Motorcycle Noise And Money

OFF THE WIRE
agingrebel.com
It is tempting for bikers to laugh off the holy crusade against “motorcycle noise” and aftermarket exhaust pipes. In the first place, the reasons for replacing the stock exhaust on a Harley are obvious to the people who do it.
Back in the day, 82 inch Shovelheads made about 70 horsepower right out of the box. Brand new 82 inch Twin Cams make about 58 horsepower. The reason for the decrease is that modern bikes are intentionally set up at the factory to run inefficiently. They must run poorly in order to meet the mileage, noise and pollution abatement goals that are mandated by a self-righteous and distant bureaucracy.
It all seems like so much red tape to most riders. Harley-Davidson does not build motorcycles that run well. Harley builds motorcycles that meet arbitrary and fatuous government standards. The standard set of improvements made to brand new motorcycles even has a name. Most people call it “the Harley tax.”
The Harley tax is the amount new owners must pay to “let the engine breathe.” The results of changing the pipes and air filter and fattening the gas to air mixture are immediate and potentially life saving. Motorcycles are small and vulnerable, so riders commonly try to stay safe by out-accelerating danger. And, factory pipes frustrate that ambition to stay alive.

Loud Pipes Save Lives

Secondly, as anybody who has ever actually ridden a motorcycle knows, Harleys are not vehicles so much as they are cloaks of invisibility. It is not simply a matter of motorists not seeing motorcycles. Drivers tend not to recognize the motorcycles they see as other motor vehicles sharing the road with them. So it is common for drivers to simply run over bikes. In the United States these collisions make the papers about 15 times a day. And, it is much harder to survive a freeway collision on a bike than in a car.
Motorcycles that are loud enough to be heard inside a sound-proofed passenger compartment are not only better able to run away from bike-blind motorists. They are also much harder to ignore. Even motorcycle cops know this.
In 2007, the city of Oakland put stock pipes on all 30 of its Harley-Davidsons. The new pipes stayed on until an Oakland cop riding a Harley with a stock exhaust was struck by a driver who said he never knew the motorcycle was there.
According to then Oakland Deputy Chief Dave Kozicki, “the decibel drop sparked a chorus of complaints from other officers, who said they felt less safe.” The department concluded, Kozicki went on to say, that “it was in the best interest of the officers to put more-audible pipes back on.”

The Noise Nuts

The campaign against “motorcycle noise” is also easy to dismiss because it is led by a bare handful of fatuous and unpleasant busybodies.
The concept of “noise pollution” was invented in 2004 by a UCLA professor of “political activism” named Ted Rueter. Rueter started a campaign called “Noise Free America” and as recently as 2005 he had to justify the concept to the left leaning digest Utne Reader. “A lot of people get off on noise and think that there’s something wrong with peace and quiet,” Rueter told the digest. “We’re still fighting a public perception that this is a trivial issue and anyone who’s concerned or interested in curbing noise is a crank.”
Other cranks became aroused when they heard Rueter’s seductive call and most of them took pains to make themselves appear more important than they actually are. The well known and often quoted group Noise Off is a guy named Richard Tur. (The spelling is not a typographical error. He actually spells his last name without the final “D.”)
A “citizen’s group” in Maine, called MECALM (Maine Citizens Against Loud Motorcycles) is a guy named Andy Ford who has a neighbor who is a state senator. A similar “grass roots organization” in New Hampshire called NHCALM is another guy named Bill Mitchell.
It is common to underestimate how important fanatics like Rueter, Tur, Ford and Mitchell are becoming. But, they are important because they are warping public perception and inspiring new laws.

New California Law

One of those is a California law scheduled to go into effect next year. It is called the “Motorcycle Anti-Tampering Act” and it was sponsored by a California State Senator named Fran Pavley. Pavley said her new law was aimed at “a few bad apples on our roads (who) are infringing on the rights of others with their illegal, attention-seeking loud pipes.” Pavley’s statement was a loathsome lie but it became true because nobody was able to contradict her.
Pavley is a former middle school teacher who represents the most affluent neighborhoods in Los Angeles and she demonstrates a tendency to treat other adults as if they are her middle school students. She is so ridiculous a person that it is also tempting to either ignore her or laugh her away. Unfortunately, she has the power to enact ridiculous laws.
Pavley’s law effectively forbids Harley owners from replacing their exhausts with better ones. The act requires motorcycle exhausts sold after 2012 to have a visible EPA stamp. The law also requires that motorcycles not exceed a sound level of 80 decibels which is 1.3 decibels quieter than New York’s tony Indochine restaurant on a quiet night as measured by the Zagat restaurant guide. It is 10 decibels quieter than a normal conversation, 30 decibels less than a lawn mower and about 15 decibels quieter than the police bikes in Oakland when they idle. Eighty decibels is also five decibels quieter than the traffic noise inside an auto with the windows rolled up.

Searches And Fines

Police departments throughout the country have eagerly jumped on the motorcycle noise abatement bandwagon. Not only is “loud” quickly becoming probable cause to detain passing motorcyclists. Ensuring that all passing motorcycles are not “loud” has become a reason to implement motorcycle road blocks. These road blocks are, in effect, dragnets that allow police to stop bikers in order to try to get something on them.
The 80 decibel limit is so arbitrary and unreasonable that it gives police a reason to stop and fine everybody. And, as everybody already knows, these fines are a growing revenue source for cities and towns desperate for cash. They are in effect, in the most literal way, highway robbery.
Money, rather than neurotics, is the main reason why motorcycle noise abatement campaigns are picking up steam. There is money in “motorcycle noise” for police and politicians.

Chris Real

There is also money in “motorcycle noise” for a guy named Chris Real.
In order to write the new California law and similar laws in cement, police must have a scientifically justifiable standard for measuring motorcycle noise. And, they must also have the equipment to make those scientific measurements. The author of the scientific procedure is an entrepreneur named Chris Real. He also makes the equipment.
The new standard for measuring motorcycle noise is titled SAE J2825. SAE used to be an abbreviation for “Society of Automotive Engineers.” It is now the trademark of a for-profit company called SAE International. SAE sets numerous standards ranging from socket sizes to the standard dimension of cargo containers. It leans heavily on independent contractors to invent its standards. Chris Real, who owns a company named DPS Technical Incrporated in Upland, California is the author of SAE J2825.
For the last year, since the California “Motorcycle Anti-Tampering Act” was signed into law, Real has been teaching the procedure he invented to cops around the country. The training in California has been subsidized by the state Office of Traffic Safety. The same state agency has also subsidized a campaign in Elk Grove, California to see how much revenue police there can generate by writing motorcycle noise tickets. The Elk Grove police have been writing the tickets for the last year. They don’t write noise tickets for jackhammers or trucks. They only write noise tickets for motorcycles.
Real’s procedure uses what Real sells. DPS Technical’s main product is a “law enforcement sound measurement kit.” The kit includes a “Sound Level Meter, ANSI Type 1 Field Calibrator, 2 vibration tachometers, measuring tape, OHV RPM testing data, spark arrester probe and case.” It also includes “certificates of calibration, personal protection equipment and field carrying case and (an) informational DVD.”
A “typical kit for field enforcement purposes,” the “PN: SLM ENV KT 1” costs $3,100.
No highway robber should be without one.

