Civil liberties thread

[Vrede too]

Second J20 Trial Ends in Mistrial (on some charges, acquittals on the rest)

The second trial of Trump Inauguration protesters arrested during an anti-capitalist, anti-fascist march has ended....

[billy.pilgrim]

Second J20 Trial Ends in Mistrial (on some charges, acquittals on the rest)

The second trial of Trump Inauguration protesters arrested during an anti-capitalist, anti-fascist march has ended....

I bet they don't tell Donnie.

[Vrede too]

I bet they don't tell Donnie.

He likes hearing about anyone that actually bothered to show up for his inauguration.


The Dark Money Behind Campus Speech Wars
Speech First has ties to the billionaire Koch brothers and high-profile conservative causes. But the campus culture wars won’t be won in the courts: You can’t litigate students into changing their minds.

[Vrede too]

Second J20 Trial Ends in Mistrial (on some charges, acquittals on the rest)

The second trial of Trump Inauguration protesters arrested during an anti-capitalist, anti-fascist march has ended....

I bet they don't tell Donnie.

Searching 'J20' or 'inauguration protest trial' on Faux Noise yields "0 results found".

With Last Charges Against J20 Protesters Dropped, Defendants Seek Accountability for Prosecutors

Last Friday afternoon, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia dismissed charges against the 39 remaining J20 Inauguration Day protesters under indictment, bringing a close to a year-and-a-half-long saga marked by police aggression, prosecutorial overreach, and heartening displays of solidarity by the defendants and their supporters....

Wow, there was some illegal, even destructive activity that happened. For them to not be able to convict anyone is an absolute humiliation for the cops and prosecutors.

[Vrede too]

Lead Prosecutor in Trump Inauguration Protest Trial Sanctioned for Due Process Violations Has Been Made Head of Her Department

DC jurors weren’t particularly impressed with Assistant US Attorney Jennifer Kerkhoff’s claims that attending a protest makes one part of a conspiracy, as they failed to convict any of the nearly 200 people arrested during an anti-Trump protest. And Chief Judge Robert Morin, was similarly unimpressed by Kerkhoff’s decision to withhold evidence from the defense and mislead the court about it, which is why he sanctioned the prosecution. Yet, someone at the US Attorney’s Office must have been impressed, as since her ignominious defeat Kerkhoff has been promoted....

Even when prosecutors withhold evidence, it is extremely rare for them to be sanctioned. Yet, in spite of this Kerkhoff appears to have been promoted. Former J20 defendant and activist Elizabeth Lagesse noted that Kerhoff has been promoted to Felony Major Trial Section Chief. This would mean she is now head of her department.

This is absolutely unacceptable. Kerkhoff and anyone else involved in the J20 prosecutions should be held accountable for electing to bring mass felony prosecutions, which attempted to criminalize core First Amendment freedoms. And a prosecutor who violates the due process rights of defendants while making material misrepresentations to a judge should not be section chief.

Violating rights, breaking trial law and being utterly, 0-200 incompetent get rewarded by Sessions' DoJ aslong as the politicized, pro-POSPOTUS agenda is served.

[Vrede too]

billy.pilgrim’s US Rep., Matt Gaetz:

Florida Republican who tried to abolish EPA says toxic algae crisis is 'horrifying'

"The American people are drowning in rules and regulations promulgated by unelected bureaucrats..."

He got that part right, anyway
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2458&start=340

Like this?

Tell Ryan Zinke: No tax on public protests



The petition to Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke reads:

"Drop proposed National Park Service regulations that would impose fees on or limit public protest and free speech in Washington."

[Leo Lyons]

"Freedom isn't free"

[Vrede too]

Using Project Veritas As A Source Is Still Causing Headaches For Federal Prosecutors In Washington
Prosecutors argue they didn’t intentionally mislead a judge and defense lawyers in withholding dozens of videos secretly recorded by Project Veritas during Inauguration Day protest-planning meetings.

