false arrest

By Stephen C. Webster, RawStory

 

Barry Cooper, a former Texas police officer who turned against the drug war and executed a reverse-sting operation against the Odessa police department, will walk free on all related charges, an attorney for Ector County announced Tuesday.

 

Cooper, perhaps the nation's best-known drug war activist thanks to his "Never Get Busted" DVDs, set up a fake marijuana grow house in Odessa, wired it for sound and video, then used an anonymous letter to bait police into a Dec. 2008 raid.

 

The letter was delivered to a local church, which eventually turned it over to police. Not long after that officers came crashing through the door. Read more »

By. John Kelly, Alternet

 

Raised in Montana and a resident of Alaska for 18 years, Robin Rae Brown, 48, always made time to explore in the wilderness. On March 20, 2009, she parked her pickup truck outside Weston, Florida, and hiked off the beaten path along a remote canal and into the woods to bird watch and commune with nature. “I saw a bobcat and an osprey,” she recalls. “I stopped once in a nice spot beneath a tree, sat down and gave prayers of thanksgiving to God.” For that purpose, Robin had packed a clay bowl and a “smudge stick,” a stalk-like bundle of sage, sweet grass, and lavender that she had bought at an airport gift shop in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Under the tree, she lit the end of the smudge stick and nestled it inside the bowl. She waved the smoke up toward her heart and over her head and prayed. Spiritual people from many cultures, including Native Americans, consider smoke to be sacred, she told me, and believe that it can carry their prayers to the heavens. Read more »

By. Jacob Hunter,

 

On Thursday, June 10, activists from the Free Marc Emery campaign went to Justice Minister Rob Nicholson's office, only to find closed and locked doors. Very shortly after our arrival, staff called Niagara Regional Police. Constable Chris Stewart arrived and informed Nicole Seguin that cameras are considered "weapons" by Niagara Regional Police. Both Nicole Seguin and I refused to ablidge Stweart, informing him of their right to film police.

 

As Constable Chris Stewart approchaed the locked door to Rob Nicholson's office, I informed Constable Stewart that we would be coming in as well, in keeping with our right to protest. Chris Stewart then turned, closed the door, then attacked, first my camera phone, and then my person. Stewart, holding on to me, shoved my violently backwards several steps onto my bad knee, which I recently had reconstructive surgery on. I twisted in intense pain, and lost my balance. Constable Stewart, highly agitated, began demanding I drop my laptop bag. After Stewart declared I was under arrest, I complied.

 

A bus-load of activists showed up shortly thereafter, and the result was a loud protest, and extremely unprofessional behaviour by the Niagara Regional Police. Eric Compton was arrested for using Hug Power to try and stop my illegal arrest. The two of us spent the next 8 hours in holding cells, while Niagara police dealt with protests outside. Read more »