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USA - POLICE PROFILING PATCHES

OFF THE WIRE

If you ride a motorcycle and you are a member of a club, wear club support clothing or have club support stickers on your helmet or bike you probably have been pulled over by some dirty cop who has it in for anyone wearing club stuff. And during that traffic stop your rights were violated, you were treated as a criminal, had the officer make-up charges against you, lie about what happened or what you said, handcuffed for no reason, abused, degraded and spoken to with profanity, threaten, and treated with disrespect.
What the site is all about; the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution which guarantees the right to be safe from unreasonable search and seizure without probable cause and the Fourteenth Amendment which requires that all citizens be treated equally under the law.

Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
What we are fighting:
Profiling, according to the Washington State Legislature’s current policies, occurs when law enforcement targets an individual exhibiting characteristics of a class that an officer believes more likely than others to commit a crime. The practice of targeting an individual because they are riding a motorcycle or wearing motorcycle paraphernalia is a perfect example of profiling. (Definition of profiling in SB 5852 passed in 2002.) From Motorcycle Profiling in Washington State, we are fighting the fight here. It’s time to stand up and be heard.
This is the place for you to vent, share your story or ask a question.

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2 ARTICLES - 186.22 NOT TRUE & Looks like an addition to 186.22 (A)

186.22  NOT TRUE
186.22.  (a) Any person who actively participates in any criminal
street gang with knowledge that its members engage in or have engaged
in a pattern of criminal gang activity, and who willfully promotes,
furthers, or assists in any felonious criminal conduct by members of
that gang, shall be punished by imprisonment in a county jail for a
period not to exceed one year, or by imprisonment in the state prison
for 16 months, or two or three years.
   (b) (1) Except as provided in paragraphs (4) and (5), any person
who is convicted of a felony committed for the benefit of, at the
direction of, or in association with any criminal street gang, with
the specific intent to promote, further, or assist in any criminal
conduct by gang members, shall, upon conviction of that felony, in
addition and consecutive to the punishment prescribed for the felony
or attempted felony of which he or she has been convicted, be
punished as follows:
   (A) Except as provided in subparagraphs (B) and (C), the person
shall be punished by an additional term of two, three, or four years
at the court's discretion.
   (B) If the felony is a serious felony, as defined in subdivision
(c) of Section 1192.7, the person shall be punished by an additional
term of five years.
   (C) If the felony is a violent felony, as defined in subdivision
(c) of Section 667.5, the person shall be punished by an additional
term of 10 years.
   (2) If the underlying felony described in paragraph (1) is
committed on the grounds of, or within 1,000 feet of, a public or
private elementary, vocational, junior high, or high school, during
hours in which the facility is open for classes or school-related
programs or when minors are using the facility, that fact shall be a
circumstance in aggravation of the crime in imposing a term under
paragraph (1).
   (3) The court shall select the sentence enhancement which, in the
court's discretion, best serves the interests of justice and shall
state the reasons for its choice on the record at the time of the
sentencing in accordance with the provisions of subdivision (d) of
Section 1170.1.
   (4) Any person who is convicted of a felony enumerated in this
paragraph committed for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in
association with any criminal street gang, with the specific intent
to promote, further, or assist in any criminal conduct by gang
members, shall, upon conviction of that felony, be sentenced to an
indeterminate term of life imprisonment with a minimum term of the
indeterminate sentence calculated as the greater of:
   (A) The term determined by the court pursuant to Section 1170 for
the underlying conviction, including any enhancement applicable under
Chapter 4.5 (commencing with Section 1170) of Title 7 of Part 2, or
any period prescribed by Section 3046, if the felony is any of the
offenses enumerated in subparagraph (B) or (C) of this paragraph.
   (B) Imprisonment in the state prison for 15 years, if the felony
is a home invasion robbery, in violation of subparagraph (A) of
paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) of Section 213; carjacking, as
defined in Section 215; a felony violation of Section 246; or a
violation of Section 12022.55.
   (C) Imprisonment in the state prison for seven years, if the
felony is extortion, as defined in Section 519; or threats to victims
and witnesses, as defined in Section 136.1.
   (5) Except as provided in paragraph (4), any person who violates
this subdivision in the commission of a felony punishable by
imprisonment in the state prison for life shall not be paroled until
a minimum of 15 calendar years have been served.
   (c) If the court grants probation or suspends the execution of
sentence imposed upon the defendant for a violation of subdivision
(a), or in cases involving a true finding of the enhancement
enumerated in subdivision (b), the court shall require that the
defendant serve a minimum of 180 days in a county jail as a condition
thereof.
   (d) Any person who is convicted of a public offense punishable as
a felony or a misdemeanor, which is committed for the benefit of, at
the direction of, or in association with any criminal street gang,
with the specific intent to promote, further, or assist in any
criminal conduct by gang members, shall be punished by imprisonment
in the county jail not to exceed one year, or by imprisonment in the
state prison for one, two, or three years, provided that any person
sentenced to imprisonment in the county jail shall be imprisoned for
a period not to exceed one year, but not less than 180 days, and
shall not be eligible for release upon completion of sentence,
parole, or any other basis, until he or she has served 180 days. If
the court grants probation or suspends the execution of sentence
