In Case You Missed Church On Sunday

False Arrests And Perversion

While on the subject of abusive cops, here's one whose picture everyone should see. His name is Daniel Holtzclaw, and a couple of weeks ago, he was in Oklahoma City, chasing down speeders, arresting drunk drivers, eating doughnuts, and raping women; and in general, just doing normal cop stuff. Most of the women he assaulted are black, by the way. Now that his crimes are under investigation, it appears that his choice in victims was a pattern.

One of his victims recently complained. She did not expect anyone to listen to her, but was surprised when someone did. She was further surprised when Officer Holtzcreep was arrested and charged. A few more women have also come forward. One even stated that he threatened her with arrest if she did not cooperate with the sexual assault! So this is what law enforcement in Oklahoma City needs from anyone with more information about Holtzclaw or his criminal activities: everyone who has been one of his victims to come forward. It's a very big challenge to come forward and testify about a crime of that nature, but being quiet about it is the equivalent of writing this creep a ticket to continue this behavior in the future.

ACLU Addresses The Rights Of Photography

It's become abundantly clear, lately, that police officers in America do not like added scrutiny provided by amateur and professional photographers and cell phone users. Unfortunately, this finding also coincides with a massive revelation that police officers often think that they are above the law, and can inflict violence whenever their little hearts desire, even to the point of murder. Many of them do not even understand the United States Constitution, much less respect it.

The good news is that those of us who take pictures of police officers and grab cell phone video of our tax dollars being spent are, according to the law, within our constitutional rights. No police officer has a right to shut down a news team or a private citizen taking pictures. The only loophole, in certain states, has to do with wiretapping laws: recorded audio cannot be deliberately captured and shared in all locales. But then, an officer carrying out his duties in public is not a private conversation, so the wiretapping laws do not apply in those instances.

The American Civil Liberties Union has found itself defending cases involving private citizens with cell phone and corporations such as television stations because of this issue with police officers and photography. As recently as the second week of August, police in Ferguson, Missouri did not want their tear gas activities photographed and recorded by journalists, so they handcuffed and arrested a couple from the Huffington Post and the Washington Post. As it happens, the only laws broken were broken by police.

Why is accountability so difficult for law enforcement to accept?

Insight

An Arrest Might Help

In the gloomy retrospect of young Micheal Brown's funeral yesterday, a question seems to keep getting asked here and there, on various news websites and on local TV news: now that the funeral is over, what can we do to effect productive change and ensure justice for Michael Brown and his family? Here's a quick answer that could have saved quite a bit of trouble in the first place.....arrest Darren Wilson, the officer who murdered Michael Brown almost three weeks ago. Had an arrest been made immediately, and had the officer been held just as accountable as Michael Brown would have been, had the situation been reversed, no one would have ever felt the need to riot.

In other news, the ACLU got involved in the career of Officer Gofuckyourself, featured in the video above, and effective August 20, he is no longer on the force. Unfortunately, the citizens of Missouri are probably still paying his salary.

Rest in peace, Michael Brown.

Abbie Hoffman Moment

In Case You Weren't In Church On Sunday

Can anyone say "overkill"? Responding with the words "bless you" when hearing a sneeze is not what our forefathers had in mind when they agreed upon separation of church and state. This Tennessee classroom has obviously gone overboard in giving a child in-school detention for instinctively using those words when a classmate sneezed. Now; if she seriously believed the archaic German/Christian superstition that one's soul disappears into the mists via the sneeze whenever this happens, and had reiterated that failing to say "bless you" could lead to eternal damnation, there may have been a slight violation; but this did not happen. Perhaps along with "overkill", she should say "gesundheit" next time.