An article in the Washington Post that has been widely syndicated discusses how the collection of evidence by the use of drug detector dogs will be considered by the united states supreme court. Two cases are pending on the docket, both from Florida, which question the effectiveness as well as the constitutionality of canines for drug detection use. The article cites studies from the University of California at Davis in which 18 police canine teams were sent through a facility and tasked with finding hidden drugs. Though there were no drugs in the facility, 17 of the teams reported alerts. Barry Cooper, former police officer and producer of the Never Get Busted educational film series has discussed his own manipulation of police canines while he was working as one of the most successful narcotics interdiction detectives. Anyone who has owned a dog knows that their life revolves around serving their pack leader. There are no objective standards or testing done of the animals to demonstrate their effectiveness. In a 2005 case, former supreme court judge David Souter stated that the infallible dog “is a creation of legal fiction”.
Last year, the Florida supreme court had thrown out a case from 2006 which featured questionable probable cause for a search after a police dog sniffed and acted playfully. Judge Barbara Pariente wrote: (more…)
If you’ve been following the United States presidential race, there’s a chance you’ve seen the viral video of an Obama supporter explaining that she supports her candidate because of a free Obama-phone. While telecommunications is an important issue to many Americans, Free Concord presents an alternative spin on the monologue from a foreign policy perspective.
Contact the Obama4Amerika campaign to find out how you can qualify for the disposition matrix and receive a free Obama-drone!
In addition to previous Free Concord coverage of Barack Obama’s recent campaign stop in Manchester, Dave Ridley has posted four videos so far from his eye on the ground. Rather than playing it normal and objectively recording the event, as I tried, Dave walked along the periphery of the security perimeter, and interacted with police and secret service along the way. He asked poignant questions of the secret service, Obama staffers, and event attendees. Some of his questions pertained to Obama’s treatment of Bradley Manning, and there is one encounter early on with USSS in which it is insisted that he not film, though no action is taken. In the fourth video, a Manchester officer tells him that he is required to answer questions and are seen clearing the sidewalk of all people before the president’s entourage passes through. You can see the one brief encounter I had with a suited USSS agent when I tried to film from inside the secured area here. Ridley’s four videos are embedded below. Additional newsprint coverage is available from the Union Leader and the Concord Monitor.
Lifelong activist for indigenous rights Russell Means has passed away at the age of 72 in Porcupine, South Dakota. Known for his work with the American Indian Movement and Republic of Lakota, Means was also an accomplished actor and musician. His perseverance in the cause of liberty exemplified living freely despite occupying an unfree world.
It was almost 8:00am, and I did not have a ticket to enter the expansive, barricaded area of Elm Street and other roads surrounding Veterans Park. Bulldozers and other large construction machines formed a fortification of the streets to vehicles, and metal barricades monitored by suits and badges kept out pedestrians. The gates were slated to begin receiving unarmed civilians on foot at 9:00am. I was unsure if I had missed my opportunity to get a ticket when I received a text message. “Bailing”, it said, “Obama wont be there til noon”.
After a brief telephone conversation, I had learned that a group of occupiers, who had planned to mic check the president, would be ditching their plans to slave for the empire. Almost all willing participants had a taxpaying job that they could not afford to miss at some point later in the day. Many had woken at 5:30 to get tickets from the Radisson at 6:00am, tickets which they would not be able to use with the president not scheduled to speak until after noon. The actual timeframe of events was not revealed until that morning. “The occupy movement has been destroyed by jobs”, one activist joked. (more…)
An article in the Washington Post that has been widely syndicated discusses how the collection of evidence by the use of drug detector dogs will be considered by the united states supreme court. Two cases are pending on the docket, both from Florida, which question the effectiveness as well as the constitutionality of canines for drug detection use. The article cites studies from the University of California at Davis in which 18 police canine teams were sent through a facility and tasked with finding hidden drugs. Though there were no drugs in the facility, 17 of the teams reported alerts. Barry Cooper, former police officer and producer of the Never Get Busted educational film series has discussed his own manipulation of police canines while he was working as one of the most successful narcotics interdiction detectives. Anyone who has owned a dog knows that their life revolves around serving their pack leader. There are no objective standards or testing done of the animals to demonstrate their effectiveness. In a 2005 case, former supreme court judge David Souter stated that the infallible dog “is a creation of legal fiction”.