imposed upon the defendant, it shall require as a condition thereof
that the defendant serve 180 days in a county jail.
   (e) As used in this chapter, "pattern of criminal gang activity"
means the commission of, attempted commission of, conspiracy to
commit, or solicitation of, sustained juvenile petition for, or
conviction of two or more of the following offenses, provided at
least one of these offenses occurred after the effective date of this
chapter and the last of those offenses occurred within three years
after a prior offense, and the offenses were committed on separate
occasions, or by two or more persons:
   (1) Assault with a deadly weapon or by means of force likely to
produce great bodily injury, as defined in Section 245.
   (2) Robbery, as defined in Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 211)
of Title 8 of Part 1.
   (3) Unlawful homicide or manslaughter, as defined in Chapter 1
(commencing with Section 187) of Title 8 of Part 1.
   (4) The sale, possession for sale, transportation, manufacture,
offer for sale, or offer to manufacture controlled substances as
defined in Sections 11054, 11055, 11056, 11057, and 11058 of the
Health and Safety Code.
   (5) Shooting at an inhabited dwelling or occupied motor vehicle,
as defined in Section 246.
   (6) Discharging or permitting the discharge of a firearm from a
motor vehicle, as defined in subdivisions (a) and (b) of Section
12034 until January 1, 2012, and, on or after that date, subdivisions
(a) and (b) of Section 26100.
   (7) Arson, as defined in Chapter 1 (commencing with Section 450)
of Title 13.
   (8) The intimidation of witnesses and victims, as defined in
Section 136.1.
   (9) Grand theft, as defined in subdivision (a) or (c) of Section
487.
   (10) Grand theft of any firearm, vehicle, trailer, or vessel.
   (11) Burglary, as defined in Section 459.
   (12) Rape, as defined in Section 261.
   (13) Looting, as defined in Section 463.
   (14) Money laundering, as defined in Section 186.10.
   (15) Kidnapping, as defined in Section 207.
   (16) Mayhem, as defined in Section 203.
   (17) Aggravated mayhem, as defined in Section 205.
   (18) Torture, as defined in Section 206.
   (19) Felony extortion, as defined in Sections 518 and 520.
   (20) Felony vandalism, as defined in paragraph (1) of subdivision
(b) of Section 594.
   (21) Carjacking, as defined in Section 215.
   (22) The sale, delivery, or transfer of a firearm, as defined in
Section 12072 until January 1, 2012, and, on or after that date,
Article 1 (commencing with Section 27500) of Chapter 4 of Division 6
of Title 4 of Part 6.
   (23) Possession of a pistol, revolver, or other firearm capable of
being concealed upon the person in violation of paragraph (1) of
subdivision (a) of Section 12101 until January 1, 2012, and, on or
after that date, Section 29610.
   (24) Threats to commit crimes resulting in death or great bodily
injury, as defined in Section 422.
   (25) Theft and unlawful taking or driving of a vehicle, as defined
in Section 10851 of the Vehicle Code.
   (26) Felony theft of an access card or account information, as
defined in Section 484e.
   (27) Counterfeiting, designing, using, or attempting to use an
access card, as defined in Section 484f.
   (28) Felony fraudulent use of an access card or account
information, as defined in Section 484g.
   (29) Unlawful use of personal identifying information to obtain
credit, goods, services, or medical information, as defined in
Section 530.5.
   (30) Wrongfully obtaining Department of Motor Vehicles
documentation, as defined in Section 529.7.
   (31) Prohibited possession of a firearm in violation of Section
12021 until January 1, 2012, and on or after that date, Chapter 2
(commencing with Section 29800) of Division 9 of Title 4 of Part 6.
   (32) Carrying a concealed firearm in violation of Section 12025
until January 1, 2012, and, on or after that date, Section 25400.
   (33) Carrying a loaded firearm in violation of Section 12031 until
January 1, 2012, and, on or after that date, Section 25850.
   (f) As used in this chapter, "criminal street gang" means any
ongoing organization, association, or group of three or more persons,
whether formal or informal, having as one of its primary activities
the commission of one or more of the criminal acts enumerated in
paragraphs (1) to (25), inclusive, or (31) to (33), inclusive, of
subdivision (e), having a common name or common identifying sign or
symbol, and whose members individually or collectively engage in or
have engaged in a pattern of criminal gang activity.
   (g) Notwithstanding any other law, the court may strike the
additional punishment for the enhancements provided in this section
or refuse to impose the minimum jail sentence for misdemeanors in an
unusual case where the interests of justice would best be served, if
the court specifies on the record and enters into the minutes the
circumstances indicating that the interests of justice would best be
served by that disposition.
   (h) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, for each person
committed to the Division of Juvenile Facilities for a conviction
pursuant to subdivision (a) or (b) of this section, the offense shall
be deemed one for which the state shall pay the rate of 100 percent
of the per capita institutional cost of the Division of Juvenile
Facilities, pursuant to Section 912.5 of the Welfare and Institutions
Code.
   (i) In order to secure a conviction or sustain a juvenile
petition, pursuant to subdivision (a) it is not necessary for the
prosecution to prove that the person devotes all, or a substantial
part, of his or her time or efforts to the criminal street gang, nor
is it necessary to prove that the person is a member of the criminal
street gang. Active participation in the criminal street gang is all
that is required.
   (j) A pattern of gang activity may be shown by the commission of
one or more of the offenses enumerated in paragraphs (26) to (30),
inclusive, of subdivision (e), and the commission of one or more of
the offenses enumerated in paragraphs (1) to (25), inclusive, or (31)
to (33), inclusive, of subdivision (e). A pattern of gang activity
cannot be established solely by proof of commission of offenses
enumerated in paragraphs (26) to (30), inclusive, of subdivision (e),
alone.
   (k) This section shall remain in effect only until January 1,
2014, and as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted
statute, that is enacted before January 1, 2014, deletes or extends
that date.



