Legislation on reporting killings by police moves to Obama’s desk

Hard to call this good news given its subject, but via the Wall Street Journal, evidence that the nationwide struggle for justice is heard loud and clear in the chambers of power:

On university administrations and the surveillance state

University presidents are in unique and powerful positions, overseeing institutions that are supposed to protect and foster free critical inquiry, and serve as safe-zones for the pursuit of intellectual investigation, open debate, and dissent. That's why it's particularly disturbing to witness the transformation of Janet Napolitano from DHS director to university system president.

Executive Summary of SSCI torture report released

Today the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released the 525 page Executive Summary of its 6,700 page report on the CIA's torture and rendition program. The executive summary, which contains lots of redactions, is here, in searchable format.

Looks like Chicago PD had a stingray out at the Eric Garner protest last night

Looks like police in Chicago have a tricked out surveillance truck equipped with cell site simulators, a.k.a. Stingrays, that force nearby phones to send data to cops instead of to phone company cell towers. Did those cops get a warrant for that?

Watch ACLU and EFF support arguments against dragnet phone surveillance live

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Public school student resists malware and internet censorship

Nathan Ringo, a public school student in Minnesota, got in trouble for cracking his way around his school's censorious content blocker, which prohibits students from visiting any websites that contain profanity or nudity. As punishment he was denied access to in-school internet.

Video shows State Police officer pepper-spraying protester in the face

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A man who attended the Eric Garner protests in Boston last night has posted a video to YouTube showing him being pepper-sprayed by a State Police officer.

Kin Moy, the videographer who was sprayed, writes:

A Ferguson protester speaks

In a must-read account of the school to prison pipeline's impact on young people (primarily of color) in the United States, journalist Raven Rakia looks at the story of one young protester in Ferguson. Rakia met Frankie at the demonstrations that erupted in the wake of white police officer Darren Wilson's slaying of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in August.

NYPD also monitoring civil rights activists’ social media use

Last week I wrote about how the Commonwealth Fusion Center, a DHS funded so-called 'counterterror' intelligence center in Massachusetts run by the State Police, monitored the social media accounts of Black Lives Matter activists before and during political demonstrations.

The NYPD monitors civil rights activists' speech, too. This tweet is from last night:

DHS inspector general report finds agency violates privacy, cannot track grant spending, isn’t prepared for medical emergency

_{Image credit: Jamelle Bouie}