Police Prisons & Repression

Surprise bill for interstate fusion center data sharing pops up Tuesday; Specs found for Harris StingRay & KingFish cellphone tracking devices

Law enforcement's latest move at the Minnesota State Capitol is to try and slide SF3163 / HF3651 through the noise. Quietly introduced as "law enforcement data from other states classification" just days ago by Sen. Mee Moua (DFL-St. Paul) and Rep. John Lesch (DFL-St.Paul Attys Office), the short bill would allow state law enforcement authorities to release virtually anything without any oversight to other states, and compartmentalize what they receive from other states under their external data classifications!

Roundup: Police Chief Dolan's Reappointment Approved 8-5

Friday at Minneapolis City Hall, Tim Dolan was reappointed as Chief of the Minneapolis Police Department by an 8-5 vote over widespread community opposition. Dolan’s original appointment in 2006 was approved 12-1, and since then his department has overseen the repression of dissent before and after the 2008 RNC; multiple police killings of people of color including Fong Lee; several expensive settlements resulting from false arrests, taser use, and police brutality; the Metro Gang Strike Force scandal; and a culture of disrespect for the law as it applies to police and for the human rights of Minneapolis residents.

Eight Reasons the Iowa A.L.F. Investigation is a Fraud

Five years after the Animal Liberation Front raids the University of Iowa, the government launches a prosecution that is a fraud on its face | From Voice of the Voiceless

In late-2004, morning workers arrived at the Spence Laboratories to find $450,000 in damage to equipment and 401 animals missing. Graffiti left at the scene read "Science Not Sadism" and "Free The Animals". In a long communique, the Animal Liberation Front (A.L.F.) took credit.

Scott DeMuth’s Hearing Held Tuesday; Carrie Feldman Still in Segregation

[Tuesday] morning, over a dozen supporters from Minneapolis and the Quad Cities joined Scott DeMuth, indicted for conspiracy under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA), in the Federal Courthouse in Davenport for his arraignment for the new indictment that was issued last week. There was also a hearing on numerous discovery-related motions for his upcoming trial. Scott’s attorney, Michael Deutsch, argued that the prosecution has failed to produce the discovery that the defense is entitled to under the rules. Judge Shields took the arguments under advisement and is expected to issue a ruling within the next few days.

Visiting A Modern Day Slave Plantation--An Interview With St Paul Professor Nancy A. Heitzeg

From the open publishing newswire: "Despite the supposedly benign tour at Angola, both students and I were horrified. There is a cavalier attitude, a blasé’ acceptance of capital punishment, mass incarceration and of course little critique of the class and race dynamics of the inmate population—80% of whom are black and nearly all of whom were poor, under-educated and dependent on a public defender at trial. There is passive acceptance and even sometimes celebration of Louisiana’s harsh sentences—it has the highest incarceration rate in the US—and of the fact that 90% of the inmates will die there and 80% will receive no visitors after 5 years."