Tag Archives: civil liberties

Do free societies suffer tragedies?

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On Twitter Politico quotes from a statement issued by President Obama in response to a shooting at a public event held by Representative Giffords, which has claimed many casualties including the Congresswoman (her prognosis is reported to be surprisingly positive, having suffered a gunshot to her head) and at least a few fatalities among them as I draft this.

@politico: #Obama: Such a senseless and terrible act of violence has no place in a free society http://politi.co/fQmggR

What does that mean? Assuming even the best of intentions, does that sentiment mean much in the context of remarks from a contemporary President of the United States?

In trying to give those words meaning, these questions come to mind:

What does that imply about society? I don’t take it for granted that we live in a free one, if that was an implied premise.

Do I even agree with the statement? What does a free society need to endure, lest it stop being free?

I think we must consider the idea that a free society is going to have to accept some level of tragedy. We also need to consider how much tragedy is a function of an unfree society. I’m not sure the most vocal people who seize podiums and microphones want a free society or even understand what they want.

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FOIAing special police operations in DC

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The Washington Post reports that Partnership for Civil Justice has filed a FOIA request on the Federally-backed “Safe Streets task force” that is operating in DC, and which is implicated in allegations of an unjust shooting of a suspect they were pursuing this past week.

“The residents in the District have a right to know exactly who is operating on their streets, under what authority, and who is authorized to use force,” said Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, a co-founder of the group.

Verheyden-Hilliard and the Partnership gave myself and a colleague at the time some initial consultations when we were considering pursuing legal action against the city (we ended-up working with ACLU-affiliated representation). The Partnership for Civil Justice seems to have fought a long-standing and principled battle for civil liberties in the District of Columbia, where Federal powers seems to trump local power, and local power seems to think it is bigger than it is — with the a frequent effect of constricting movement and speech of civilians. She, as it seems everyone at the Partnership is, is also involved in the activist group ANSWER, whose tactics and tone I’ve found myself disagreeing with (while sharing many overlapping issues of concern).

NSA reportedly intercepting “all” email.

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Now, this is vague second or third or fourth-hand knowledge, but we think it comes from a credible source. We’ll all know this evening. NBC camera man Jim Long says he’s shooting an interview with the “foremost author on [the] NSA.” We think that means James Bamford, who has a pretty solid track record. In this interview the subject (assumed to be Bamford) says all email is intercepted.

We’ll know if it is Bamford, and presumably more context and details, tonight.

It’ll be curious to see how far the Obama administration’s transparency schtick sticks when it comes to dealing with these allegations.
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