Roundup: ICE posts asylum seekers' personal information, Austin cops kill burglary victim, the chronic pain chronicles
Here’s your latest roundup of criminal justice and civil liberties news:
Biden administration proposes Trump-esque restrictions on asylum seekers.
Meanwhile, ICE mistakenly posted the names, birthdates, nationalities, and addresses of more than 6,000 people seeking asylum from political persecution. If you had to come up with the most devastating and consequential mistake this particular agency could possibly make, you’d be hard pressed to find a better example.
Republican state rep: Oklahoma justice system would rather kill an innocent man than admit to getting it wrong.
Trial begins for border patrol agent accused of killing at least four women.
Six police officers among 11 New York public employees indicted for defrauding pandemic relief programs.
The Texas cop who shot a teenager who was eating a burger in a parking lot has been indicted.
A St. Louis law allows courts to banish people from entire neighborhoods over petty crimes — and arrest them if they ever return.
An 82-year-old Georgia woman has been arrested for failing to pay for trash service.
Meanwhile, Denver police raided and tore apart a 77-year-old woman’s home because a stolen iPhone pinged nearby. They did not find the phone.
Officials at one of the most violent and corrupt police departments in the country say they “accidentally” destroyed records of investigations into five shootings by city police officers.
Florida sheriff holds press conference with new school superintendent he endorsed to announce new school discipline policy, then laments that kids no longer “fear getting their ass cheeks torn off” for misbehaving. This is all part of a “Mom’s for Liberty” schools campaign that has also targeted “groomers” for teaching kids that gay people exist. More on Sheriff Wayne Ivey here.
Austin police shot and killed a south Asian tech entrepreneur after someone had burglarized the man’s home. He was holding a rifle, apparently in an attempt to confront the burglar, when a neighbor called police. The officer shot the man within seconds of seeing, at virtually the same time he ordered the man to drop his rifle. The man was standing on his own porch when he was shot.
The story of how a founder of the “constitutional sheriffs” movement repeatedly broke the law to send a possibly innocent man to death row.
San Francisco police say “killer robots” will be armed with explosives, not bullets. What a relief!
Since 2020, 28 people have died at the jail in Pima County, Arizona.
The federal trial in which Florida DA Andrew Warren is asking to be reinstated after Gov. Ron DeSantis removed him from office is now underway. My column on Warren and his removal here.
The Fourth Circuit will rule on whether the First Amendment protects the right of passengers in a car pulled over by a police officer to live-stream the traffic stop. They should, and it should not be a close call.
Allowing law enforcement officials to dictate medical care has been devastating for people who suffer from chronic pain. Related: A story about two pain patients who killed themselves after federal agents shut down a pain clinic.
So far, law enforcement officers across the country have killed 20 more people this year than at this point last year.
Video of the day:
Tweet thread of the day:
This week in dog history:
On December 5th, 1927, an American Legion outpost in Washington, D.C. dedicated a statute and silver plague to “Stubby” a World War I service dog whose heroics included capturing a German spy and saving the life of a doughboy during a German gas attack. Stubby, who was also wounded in battle, met and was honored by three presidents, and sported a chamois blanket made for him by “admiring French women” during the war. Stubby died in 1926 at the age of 10.
(Washington, D.C. Evening Star, December 6, 1927)
Photo:
Morgan Freeman’s Ground Zero Blues Club, Clarksdale, Mississippi (2014)