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California Failing to Track Police Database Abuse

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By Dave Maass / Electronic Frontier Foundation

Police in California have your data literally at their fingertips.

They can sit at a computer terminal or in their squad car and check your DMV records, your criminal records, your parking citations, any restraining orders you’ve filed or have been filed against you. They can search other state databases and even tap into the FBI’s trove. If you’ve got a snowmobile, they can look up that registration too. Much of this personal data they can access through a smartphone app.   [Read more…]

Sessions Doubles Down on the War on Drugs

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By Udi Ofer / ACLU Blog

Attorney General Jeff Sessions knows that the United States is the world’s leading incarcerator. We imprison more people than any other nation in the world. But apparently he likes that distinction because he just doubled down on it, guaranteeing that more people will be locked up for drug offenses in America’s federal prisons.

Last week Sessions issued a new policy reversing the work done by former Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. to reduce long mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses.   [Read more…]

Take Action: Reform California’s Money Bail System

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By ACLU of California

Every year, California’s money bail system keeps thousands of people in jail before they get their day in court – all because they can’t afford to post bail and buy their freedom. The median bail amount in California is $50,000.

When this happens, people stay in jail for weeks, months, and sometimes years while their cases move forward, or plead guilty to a crime they may not have committed.   [Read more…]

Ghoulishness Envelops Arkansas’ Mass Execution Schedule

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Ghoulishness envelops Arkansas’ decision to pump deadly drugs into eight men over the next fortnight. Although two of the eight scheduled executions have definitively been stayed — and judges have issued orders halting the remaining six — the state has been vigorously appealing these roadblocks.

Articles about “midazolam,” the drug whose expiration date prompted Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson to schedule this unprecedented mass execution are abuzz on the internet and social media. By this point many Americans have heard or are generally aware that while midazolam is supposed to render the condemned unconscious and insensate, it has been linked to a number of gruesome and botched executions in the United States.   [Read more…]

Why is Dianne Feinstein and 15 Other Senators Still Undecided about Filibustering Neil Gorsuch?

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“Any Democrat selling out by rubber-stamping Trump’s takeover of the Supreme Court should expect to hear from their constituents loud and clear”

By Deidre Fulton / Common Dreams

Fifteen Democrats (and one Independent) remain undecided on whether to filibuster Neil Gorsuch’s nomination to the Supreme Court, according to one news outlet’s recent count.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on President Donald Trump’s nominee on Monday, April 3; Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said that a vote to confirm Gorsuch will take place on the Senate floor on Friday, April 7. The Senate goes on a two-week recess after that.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has called for a filibuster, which would force Republicans to win 60 votes for Gorsuch’s nomination. Thirty Democrats (including Independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont) have said they’ll support the filibuster.   [Read more…]

Carlsbad Leaders Use Alternative Facts to Bring in ‘Big Brother’ Stationary Cameras

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Fifty-one stationary cameras, in 14 locations, together with six mobile devices added to the ones already installed on two police cars, will soon capture the license plate numbers of all cars passing through the Carlsbad. They’ll be submitted to a national database that tracks stolen vehicles and those involved in crimes.

At its March 14 meeting, on a 4 to 1 vote, the Carlsbad city Council approved the $802,000 plan to conduct surveillance of residents and non-residents alike.

The justification for placing everyone under suspicion until they’re cleared in cyberspace was driven by a misleading police report on the city’s crime rate. Only newly-elected Councilmember Cori Schumacher challenged the numbers and the threat to privacy rights.   [Read more…]

The “Freedom Cities” Campaign: Resistance Through Progress at the Local Level

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By Ronald Newman / Speak Freely ACLU

On Saturday night, people at more than 2,200 events around the nation tuned in for the inaugural event of People Power, a new platform harnessing nationwide grassroots resistance to the Trump administration’s assault on our Constitution and our values. At the event, we announced “Freedom Cities,” a campaign that provides a concrete plan for the People Power team to play offense in cities and towns across the country.   [Read more…]

Why the Only Way to Fix the Muslim Ban Is Not to Have a Muslim Ban

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The revised executive order has the same fundamental flaws. We’re going to keep fighting it.

By Cody Wofsy, Skadden Fellow, ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project / ACLU San Diego & Imperial Counties

Today President Trump signed a new Muslim ban. The new executive order is a major retreat by the administration, reflecting that, as courts around the country have recognized, the original order was deeply flawed and totally unjustified. But the fundamental truth of this new order, like the old one, remains unchanged: The president promised to ban Muslims from the United States, and the ban is his attempt to make good on that unconstitutional and indefensible goal.   [Read more…]

The Mental and Physical Trauma of “Dreamers” Living With Deportation Threats

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After Daniela Vargas’ recent arrest, the future for DACA’s more than 750,000 recipients is more uncertain than ever. They need political support, but also safe spaces to process their anxiety.

By Annamarya Scaccia / Yes! Magazine

The migraines came out of nowhere. Nanci Palacios, who lives in Tampa, Florida, had headaches before but never with the intensity she’s currently experiencing. The back of her head throbs with pain. Her neck and shoulders become stiff. The migraines happen all the time now, Palacios said. She’s sluggish and less efficient.

Palacios also can’t sleep. She’s often anxious and her mind tends to race. At least four times a week, she’s up through the night. Often, she’s twisting and turning in bed. Palacios wears a Fitbit at night to track her sleeping patterns.

“There were periods where I was awake and I don’t remember being awake,” Palacios said. “I would wake up, and I was really tired.”   [Read more…]

ACLU Criticizes City Council’s ‘Inexcusable Failure’ to Adopt Recommendations Addressing Biased Policing In Independent Study of SDPD Data

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After pleas from the public for action on Monday, the City Council did not seize the opportunity to be a leader in addressing racial profiling.

By Norma Chavez-Peterson, Executive Director / ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties

The majority of the San Diego City Council demonstrated an inexcusable failure in leadership yesterday [February 27] in their decision to accept the 2-year independent study of police traffic stop data, but disregard its recommendations.

The Council had before them the results of an SDSU study, requested by former Councilmember Marti Emerald in 2015 to address community concerns about racial profiling by San Diego Police Department officers, wherein researchers independently examined more than 200,000 records of police traffic stops over two years. Among their findings was clear evidence of racial disparity in what happens after a driver is stopped.   [Read more…]

‘Playing Politics’ and ‘School Choice:’ Code Words for Bigotry and Ignorance

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Republicans on the San Diego City Council united yesterday to oppose an amicus brief in support of a lawsuit before the United States Supreme Court involving the rights of transgender students.

The brief supports Gavin Grimm, a transgender student suing a county district in Virginia for the right to use public facilities, including boys bathrooms, in public schools.

Support came from the council’s five Democrats. Council members Chris Cate and Mark Kersey abstained. Lori Zapf simply didn’t show up. Republican Scott Sherman, who is termed out, voted to oppose the motion.   [Read more…]

Issa Walks Back Support for Special Prosecutor

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There’s some kind of a sick and nefarious game being played out on national politics right now. It’s called, “Special Prosecutor, Special Prosecutor, Who’s Got the Special Prosecutor?”

Even as Congressman Darrel Issa walked back part of his solitary Republican call for a special prosecutor to look into Trump’s ties to Russia, White House press spokesguy Sean Spicer, was denying the need for one and that it would all be a waste of time. When pressed by a reporter to respond to Issa’s call for a special investigator, at a news briefing Monday, Feb. 27, Spicer said:

“A special prosecutor for what?”   [Read more…]

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