Showing posts with label liberty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label liberty. Show all posts

Monday, January 20, 2014

Monday, August 19, 2013

threat to liberty


The American approach to law enforcement was forged by the experience of revolution. Emerging as they did from the shadow of British rule, the country’s founders would likely have viewed police, as they exist today, as a standing army, and therefore a threat to liberty. Even so, excessive force and disregard for the Bill of Rights have become epidemic in today’s world. According to civil liberties reporter Radley Balko, these are all symptoms of a generation-long shift to increasingly aggressive, militaristic, and arguably unconstitutional policing—one that would have shocked the conscience of America’s founders.

Rise of the Warrior Cop traces the arc of U.S. law enforcement from the constables and private justice of colonial times to present-day SWAT teams and riot cops. Today, relentless “war on drugs” and “war on terror” pronouncements from politicians, along with battle-clad police forces with tanks and machine guns have dangerously blurred the distinction between cop and soldier. Balko’s fascinating, frightening narrative shows how martial rhetoric and reactionary policies have put modern law enforcement on a collision course with the values of a free society.

Thursday, August 1, 2013

liberty



"When the people 


fear their government, 


there is tyranny; 


when the government 


fears the people, 


there is liberty." 


Thomas Jefferson 

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Cinco de Mayo


Cinco de Mayo has its roots in the French occupation of Mexico, which took place in the aftermath of the Mexican-American War of 1846-48, the Mexican Civil War of 1858, and the 1860 Reform Wars. These wars left the Mexican Treasury nearly bankrupt. On July 17, 1861, Mexican President Benito Juárez issued a moratorium in which all foreign debt payments would be suspended for two years. In response, France, Britain, and Spain sent naval forces to Veracruz to demand reimbursement. Britain and Spain negotiated with Mexico and withdrew, but France, at the time ruled by Napoleon III, decided to use the opportunity to establish a Latin empire in Mexico that would favor French interests, the Second Mexican Empire.

Late in 1861, a well-armed French fleet stormed Veracruz, landing a large French force and driving President Juárez and his government into retreat. Moving on from Veracruz towards Mexico City, the French army encountered heavy resistance from the Mexicans near Puebla, at the Mexican forts of Loreto and Guadalupe. The 8,000-strong French army attacked the much smaller and poorly equipped Mexican army of 4,500. Yet, on May 5, 1862, the Mexicans managed to decisively crush the French army, then considered "the premier army in the world".

The victory represented a significant morale boost to the Mexican army and the Mexican people at large. In the description of The History Channel, "Although not a major strategic win in the overall war against the French, Zaragoza's success at Puebla represented a great symbolic victory for the Mexican government and bolstered the resistance movement." The description of Time magazine was: "The Puebla victory came to symbolize unity and pride for what seemed like a Mexican David defeating a French Goliath." It helped establish a much-needed sense of national unity and patriotism. (read more)

Friday, October 19, 2012

something to live for


Necessitous men are not free men. 

Liberty requires the opportunity to make a living, 

a living decent according to the standard of the time, 

a living which gives man not only enough to live by, 

but something to live for.

Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

time will tell


Julian Paul Assange (born 3 July 1971) is an editor, activist, political talk show host, computer programmer, publisher, and journalist from Australia, currently granted asylum in Ecuador. He is best known as the editor-in-chief and founder of WikiLeaks, a media website which has published information from whistleblowers.

Assange has received numerous awards and nominations, including the 2009 Amnesty International Media Award, Readers' Choice for Time magazine's 2010 Person of the Year, the 2011 Sydney Peace Foundation gold medal and the 2011 Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism. Snorre Valen, a Norwegian parliamentarian, nominated him for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize.

In 2010, a European Arrest Warrant was issued for Assange in relation to allegations of rape and sexual assault by two women in Sweden. Assange was arrested and after ten days in Wandsworth prison was freed on bail. On 30 May 2012 Assange lost his Supreme Court appeal in England to avoid extradition to Sweden though the court gave Assange a stay of 14 days on the extradition order. This final appeal to the Supreme Court was rejected and, barring any appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, extradition was to have taken place over a ten day period commencing on 28 June 2012. On 19 June Assange entered the Ecuadorian embassy in London, asserted he was being persecuted and requested political asylum, which was granted on 16 August. However, the British government has said he will be arrested if he tries to leave the embassy. (read more)

(why the world needs wikileaks) (collateral murder)