186.22.  (a) Any person who actively participates in any criminal
street gang with knowledge that its members engage in or have engaged
in a pattern of criminal gang activity, and who willfully promotes,
furthers, or assists in any felonious criminal conduct by members of
that gang, shall be punished by imprisonment in a county jail for a
period not to exceed one year, or by imprisonment in the state prison
for 16 months, or two or three years.
   (b) (1) Except as provided in paragraphs (4) and (5), any person
who is convicted of a felony committed for the benefit of, at the
direction of, or in association with any criminal street gang, with
the specific intent to promote, further, or assist in any criminal
conduct by gang members, shall, upon conviction of that felony, in
addition and consecutive to the punishment prescribed for the felony
or attempted felony of which he or she has been convicted, be
punished as follows:
   (A) Except as provided in subparagraphs (B) and (C), the person
shall be punished by an additional term of two, three, or four years
at the court's discretion.
   (B) If the felony is a serious felony, as defined in subdivision
(c) of Section 1192.7, the person shall be punished by an additional
term of five years.
   (C) If the felony is a violent felony, as defined in subdivision
(c) of Section 667.5, the person shall be punished by an additional
term of 10 years.
   (2) If the underlying felony described in paragraph (1) is
committed on the grounds of, or within 1,000 feet of, a public or
private elementary, vocational, junior high, or high school, during
hours in which the facility is open for classes or school-related
programs or when minors are using the facility, that fact shall be a
circumstance in aggravation of the crime in imposing a term under
paragraph (1).
   (3) The court shall order the imposition of the middle term of the
sentence enhancement, unless there are circumstances in aggravation
or mitigation. The court shall state the reasons for its choice of
sentencing enhancements on the record at the time of the sentencing.
   (4) Any person who is convicted of a felony enumerated in this
paragraph committed for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in
association with any criminal street gang, with the specific intent
to promote, further, or assist in any criminal conduct by gang
members, shall, upon conviction of that felony, be sentenced to an
indeterminate term of life imprisonment with a minimum term of the
indeterminate sentence calculated as the greater of:
   (A) The term determined by the court pursuant to Section 1170 for
the underlying conviction, including any enhancement applicable under
Chapter 4.5 (commencing with Section 1170) of Title 7 of Part 2, or
any period prescribed by Section 3046, if the felony is any of the
offenses enumerated in subparagraph (B) or (C) of this paragraph.
   (B) Imprisonment in the state prison for 15 years, if the felony
is a home invasion robbery, in violation of subparagraph (A) of
paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) of Section 213; carjacking, as
defined in Section 215; a felony violation of Section 246; or a
violation of Section 12022.55.
   (C) Imprisonment in the state prison for seven years, if the
felony is extortion, as defined in Section 519; or threats to victims
and witnesses, as defined in Section 136.1.
   (5) Except as provided in paragraph (4), any person who violates
this subdivision in the commission of a felony punishable by
imprisonment in the state prison for life shall not be paroled until
a minimum of 15 calendar years have been served.
   (c) If the court grants probation or suspends the execution of
sentence imposed upon the defendant for a violation of subdivision
(a), or in cases involving a true finding of the enhancement
enumerated in subdivision (b), the court shall require that the
defendant serve a minimum of 180 days in a county jail as a condition
thereof.
   (d) Any person who is convicted of a public offense punishable as
a felony or a misdemeanor, which is committed for the benefit of, at
the direction of, or in association with any criminal street gang,
with the specific intent to promote, further, or assist in any
criminal conduct by gang members, shall be punished by imprisonment
in the county jail not to exceed one year, or by imprisonment in the
state prison for one, two, or three years, provided that any person
sentenced to imprisonment in the county jail shall be imprisoned for
a period not to exceed one year, but not less than 180 days, and
shall not be eligible for release upon completion of sentence,
parole, or any other basis, until he or she has served 180 days. If
the court grants probation or suspends the execution of sentence
imposed upon the defendant, it shall require as a condition thereof
that the defendant serve 180 days in a county jail.
   (e) As used in this chapter, "pattern of criminal gang activity"
means the commission of, attempted commission of, conspiracy to
commit, or solicitation of, sustained juvenile petition for, or
conviction of two or more of the following offenses, provided at
least one of these offenses occurred after the effective date of this
chapter and the last of those offenses occurred within three years
after a prior offense, and the offenses were committed on separate
occasions, or by two or more persons:
   (1) Assault with a deadly weapon or by means of force likely to
produce great bodily injury, as defined in Section 245.
   (2) Robbery, as defined in Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 211)
of Title 8 of Part 1.
   (3) Unlawful homicide or manslaughter, as defined in Chapter 1
(commencing with Section 187) of Title 8 of Part 1.
   (4) The sale, possession for sale, transportation, manufacture,
offer for sale, or offer to manufacture controlled substances as
defined in Sections 11054, 11055, 11056, 11057, and 11058 of the
Health and Safety Code.
   (5) Shooting at an inhabited dwelling or occupied motor vehicle,
as defined in Section 246.
   (6) Discharging or permitting the discharge of a firearm from a
motor vehicle, as defined in subdivisions (a) and (b) of Section
12034 until January 1, 2012, and, on or after that date, subdivisions
(a) and (b) of Section 26100.
   (7) Arson, as defined in Chapter 1 (commencing with Section 450)
of Title 13.
   (8) The intimidation of witnesses and victims, as defined in
Section 136.1.
   (9) Grand theft, as defined in subdivision (a) or (c) of Section
487.
   (10) Grand theft of any firearm, vehicle, trailer, or vessel.
   (11) Burglary, as defined in Section 459.
   (12) Rape, as defined in Section 261.
   (13) Looting, as defined in Section 463.
   (14) Money laundering, as defined in Section 186.10.
   (15) Kidnapping, as defined in Section 207.
   (16) Mayhem, as defined in Section 203.
   (17) Aggravated mayhem, as defined in Section 205.
   (18) Torture, as defined in Section 206.
   (19) Felony extortion, as defined in Sections 518 and 520.
   (20) Felony vandalism, as defined in paragraph (1) of subdivision
(b) of Section 594.
   (21) Carjacking, as defined in Section 215.
   (22) The sale, delivery, or transfer of a firearm, as defined in
Section 12072 until January 1, 2012, and, on or after that date,
Article 1 (commencing with Section 27500) of Chapter 4 of Division 6
of Title 4 of Part 6.
   (23) Possession of a pistol, revolver, or other firearm capable of
being concealed upon the person in violation of paragraph (1) of
subdivision (a) of Section 12101 until January 1, 2012, and, on or
after that date, Section 29610.
   (24) Threats to commit crimes resulting in death or great bodily
injury, as defined in Section 422.
   (25) Theft and unlawful taking or driving of a vehicle, as defined
in Section 10851 of the Vehicle Code.
   (26) Felony theft of an access card or account information, as
defined in Section 484e.
   (27) Counterfeiting, designing, using, or attempting to use an
access card, as defined in Section 484f.
   (28) Felony fraudulent use of an access card or account
information, as defined in Section 484g.
   (29) Unlawful use of personal identifying information to obtain
credit, goods, services, or medical information, as defined in
Section 530.5.
   (30) Wrongfully obtaining Department of Motor Vehicles
documentation, as defined in Section 529.7.
   (31) Prohibited possession of a firearm in violation of Section
12021 until January 1, 2012, and, on or after that date, Chapter 2
(commencing with Section 29800) of Division 9 of Title 4 of Part 6.
   (32) Carrying a concealed firearm in violation of Section 12025
until January 1, 2012, and, on or after that date, Section 25400.
   (33) Carrying a loaded firearm in violation of Section 12031 until
January 1, 2012, and, on or after that date, Section 25850.
   (f) As used in this chapter, "criminal street gang" means any
ongoing organization, association, or group of three or more persons,
whether formal or informal, having as one of its primary activities
the commission of one or more of the criminal acts enumerated in
paragraphs (1) to (25), inclusive, or (31) to (33), inclusive, of
subdivision (e), having a common name or common identifying sign or
symbol, and whose members individually or collectively engage in or
have engaged in a pattern of criminal gang activity.
   (g) Notwithstanding any other law, the court may strike the
additional punishment for the enhancements provided in this section
or refuse to impose the minimum jail sentence for misdemeanors in an
unusual case where the interests of justice would best be served, if
the court specifies on the record and enters into the minutes the
circumstances indicating that the interests of justice would best be
served by that disposition.
   (h) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, for each person
committed to the Division of Juvenile Facilities for a conviction
pursuant to subdivision (a) or (b) of this section, the offense shall
be deemed one for which the state shall pay the rate of 100 percent
of the per capita institutional cost of the Division of Juvenile
Facilities, pursuant to Section 912.5 of the Welfare and Institutions
Code.
   (i) In order to secure a conviction or sustain a juvenile
petition, pursuant to subdivision (a) it is not necessary for the
prosecution to prove that the person devotes all, or a substantial
part, of his or her time or efforts to the criminal street gang, nor
is it necessary to prove that the person is a member of the criminal
street gang. Active participation in the criminal street gang is all
that is required.
   (j) A pattern of gang activity may be shown by the commission of
one or more of the offenses enumerated in paragraphs (26) to (30),
inclusive, of subdivision (e), and the commission of one or more of
the offenses enumerated in paragraphs (1) to (25), inclusive, or (31)
to (33), inclusive, of subdivision (e). A pattern of gang activity
cannot be established solely by proof of commission of offenses
enumerated in paragraphs (26) to (30), inclusive, of subdivision (e),
alone.
   (k) This section shall become operative on January 1, 2014.


