From The BRAD BLOG:
Phoenix Police Raid Home of Blogger Critical of 'Bad Cops' in Their Department
And speaking of Phoenix, there's this from Carlos Miller:
In what should send a frightening chill down the spine of every blogger, writer, journalist and First Amendment advocate in the United States, Phoenix police raided the home of a blogger who has been highly critical of the department.
Jeff Pataky, who runs Bad Phoenix Cops, said the officers confiscated three computers, routers, modems, hard drives, memory cards and everything necessary to continue blogging.
The 41-year-old software engineer said they also confiscated numerous personal files and documents relating to a pending lawsuit he has against the department alleging harassment - which he says makes it obvious the raid was an act of retaliation.
...
The search warrant lists “petty theft” and “computer tampering with the intent to harass” as probable causes. He has yet to see an actual affidavit that lists in detail the probable cause and is skeptical that one even exists.
“They say everything has been sealed,” he said.
Read the rest of the story for details. It's pretty amazing. Journalist/Blogger Pataky is our most recent new hero. And Journalist/Blogger Miller, who covers the story, is no slouch either given what he's had to go through in a similar vein to Pataky.
It seems to me that the people of Phoenix, as well as the rest of Maricopa County, are living in what could be called a police state. One would have expected something like this from the Bush administration, but not from the local police department. I guess that they feel they can do what they want because Bush said the Constitution was "just a piece of paper", and John Yoo said the President isn't bound by the Constitution, so they feel they aren't bound by it either.
This denial of our Constitutional and Civil Rights must stop. We are supposed to have a Constitutional government, not a Police State.
6 comments:
Sheriff Joe is very popular amongst white racists for his racial profiling and immigration raids on Meskins, which are to the detriment of day-to-day police work such as solving crimes etc.
This is a new one.
Maricopa County and Phoenix aka 'Little L.A.' are not the real Arizona, which I love. It starts at the county line.
Gordon - I'd have to say that it seems like almost everything I've ever heard that would be "bad" about Arizona has had to do with Maricopa County, never anywhere else.
Hey Eddie...this is some scary stuff indeed!
I feel sorry for thwe good citizens of Arizona!
Jim - Like always, the only ones who are having the real problems are the ones who are "different" and those who stand up to the ones in power who use their authority for their own political or financial gain.
Boy, does this bring back memories! I'm from AZ, and lived in Phoenix for 10 years. Arpaio is a horrible, horrible person. He is as awful as they say, and worse. The Phoenix police are bad, too - shoot first and ask questions later, and that's not intended as a figure of speech, it's actually how they operate. I liked living in Phoenix a lot, but I developed a very bad attitude about cops there.
Shea - It sounds like they've got their own little police state there in Phoenix.
Note to self: Never travel through Phoenix, AZ.
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