Page 364 - Tim Cushing News Today

Tue, Apr 6th 2021 3:52pm — Tim Cushing Larry Klayman is a famous lawyer. Perhaps more infamous than famous at this point, but hes a lawyer in every jurisdiction he hasnt been sanctioned in yet. But fear not! Klayman will get disciplined wherever possible, if only to own the libs. Own the libs, he may. But federal courts refused to be owned. And Klayman -- who I will freely admit was at least willing to mount a solid challenge to NSA surveillance -- will apparently have a bit more free time to...

Tue, Apr 6th 2021 10:49am — Tim Cushing I thought we had put this sort of idiocy behind us, but I see its back again. In 2011, some German politicians suggested the countrys youths be required to obtain some sort of internet drivers license following a party that got out of hand after a private Facebook invite was accidentally made public. Somehow, obtaining an ID to use social media services would prevent this from happening in the future, but officials were extremely light on details. Five ...

This boilerplate phrase shows up in search warrants and other law enforcement paperwork -- something used a preemptive defense for whatever rights violations might occur subsequent to these sworn statements. Using "training and expertise" as the foundation for a defense against lawsuits and accusations of bias is handy: it shows the officer was being "reasonable" and only engaged in a roadside fishing expedition or hurled a flashbang grenade into a toddlers crib because all of this "training" l...

Fri, Apr 2nd 2021 3:29am — Tim Cushing Bail can no longer be used to keep still-presumed-innocent people locked up in California. In a unanimous decision [PDF], the states Supreme Court has declared keeping people locked up just because they cant afford bail is unconstitutional. The decision doesnt entirely eliminate bail -- it can still be used in some cases -- but it cannot be the default operating mode for handling arrestees. The court starts the opinion by pointing out theres a big gap be...

Thu, Apr 1st 2021 3:30pm — Tim Cushing Qualified immunity is pure judicial cancer. This fact cannot be ignored. What began as a limited defense for decisions made in the heat of the moment has become the de facto response to civil rights lawsuits. The Supreme Court -- which conjured this new Section 1983 ejection seat out of thin air -- has only made it worse over the past few decades. Qualified immunity is more bulletproof than the Kevlar vests worn by those who summon its protections most ...

Thu, Apr 1st 2021 10:57am — Tim Cushing Never let a good crisis go to waste. The federal government is always on the lookout for expansion opportunities and a bad actor known colloquially as "Current Events" keeps handing the government what its looking for. On January 6th, a bunch of Trump fans, who thought it was possible to overturn certified election results, raided the Capitol building. Five people, including a Capitol police officer, died during the attack. This horrific event was turne...

Thu, Apr 1st 2021 9:36am — Tim Cushing The exponential growth of facial recognition tech over the past decade is cause for concern. The tech is unproven and caters to pre-existing biases. The biggest beneficiaries of the tech explosion are the usual suspects: white guys over the age of 35. Cops claim its a godsend -- a tool that gives them what they need to close cases, even when its usually just doing what theyve always done: deciding any minority "fits the description." A late entrant to th...

Tue, Mar 16th 2021 3:33pm — Tim Cushing The Pasco County (FL) Sheriffs Office is being sued over its targeted harassment program -- one it likes to call "predictive policing." Predictive policing is pretty much garbage everywhere, since it relies on stats generated by biased policing to generate even more biased policing. In Pasco County, however, its a plague willingly inflicted on residents by a sheriff (Chris Nocco) who has apparently described the ultimate goal of the program as "making [...

Wed, Mar 17th 2021 5:00am — Tim Cushing Its been a delayed reaction, but legislators are finally trying to do something about the horrific outcomes that result from advances in technology colliding with laws that have been on the books for decades. Smartphones are omnipresent and teens are using them just like adults use them. Sexting -- the sending of explicit images to willing recipients -- shouldnt be illegal. And yet it is because some of those participating in this consensual distributio...

Mon, Mar 15th 2021 3:33pm — Tim Cushing The Kansas City Police Department has managed to turn a few heads -- and not in the good way -- with an internal PowerPoint that may as well have been titled "So, Youve Killed Someone." The document was obtained during discovery in a wrongful death suit against the KCPD. Back in 2019, Officer Dylan Pifer shot and killed Terrance Bridges, claiming he thought Bridges was trying to pull a gun from his sweatshirt pocket. No gun was found on Bridges. The pre...