Tonight the non-profit advocacy organization Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) hosts a national security themed town hall featuring presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, moderated by NBC’s Matt Lauer. Here are some basic facts you probably won’t hear from...
Last week, Massachusetts State Police officials working in tandem with National Guard drug eradication agents flew a black helicopter above the Cape and Islands and then raided an elderly Martha’s Vineyard farmer’s property to seize his marijuana plants. The man, 81 year-old Paul Jackson,...
In conversations about civil liberties reform, we often come face to face with the inescapable fact that our world and our issues are interconnected. It’s not possible to fully address systemic racism in the criminal system without also addressing economic injustice. Drug...
People across the country are protesting police violence and white supremacy. Over the past few days, hundreds have been arrested in cities across the nation, from San Francisco to New York City to Baton Rouge. Below are the two most important things protesters...
Last week, the Boston Globe reported that former Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney Christina Corda lost her sex discrimination lawsuit against her former employer, the county DA. Corda, 34, had alleged that District Attorney Dan Conley fired her because she repeatedly raised the...
The Sunlight Foundation has ranked Massachusetts among the worst states in the nation on government transparency. Journalist Joshua Eaton’s recent correspondence with the Boston Police Department shows just how absurd that secrecy looks on the ground. In June 2014, fellow Boston-based muckraker Evan...
On June 26, 2014, Muckrock contributing editor Evan Anderson filed a public records request with the Boston Police Department seeking emails between BPD officials and employees of the National Security Agency (NSA). More than two months later, the police told Anderson he would...
Today the ACLU of Massachusetts testified before the state legislature’s Joint Transportation Committee in support of proposals to regulate law enforcement and corporate use of license plate readers and the data they produce. If you haven’t heard of license plate readers, here’s...
West Springfield, MA, population 28,137, has two grenade launchers. Why? https://t.co/TLH5S8EZ6E — ACLU Massachusetts (@ACLU_Mass) July 6, 2014 Back in the summer of 2014, the ACLU of Massachusetts published a report about the militarization of the police. Based off of publicly available materials and...
A police officer is not immune from accountability after he points a gun at a non-threatening person, with his finger on the trigger and the safety off, and accidentally fires. So ruled the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston last week, in...