#'merika

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[phroyd]

Evo’s Bolivia Confiscates ‘Criminal’ US Weapons Cargo

The seized weapons were shipped in November 2016 from the Everglades port in Miami.

Police have since arrested four people, including the driver of the truck and the alleged consignee, but have not disclosed the names of the detainees or the companies, HispanTV adds.

Bolivian President Evo Morales’ administration, considered to be one of Latin America’s most progressive on drug laws, has been a fierce critic of the U.S. war on drugs in the region.

“The fight against drug trafficking is a tool of control for the United States,” Morales said last September.

“The U.S., as the largest consumer of drugs in the world, has no moral authority to dismiss the fight against drug trafficking of other peoples'.”

Last year, former U.S. president Barack Obama claimed Morales’ drug policies “failed to adhere to international counternarcotics agreements.” Bolivia is currently the only country exempt from a ban on growing coca for medical and traditional purposes.

Prior to Morales’ administration, Santa Cruz was a hotspot for narcotrafficking groups with cocaine operations in neighboring Paraguay and Brazil.

‘Merika, Guns and Guns!

Phroyd

[redshift-13]

[redshift-13]

The core tenet of the National Rifle Association

Your right to not be slaughtered in one of America’s hundreds of annual mass shootings is not nearly as important as the right to buy and own the kinds of guns used in those mass shootings.

[generalinjusticeblog]

Accident analysis shows no safety benefit to photo enforcement in Tucson, Arizona. As voters in Tucson, Arizona head to the polls today to decide the fate of automated ticketing machines, an analysis shows the use of red light cameras since 2007 has failed to reduce accidents. Peoria resident Ryan Denke produced the report using the Arizona Department of Transportation's database of traffic accidents covering the years 2005 through 2014. Denke observed that the number of crashes statewide rose or fell in sync with the number of miles driven in every year but 2005. This makes sense since the more time cars spend in traffic, the greater the statistical chance that they will be involved in an accident. In Tucson, Denke calculated a 92 percent correlation between miles driven and accidents.

[generalinjusticeblog]

There are a few ways law enforcement agencies acquire cell tower spoofers. Very rarely do agencies pay for these expensive devices themselves. (Meaning with their funds drawn from their own departments. Obviously, no government agency is self-funded.) In most cases, funding in whole or in part is obtained from the DHS -- something nearly any agency can obtain simply by checking [X] BECAUSE TERRORISM when applying for a Homeland Security grant. Agencies are also using seized funds from asset forfeiture programs. The Michigan State Police used both methods to buy and upgrade its Stingray, according to documents obtained by the ACLU. For nearly a decade, the Michigan State Police has had secretive cellphone tracking devices that were bought to fight terrorism but instead are used to solve everyday crimes, internal documents show. More than 250 pages of emails, invoices and other documents show the state police in 2006 acquired cellphone simulator technology, which lets police collect large amounts of data including the location of users. The equipment was upgraded in 2013 and an internal memo indicates it was used last year on 128 cases ranging from homicide to burglary and fraud, but not terrorism. But that didn't stop the state police from telling the DHS that it was going to use the device to beat back terrorists. The documents acquired by the ACLU indicate the state police paid Harris Corp. $206,500 in 2006 for equipment that was “vital to the war on terrorism” and allows “the state to track the physical location of a suspected terrorist.” The equipment was fully funded by a U.S. Homeland Security grant and the cost matches Harris Corp. prices lists for its Stingray device, Wessler said.

[generalinjusticeblog]

[generalinjusticeblog]

Has the U.S. Reached a Tipping Point on Police Violence?

"Police must stop thinking about crime reduction as self-justifying. It's not."