Looks like an addition to 186.22 (A)

186.22a.  (a) Every building or place used by members of a criminal
street gang for the purpose of the commission of the offenses listed
in subdivision (e) of Section 186.22 or any offense involving
dangerous or deadly weapons, burglary, or rape, and every building or
place wherein or upon which that criminal conduct by gang members
takes place, is a nuisance which shall be enjoined, abated, and
prevented, and for which damages may be recovered, whether it is a
public or private nuisance.
   (b) Any action for injunction or abatement filed pursuant to
subdivision (a), including an action filed by the Attorney General,
shall proceed according to the provisions of Article 3 (commencing
with Section 11570) of Chapter 10 of Division 10 of the Health and
Safety Code, except that all of the following shall apply:
   (1) The court shall not assess a civil penalty against any person
unless that person knew or should have known of the unlawful acts.
   (2) No order of eviction or closure may be entered.
   (3) All injunctions issued shall be limited to those necessary to
protect the health and safety of the residents or the public or those
necessary to prevent further criminal activity.
   (4) Suit may not be filed until 30-day notice of the unlawful use
or criminal conduct has been provided to the owner by mail, return
receipt requested, postage prepaid, to the last known address.
   (c) Whenever an injunction is issued pursuant to subdivision (a),
or Section 3479 of the Civil Code, to abate gang activity
constituting a nuisance, the Attorney General or any district
attorney or any prosecuting city attorney may maintain an action for
money damages on behalf of the community or neighborhood injured by
that nuisance. Any money damages awarded shall be paid by or
collected from assets of the criminal street gang or its members.
Only members of the criminal street gang who created, maintained, or
contributed to the creation or maintenance of the nuisance shall be
personally liable for the payment of the damages awarded. In a civil
action for damages brought pursuant to this subdivision, the Attorney
General, district attorney, or city attorney may use, but is not
limited to the use of, the testimony of experts to establish damages
suffered by the community or neighborhood injured by the nuisance.
The damages recovered pursuant to this subdivision shall be deposited
into a separate segregated fund for payment to the governing body of
the city or county in whose political subdivision the community or
neighborhood is located, and that governing body shall use those
assets solely for the benefit of the community or neighborhood that
has been injured by the nuisance.
   (d) No nonprofit or charitable organization which is conducting
its affairs with ordinary care or skill, and no governmental entity,
shall be abated pursuant to subdivisions (a) and (b).
   (e) Nothing in this chapter shall preclude any aggrieved person
from seeking any other remedy provided by law.
   (f) (1) Any firearm, ammunition which may be used with the
firearm, or any deadly or dangerous weapon which is owned or
possessed by a member of a criminal street gang for the purpose of
the commission of any of the offenses listed in subdivision (e) of
Section 186.22, or the commission of any burglary or rape, may be
confiscated by any law enforcement agency or peace officer.
   (2) In those cases where a law enforcement agency believes that
the return of the firearm, ammunition, or deadly weapon confiscated
pursuant to this subdivision, is or will be used in criminal street
gang activity or that the return of the item would be likely to
result in endangering the safety of others, the law enforcement
agency shall initiate a petition in the superior court to determine
if the item confiscated should be returned or declared a nuisance.
   (3) No firearm, ammunition, or deadly weapon shall be sold or
destroyed unless reasonable notice is given to its lawful owner if
his or her identity and address can be reasonably ascertained. The
law enforcement agency shall inform the lawful owner, at that person'
s last known address by registered mail, that he or she has 30 days
from the date of receipt of the notice to respond to the court clerk
to confirm his or her desire for a hearing and that the failure to
respond shall result in a default order forfeiting the confiscated
firearm, ammunition, or deadly weapon as a nuisance.
   (4) If the person requests a hearing, the court clerk shall set a
hearing no later than 30 days from receipt of that request. The court
clerk shall notify the person, the law enforcement agency involved,
and the district attorney of the date, time, and place of the
hearing.
   (5) At the hearing, the burden of proof is upon the law
enforcement agency or peace officer to show by a preponderance of the
evidence that the seized item is or will be used in criminal street
gang activity or that return of the item would be likely to result in
endangering the safety of others. All returns of firearms shall be
subject to Chapter 2 (commencing with Section 33850) of Division 11
of Title 4 of Part 6.
   (6) If the person does not request a hearing within 30 days of the
notice or the lawful owner cannot be ascertained, the law
enforcement agency may file a petition that the confiscated firearm,
ammunition, or deadly weapon be declared a nuisance. If the items are
declared to be a nuisance, the law enforcement agency shall dispose
of the items as provided in Sections 18000 and 18005.

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COLORADO - IRON HORSE POKER RUN 10 / 5 /2013

https://www.facebook.com/TheColoradoTherapyHorses
CALL RICHAED 970-302-5204
Love horses? Want to help our Vets suffering from PTSD? For more info, click here http://tiny.cc/qfac0w!

Horse therapy helps people surmount personal obstacles.
Working with horses can aid people dealing with anxiety, depression, grief and low self-esteem. There’s no riding involved.
 By: Carola Vyhnak Staff Reporter.,

HILLIER, ONT.—Deb Tattersall watches in amazement as her usually taciturn daughter chats easily with someone she’s just met.

“She’s completely found her voice,” Tattersall marvels. “That is totally the horses.”

Horses are Suki Tattersall’s therapist. By working with them in guided interaction, the 17-year-old is learning to overcome anxiety disorders that make her fearful of social situations and even of leaving the house.

Suki is one of a small but growing number of Canadians who are discovering the healing power of horses. In an emerging field called equine-assisted therapy and learning, horse and human are brought together to tackle a long list of mental health issues including depression, anxiety, anger, ADHD, substance abuse, eating disorders, bullying, lack of self-esteem, grief, post-traumatic stress disorder and autism.

Why horses? The intuitive animals are able to read and mirror the emotions and energy of the people around them, according to facilitators. Clients, in turn, learn to make positive changes in their lives. No riding is involved.

“It is nothing short of a miracle,” declares one GTA healing farm on its website.

Suki started equine therapy last year after conventional methods proved ineffective. Twice a week she visits Heal With Horses, a farm in Prince Edward County, two hours east of Toronto, where owner Suzanne Latchford-Kulker guides her through a series of activities.

During a recent session, Suki teams up with another client, 19-year-old Amanda Domenic, to coax a horse around an obstacle course that represents a challenge they’re working on in life. Using body language and what Latchford-Kulker calls their “voice of power,” they gain the horse’s trust and co-operation in navigating the obstacles.

The exercise is “empowering,” Suki says. “It’s like, ‘Oh, someone does listen to me.’”

Horses, she continues, “teach you a lot of self-confidence and to not let people push you around. You have to be honest. You can’t pretend with horses like (you can with) people.”

The two teens finish their session by draping themselves over a horse’s back to reduce stress and amp up the feel-good hormone oxytocin.

Suki’s four-legged teachers have become a “door to everything,” observes the online-schooled student who says she now has somewhere to go where she’s not judged.

Her mother has also noticed steady progress. “The changes are subtle yet extremely powerful,” says Deb. “I’m seeing bigger and bigger changes in her all the time.”

Latchford-Kulker, a lifelong horsewoman who’s certified as an equine-facilitated learning practitioner, explains that “the horse acts as a conduit to the authentic self.”

“You have to be honest. You can’t pretend with horses like (you can with) people.”

With talk therapy, she says, “people look to the therapist to find answers. Here they’re forced to go deep inside to find their own answers.”

She charges clients, who range from youngsters to senior citizens, $50 an hour for individual, hands-on sessions. She also does group workshops and has added an autism program to her practice.

It was a horse that found and fixed the source of a Newmarket woman’s anxiety. Kym, an artist in her 50s with a lifelong fear of horses, stood a short distance from the animal during a session at the Healing With Horses Farm in Richmond Hill. As it moved toward her, she stepped back and the horse kept advancing. But if she stood her ground, the horse stopped, then walked away.

She realized her anxiety stemmed from her failure to set boundaries with a significant person in her life.

“It came to me in an instant. It was very powerful and a very positive experience,” recalls Kym, who requested anonymity, of her “equine healing” a year ago.

Even if clients don’t know what’s troubling them, horses can bring it out, agrees therapist Michele Mihalik. She describes an interaction between a horse and a woman who hadn’t grieved her mother’s death five years earlier. Horses don’t usually cry, she notes, “but the horse actually shed three tears. The woman got clarity and came to terms with the grieving process.”

She and Janine Castelane, both practitioners with 20 years’ experience in the healing arts, added horses to their tool box with the creation of the Richmond Hill farm three years ago. Their fee schedule includes 90-minute sessions for $125.

Castelane says their herd of 12 was chosen for their “loving, gentle” nature. Even so, when you’re face to face with a big animal, “you can’t skirt around anything,” Mihalik says. “You have to deal with it.”

