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Articles by Casey Bastian

Police Unions Block Meaningful Criminal Justice Reform

Massive Corruption of a Baltimore Task Force Exposed

Hundreds ...

NYPD Agrees to Alter Religious Headwear Policy

Prosecutors Who Demand Accountability From Everyone But Themselves

In New York, Former Prisoners With Mental Illnesses Lack Needed Support

Would the Real Officer Friendly Please Stand Up?

by Casey J. Bastian

In 1966, the official Officer Friendly program was first instituted by the Chicago Police Department. Shortly after inception, the program became sponsored by the Sears-Roebuck Foundation. This educational program was designed for elementary schools, focusing on kids ages 5-8. The Department of Education notes that by 1979, the Officer Friendly program was in 233 communities. That number expanded to 350 at the height of the program’s popularity in the late 1980s, prospectively influencing upward of 1.5 million youths. The cost to the foundation had risen to $400,000 per year.

On the surface, the program’s purpose seems entirely benevolent, viz., providing safety education while positioning the police officer as a trustworthy and kind savior of the community. Plausibly accepted as who could possibly object to safety education for our children?

In reality, the Officer Friendly program is viewed very differently depending on whom you ask. So who is the real Officer Friendly? Sadly, the response seems to depend on race. Is Officer Friendly the idealized vision in the 1958 Norman Rockwell depiction, The Runaway, where a cop is seen comforting a small White child, coaxing him to return home? Or is it the 1965 photograph ...

Deal Presented by Kentucky Prosecutor Evidence of Effort to Smear Breonna Taylor

What would Glover need to do to get such a sweet deal?

Simple. Implicate his ex-girlfriend as a participant in his criminal activities. Except his ex was 26-year-old Breonna Taylor, the emergency room technician killed in her home by Louisville police during a botched drug raid March 13 and during which time her then-boyfriend Kenneth Walker shot an officer. Glover would need to sign a statement alleging that Taylor was part of his “organized crime syndicate” as he “trafficked large amounts of crack-cocaine, methamphetamine, and opiates” in the Louisville area, according to a draft copy of the proposed plea agreement. Glover also had to allege that the “handling [of] all his money” was done by the person living in Taylor’s home.

Glover refused to implicate Taylor, stating, “There was nothing never there or anything ever there, and at the end of the day, they went about it the ...

Promises to Defund the Police Lead to Increase in Private Security Forces on City Streets

In June, Minneapolis was the first of any large city to actually pledge to wholly disband its police department, though now some council members are retreating from it becoming actual policy.

Several other communities have begun only a defunding process, with at least 13 cities eliminating officer positions and cutting department budgets. Among them are New York City, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Austin, Salt Lake City, Kenosha, and Norman.

Organizers are obviously requesting that police departments be dismantled. They desire a shift of funds to other programs that focus on violence prevention, safety, and community health. The result may not be what is actually being demanded. What city leaders are doing is merely transferring budgetary allocations to the hiring of private security. In some communities, these cuts resulted in privatization, not less policing.

During one June ...

Did Two Judges Violate Ethics in Florida Voting Rights Restoration Case?

Robert Luck and Barbara Lagoa served on the Florida Supreme Court. Both were later selected to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit during the course of these proceedings. During their tenure on the state Supreme Court, Lagoa and Luck participated in oral arguments on the amendment issue. Lagoa was particularly vociferous in her argument supporting that the amendment clearly intended to include payment of all owed monies. Despite both judges hearing the case, neither Lagoa nor Luck contributed to ...

Government Agencies Expand Use of Private Companies to Bypass Constitution

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) knows about it and reportedly uses its database to conduct warrantless surveillance. CBP admitted that it uses the database in CBP’s updated Privacy Impact Assessment (“PIA”). The PIA states the database “provide[s] CBP law enforcement personnel with a broader ability to search license plates nationwide.”

LEARN (the Law Enforcement Archival Reporting Network) is a license plate reader innovation that allows for the collection of plate information of passing vehicles. With this information, CBP tracks historical locations of specific cars. Often other vehicles are equipped with license plate reader cameras and collect data on passing cars.

Vigilant’s sister company, DRN, claims to have over nine billion scans in its database. DRN shares all of its information with Vigilant customers.

It is virtually impossible to avoid such a dragnet. In April, a man was convicted of dealing heroin in Massachusetts. The state used historical location evidence caught by a reader near a bridge. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the conviction.

Justice Frank M. Gaziano did warn, “Where the [automated license plate readers] are placed matters…. ALPRs ...

 

 

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