Category: Uncategorized

Two Nevada Republican Assemblymembers have introduced AB 302, which moves the primary from June to January. It also would establish a presidential primary in Nevada, on the same January date. Currently Nevada has a caucus to choose delegates to major party national conventions, not a presidential primary.
Nevada already was permitted by the Democratic and Republican Party rules to hold a caucus in February. Nevada is one of four states that have the right to hold early processes. But this Nevada bill, if enacted, would violate national party rules. Josh Putnam at this link explains the …read more

The Alabama Senate Constitution, Ethics & Elections Committee will hear SB 221 on Wednesday, March 18, at 11 a.m. This is the bill to ease the number of signatures for newly-qualifying parties and independent candidates, and also to set a later petition deadline for new parties. …read more

As racial tensions between minority groups and police continue to flare across the country, four San Francisco police officers risk being removed from the force for sending and receiving bigoted and racist text messages.
RT.com
The graphic text messages surfaced in the course of a federal case against former SFPD Sgt. Ian Furminger, who was attempting to appeal a 40-month prison sentence in federal court on corruption charges. Federal prosecutors presented the text messages, which were written in 2011 and 2012, in an effort to block Furminger’s appeals claim.
The text messages are particularly disturbing, especially in light of the increasing frequency of …read more

Powhatan County, Virginia – The school resource officers have struck again. Last Friday, a police officer working at Powhatan Junior High School used a taser on an 8th-grade student.
According to the officers side of the story, the child tried to attack him and run away. However, there has been no proof put forward to back up this claim. Also, even according to the officer’s side of the story, the child was fleeing at the time when he used the taser.
The officer says that he was attacked when he attempted to arrest the child for being disruptive in class.
The child was …read more

‘We will not be intimidated,’ declares Minneapolis chapter of Black Lives Matter
Thousands of protesters flooded the Mall of America in December to declare “Black Lives Matter.” (Photo courtesy of Chris Juhn)

CommonDreams.org | Sarah Lazare

Participants in a nonviolent Black Lives Matter protest at the Mall of America last December were not only aggressively confronted by law enforcement and heavily prosecuted by the Bloomington attorney’s office, but they were also—as it turns out—preemptively spied on by local police and the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force.
Journalist Lee Fang exposed the surveillance in an article published Thursday in The Intercept, shedding light on …read more

Changes to online entries of Eric Garner and others came from IP addresses at NYPD headquarters

Common Dreams.org
Edits to the Wikipedia pages of Eric Garner, Sean Bell, Amadou Diallo, and other victims of police brutality in New York City have been traced back to the NYPD headquarters at One Police Plaza, according to a report.
The news outlet Capital New York broke the story on Friday. According to their reporting, the edits made to the pages which detailed Garner’s death last July at the hands of NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo include:
“Garner raised both his arms in the air” was changed to “Garner …read more

The Oklahoman, largest newspaper in Oklahoma, has this rousing editorial in support of the ballot access bill that has already passed the State House. Thanks to Richard Prawdzienski for the link. …read more

A car chase between police and an armed kidnapping suspect in South Los Angeles was aired by local television stations, though this one ended in a dramatic and violent scene – with the suspect leaving his vehicle and engaging in a shootout with officers.
RT.com
Details are still unclear, but the incident began Friday when Los Angeles police identified the vehicle of a kidnapping suspect who was armed with a gun, NBC Los Angeles reported. The Los Angeles Times also stated he was driving a stolen car.
It’s also unclear how long the car chase went on for, but the suspect almost struck …read more

The camera doesn’t lie, which happens to be a significant inconvenience for some officers.

Denver, CO — A local news team in Denver has obtained video twice in just one week of officers brutalizing individuals. Both time the officers were disciplined after it was exposed.
The latest cop to be caught using excessive force on an arrestee is officer Chad Sinnema. Sinnema was suspended for a mere four days after using force that could have killed a man back in August.
CBS 4 obtained video from a Denver police department body camera that was rolling Aug. 22, 2014, when officers apprehended a suspect …read more