anti-abortion activists accused the liberally oriented mainstream news media of deliberately ignoring the case, publishing pictures of an empty courtroom devoid of reporters or cameras.

Major news organizations denied that they were intentionally avoiding coverage of the trial, many citing that it was a “local” trial, though a number promptly sent reporters to pick up coverage.

About 30 reporters were in court for the verdict.

NOTE: Some of the following details may be disturbing to readers.

Citing lack of evidence, three of seven murder counts involving aborted fetuses were thrown out by Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Minehart. That left the jury to weigh charges involving fetuses identified as Baby A, Baby C, Baby D and Baby E.

Of those infants, prosecution experts said one was nearly 30 weeks along when the abortion took place. It was this baby that that Gosnell allegedly morbidly joked could “walk to the bus.”

A second baby was said to be alive for about 20 minutes before a clinic worker snipped the neck. A third was born in a toilet and was moving before another clinic employee severed the spinal cord, according to testimony.

Baby E, it is alleged, let out a whimper before Gosnell cut the neck. Gosnell was acquitted in that baby’s death, the only one of the four in which no one testified to seeing the baby killed.

Gosnell’s defense attorney McMahon argued that any movements following birth were “posthumous twitching or spasms” and not indications of life. McMahon also said that prosecutors were “elitist” and “racist” for pursuing his client, who is black and whose patients were mostly poor minorities.

“I wanted to be an effective, positive force in the minority community,” Gosnell told The Philadelphia Daily News in a 2010 interview. “I believe in the long term I will be vindicated.”

The 2009 death of 41-year-old Karnamaya Mongar of Woodbridge, Va., a Bhutanese immigrant who had been given repeated doses of Demerol and other powerful drugs to sedate her and induce labor, was caused by unforeseen complications and did not amount to murder, as prosecutors charged, according to McMahon.

Bernard Smalley, a lawyer for the woman’s family, said he now hopes to bring “some sense of justice and quiet to this family that’s been through so much.”

Gosnell still faces federal drug charges. Authorities said that he ranked third in the state for OxyContin prescriptions and that he left blank prescription pads at his office and let staff members make them out to cash-paying patients.

NEW YORK – The sophistication of a global network of thieves who drained cash machines around the globe of an astonishing $45 million in mere hours sent ripples through the security world, not merely for the size of the operation and ease with which it was carried out, but also for the threat that more such thefts might be in store.

Seven people were arrested in the U.S., accused of operating the New York cell of what prosecutors said was a network that carried out thefts at ATMs in 27 countries from Canada to Russia. Law enforcement agencies from more than a dozen nations were involved in the investigation, U.S. prosecutors in New York said Thursday.

“Unfortunately these types of cybercrimes involving ATMs, where you’ve got a flash mob going out across the globe, are becoming more and more common,” said Rose Romero, a former federal prosecutor and regional director for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

“I expect there will be many more” of these types of crimes, she said.

Some of the fault lies with the magnetic strips on the back of the cards. The rest of the world has largely abandoned cards with magnetic strips in favor of ones with built-in chips that are nearly impossible to copy. But because U.S. banks and merchants have stuck to cards with magnetic strips, they are still accepted around the world.

Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch, who called the theft “a massive 21st-century bank heist,” announced the case Thursday in New York.

Hackers got into bank databases, eliminated withdrawal limits on pre-paid debit cards and created access codes. Others loaded that data onto any plastic card with a magnetic stripe — an old hotel key card or an expired credit card worked fine.

Operatives then fanned out to withdraw money in multiple cities, authorities said. The cells would take a cut of the money, then launder it through purchases or ship it wholesale to the global ringleaders.

Lynch didn’t say where they were located.

It appears no individuals lost money. The thieves plundered funds held by the banks that back up prepaid credit cards, not individual or business accounts, Lynch said.

Ori Eisen, a cybercrime expert and founder of 41st Parameter, a fraud detection and prevention firm, said the $45 million heist was on the “high-end” of what can be done by cybercriminals who exploit banking systems connected to the Internet.

“Given the scale of the global credit card networks, it is almost impossible to detect every kind of attack,” he said. “This attack is not the last one, and if the modus operandi proves to be successful crooks will exploit it time and again.”

