by Casey Bastian

When a criminal defendant enters a court of law, he or she is aware that the prosecutor intends to hold them accountable for any of their conduct alleged to have violated a law. The public implicitly trusts that prosecutors will likewise follow the law and act in ...

by Casey J. Bastian

For human beings suffering from mental illness, living a safe and productive life can be extraordinarily difficult. Far too often, and all across America, thousands end up in prison as a result of their conditions. Beginning in the 1950s, psychiatric institutions were criticized as inhumane and ...

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 ...

by Casey Bastian

Jamarcus Glover was offered a plea agreement on July 13, 2020, by Commonwealth attorney Tom Wine. Glover is a convicted felon with a history of drug trafficking. The plea would reduce the likely 10-year prison sentence on charges of criminal syndication, drug trafficking, and gun charges to mere probation.

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 ...

by Casey Bastian

All across America, mostly peaceful protests have advanced cries to defund the police. This increasing demand is in response to too many recent examples of law enforcement abusing its authority. Often, these acts result in seemingly avoidable injuries or deaths. So some of the more liberal cities have made promises to do just that; budgets have been slashed in several metropolitan areas.

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 ...

by Casey Bastian

In 2018, Florida electors passed an amendment to the state constitution allowing the restoration of voting rights to residents convicted of felonies. The amendment, which does not apply to those convicted of murder or sexual offenses, restored the right to any resident who completed “all terms of their sentence.” The amendment clearly mandated “completion” to include discharging any imposed parole or probation requirements. Lawmakers also interpreted the language to include full payment of all imposed fines, restitutions, and fees as part of “complet[ing]” any imposed sentence prior to reinstatement. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis chose to rely on the Florida Supreme Court for a firm interpretation of the amendment’s language and its precise requirements.

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 ...

by Casey Bastian

Most Americans are not aware that Vigilant Solutions has a product called “Law Enforcement Archival Reporting.”

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 ...

by Casey Bastian

Protests against excessive force by police continue across the country. Demonstrations escalated after George Floyd was killed on a Minneapolis street in May. Portland, Oregon, received significant attention when violent acts began overshadowing the mostly peaceful protests. In response to attempts by protesters to vandalize a federal courthouse, the federal government sent in agents to protect federal property in Portland. Inexplicably, those agents were wearing military uniforms.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Border Patrol Tactical Unit (“BPTU”), its immediate response force, arrived in Portland to quell the destructive protests. Concerns were raised when video showed the BPTU agents were recorded wearing what appeared to be U.S. Army uniforms.

Secretary of Defense Mark Esper promptly raised his concerns about uniform misappropriation to the Trump administration. “The secretary has expressed a concern of this within the administration, that we want a system where people can tell the difference,” said Defense Department spokesman Jonathan Hoffman.

Hoffman addressed concerns as early as June about certain uniforms making agents of law enforcement appear to be military personnel.

Lawmakers began demanding answers after video footage and photographs of law enforcement appearing to wear Army camouflage while confronting protestors. Many officials refused to identify ...

by Casey Bastian

Once again, a video of an interaction between a police officer and a citizen has gone viral. Thankfully, the citizen survived this encounter. Alexis Wilkins, a 20-year-old diabetic, was returning from a George Floyd protest in Cincinnati when the car she was in was stopped. Wilkins was forced out and on to the curb. For 30 minutes, Wilkins sat terrified that her Type-1 diabetes might cause a serious medical emergency. The video shows Wilkins begging the officer for her diabetic supplies.

The health of diabetics depends on uninterrupted access to insulin, snacks, pumps, glucose testing strips, or syringes on a near constant basis. If a diabetic experiences unbalanced blood sugar levels, he or she may struggle to process commands, possibly becoming erratic or aggressive.

“A decent chunk of ‘use of force’ cases involve people who ... were in some kind of physical or mental health crisis,” said Matthew Segal, legal director of ACLU Massachusetts. He added, “It’s very common for the police to deal very harshly with people who simply need help.” This issue is neither new nor infrequent.

In 1984, Dethorne Graham, a diabetic who is Black, entered a store to get juice to raise his ...