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Articles by Edward Lyon

Civilian Police With Military Equipment

by Ed Lyon

During late May through the first of June 1989, citizens peacefully demonstrated for freedom in China’s Tiananmen Square. On June 4, the government’s response was to authorize a bloody rout of these peaceful protesters using soldiers, tanks, and other military resources resulting in thousands of dead citizens. Today, China refers to this as an incident.

Three years and eight months later, on February 28, 1993, agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives (“ATF”) laid siege to the Mount Carmel group of buildings belonging to the Branch Davidian Church, just east of Waco, Texas. According to survivor Thomas Cook, ATF agents driving M-60 tanks buzzed the area, running over the church members’ cars, knocking down trees, and actually “mooning” the church members.

This ended on April 19, 1993, when ATF agents rammed the 155-millimeter gun barrels of the M-60 tanks into two places of the main building and Chapel to allegedly pump tear gas into it. The “tear gas” ignited, the building burned, and scores of church members died in the conflagration. So, instead of using soldiers, ATF agents, driving weapons of war, executed a “law enforcement” action against civilians.

Twenty-seven years and one ...

New York State’s Veterans Treatment Courts

by Ed Lyon

The U.S. has been involved in Middle Eastern wars since 1990’s Operation Desert Storm until the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan under President Biden in 2020. Consequently, there are around 19 million veterans in the country today, many of them with combat experience, and many of those suffering ...

Due Processless Civil Asset Forfeitures in Houston, Texas

by Ed Lyon

Houston, Harris County, Texas, is the fourth largest city in the nation, as well as the largest city in Texas. Preceding the Blue Wave of female reformist judges elected in 2018 [See: CLN, April 2019, p.38], Democrat Kim Ogg soundly defeated the incumbent Republican by a ...

Dangers of Data Gathering by Los Angeles Police Department

by Ed Lyon

For decades, officers with California’s Los Angeles Police Department (“LAPD”) have utilized Field Information Cards (“FIC”) for reference whenever they interact with citizens. This contact may take the form of a traffic stop whether or not a citation is issued, obtaining a witness statement, or incidental to ...

California Now Able to Decertify Bad Cops

by Ed Lyon

Until recently, California was one of only four states in the union that had no mechanism to decertify bad cops. Whenever a cop was fired for misconduct there always seemed to be another police department ready and willing to hire the miscreant.

Law enforcement unions consisting of ...

Cop Gets Money for Nothing, Awards for Free

by Ed Lyon

In the early 20th century, unions were beneficial in that they pushed for safe working conditions and decent wages for the working class. The way our society has evolved, not all unions are what they seem. This seems to be especially true of police unions.

A prime ...

Current Forensic Sciences Not as Objective as Most Believe

by Ed Lyon

Television may well be the most effective propaganda tool in the world, especially when it comes to portraying forensic scientists and their laboratories as dispassionate and dedicated professionals and their laboratories as pristine and state-of-the-art on shows like CSI and FBI. Long time CLN and PLN ...

One More Reason to Dislike Your State’s DMV

For those who have suffered through seemingly endless, slow-moving lines at your state’s Department of Motor Vehicles (“DMV”), only to come up against rude, condescending, petty bureaucrats, there is a brand-new reason to dislike and fear that particular agency.  Many DMVs are augmenting their legislative budget allotments ...

Two T-shirts Cost Louisiana Man 20 Years

Guy Frank first became involved with Louisiana’s criminal justice system in 1975 at age 22. Over the next quarter century, Frank would be arrested 36 times and would be convicted several times for theft and possession of cocaine. He served a three-year prison term at one point ...

Unjust Civil Asset Forfeiture in Phenix City, Alabama

 

 

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