But if the whole idea gives rise to a “whoa” in some people’s minds, “I totally understand that,” says Lynn Thomas, executive director of Utah-based EAGALA (Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association), a professional organization she founded in 1999 that now boasts 4,100 members in more than 40 countries, including a Canadian chapter. As a mental health professional with no background in horses, Thomas became a convert after watching how equine intervention spurred “even the most resistant adolescents” to make positive changes in their life.

As a relatively new discipline that’s still in flux, equine-assisted therapy invites skepticism, concurs Sarah Schlote, a Guelph psychotherapist who’s done extensive research into the field. It doesn’t help that the occupation is “exploding like popcorn,” with practitioners who vary greatly in approach, therapeutic and horsemanship skills, credentials and training, she adds.

While the newly formed National Association for Equine-Facilitated Wellness has established a credential system, it’s still a “very tricky” field for consumers to navigate, says Schlote, who sometimes uses horses in her own practice.

But for Suki Tattersall, the path is clear. She’s even acquired her own therapy horse, Teddy, for the journey.

Tips for finding an equine-assisted therapist

Finding the right equine-assisted therapist calls for “buyer beware,” advises certified psychotherapist Sarah Schlote. You may want to ask:

What is their scope of practice? Is the therapist a social worker, counsellor, teacher, coach?

What training, education and experience do they have?

What horsemanship skills and equine-assisted experience do they have?

If they lack experience with horses, do they work with an equine professional?

Are they certified and/or affiliated with a professional body?

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PIC OF THE DAY

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Leah Uncensored..

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USA - Your Phone Is Tapped

OFF THE WIRE

agingrebel.com
Privacy is dead in the new and improved America. The New York Times thinks this is news.
A reporter named Eric Lichtblau ran a feature in the premier national newspaper Sunday that led with the recently disclosed fact that American police made “a startling 1.3 million demands for subscriber information last year…seeking text messages, caller locations and other information in the course of investigations.” You can read Lichtblau’s report here.
The statistics about cell phone surveillance in the Times piece were gathered by Representative Edward J. Markey, a traditional Democrat from Massachusetts who is one of the co-chairmen of the Bipartisan Congressional Privacy Caucus. Markey told the Times he was shocked by what he learned. “I never expected it (the extent of the surveillance) to be this massive,” he said.
Markey also told the Times that he was alarmed about the possibility that “digital dragnets” might compromise the privacy of Americans. “There’s a real danger we’ve already crossed the line,” Markey said.
Duh-uh.

Statistics
For cell phones only, AT&T gets 700 requests a day for phone data from American police. Two-hundred-thirty of those requests are “exigent” and do not require the snooping policeman to get either a court order or a subpoena. Sprint gets 1,500 police requests for data each day. Cricket, a wireless carrier most people have never heard of got “42,500 law enforcement requests last year.”
Markey asked for the cell phone data of nine American companies: AT&T, C Spire, Cricket Communications, MetroPCS, Sprint, T-Mobile, TracFone, U.S. Cellular and Verizon. The data requested included text messages and locations. The number of phones affected is probably much greater than 1.3 million for two reasons. First the police demands are so frequent and routine that cell phone companies can not adequately account for all the requests they get. Additionally, each request may intrude on many callers as when police request all the information relayed through a cell phone tower.
The Times reported: “As cell surveillance increased, warrants for wiretapping by federal and local officials – eavesdropping on conversations – declined 14 percent last year to 2,732, according to a recent report from the Administrative Office of the United States Courts…. The diverging numbers suggest that law enforcement officials are shifting away from wiretaps in favor of other forms of cell tracking that are generally less legally burdensome, less time consuming and less costly.”
Lichtblau also mentions what he describes as a “muddled” Supreme Court ruling last year that forbid police to attach GPS locators to cars and monitor them without a court order. However, in most cases police do not need a warrant to monitor the GPS locator in a cell phone. The only way to turn those monitors off is to turn the phone off.
The Times story closes with a warning that police departments may be “keeping those records indefinitely in internal databases.”
Again, duh-uh.

Not Just Cell Phones
This was the second report by Lichtblau for the Times on the issue of cell phone surveillance. The Markey request for cell carrier records was prompted by a Times report last year. You can read that report, titled “Police Are Using Phone Tracking as a Routine Tool” here.
The issue of police spying on citizens using social media, emails and even Predator spy drones has promulgated dozens of major stories so far this year. David Kravets of Wired Magazine has been following the issue of electronic surveillance for more than a year. Earlier this month Kravets reported on demands by prosecutors and police for data on twitter users.
Last February, before the Times joined the hunt, Kravets reported on a “covert internet and telephone surveillance method known as pen register and trap-and-trace capturing.” The two techniques are used to capture “non-content information of outbound telephone and internet communications, such as phone numbers dialed, and the sender and recipient” and often the subject line for private emails. By law the Department of Justice is required to inform Congress about the number and nature of these requests but has apparently not done so since 1999.
The reports to Congress are mandated by the 25-year-old Electronic Communications Privacy Act. Kravits describes that as a, “…law (that) had once protected Americans’ electronic communications from the government’s prying eyes, but it has become so woefully outdated that it now grants the authorities nearly carte blanche powers to obtain Americans’ e-mail stored in the cloud, such as in Gmail or Hotmail – without a court warrant.” The February article states this surveillance is commonly carried out by the “Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Marshals Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.”
Most of this information is collected as part of the International War on Terror and is authorized by the Patriot Act. The act, extended by Congress in 2011, allows wiretaps without identifying a target or the method of communication to be tapped, allows any person to be monitored for any reason and allows secret warrants for business records of any kind.

Fusion Centers And War Rooms
The larger and more important issue that both Wired and the Times miss is why this information is collected, what happens to it after it has been archived and why.
Of those three issues the easiest to explain is the last – why. The information is collected and archived because any distinction that once existed between police forces and between the military and civilian police is already irrevocably blurred. Police already talk about themselves as if they were soldiers in a war. And, the war on terror continues because victory has been defined in ludicrous terms – such as bringing feminist values to Afghanistan and annihilating every, last terrorist. Since that job is impossible both federal and local police and prosecutors have participated in this great campaign by targeting “transnational terrorists” including street gangs, motorcycle clubs, right wing militias, fundamentalist Mormons, the Tea Party and the Occupy Movement.
Secondly all of this personal, private information collected by police departments, bureaus and agencies is permanently stored in both fusion centers and war rooms.
Fusion Centers are joint enterprises of the Department of Justice which includes the FBI, the DEA, the Marshalls and the ATF, and the largest federal police department, the Department of Homeland Security. The centers began to appear in 2003 and they have become omniscient. Nevada for example, the seventh largest but only the 35th most populous state, has three fusion centers.
War rooms are both intelligence repositories and traffic control centers for federally defined High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas. There are now so many domestic spies that a key function of War Rooms is to keep track off all these informants, prevent them from conflicting (or shooting) each other, and feed their Reports of Investigation into the great Amazon of domestic intelligence. There is no longer a meaningful distinction between information collected by small town cops and the Department of Justice. It all ends up in the same, top-secret, computer network.
The point of these centers is to collect every credit card transaction, the time and location of every license plate on every major road, every legally and illegally tapped telephone conversation, text message and email, every public record, every secret police report, every social network comment, every blog post and much more into enormous databases that are constantly mined for hidden patterns. This data mining is a variation on the ancient Hebrew mystical art of Gematria – a kind of fortune telling.
These war rooms and fusion centers represent a radical departure from the values and ideas of men like Louis Brandeis who once wrote: “The makers of our Constitution undertook to secure conditions favorable to the pursuit of happiness. They recognized the significance of man’s spiritual nature, of his feelings and of his intellect. They knew that only a part of the pain, pleasure and satisfactions of life are to be found in material things. They sought to protect Americans in their beliefs, their thoughts, their emotions and their sensations. They conferred, as against the government, the right to be let alone – the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men.”
Data collection and mining, war rooms and fusion centers exist because the last two administrations and the last four Congresses have decided that the security of the United States can no longer depend on a free and informed citizenry. America’s very survival now depends on domestic spies and fortune tellers. And these fusion center data sets are now so huge that the fortune tellers, or analysts, who mine them usually find exactly what they want to find.