Kristine Barnett noticed that her little boy Jacob – whom doctors had tagged as autistic – seemed to have a fascination with patterns. So she took him out of his school’s special ed program and let him study the things he’s passionate about. Now Jacob is on his way to winning a Nobel Prize.

Jacob Barnett, who was diagnosed with moderate to severe autism at 2 years old, is now studying for a master’s degree in quantum physics.

Jacob was silent for much of his childhood. But when he started to speak, he was able to communicate in four different languages.

As a child, doctors told Jacob Barnett’s parents that their autistic son would probably never know how to tie his shoes.

But experts say the 14-year-old Indiana prodigy has an IQ higher than Einstein’s and is on the road to winning a Nobel Prize. He’s given TedX talks and is working toward a master’s degree in quantum physics.

The key, according to mom Kristine Barnett, was letting Jacob be himself — by helping him study the world with wide-eyed wonder instead of focusing on a list of things he couldn’t do.

Diagnosed with moderate to severe autism at the age of 2, Jacob spent years in the clutches of a special education system that didn’t understand what he needed. His teachers at school would try to dissuade Kristine from hoping to teach Jacob any more than the most basic skills.

Jacob was struggling with that sort of instruction — withdrawing deeper into himself and refusing to speak with anyone.

But Kristine noticed that when he was not in therapy, Jacob was doing “spectacular things” on his own.

“He would create maps all over our floor using Q-tips. They would be maps of places we’ve visited and he would memorize every street,” Kristine told the BBC.

One day, his mom took him stargazing. A few months later, they visited a planetarium where a professor was giving a lecture. Whenever the teacher asked questions, Jacob’s little hand shot up and he began to answer questions — easily understanding complicated theories about physics and the movement of planets.

Jacob was just 3-1/2 years old.

His mom realized that Jacob might need something that the standard special education curriculum just wasn’t giving him.

So Kristine decided to take on the job herself.

“For a parent, it’s terrifying to fly against the advice of the professionals,” Kristine writes in her memoir, “The Spark: A Mother’s Story of Nurturing Genius.” “But I knew in my heart that if Jake stayed in special ed, he would slip away.”

His IQ rounds out to 170 — higher than that of Albert Einstein. He’s been working on his own theory of relativity. Professors at Princeton’s Institute for Advance Study were impressed.

“The theory that he’s working on involves several of the toughest problems in astrophysics and theoretical physics,” astrophysics Professor Scott Tremaine wrote to the family in an email.

“Anyone who solves these will be in line for a Nobel Prize.”

Warner Bros. has snatched up movie rights to Jacob’s story. Kristine and her son have embarked on a European book tour, but hope to have some time to rest by July.

“My goal for the summer is just to give him a few weeks off,” Kristine told the Indianapolis Monthly. “The last time he had that was when he came up with the alternative theory to the Big Bang. So who knows what he’ll create?”

Rochester, NY (published 5-4-13) – The following video clearly reveals police attacking a wheelchair bound black man waiting on the sidewalk at a bus stop.

Rochester City Police Address: 185 Exchange Blvd, Rochester, NY 14614

Phone:(585) 428-7033

The phone number for the local station house is: (585) 428-7131

As backups arrive, they order the residents to move away (beyond visual observation) and the crowd displays fear of the police for themselves and their children. The police, in turn, clearly fear photographic evidence and witnesses. In effect, the police attempt to render the public blind and deaf to the incident. The upshot for police:community relations is depressingly obvious. Once again, corruption can not be meaningfully differentiated from incompetence in public officials.

Ferretking25 comments,
“There is a protest on May 18th at the corner of Bartlett and Jefferson Avenue. Get involved and help stop RPD police brutality!”

Jimmy Jamm says,
“As a retired police officer, I’m thoroughly disgusted. It’s so disheartening how cops are becoming…THUGS!”

thrashermario opines,
“I keep telling people we need a second American revolution.”

shocler4fun argues,
“This is what you voted for because this criminal was black! remember the chickens come home to roost! Stop this vote and fight for freedom look at who your electing who funds them! Its only going to get worse! Time to unite as people not by color but as humans!”

xxHANNONxx complains,
“This is why we hate cops, if they actually protected and served they would be admired, but instead they have devolved into the worst kind of street gang there is and to top it all off the filthy media rubs it in our faces and tells we should be thanking them for their “service”, when in reality they are just a bunch of thugs and criminals.”

