September 17, 2010
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
For full article, click here.

Nearly nine years after a federal judge ordered California to protect mentally disabled inmates in state prisons, those inmates are still being beaten, robbed and deprived of food and sanitation, the judge said Thursday in refusing to lift the decree.

13 September 2010

Tens of thousands of detainees held without trial in Iraq, many of whom were recently transferred from US custody, remain at risk of torture and other forms of ill-treatment, Amnesty International said in a new report launched on Monday.

New Order, Same Abuses: Unlawful detentions and torture in Iraq details thousands of arbitrary detentions, sometimes for several years without charge or trial, severe beatings of detainees, often in secret prisons, to obtain forced confessions, and enforced disappearances.

There will be a brief hearing for Francisco
Torres on Friday, September 17 at  9am  at 850 Bryant St.

Atty
Gen. Jerry Brown and the state of California have spent more than 2 million
dollars to prosecute this 39 year old case based on  torture.  Over
the past four years, broad and powerful support for the SF 8 has resulted in
charges being totally dropped for Ray Boudreaux, Richard Brown, Richard O'Neal,
Hank Jones and Harold Taylor.  Jalil  Muntaqim and Herman Bell
received no additional time to their sentences.

From Time Magazine
For original article, click here

Government agents can sneak onto your property in the middle of the night, put a GPS device on the bottom of your car and keep track of everywhere you go. This doesn't violate your Fourth Amendment rights, because you do not have any reasonable expectation of privacy in your own driveway — and no reasonable expectation that the government isn't tracking your movements.

From Alternet.com
For original article, click here.

Radical Eco-Activist Imprisoned for 'Friending' Someone on Facebook
Who knew that accepting a Facebook friend invitation could be a parole violation?
September 1, 2010

From Indybay.org
For original article, click here.

Hate Crimes Against Homeless Outnumber All Other Hate Crimes Combined
by Edward Campbell

Man with history of mental illness denied bail and suffers jailhouse beating
Last Updated: Monday, August 30, 2010 | 6:53 PM ET
By Zach Dubinsky, CBC News

Two months after he was pulled over in his car, surrounded by two dozen police officers and arrested for having a crossbow near the G20 zone in downtown Toronto, a 53-year-old man with mental-health issues is still in jail.

by Cheryl Corley
September 1, 2010

If the government can record citizens, why can't citizens record the government? That's the question posed by a Chicago artist who faces prison for recording the sound of his own arrest.

Drew is a free-speech advocate; his State Street appearance was part of an ongoing protest against a Chicago law restricting where artists can sell their wares. A Chicago police officer noticed Drew in the off-limits area, and told him to move along.

From examiner.com.
For the original version of the article, click here.

U.S. District Court Judge Richard Kopf denied Edward Poindexter a
hearing on a new trial request exactly 40 years after the funeral of
the Omaha, Nebraska police officer he is accused of killing.

From Alternet.com

One in five prisoners who are victims of assault are raped on their first day in prison. Let me repeat that. One in five are raped on their very first day of incarceration. And that doesn’t even begin to tell the whole story of prison rape. For example, contrary to popular myth, more prisoners reported sexual assaults involving prison staff (2.8 percent) than other inmates (2.1 percent). And women are more likely to be victimized than men.