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Babe`s of the DAY..... This is 18 and older. Rest assured I will offend you and rest assured I don't give a fuck! If you don't like crude hum or and think you will report me don't like my page. For those with the ability to laugh and take a joke welcome.

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USA - Police Using License Plate Reader Surveillance to All Track Drivers

OFF THE WIRE
 Susanne Posel
Occupy Corporatism
You are being watched!!!
 Find out how police departments use surveillance endeavors on Americans by recording license plate numbers as drivers pass by to strengthen their information databases without foreknowledge by the public. Police Using License Plate Reader Surveillance to All Track Drivers
Share This Article: http://www.occupycorporatism.com/police-using-license-plate-reader-surveillance-to-all-track-drivers/
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has documented how police departments use surveillance endeavors on Americans by recording license plate numbers as drivers pass by to strengthen their information databases without foreknowledge by the public.
Over 26,000 pages were gathered through researching public records and the Freedom of Information Act (FIOA) to conclude that nearly 600 local and state police departments in 38 states across America, including the District of Columbia, are participating in this scheme.
Millions of digital records have been amassed using this system that gives enforcement agencies the ability to locate any car at any time. The scanners are able to “capture images of passing or parked vehicles and note their location, uploading that information into police databases. Departments keep the records for weeks or years, sometimes indefinitely.”
Using automatic license plate readers (ALPR) surveillance technology, there is a clear and “startling picture of a technology deployed with too few rules that is becoming a tool for mass routine location tracking and surveillance.”
The ACLU relayed in a statement that “the documents paint a startling picture of a technology deployed with too few rules that is becoming a tool for mass routine location tracking and surveillance.”
More disturbing is that “private companies are also using license plate readers and sharing the information they collect with police with little or no oversight or privacy protections. A lack of regulation means that policies governing how long our location data is kept vary widely.”
High-speed cameras are used in conjunction with software to analyze photographs wherein license plate numbers are retrieved. The data is compared to “hot lists” of plate numbers and produces an instant alert when a match, or “hit,” registers.
The ACLU explains: “License plate readers would pose few civil liberties risks if they only checked plates against hot lists and these hot lists were implemented soundly. But these systems are configured to store the photograph, the license plate number, and the date, time, and location where all vehicles are seen — not just the data of vehicles that generate hits.”
Effectively, hot list information is gathered from the National Crime Information Center (NCIC).
The ACLU admonished that this practice violates our 4th Amendment rights because “systems are configured to store the photograph, the license plate number, and the date, time, and location where all vehicles are seen — not just the data of vehicles that generate hits.”
This enables the enforcement industry to create “s police to create “a single, high-resolution image of our lives.”
Catherine Crump, chief author of the ACLU report said: “At first, we didn’t think it posed much of a privacy problem.”
Upon examination of the documents, the ACLU was able to reveal “a system that triggered a real-time alert to the presence of a stolen vehicle, or a car linked to a fugitive, and that seemed acceptable. But then the group realized police were storing the license plate scans — whether or not there had been a ‘hit’.”
The Portland City police department (PCPD) has joined with those agencies that are tracking drivers and recording license plates.
The PCPD has 16 cameras attached to their cars that are armed to work with the surveillance software and database network.
Sargent Pete Simpson of the Portland Police Bureau explained that the PCPD has “scanners on patrol cars for several years. He said police use the scanners to alert officers if a car is stolen or if the owner of the car has a warrant for their arrest.”
The PCPD retains “the data for a minimum of 30 days and a maximum of 40 years. The data is also only accessible by police.”
According to the ACLU report: “The documents show that many police departments are storing for long periods of time huge numbers of records on scanned plates that do not return ‘hits.’ For example, police in Jersey City, N.J., recorded 2.1 million plate reads last year. As of August 2012, Grapevine, Texas, had 2 million plate reads stored and Milpitas, Calif., had 4.7 million.”




VIDEO 
 ACLU challenges police on license plate scanners 
 http://youtu.be/HgNik2UaZ78

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Questions About Your Rights? DURING Traffic Stop

OFF THE WIRE

Keep in mind that while certain laws and police practices vary from state-to-state, our information applies to practices that apply in all 50 states.
General Questions

What are my rights at various “checkpoints”?

29 points on reddit

There are four general types of checkpoints you might encounter: DUI checkpoints, US border checkpoints, drug checkpoints, and TSA checkpoints. In a legal sense, they are not all created equal. So depending on which one you encounter, you’ll want to be … Continued

General Questions

When can police use drug dogs?

submit

In Illinois v. Caballes, the Supreme Court ruled that police do not need reasonable suspicion to use drug dogs to sniff a vehicle during a legitimate traffic stop. This decision stems from the case of Roy Caballes, who was pulled … Continued

General Questions

What if police say they smell marijuana?

2 points on reddit

If police say they smell marijuana, you’re in a tough situation. Courts have ruled that the odor of contraband gives officers probable cause to perform a search. For this reason, police are quick to claim that they smell something and sometimes they might even lie about it. … Continued

Traffic Stop

What are the rights of passengers during a traffic stop?

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Traffic stops typically occur as a result of suspected moving violations committed by the driver of the vehicle. Passengers cannot be held responsible for the driver’s conduct and are generally free to leave, unless police become suspicious of them during the course of the stop. … Continued

Traffic Stop

When can police search your car?

submit

Police may ask you a series of questions. They will probably include something like, “You don’t mind if I have a look in your car?” Beware of that question: It’s the legal loophole that the officer wants to snare you in. … Continued

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OFF THE WIRE

This document communicates how to effectively stand-up for your rights. Take from it what you find valuable to your situation. This is a working document and we welcome your input so that we can all learn from each other. It was created by Pete Eyre, Kelly Patterson and Clyde Voluntaryist (it does not speak for others involved at the decentralized CopBlock.org).

Know Your Rights: A Primer

Live and let live – it’s an adage that, if put into practice, would help eliminate the need for these precautions. But right now some folks are putting faith into a badge idea – arbitrary authority. Fortunately, ideas have consequences.

Interacting with police employees

Always document exchanges you have with police or those that you witness, preferably via video, if possible. Even better, stream the interaction in real-time to the Internet using a free smartphone application (see: http://copblock.org/apps). This prevents it from being erased or tampered with should your equipment be stolen by police. In addition, it can increase the speed with which word can get out should you need outside support.
Filming your interactions has several advantages. Most importantly, it will help to safeguard you at that moment, as it very-likely will deter potential aggression, and it will act as an indisputable, objective, transparent record of the incident. The deck is usually stacked against you in cases which come down to just your word against theirs.
Ask “Am I being detained?”
This question is important for several reasons. One is that certain rules regarding evidence that can be collected are dependent on whether you have been officially detained and whether the person stopping you has sufficient cause to detain you in the first place. Getting them on record regarding these issues can aid you greatly in the future if contesting such evidence becomes necessary.
Another reason to ask this is that it will serve as an indicator to the police employee you are interacting with that you are aware of your rights. While this doesn’t always make a difference, letting them know that you understand those rights and are willing to assert them will sometimes make them less likely to disregard them.


