Issues

U.S. House passes bill to collect DNA from innocent people

May 19, 2010 - 4:03pm

The U.S. House passed wih no debate today HR 4614, a bill which seeks to mandate the collection of DNA samples from people who have been convicted of no crime.

Another dubious database

March 2, 2010 - 5:59pm

The NYPD has stopped, harrassed and frisked nearly three million people without probable cause over the past six years.  Bob Herbert has more in the New York Times:

Police Department statistics show that 2,798,461 stops were made in that six-year period. In 2,467,150 of those instances, the people stopped had done nothing wrong. That’s 88.2 percent of all stops over six years. Black people were stopped during that period a staggering 1,444,559 times. Hispanics accounted for 843,817 of the stops and whites 287,218.

More money for 'fusion centers'

February 24, 2010 - 4:07pm

The Obama Administration's Attorney General this week enthusiastically endorsed the Bush Administratoin's police-state creations known as "fusion centers."  These operations centers merging federal, state and local police agencies have come under fire for targeting the Administration's political enemies as potential terrorists. 

San Mateo County judge hears testimony in cell phone privacy case

February 21, 2010 - 6:54pm

REDWOOD CITY — It's now up to a San Mateo County Superior Court judge to decide whether to set a legal precedent on the powers police have to search a person's cell phone following arrest.

After nearly three and a half hours of testimony and arguments Thursday afternoon on the legality of Daly City police officers' search of an identity theft suspect's iPhone, Judge John Runde said he will consider the case and issue a ruling.