Wednesday, May 20, 2015

"No qualified immunity for you!"

More such rulings needed.
The days of the NYPD claiming the power to arrest people for recording them are coming to an end. 

Last Tuesday, a U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York judge rejected New York City’s qualified immunity defense in the latest court ruling establishing that recording police officers is protected by the First Amendment. The ruling means that Douglas Higginbotham, who was was arrested on November 15, 2011 while covering Occupy Wall Street for TV New Zealand, will be allowed to move forward with his civil rights lawsuit against the city.


And yet more from The ABC Gift Who Keeps On Giving:
“As much as I hate to say it,” Powell reportedly wrote in his memo, “the NRA is effective primarily because it is largely right when it claims that most gun control laws inconvenience and threaten the law-abiding while having little or no impact on violent crime or criminals.”

This memo, says the Washington Times story, allegedly led Stephanopoulos to try to “spark a gun debate inside the White House in 1994.” Translation: At least some Democrats – those who read the Powell memo, anyway – have apparently known for more than 20 years that gun control laws impact the wrong people.

This raises a prickly question. If Democrats know these laws are largely ineffective, and only serve to penalize honest citizens, why does the party continue pursuing such legislation?
Three guesses, two don't count.






No comments: