As Lenore Skenazy reported for Reason last year, two government employees decided a single incident of a mother leaving her kids in the car was all the reason they needed to swing by the house and strip-search every one of her six children. The oldest was five years old. The youngest were a pair of 10-month-old twins.
Category: Ignorant or unreasonable
Top NYPD Official Says Cops Don’t Need To Worry About Being Criminally Charged For Violating Chokehold Ban | Techdirt
“We can’t be afraid. We’ve got every D.A. come out and say they’re not going to charge that,” Chief Terence Monahan said at a recent CompStat meeting, at which department brass discuss crime trends.
Videos Show Minneapolis Cops Slashing Tires Of Medical Workers, Media And Protesters
Videos from a May 31 Black Lives Matter protest in Minneapolis, Minnesota show police officers wearing heavy tactical gear slashing the tires of multiple parked vehicles, with some officers allegedly targeting members of the media.
Source: Videos Show Minneapolis Cops Slashing Tires Of Medical Workers, Media And Protesters
NYPD Covering Badge Numbers at Protests Violate Own Policy
The National Lawyers Guild threatened to sue the city if NYPD officers did not end the widespread practice of covering their badge numbers.
Source: NYPD Covering Badge Numbers at Protests Violate Own Policy
ICE Detainee Who Died of Covid-19 Suffered Horrifying Neglect
IF THERE’S ONE thing the men locked inside the Otay Mesa Detention Center want the world to know, it’s that Carlos Ernesto Escobar Mejia didn’t need to die. The 57-year-old passed away in a southern California hospital on May 6, becoming the first person in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody to lose their life to Covid-19. The men who knew him fear that he won’t be the last.
Source: ICE Detainee Who Died of Covid-19 Suffered Horrifying Neglect
What A Coincidence! Same Day Senator Burr Dumped His Stock, So Did His Brother-in-Law! | Techdirt
Senator Richard Burr’s potential insider trading issues, for which he’s being investigated, may have gotten quite a bit worse this week. A new report notes that on the same day Burr sold off a “significant percentage” of his stock holdings (while also telling the public not to worry about COVID-19), it turns out his brother-in-law just coincidentally decided to dump a bunch of stock too. Amazing!
Source: What A Coincidence! Same Day Senator Burr Dumped His Stock, So Did His Brother-in-Law! | Techdirt
We’re Saved! Company Claims It’s Patented ‘Containing the Spread of Disinformation’ And Will Stop COVID-19 Disinfo | Techdirt
… a company called CREOpoint that claims it has patented “Containing the Spread of Disinformation” and that it was now using it to “help contain the spread of COVID-19 disinformation.” Would that it were so, but that’s not how any of this works. Tellingly, the press release does not provide the patent number of any of the details about the patent — which should probably be your first sign that it’s utterly bogus. However, with a little sleuthing I was able to turn up the patent application… and it confirms that this is a ridiculous patent that never should have been approved. The official title is “Containing Disinformation Spread Using Customizable Intelligence Channels.”
Erik Prince Offered Lethal Services to Russian Mercenary Firm
Prince, who is the brother of Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, met earlier this year with a top official of Russia’s Wagner Group and offered his mercenary forces to support the firm’s operations in Libya and Mozambique, according to two people familiar with Prince’s offer.
Source: Erik Prince Offered Lethal Services to Russian Mercenary Firm
Manufacturers Refuse To Allow Hospitals To Fix Ventilators That Are The Last Hope For Many COVID-19 Patients | Techdirt
AdvaMed, the medical device manufacturer trade group that represents more than 400 companies (including Siemens, GE Healthcare, and Philips, which are among the largest), wrote a letter to lawmakers in Massachusetts claiming that right to repair legislation “could result in maintenance and repairs of medical devices being performed by untrained personnel, and that inappropriate replacement parts may be used.”
Charles Koch Network Attacks Shelter-in-Place Policies
AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY, the pro-corporate pressure group founded and funded by billionaire industrialist Charles Koch, wants employees to return to work despite desperate pleas from public health officials that people should stay home as much as possible to help contain the spread of the coronavirus.
Source: Charles Koch Network Attacks Shelter-in-Place Policies