AMERICANSTEWS observes,
“When YOU are defenseless the bully’s will always kick your ass. The American Constitution and the Bill of Right’s has been abolished, now, will you support The Declaration of Independent’s ??????????”

chiflee67:
“What next , arrest coma patients ??? Charge them for assaulting PIGS ???”

junior13252able:
“Police state!”

James Bova:
“Please explain how either of the cops were kicking the man while both cops are kneeling on the ground?”

lazerith840:
“Its called a Knee to the face. Even if they didnt kick him that is still unessasary violence. You can even hear a cop say “Are you ready to get your ass kicked” 00:44sec.”

Ashurakyuichi:
“This is why I hate Rochester and cant wait to leave, The Police State mentality that people think makes them “safe” has drawn on my last nerve and I cant take this State any longer, and the Police worship and bowing down to the Praetorian’s is sickening. I have one thing to say to the State of NY and the Police.
I AM NOT YOUR SLAVE!!!!!!!!”

1notgilty:
“Welcome to the Rochester NY Police Department where the thugs have the badges and constantly abuse the public with impunity. This is the same police force that arrested Emily Good on her front yard last year for filming a black motorist being roused by police and the same police force that beat up peaceful anti-war marchers on Main Street 2 years ago, and the same police force that arrested 44 peaceful Occupy Rochester protestors for standing in a city park after 11:00 p.m. The mayor approves.”

jackdagripper:
“Always carry a video cam….People got to know!!!”

Police Attack Anti-War Demonstrators in Rochester

LEO upon being queried (near end of video) says demonstrator is being arrested for uttering profanity in public.

pkmusicproject”
“They arrested the only black guy first. Get that on the record.”

Rochester Police Quash Anti-Capitalist March 7-21-12

In the above video clip, Rochester, NY police can be seen attacking peaceful marchers on sidewalks, bullying the crowd, while protesters avoid involvement and scurry away instead of calling out for/giving contact information to serve as witnesses in any ensuing court appearances. Essentially, they abandon their comrades/neighbors, giving into fear of the police, encouraging the LEO’s to pick them off one by one until the march dissolves under the oppression of intimidation and brutality. There is no collective spine and the group behaves like cowed dogs. It is every citizen’s duty to bear witness to corruption, official incompetence, and brutality. Those in the video evaded that responsibility.

Unarmed Father of 4 Pleaded for His Life as Police Beat Him to Death

By Rania Khalek on May 10, 2013

Bakersfield, CA. – David Sal Silva, a 33-year-old father of four small children between the ages of 2 and 10, was beaten to death by as many as nine police officers in Bakersville, California, early Wednesday morning. Police say Silva was intoxicated and fighting officers. But this was contradicted by several eyewitnesses.

Grainy security camera footage obtained by 23ABC from a person who was “afraid of a cover-up by deputies and wanted ‘the truth to come out’”, appears to corroborate witness accounts, showing several men striking a man laying on the ground with objects over a dozen times.

The release of a 911 call from a woman who witnessed the beating (listen here) doesn’t bode well for the officers either. The woman can be heard telling the dispatcher:

“There’s a man laying on the floor and your police officers beat the shit out of him and killed him. I have it all on video camera. I am sitting here on the corner of Flower and Palm right now and you have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight Sheriffs. The guy was laying on the floor and eight Sheriff’s ran up and started beating him up with sticks.  The man is dead laying right here, right now.”

Despite the hazy security footage and 911 call, police are sticking to their story. So, someone is lying. But who? Fortunately, at least two witnesses captured the beating on their cell phones. However, the devices were immediately seized by police, which is illegal in California.

Cops vs. Witnesses

Kern County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Ray Pruitt says that a deputy with a canine was responding to a call from Kern Medical Facility late Tuesday night about an intoxicated man outside when he spotted and approached Silva at a nearby intersection. Pruitt claims that Silva put up a fight when the deputy attempted to take him into custody, at which point more deputies and two California Highway Patrol officers showed up to help. Silva then had trouble breathing. He was taken to Kern Medical Center and died less than an hour later.

But Witnesses tell a very different story.