Lying video editor James O’Keefe, again.

... For defendants and free speech advocates who believe that the decision to prosecute the Inauguration Day mass arrest cases was politically motivated, the involvement of Project Veritas as a government source deepened their suspicion. Kris Hermes, a spokesman for a group formed to support the defendants, Defend J20 Resistance, said in a statement at the time that the use of the video “shows that the federal government is in collusion with ultraconservative organizations to criminalize its political opposition.” ...

[Vrede too]

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Laura Sandoval (not her real name)
Date: Sat, October 20, 2018 6:40 pm
To: comments-questions@umcelpaso.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

To: University Medical Center of El Paso, Texas

Re: Checkpoint Nation
https://www.texasobserver.org/checkpoint-nation/

You are a disgusting excuse for a healthcare facility. Shame.

I would ask you to share this note with your ER MDs and staff, but I'm sure that you're too cowardly and disdainful of patient rights to ever do that.

(Vrede too), RN

Trump’s Department of Education Is Trying to Turn Support for Palestine Into A Civil Rights Violation

:cussing:

[Vrede too]

The left is warming up to the FBI. That’s a mistake.

... The FBI has always targeted dissent. This doesn’t just include historical acts, such as spying on the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. or rounding up socialists and anarchists during the Palmer Raids. In recent memory, the FBI has used its counterterrorism authorities to spy on Occupy Wall Street and the antiwar group School of the Americas Watch. FBI agents have reportedly shown up to interview students involved with pro-Palestine activism and Standing Rock “water protectors.” In the run-up to the 2016 Republican National Convention, FBI agents visited Black Lives Matter and Occupy Cleveland activists to ask whether they planned to protest the convention and reportedly suggested they stay home. After immigration agents detained an Occupy ICE activist in San Antonio, FBI agents allegedly began questioning him about his fellow protesters....

Much has been said about Comey’s role in electing Trump, particularly in his announcement that the FBI had reopened the Hillary Clinton email investigation. But what’s never asked is what role the FBI played in creating fertile ground for a Trump-like figure in the first place. By treating American Muslims as a fifth column, African American protests against racism as a threat to police and dissent as a potential precursor to terrorism, the FBI contributes to a political atmosphere that a demagogue such as Trump can take advantage of. Before warming up to the FBI, the left should remember the threat that the bureau has posed to our democracy.

[Vrede too]

I know that civil liberties and human rights have different though overlapping definitions. I just didn't feel like starting a new topic for this one post. Email received:

Dear friends,

70 years ago next Monday, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the UN General Assembly. The drafters had seen the horror of the Second World War and wanted to do something to instill in all peoples a sense of the responsibility we have to each other as fellow human beings. It was and still is a foundation on which we can build because even though we have made progress, we know there are many places in the world where the darkness of oppression still rule. But having this document is a call to action -- a call to peace -- to keep working for the rights of every person to life, liberty, security. I have always thought how fitting it is that this date falls at the beginning of many of our holiday celebrations. This declaration lies at the heart of peace on earth and goodwill to all. I urge you to celebrate the day by reading the articles ...

Civil Liberties, North America
Known Terrorist Searched for Explosives at Dublin Airport or Peace Activist Endures Routine Harassment at Dublin Airport?

[O Really]

The author says, "In 2008 I wound up with 52 others on a terrorist watch list kept by the Maryland State Police."
Seems to me that's the point where Pat's life ran off the rails. Being on a terrorist watch list - rightly, wrongly, or by mistake - is fershure going to subject a person to abuse by TSA. If this one is his worst experience since 2008, he's lucky. Knowing you're on a watch list and expecting to slide through security without issue is pure Pollyanna.

[neoplacebo]

The author says, "In 2008 I wound up with 52 others on a terrorist watch list kept by the Maryland State Police."
Seems to me that's the point where Pat's life ran off the rails. Being on a terrorist watch list - rightly, wrongly, or by mistake - is fershure going to subject a person to abuse by TSA. If this one is his worst experience since 2008, he's lucky. Knowing you're on a watch list and expecting to slide through security without issue is pure Pollyanna.

