Maybe you’ve heard of Sheriff Joe Arpaio? He runs the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office in Phoenix, AZ. He’s had numerous complaints filed against him and his deputies for targeting “foreign”-looking individuals and profiling them as undocumented aliens and therefore in his territory illegally.
Sheriff Joe Forks Over $200k
July 13th, 2011Remembering The Victims Of “Ethnic Cleansing”
July 11th, 2011Mourners gathered in Srebrenica in Bosnia Herzegovina Monday for the burial of 600 victims of the 1995 Serbian massacre in that city. Sunday in Burlington, members of the Bosnian community and passers-by helped remember the victims at an art event called “Sto te enema,” Bosnian for “Why are you not here?” Hundreds of small, white coffee cups were laid out in an ever-expanding circle on Church Street and filled with thick, black Bosnian coffee poured from the iconic coffee pots used throughout the Balkans. Sharing coffee is a cherished Bosnian tradition.
Again? Police Misconduct In Hartford?
July 6th, 2011Hartford police are again facing questions about the forcible detention of a town resident at a personal residence. There’ll be an investigation, but once again it’ll be by the chief’s former employer, the Vermont State Police. The investigatory arrangement will likely also be used by the town to clamp a lid on information about the incident — because, officials will say, it’s now the subject of a police investigation and details are therefore exempt from public disclosure.
Wanted: Warrants For E-Snooping
June 29th, 2011A new bill is being introduced in Congress that will require police to get a warrant before they put a GPS tracking device on your car or ask your cell provider for tracking data that pinpoints where you are and where you’ve been.
Rough Season For 4th Amendment
June 24th, 2011“This spring was a rough season for the Fourth Amendment,” writes David Shipler in Thursday’s New York Times. Shipler, a former Times journalist, notes that the Obama administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court “to allow GPS tracking of vehicles without judicial permission.” The Supreme Court said it was OK for police “to break into a house without a search warrant if, after knocking and announcing themselves, they heard what sounded like evidence being destroyed.” The court also said it wasn’t a Fourth Amendment violation for a citizen to be jailed for 16 days on the false pretext that he was a material witness to a crime. Finally, Shipler notes, “Congress renewed Patriot Act provisions on enhanced surveillance powers until 2015, and the F.B.I. expanded agents’ authority to comb databases, follow people and rummage through their trash even if they are not suspected of a crime.” To this depressing list could be added attempts by Vermont law enforcement to tell judges they can’t set limits on searches of people’s computers and other electronic devices.
Cops: Give Us The Warrants We Want
June 22nd, 2011Law enforcement wants Vermont judges to stay out of the business of setting conditions on search warrants; judges’ only discretion is whether to grant a warrant as requested or not. There is no constitutional basis for restricting what police can go after when they search for information on people’s electronic devices.
Investigators Want It All
June 17th, 2011The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU-Vermont, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will be before the Vermont Supreme Court Wednesday to urge the court to reject demands by local prosecutors to override a judge’s instructions and allow a limitless warrant for a computer search.
Find Out What Government Is Doing
June 8th, 2011Congress is moving forward with changes to the federal public records act just as Vermont has revamped its law.
Schools’ Discipline Reach Extended
May 17th, 2011A last-minute add-on to the annual miscellaneous education bill (S. 100) will, for the first time, give Vermont school officials the authority to discipline students for bullying and harassment that takes place outside of school.
Public Records Bill Passed; Open Meeting Bill Stalls
May 5th, 2011For the first time in its history, the state’s public records law will be getting a makeover thanks to a push from open government advocates and the Shumlin administration, and from a legislature that saw the need for greater government transparency.