Just minutes before Silva’s encounter with police, a woman, who asked not to be identified, told ABC23 that she saw Silva lying on the sidewalk seemingly unconscious. ”I seen the guy laying there. I thought something was wrong with him. Then when I saw him moving… I saw his chest  moving up and down…I knew that he was just drunk and eventually he’ll wake up,” the woman said.

It’s hard to imagine that Silva was able to muster the strength to fight off several police officers just minutes after he was purportedly incapacitated.

Ruben Ceballos, 19, told The Bakersfield Californian he was at his home and in bed when he awoke around midnight to screams and loud bangs, which he soon recognized as the sound of police batons smashing into Silva’s skull. ”When I got outside I saw two officers beating a man with batons and they were hitting his head so every time they would swing, I could hear the blows to his head,” Ceballos said. The beating continued for several minutes despite the desperate cries for help. Then Silva went silent and became unresponsive, Ceballos said.

“His body was just lying on the street and before the ambulance arrived one of the officers performed CPR on him and another one used a flashlight on his eyes but I’m sure he was already dead.”

The Sheriff’s office told the Californian that they will not comment on the case until their investigation into the matter is complete.

Recording the Police is Not a Crime

Criminal law attorney John Tello is representing seven witnesses to Silva’s beating. Two of them say they recorded the incident on their cell phones. Tello told the Californian of the disturbing lengths police went to seize his client’s device:

“When I arrived to the home of one of the witnesses that had video footage, she was with her family sitting down on the couch, surrounded by three deputies,” Tello said.

Tello said the witness was not allowed to go anywhere with her phone and was being quarantined inside her home.

When Tello tried to talk to the witness in private and with the phone, one of the deputies stopped him and told him he couldn’t take the phone anywhere because it was evidence to the investigation, the attorney said.

“This was not a crime scene where the evidence was going to be destroyed,” Tello said. “These were concerned citizens who were basically doing a civic duty of preserving the evidence, not destroying it as they (sheriff deputies) tried to make it seem.”

A search warrant wasn’t presented to either of the witnesses until after Tello arrived, he said, adding that one phone was seized before the warrant was produced.

Tello said the phone of the first witness was taken after the deputies told him he was either going to give up the phone the easy way or the hard way.

“They basically told him they were either going to keep him at this house all night until they could find a judge to sign a search warrant or he could just turn over his phone,” he said.

The witness gave up his phone two hours before he had to get to work and was told by deputies that he could collect his phone the next day after they had extracted the evidence they needed, Tello said.

However, the witness never got his phone back, Tello said, and was told it could take years before he does because the investigation could take a long time.

“My main concern is that these witnesses are not harassed by deputies because this case can make others who see crimes happening not want to speak up because of the way law enforcement handles situations,” Tello said.

If the deputies did in fact beat a helpless man to death, they have good reason to fear the recordings.

In Fullerton, California, just two and half hours away from Bakersfield, cell phone footage was instrumental in holding police accountable for beating Kelly Thomas, a mentally ill homeless man, to death in 2011.

Though California is a two-party consent state (requires all parties to consent to an audio or video recording for the the recording to be legal), the law does not apply in public settings due to an “expectation of privacy” provision. More importantly, police are not permitted  to confiscate a cell phone unless the phone was used in a crime. Therefore, the seizure of cell phones by the Sheriff’s deputies was illegal.

Silva’s Family Wants Answers

Silva’s younger brother, 31-year-old Christopher, was devastated after learning the details of his brothers death from witnesses. ”My brother spent the last eight minutes of his life pleading, begging for his life,” he told the Californian.

The family has since hired attorney David Cohn.

At a press conference Friday, Cohn praised witnesses for “policing the police” by recording the beating. He also expressed concern that the police might tamper with the footage.

“Those videos that were taken are the most important piece to this case and another main concern is that those videos aren’t altered or destroyed by the Sheriff’s Department,” Cohn said. ”We all know that a picture is worth a thousand words. And thank God we have concerned citizens who take video and pictures of incidents like this and who are ultimately policing the police.” He addressed the Sheriff’s department directly, asking, “what are you hiding?”

The family has yet to see Silva’s body as they patiently await the results of an autopsy conducted on Thursday. The coroner’s office says the cause of death is pending toxicology and microscopic studies.

