Justice Department to Dramatically Expand Rules Aimed at Profiling by Federal Agents

Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com In a move to address decades of concerns about the protection of civil rights, the Justice Department plans to expand its definition of racial profiling to alleviate discrimination by religion, nationality, gender and sexual orientation, the New York Times reports. Although the Bush administration banned racial profiling in 2003, it provided exclusions…

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Arizona Republic Editorial: Don’t think Border Patrol Impacts You? Arizona Republic Spells Out Reasons To Care

    By Editorial Board  The Arizona Republic You might shrug off concerns about how the Border Patrol operates. After all, it’s just the border. Migrants. Smugglers. Lawbreakers. It’s not about you and me. Well, yes it is. We hold police to high standards to protect everyone’s civil rights. Exempting the nation’s largest police force…

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FBI, Justice Department Urged to Re-Open 1985 Pipe Bombing of Arab American Group

Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Civil rights supporters are calling for the FBI and Justice Department to reopen the investigation into the 1985 killing of a prominent Palestinian American leader, Democracy Now reports. Alex Odeh was killed by a powerful pipe bomb placed at the offices of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination in Santa Ana, Calif., where he served…

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Charleston NAACP Asks Justice Department to Probe Excessive Force Against Black Men

Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Charleston civil rights supporters are calling for an investigation into a “troubling and outrageous trend” lethal police force against black men, the Post and Courier reports. Don Scott, president of the city’s NAACP, said Saturday’s shooting of a black man is one of four police-involved shootings since March 2012. Scott said officers…

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Civil Rights Group Gets Access to Phone Secret Surveillance Unit Information

Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com New documents reveal more about the FBI’s cell phone surveillance group, which has the technology to listen to anyone’s calls, Slate reports. The surveillance method was revealed in new documents received by the civil rights group, Electronic Privacy Information Center, using the Freedom of Information Act. The technology, most commonly referred to…

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Coalition of Civil Rights Groups Calls for Congressional Hearings on DEA Surveillance

Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Revelations that the DEA uses NSA data to investigate non-terrorism cases against Americans has prompted a coalition of two dozen civil rights groups to call for congressional hearings, Reuters reports. The call for hearings comes after Reuters revealed that the DEA uses telephone surveillance from the NSA to build criminal cases against…

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Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘Dream’ Speech Prompted FBI to Launch Spying Campaign

Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com While Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech inspired African Americans in 1963, the FBI was worrying aloud whether the civil rights leader was gaining too much influence and popularity, Bloomberg reports. Two months after the speech, then-Attorney General Robert Kennedy approved a campaign to spy on King in an…

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