Your computer, your phone, and your other digital devices hold vast amounts of personal information about you and your family. This is sensitive data that’s worth protecting from prying eyes - including those of the government.
The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution protects you from unreasonable government searches and seizures, and this protection extends to your computer and portable devices. But how does this work in the real world? What should you do if the police or other law enforcement officers show up at your door and want to search your computer?
EFF has designed this guide to help you understand your rights if officers try to search the data stored on your computer or portable electronic device, or seize it for further examination somewhere else.
Because anything you say can be used against you in a criminal or civil case, before speaking to any law enforcement official, you should consult with an attorney.
“Democracy doesn’t just mean public participation in making decisions. It presumes that all power and legitimacy is vested in one decision-making structure, and it requires a way to impose those decisions. As long as anyone might defy them, there have to be armed personnel to regulate and discipline, to control.”
Shantela and Barry Moreland claim they were hosting the barbecue at their Zion home April 10, 2011, when a Zion police officer “unreasonably” deployed pepper spray while making an arrest, according to the suit filed Monday in U.S. District Court, Chicago.
One invited guest, Charles Booker, was arrested for misdemeanor simple assault, but the case was dismissed 18 days later in Lake County Circuit Court “in a manner consistent with (his) innocence,” according to the suit.
The Morelands allege they and their young sons, Barry Jr. and D’Amarion, then ages 11 and 6, were all hit by the pepper spray and suffered “severe physical and emotional injury,” the suit claims. Guests Iyesha Booker, Larry Williams, Odessa Mickens and Donesha Booker — who claims she was “visibly pregnant” when she was pepper sprayed — all claim they were left injured from the pepper spray and are listed as co-plaintiffs.
Protect and serve me while you hit me with your car, asshole.
So I don’t have a motorized transport vehicle of any kind, but I am fortunate enough to have a bright blue and white bicycle.
I biked over to the grocery store close to campus tonight, and since it is suicide to attempt being a cyclist in this town in general, let alone at night, I use the sidewalks and pedestrian crosswalks.
Like a good law-abiding citizen (more like someone who doesn’t want to die because people in cages in this city are psycho), I waited on the sidewalk for the little white man to indicate that I could bike across the intersection. A cop car without lights flashing/siren came roaring up at top speed, then screeched to a halt (behind the stop line, mind you) when realized the light was red.
Cautiously, I kicked off and started on my way behind him (as this is where the crosswalk is). Suddenly, I notice in my periphery that his backup lights were on, and he had floored it. Thankfully, I noticed this in time to use my closest leg to kick off from his bumper instead of being crushed against it, causing me to fall down right in front of another car.
The other driver quickly got out of his car, rushed to my side and helped me get up. On the other hand, the cop sticks his head out the window, and the following conversation begins:
Cop: You alright?
Me: For having just been hit by car, I’m fucking ducky.
Cop: Good.
Other driver: What’s your badge number, officer?
Cop: Don’t have time, on a call. Get out of my way, I gotta get through that parking lot.
Other driver: You just hit her.
Cop: Not my problem I didn’t see her.
Me: Asshole, I’m not even wearing all black for once.
And then the light turned green, and being first in line, the cop once again floored it and sped off into the night.
“Protecting and serving,” my ass.
(I’m peachy, by the way. It was a very controlled fall, and over the years of getting two black belts I learned how to ~properly fall~.)
ST. LOUIS • The mother of a man fatally shot by an undercover St. Louis police detective in 2010 has sued in federal court here, alleging the officer continued to fire as her son lay on the ground dying, then planted a gun on him to claim the use of deadly force was justified.
Normane Bennett, 23, was shot June 25, 2010, in an alley behind the 3900 block of Sherman Place after he fled from police who tried to arrest him and others for alleged drug activity.
[…]
Wasem’s actions were unanimously cleared by the police board. The department on Thursday declined to comment, citing the ongoing litigation.
A Post-Dispatch review earlier this year found the department cleared all but four of 117 officer-involved shootings over the last five years. The reviews are done with little outside scrutiny, the newspaper found.
[…]
The federal lawsuit claims the police board “turns a blind eye to use of excessive force by its police officers.” It seeks an unspecified amount of damages.
(via agoristmike)