Meanwhile, Silva’s mother, Merri, is struggling with how to tell her grandchildren that they no longer have a father. But her grief has only strengthened her desire for justice, which goes far beyond her son’s horrific death. Expressing concern for future victims of police brutality, she told the Californian, ”If I don’t do anything about my son’s death then it will just be pushed to the side and I don’t want this to happen to another person.”

The last time CO2 was regularly above 400ppm was three to five million years ago

Scientists are calling on world leaders to take action on climate change after carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere broke through a symbolic threshold.

Daily CO2 readings at a US government agency lab on Hawaii have topped 400 parts per million for the first time.

Sir Brian Hoskins, the head of climate change at the UK-based Royal Society, said the figure should “jolt governments into action”.

China and the US have made a commitment to co-operate on clean technology.

But BBC environment analyst Roger Harrabin said the EU was backing off the issue, and cheap fossil fuels looked attractive to industries.

The laboratory, which sits on the Mauna Loa volcano, feeds its numbers into a continuous record of the concentration of the gas stretching back to 1958.

‘Sense of urgency’

Carbon dioxide is regarded as the most important of the manmade greenhouse gases blamed for raising the temperature on the planet over recent decades.

Human sources come principally from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas.

Ministers in the UK have claimed global leadership in reducing CO2 emissions and urged other nations to follow suit.

But the official Climate Change Committee (CCC) last month said that Britain’s total contribution towards heating the climate had increased, because the UK is importing goods that produce CO2 in other countries.

The last time CO2 was regularly above 400ppm was three to five million years ago – before modern humans existed.

Scientists say the climate back then was also considerably warmer than it is today.

Professor Sir Brian Hoskins, director of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College London, said a greater sense of urgency about tackling climate change was needed.

“Before we started influencing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, over the last million years it went between about 180 and 280 parts per million,” he said.

“Now, since the Industrial Revolution and more in the last 50 years, we’ve taken that level up by more than 40% to a level of 400 and that hasn’t been seen on this planet for probably four million years.

“But around the world, there are things happening, it’s not all doom and gloom,” he added.

“China is doing a lot. Its latest five year plan makes really great strides.”

China’s plan for 2011-2015 includes reversing the damage done by 30 years of growth and increasing the use of renewable energy.

PORT ANGELES, Wash. — Investigators said a man in Port Angeles angry over new construction near his home went on a rampage and drove a bulldozer into three houses trying to destroy them.

The incident happened on Highway 101 at North Baker Street.
A resident in the area told the Peninsula Daily News that the man took a piece of logging equipment and “just went nuts.”

Keith Haynes, who lives near one of the damaged homes, told the newspaper that a woman inside one of the homes escaped unharmed.

Authorities arrested 51-year-old Barry Swegle. A neighbor named Phil Riley said a disagreement over a property line had been escalating for a long time between Swegle and Dan Davis, whose two properties were severely damaged, according to the Peninsula Daily News.

According to investigators, Swegle was angry with several neighbors over fence lines he felt were too close to his home.

One neighbor, Judith Walters, saw the bulldozer go through a home.

“I saw a tractor, out of control, I thought. And it plowed into the white house over here,” said Walters. “And she was in the doorway with her dog, her little Chihuahua and yeah, I was screaming at her at the top of my lungs, ‘Get out of the house!'”

Walters saw Swegle repeatedly slam into the home.

Gary Blevins told KIRO 7 Eyewitness News he has known Swegle since he was a boy, and has been concerned about his behavior for years.

“It makes my heart sad that he pulled anything like this,” Blevins said. “I even told the neighbor one time, I said, ‘You better watch him.'”

Chopper 7 flew over the scene, where a power pole was down, homes were gutted or damaged, and a truck was flattened.

Video showed a fence was twisted and broken, belongings were strewn outside homes, and a boat was ripped from its trailer.

The state Department of Transportation said the downed power pole caused power and traffic signals in the area to go out.

Highway 101 was closed for a time but has since reopened. Some power was restored.
According to the Clallam County Public Utility District, power was restored to most except about 200 Gales Addition customers, who will be affected by an extended outage.

The outage is expected to go on late into Friday evening or early Saturday morning.
All customers on South Mt. Angeles will experience a brief outage as well.

Customers up Golf Course Road, along Ennis and Pioneer, Roll-Inn Trailer Par and the area West of Gales will be without power into the evening, said officials with the PUD.