If you’re told “No”, then you can leave the scene. Sometimes, discretion is the better part of valor.
If you’re told “Yes”, stay calm, cool, and collected. You can choose to remain silent or you can choose to engage.
Police employees default to being on the offensive. Strive to be calm, cool and collected, while confident – knowing that you’ve not acted in the wrong and in fact it is they who acting with hostile. Ask yourself: what is reasonable.
Always strive to deescalate situations, and thus increase the likelihood you’ll leave under your own volition rather than under the control of a stranger. It will also allow those who may later view video of the interaction to easily and clearly see just who is the aggressor. A video recording means that facts can be shared immediately with a large number of people; you can move more-quickly to the next stage, thus making it more-likely they’ll support you if needed and be more-likely to speak out against injustice themselves.
Police employees can and do lie – something that courts have ruled is perfectly acceptable – in an attempt to solicit information from you or to get you to admit to engaging in an action they believe gives them the right to kidnap and cage you (even though said action may not cause a victim). Be aware of this and act accordingly.
In fact, police employees are actually trained in methods of deception designed to trick people into giving up their rights and/or cooperating against themselves and or their friends. They are taught to act friendly as if they want to help you in order to gather information, which eventually could be used against you or others. In addition, they are instructed to phrase questions in a way that they sound like statements (I’m going to _____, okay?) in order to trick you into giving consent.
If you do engage, answer questions with questions. Ask, “Where is the victim?”, “Why do you believe you have the right to prevent my freedom of movement?” etc. Treat the police employee no differently than you would someone not wearing the same costume who approached and questioned you.

If you get arrested

Police employees often make arrests they know to be without merit, simply as a way to harass those who question their authority. Several vague “go-to” charges are often used for such purposes including, but not limited to, disturbing the peace, trespassing, obstruction, interfering with an officer/investigation, failure to follow lawful orders, etc. In cases involving police brutality, charges of resisting arrest and/or assaulting an officer can often be used to justify the police employees own use of force (having the unbiased and unimpeachable witness that video represents is especially crucial in this instance).
They know there is usually very little chance they will be held accountable for such tactics. In most cases, the charges are later dismissed, but that doesn’t eliminate the time and indignities suffered by their victims during even a brief period within one of their cages. Pushing back against this culture of abuse is important both to protect your own rights and deter its future use against others.
Don’t panic. The world won’t end. Now is the time to engage in damage control and move-forward to mitigate any further harassment and to seek accountability for the real aggressors.
Write down a detailed summary of what unfolded. Create an objective overview that will bring someone totally unfamiliar with the incident up-to-speed.
You may have an inclination to put this off until later, but it’s actually very important to do so while the incident is fresh. Details that are now clear will become forgotten with the passage of time. Plus, you’ll see just how useful making time to tackle this really is when you realize that it’s actually a time-saver. Instead of repeating the same story multiple times to different people, you can just point them to your write-up.
Where did the interaction happen? What was going on immediately prior to the interaction? What was the date and time? Who were the parties involved? What were their badge numbers, employers, contact information? What was given as rationale for stopping you? What was said during the exchange?
Share your overview at http://copblock.org/submit

Document, Document, Document

Obtain as much related information as possible. The more comprehensive you are, the less-likely it is that frivolous charges will be levied against you and the more-likely it is that charges will be dropped.
Submit a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request (note that this is known by different names depending on the area). Inquire of the police department if they have a form for this – they usually do not. Don’t fret. Just write and submit your own. Include a sentence or two overview of who you are, the information sought, and your contact information.
You can use the text below as a template:
“To Whom It May Concern:
“This document is to serve as a Freedom of Information Act request. Please provide to me any and all content, including but not limited to dashcam video and related audio, dispatcher logs, police reports, internal memos, related departmental policies, from the incident that occurred on DATE at LOCATION involving YOUR NAME & CASE NUMBER/CHARGES IF KNOWN. Also, please include any and all information related to the number, date, and outcome of complaints made against POLICE EMPLOYEE NAME/BADGE NUMBER.
“YOUR NAME PRINTED
YOUR PHONE NUMBER
YOUR MAILING ADDRESS”
Or utilize this much-more thorough FOIA request template shared by Virginia Cop Block
When submitting the FOIA request film the exchange. Or better yet, have a friend accompany you who can film. The more transparency the better.

Ask for a receipt, or a signed/stamped copy of your FOIA request.
Inquire to learn the legislated time-limit the police department has to respond to your request (often five-ten days). Due to the inefficiency of the bureaucratic, centralized police department, you may be contacted during that time-frame to inform you that an extension is needed.
Note that you can be charged for copying fees of documents, video and other content. Be sure to state when you submit the FOIA request that you want to have the ability to review everything before it’s taken/paid for. That way, if dozens of pages of unrelated material are included, you won’t be on the hook.
Add the information gotten from the FOIA request to your post about the incident as an update. If you have access to a scanner, scan the documentation and save it to http://scribd.com. You can create a free account there if you don’t already have one.
Win in the Court of Public Opinion
If you’ve done nothing wrong don’t be afraid. Instead, voice as loudly and clearly as you can, the rights-violations you suffered and continue to face due to the actions of the police employee and prosecutor.
Demand a jury trial, even for something as trivial as a speeding ticket. Currently about 95% of cases are plead out before that stage. That does nothing to disincentivize the same or a greater level of police statism. If we each stood-up for what we knew was right, it’d frankly be impossible for this level to continue, and in fact it would lessen until it reached the point where no one claimed extra rights based on their attire.

Related resources:

• NeverTakeaPlea.org
• Don’t Take the Plea Deal
• Jury Nullification: Why you should know what it is
• The Magic Words: A Know-Your-Rights Mixtape

Work to get your situation on the radar of others. Create an event for a Call Flood.
Share pertinent information so others can easily get on the same page. Cultivate media contacts and share them as well. Encourage others, who have a grasp on your situation thanks to your write-up, and inclusion of relevant pictures and/or video, to call on your behalf and demand justice.
It’s not uncommon for court dates to be pushed back or for the “prosecutor” to stack threats against you. While court employees might hope such tactics will wear you down, point to such tactics as examples of their inability to make right by dismissing the charges levied at you and calling-out the real aggressors.
Court is called “legal land” for a reason. It’s an environment void of logic and common sense. Where public officials who purport to be acting to obtain justice in reality act to safeguard themselves and their colleagues. Don’t be surprised at or let yourself get worn down by their actions. Stand on your conscience and know that, at the end of the day, you did no harm. Not only will this resonate with you but it will embolden others to speak out and do what they know is right, until one day, the harassment meted out by those with badges, and the double-standards others afford them, are no more.
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Connect with others who know that badges don’t grant extra rights http://copblock.org/groupsHaving support on the ground in these situations can be critical.

Check out all documents in the “Know Your Rights” Collection housed at http://scribd.com/copblock
Educate yourself: http://copblock.org/knowledge

At the end of the day, if you did nothing wrong then you should not be afraid to speak the truth. As we each stand-up we’ll empower others to do the same, and together, we’ll get there.

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