The Conscience of Abe’s Turn freedom of speech, defense, and life

As you can probably tell, I’m trying to keep it light this week. Here’s a Penn Says video about Penn’s dinner with a pornographer. The question of the evening: why might a woman act in an adult film? And an interesting possible explanation:  read more »

Under the heading of “Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?” is this funny video Radley Balko posted on his blog. Hey, at least the cop said he was sorry.

Always watching!
-TimK

A reviewer of The Conscience of Abe’s Turn called it “a fairly overblown story that my mind could not completely wrap around… I can’t understand why a group of professionals who are supposed to be so brilliant are holding protests and playing hippy saboteurs rather than just contacting the Feds and getting their problems solved.” Here’s the real-life analogue, and the real-life reason: because the Feds create problems, not solve them. Just ask Yolanda Madden’s father, interviewed in this new civil-rights video from KopBusters.  read more »

Here’s the story, as handed down by the family of Yolanda Madden:

The police in Odessa, Texas persuaded (or maybe forced) an informant to plant drugs on Yolanda Madden. This informant later testified in federal court that he had planted the false drug evidence. Other evidence (hair and urine) exonerated Yolanda. Even so, she is currently serving an multi-year prison sentence.

This is a story, of course, that many of us have heard many times before. The names and details change, but the story is largely the same. Because this is how drug prohibition works— Or rather, this is how drug prohibition fails us. If you’ve read the Abe’s Turn series, you have surely noticed it also infused with the spirit of these real-life stories.

The pattern of growing police power in order to combat fear, instead of actual crime, and Americans’ nonchalant acceptance of that power, is gradually eroding our security as free citizens. It is one of the most overlooked critical issues in American politics today.

But wait! There’s more to the story!  read more »

Brian Wilson on his radio show at WSPD yesterday talked with Jim Bovard about a recent Washington Post article about sending U.S. troops to the U.S. “The U.S. military,” according to the Post, “expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe.”

Domestic emergency deployment may be “just the first example of a series of expansions in presidential and military authority,” or even an increase in domestic surveillance, said Anna Christensen of the ACLU’s National Security Project. And Cato Vice President Gene Healy warned of “a creeping militarization” of homeland security.  read more »

In case you missed it: Another instance of truth is so much more brutal than fiction, and another example of how the so-called corruption of the fictional Abe’s Turn cannot yet begin to approach reality.

In brief, 100 police put down a peaceful protest march by Iraq war veterans at Hofstra University during the McCain/Obama debate. The veterans were marching in protest of the war and asking questions they wanted the presidential candidates to answer. A police horse trampled Nick Morgan, Iraq war veteran, on his ribs and face, breaking his orbital in three places. He was then affirmatively denied medical treatment. Much more at the links below.

Now, there’s a petition on Nick Morgan’s behalf, denouncing the treatment these veterans suffered at the hands of the Abe’s Turn cops, and demanding charges against him be dropped and a public apology be issued.  read more »

This videographer, a native of Poland during Communism, where they didn’t have “free speech” like we do, documents an anti-police-state protest and the police misbehavior that successfully quashed it. And again, The Conscience of Abe’s Turn mirrors reality. (Or is it the other way around?) Watching this video, all I could think was, That’s something the Abe’s Turn police would do. That’s something Baedes actually did! (Not exactly, but yeah, just about. Achieved the same result anyhow. It’s in episode 2.)

The documentarian sums up the following short video: “I realized that in America, you can also be wrongfully arrested and beaten, or even killed, in violation of your civil rights… This kind of incidents are signs of the death of your freedom. And when American freedom dies, what do you think will happen with the rest of the world?” Here’s the video:  read more »