Authorities said no injuries were reported.

“You want to film something b**ch? Film this!”

Yet another police brutality story of cops assaulting photojournalists makes its appearance, this time in Baltimore, due to a citizen photojournalist and mother being savagely attacked by criminally inclined LEO’s at the scene. This kind of brutality has become so commonly exposed today as a result of technology, it’s a wonder some flatfoots haven’t figured it out. But violently disturbed street thugs calling themselves (A)narchists engage in identical behavior. Citizens are left to ponder their options/safety as they’re caught between the warring gangs. Miscreants from both camps must be held accountable for their crimes, assaults, thefts, robberies, their violation of civil rights, and their indifference to the inalienable rights of others.

(See TESC 4-20-13 Strong (A)rm Robbery-Assault on Photojournalist)

BALTIMORE (CN) – Baltimore police beat up a woman and smashed her camera for filming them beating up a man, telling her: “You want to film something bitch? Film this!” the woman claims in court.

Makia Smith sued the Baltimore Police Department, Police Commissioner Anthony Batts and police Officers Nathan Church, William Pilkerton, Jr., Nathan Ulmer and Kenneth Campbell in Federal Court.

Smith claims she was stuck in stand-still rush hour traffic in northern Baltimore when she saw the defendant officers beating up and arresting a young man.

She says pulled out her camera, stood on her car’s door sill and filmed the beating.

“Officer Church saw plaintiff filming the beating and ran at her,” the complaint states. “He scared her and she sat back in her vehicle. As he ran at her, he yelled, ‘You want to film something bitch? Film this!’

“Officer Church reached into plaintiff’s car and grabbed her telephone-camera out of her hand, threw it to the ground and destroyed it by smashing it with his foot.

“Officer Church pulled plaintiff out of her car by her hair and beat her. Officers Pilkerton, Ulmer, and Campbell then ran to plaintiff’s car and joined Officer Church in beating plaintiff and arrested her using excessive force. At all times described herein, plaintiff’s two year old daughter witnessed her mother’s beating and arrest by the Officers, as did others.”

Smith claims the cops taunted her and threatened to take her daughter away. She says they refused to call her mother to her toddler.

“The officers, despite the pleas of plaintiff, refused to call plaintiff’s mother. Instead, the officers tormented plaintiff by telling her that her daughter would be taken from her and sent to Social Services. Seeing plaintiff’s distressful reaction to these tormenting threats, they continued,” the complaint states.

Smith says she was arrested and taken to jail on bogus charges that she assaulted Church and resisted arrest.

She claims Church failed to appear for her trial – twice, and prosecutors dropped the charges, but she had to hire a lawyer and spend more money recovering her impounded car.

She claims Baltimore police have a history of illegally seizing and destroying recording devices.

She seeks $1.5 million in compensatory and punitive damages for civil rights violations, conversion and infliction of emotional distress.

She is represented by Christopher Lyon, with Astrachan Gunst Thomas.

Police departments around the country have been accused of similar responses to citizens filming them abusing other people.

DHAKA, Bangladesh — Well over a thousand impoverished factory workers died in the deadliest disaster in the history of the garment industry. Five factories were operating inside the building when the structure pancaked downward. The carnage was horrific and has focused global attention on unsafe conditions in Bangladeshi garment factories that make clothing for North American and European consumers — especially since there were advance warnings that the structure was unsafe.

The Rana Plaza death toll, now at 1,053, has been rising quickly in recent days, and will probably keep climbing. Located in an industrial suburb of Dhaka, Rana Plaza exemplified many of safety problems plaguing the garment industry in Bangladesh, the world’s second-leading garment exporter, trailing only China.

The authorities in Bangladesh now say the building was illegally constructed, with permits obtained through political influence. The owner, Sohel Rana, now in jail, was illegally adding upper floors to the structure at the time the building collapsed, officials said. [Public outrage has led to demands for his execution in the wake of over 1,000 deaths attributable to him and the corrupt officials he bribed/influenced.]

A female garment worker named Reshma escaped the carnage…a survivor–a miracle!

“Save me!” rescuers heard her shout, before they pulled her into the afternoon light, her face powdered in dust as she was placed on a stretcher.

