DOJ is funding police surveillance targeting “vulnerable populations”

File under "I wish I were making this up":

The DOJ's Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) Justice Assistance Grants (JAG) website brags that DOJ bought a whole lot of GPS trackers for police in 2013. But the way DOJ describes the transfer of surveillance technology to local cops is maybe even more disturbing than the largely secret funding itself:

Tracking Devices for Vulnerable Populations:

How did they know I’m a dog?

A cartoon submission from Richard Stallman, creator of the GNU Project and founder of the Free Software Foundation:

Activist in Ferguson says cops are using license plate trackers to monitor organizers

Just heard the police are using plate scanners to look for warrants and gather info on protestors please be careful. #Ferguson

Tufts professor and former Senate Foreign Relations counsel: Take the bull by the horns to unseat the deep state

In the US system of government, is the president the decider on matters related to foreign policy and 'national security'? No, says Tufts University professor and former Senate Foreign Relations Committee legal counsel Michael Glennon.

Discriminatory government ‘terror’ programs violate our freedoms and won’t work to keep us safe

In September 2014, the University of Massachusetts at Boston held a terrorism conference where academics, police officers, FBI agents, and officials from private consulting agencies shared information about (mostly Muslim) terrorism research and threats. Among the talks and presentations at the event was this one:

‘Countering violent extremism’ or stepping on First Amendment rights?

Boston will be a launching site for the Department of Justice’s “countering violent extremism” (CVE) program. Yet the CVE model is not based on sound evidence. In the U.K., such programs have chilled Muslims’ freedom of speech and worship and have divided communities. How will CVE affect our city?

Ibragim Todashev’s mother in law protests outside Boston federal court

Today in Boston, federal Judge George O’Toole Jr. said jury selection in the Tsarnaev trial should begin on January 5. Outside the court house a number of people protested. Among them was the mother in law of Ibragim Todashev, who was killed by law enforcement in his Orlando apartment in May 2013.

Judge rules NYPD can employ CIA tactic to shirk transparency, accountability

The FBI says privacy is dangerous, but courts and state legislatures disagree

“How am I supposed to go to a judge if the third party is gagged…?”

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Greatest hits for your Friday afternoon: internet freedom activist Jake Appelbaum questions the FBI's deputy general counsel on secret Patriot Act subpoenas, called "National Security Letters" (NSLs). Appelbaum has been a target of the secret, gag-imposed orders.