Seems like I remember reading about how Ted Kennedy was on a watch list at some point. I remember saying to myself and decided right then and there to always travel incognito

[Vrede too]

The author says, "In 2008 I wound up with 52 others on a terrorist watch list kept by the Maryland State Police."
Seems to me that's the point where Pat's life ran off the rails. Being on a terrorist watch list - rightly, wrongly, or by mistake - is fershure going to subject a person to abuse by TSA. If this one is his worst experience since 2008, he's lucky. Knowing you're on a watch list and expecting to slide through security without issue is pure Pollyanna.

I doubt that someone that has been an activist as long as he has, about 47 years, expects "to slide through security without issue". The headline even calls it "Routine Harassment". Rather, I think his points are:

*** His life is not "off the rails" a bit. US government is.
*** One of the reasons we have to fight terrorism is because of global abuses by the US and its allies like NATO, an organization this nonviolent activist opposes.
*** The terrorist watch lists are intentionally used to repress legit dissent as much or more than they are to combat terrorism.
*** Once the scarlet "T" is placed on a person it will never be removed, and there is no interest in removing it from dissidents.
*** It's easy to shake one's head at this waste of anti-terrorist resources, but it's not a waste at all. The resources are being employed against dissidents exactly as they're intended to be.
*** If they will do this to a clean-cut, elderly, white, Catholic school grad with an MA in Government from the University of MD, lifelong pacifist with national and global influence, middle school teacher, small businessman, accomplished author, candidate for Congress and father, imagine what they will do to more marginalized people.
*** This abusive anti-terrorist bureaucracy is allowed to operate openly even in neutral and relatively decent nations like Ireland, no doubt due to US coercion.
*** Americans will accept any abuses if the anti-terrorist label is applied to them.
*** Look at how many of the principles in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights cited above were violated by the activist's treatment at the hands of the authorities, yet few think of the US as a large scale human rights abuser.

[O Really]

It was probably that "candidate for Congress" part that got him.

[Vrede too]

It was probably that "candidate for Congress" part that got him.

That was this year vs prospective Majority Leader Hoyer.

Spoiler:

He lost.

[Vrede too]

US halts cooperation with UN on potential human rights violations
Exclusive: State department has ceased to respond to complaints from special rapporteurs in move that sends ‘dangerous message’ to other countries

The Trump administration has stopped cooperating with UN investigators over potential human rights violations occurring inside America, in a move that delivers a major blow to vulnerable US communities and sends a dangerous signal to authoritarian regimes around the world.

Quietly and unnoticed, the state department has ceased to respond to official complaints from UN special rapporteurs, the network of independent experts who act as global watchdogs on fundamental issues such as poverty, migration, freedom of expression and justice. There has been no response to any such formal query since 7 May 2018, with at least 13 requests going unanswered.

Nor has the Trump administration extended any invitation to a UN monitor to visit the US to investigate human rights inside the country since the start of Donald Trump’s term two years ago in January 2017. Two UN experts have made official fact-finding visits under his watch – the special rapporteurs on extreme poverty and privacy – but both were invited initially by Barack Obama, who hosted 16 such visits during his presidency.

The silent treatment being meted out to key players in the UN’s system for advancing human rights marks a stark break with US practice going back decades. Though some areas of American public life have consistently been ruled out of bounds to UN investigators – US prisons and the detention camp on Guantánamo Bay are deemed off-limits – Washington has in general welcomed monitors into the US as part of a wider commitment to upholding international norms.

Jamil Dakwar, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s human rights program, said the shift gave the impression the US was no longer serious about honoring its own human rights obligations. The ripple effect around the world would be dire.