The rescue of Reshma, as described by rescuers and government officials, has offered a temporary respite from the gloom and a startling tale of resilience: she survived in an opening maybe 10 feet by 8 feet in size, high enough for her to stand, within a penumbra of collapsed beams and pillars. Air trickled through the crevices. She found enough food and water to last until two days ago.

“I never dreamed I’d see the daylight again,” she told local Somoy TV from her hospital bed, according to news accounts.

Reaction in Bangladesh was euphoric. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina rushed to the military hospital where Reshma had been taken. Twelve days earlier, on April 28, rescuers had worked desperately to save another woman, Shaheena, who was then thought to be the last survivor. But she died after a fire broke out in the final hour of the rescue operation.

At Rana Plaza, recovery crews had little hope of finding a survivor when work began on Friday. A five-member army rescue team had begun using heavy machinery to crack into an area of the building’s basement but found it flooded with water. As they worked from the first floor, searching for the source of water, they noticed a movement.

“Suddenly we saw the movement of a stick,” Major M. M. Moazzem Hossain, a member of the team, said in an interview. “Someone from the second floor was trying to draw attention by inserting a stick through a narrow hole. When we reached there, we asked, ‘Is there anyone inside? ”

A female voice shouted out, “Save me!”

Major Hossain said the woman had told him her name was Reshma.

“We are with you,” he said he had told her. “We will not move out from this place without rescuing you.”

Now the soldiers and a group of firefighters began cutting a hole, using a hand drill and hammers, to try to reach her. “We were aware of the tragic accident during the operation to rescue Shaheena,” he said. “So we were very careful.”

For an hour, they kept cutting, making a hole about a foot and a half in diameter. Major Hossain said he squeezed through the hole and helped bring Reshma out. Startled, gazing curiously into the sunlight, Reshma was placed on a stretcher and taken immediately to the military hospital.

The Rana Plaza disaster led to nationwide mourning in Bangladesh as well as outrage because it appears that the accident could have been averted. A day before the collapse, an engineer examined cracks in the structure and warned Mr. Rana, as well as owners of the garment factories, that the building was unsafe and should be closed. Instead, workers were told to come to their factories the next morning.

REFLECTIONS:

The P(a)radox in all this stems from the inconsistency of some of the most violently radical anti-state (A)narchists who demand all government, all laws, all hierarchies be abolished. The contradiction is readily apparent to even childish minds.

How would such a scheme, if it were possible, prevent force & fraud (or protect the environment), both of which were at play in this outrageous example of capitalism literally crushing impoverished workers under its heel? Those youthful violent dilettantes calling themselves (A)narchists who so gleefully enjoy twisting the lion’s tale have no answer. Rather, by antagonizing the beast, they distract scrutiny of criminals such as the owners of the Bangladeshi sweatshops and those corporations who patronize them. The animal becomes obsessed with ridding itself of the lice biting its skin.

“If you strike a king, you must kill him.” -Machiavelli-

The young punk cultural acolytes playing at ‘revolution’, instead of mounting any credible threat to the state, slash tires of vehicles they suppose are too ‘nice’. They smash windows of businesses, small and corporate alike. They routinely assault journalists who they hope will cover their public demonstrations/riots. They demand media attention, then assault those who provide it. They aggressively photograph public events, then assault those who follow suit.

The hooligans cloaking themselves in the  mantle of ‘revolutionaries’ vex, but they do not prevail. They antagonize, but they do not remedy. They protest, but they do not listen. They plead for solidarity while engaged in assault and violating the rights of others. They argue for social justice while denouncing the very notion of ‘rights’ or laws intended to prevent force and fraud. THIS, they gush, is the path to a better tomorrow, a brighter more just future for all. Some of their most ardent proponents are not the young who will inevitably adjust their vision once their social imperative has been filled. It is those senior mentors who often derive their professorial salaries from the State while they preach “smash the state”, their tenure secure.

The assaultive U.S. (A)narchist extremists are anathema to the idea of freedom and autonomy they espouse. The relatives of dead Bangladeshi garment workers won’t be looking to (A)narchists for solace, but a government which will eschew corruption by preventing force, fraud, exploitation of the environment, and indentured servitude through wage slavery.  Those that can, DO! Those that can’t become violent juvenile street thugs wrapping themselves in the pretext of ‘politics’ and (A)narchy…a cancer on the principles of liberty, freedom, and autonomy.