#warrantless

I maintain that warrantless surveillance (wiretapping) is ineffective and illegal. They call it surveillance, but that's not an accurate term. Surveillance can be done passively, with coffee and doughnut in hand while your partner sleeps in the seat next to you. What the FBI and NSA do actually requires more than just looking. Click through to the blog for more.

I still maintain there should be no such thing as a warrantless search. They call it surveillance, but that’s not an accurate term. Surveillance can be done passively, with coffee and doughnut in hand while your partner sleeps in the seat next to you. What the FBI and NSA do actually requires more than just looking. It requires that information you don’t intend to share with the world be gathered…

New Bill Would End Warrantless Phone Searches At Border http://2vnews.com/2017/04/04/new-bill-end-warrantless-phone-searches-border/

On January 27, 2009, Denver cops pounded on the door of a home that used to be a drug den and brothel. Not having kept their information current, the cops didn't know the house was now occupied by Daniel Martinez Jr. (pictured) and his family. They also "had no warrant, no application for a warrant, nothing," as the family's attorney later described the scene. The officers rushed inside and roughed up the residents, including shoving a 16-year-old boy's head through a window and and dealing out a generous dollop of beatings and bodyslamming.

Then they realized they'd fucked up. So they trumped up charges against the family.

Fortunately, a jury saw through the cops' bullshit and found Nathan Martinez and Daniel Martinez III not guilty of misdemeanor assault charges. Subsequently, the district attorney saw the light and abandoned the case against Daniel Martinez Jr. and Jonathan Martinez.

Now the Martinez family is getting some payback after suing the cops and their employers.

From Kirk Mitchell at The Denver Post:

A Denver jury on Friday awarded $1.8 million to a family after a wrongful prosecution case in which police officers executed a warrantless raid on a home previously occupied by drug dealers and prostitutes.

The lawsuit was filed in 2011 against the city and county of Denver and four police officers. Claims against the city later were dropped in a summary judgment.

A jury of 10 awarded various amounts to the four family members based on different amounts of damages attributed to the four officers. The jury awarded a total of $1.25 million of punitive damages collectively to the family.

NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione has defended police being given powers to access Opal card records as a crucial tool to ensure the “safety and security of the community”.

The police chief’s defence came as a complaint was lodged with the state’s privacy commissioner about law enforcement agencies being able to track hundreds of thousands of commuters without a warrant.

Confirmed: NSA conducts warrantless searches on Americans

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper Jr. (AFP Photo / T.J. Kirkpatrick)

United States intelligence officials have been scouring the personal communications of innocent Americans, the nation’s top spy chief now acknowledges, using a procedure that’s allegedly lawful and constitutionally sound.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper admitted as much in a letter sent last week…