“They are sending a very dangerous message to other countries: that if you don’t cooperate with UN experts they will just go away. That’s a serious setback to the system created after World War II to ensure that domestic human rights violations could no longer be seen as an internal matter,” Dakwar said....

[Vrede too]

Defending Rights & Dissent presents a new series of toolkits to help activists fight anti-protest bills in their state.



The new state legislative season is upon us and already over a dozen bills have been introduced across the country that assault the right to protest. New Jersey could start charging protesters with rioting and sentence them to five years in jail if another person at the protest damages property. Oklahoma could start charging stiff fees to protest at the state capitol. Missouri could start throwing anyone who engages in civil disobedience that impedes traffic in jail for 15 years. And a number of states are considering bills to create new or increased penalties for protesting near pipelines or on college campuses.

We've been fighting back against this tidal wave of anti-protest bills for years. We work with grassroots activists on the ground and are leaders in a diverse coalition of national groups defending the right to protest. We've had victories and we've had defeats.

We've learned a lot.

Today, we're launching a series of toolkits designed to help activists fight these bills wherever they may pop up. They're based on our years of experience. They include background readings, fact sheets and talking points, sample letters to the editor and testimony, and even grassroots success stories.

Defending Rights & Dissent has created three toolkits. I invite you to use them and share them with others.

Protest Under Fire: Anti-Protest Bills and the Targeting of Social Movements deals with anti-protest bills broadly. It will help activists faced with everything from bills designed to create new penalties for blocking traffic to bills removing liability from drivers who hit protesters.

Protest Under Fire: Critical Infrastructure Bills and the Targeting of Anti-Pipeline Protests will help activists who are fighting bills that create heightened penalties for protest at or near pipelines. They are pushed by industry groups and the notorious American Legislative Exchange Council and are clearly designed to silence the vibrant social movements opposing pipelines that have have gained strength across the country.

Protest Under Fire: Anti-Boycott Bills and the Targeting of the Palestinian Solidarity Movement is a resource to defend the right to boycott. Anti-boycott bills single out supporters of Palestinian rights who boycott Israel to be uniquely penalized. The right to boycott is a fundamental First Amendment right and these bills are flagrantly unconstitutional.

In addition to these toolkits, I would like to direct your attention to Defending Rights & Dissent's new interactive resource hub. It allows you to filter through the vast array of resources on our website by subject, location, type of resource, or date.

Anti-protest bills didn't emerge in a vacuum. They are responses to successful social movements that challenge the status quo. In the past, we've seen anti-protest bills emerge as direct responses to Black Lives Matter, anti-pipeline, or campus protests. And with a new wave of teacher strikes and labor militancy, we can expect even more assaults on our right to protest.

In Solidarity,

Chip Gibbons
Policy & Legislative Counsel
https://rightsanddissent.org/

[Vrede too]

Ironic that WaPo needs a 1st Amendment refresher:

Washington Post Tries to Take Down Parody Site Announcing Trump's Resignation

... The Washington Post’s lawyers were not amused, calling the parody an act of trademark infringement and raising copyright threats. We have responded to explain why the parody is protected by the First Amendment and fair use law....

The Washington Post is free to set the record straight by distancing itself from the spoof; it’s not free to silence others’ political speech. The parody paper and its call to action are staying online.

[O Really]

I'm not so sure it will be WaPo getting schooled on this one. They used the "Washington Post" name, in it's typeface, and in a template that looked a lot like the Post. Sure, the date was in the future, the "Democracy..." quote was different, but that real or very-real-looking logo might be a problem. They could have named their parody the "Washington Past" or maybe better the "Pist" or something, and they could make a paper that resembled the Post, but I'm reasonably sure you can't just tag somebody's real logo onto your parody and call it "fair usage". For example, "The San Francisco Chomical" parodies "The San Francisco Chronicle" but it doesn't use the real name/logo.

Even if it proves fruitless, I think WaPo is right to publicly yell about this, given the unrelenting criticism aimed at all news media.