[Justice]
As Long as Enemies of the State Keep Dying Before Trial, No One Should Trust the State
by Ted Rall
Posted September 22, 2019

The official narrative of billionaire accused pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s death shifted faster than a New York subway rider when a homeless guy plops down next to them on a hot day. First, they said Epstein had been on suicide watch, and then that he hadn’t. Prisons are full of cameras, yet there’s still no video of Epstein’s death. Then, suicide watch or not, they claimed he’d been checked on every 30 minutes. Then more like every three hours. The medical examiner said his injuries were consistent with strangulation by a second person, but then thought better of it and ruled Epstein’s convenient demise a suicide.

We don’t know how Epstein bit it but the fact of Epstein’s death tells us everything we need to know about America today. No matter what, Epstein died because the government let it happen. He was a ward of the state, the highest of high-profile prisoners, a man whose trial stood to expose extreme wrongdoing at the expense of numerous horribly violated victims, yet no one in charge took steps to make certain that he appeared at every hearing healthy and alive.

The carelessness of the powers that be reflects their confidence that they shall never, ever, be held accountable for anything. More…

[Justice]
Federal Prosecutions From #NoDAPL Movement Continue
by Unicorn Riot
Posted September 9, 2019

Almost two years after the eviction of indigenous encampments resisting the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), federal prosecutions have continued to crack down on some of those involved.

All of the federal #NoDAPL cases stem around events on October 27, 2016, when a large military and police force seized native treaty territories to evict protest encampments to make way for the route of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Pipeline company Energy Transfer Partners had purchased the land in question in a deal that was later declared illegal by state officials. More…

The Facts:
The federal government prosecuted pipeline protestors under  both the Obama and the Trump administrations.

Reflect On:
How powerful corporations get the taxpayers to pay for the police who are protecting their corporate profit interests. Consider how the “big picture” is no different regardless of whether it is a Democrat or a Republican in the Presidency.

[Justice]
More British complicity exposed in latest ‘CIA Torture Unredacted’ report
by TruePublica
Posted September 7, 2019

Between 2001 and 2009, the CIA established a global network of secret prisons (‘black sites’) for the purpose of detaining terrorism suspects, in secret and indefinitely, and interrogating them through the use of torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. The abuses which took place were severe, sustained, and in clear violation of domestic and international law. The perpetrators have never been held to account. The Rendition Project’s website (www.therenditionproject.org.uk), provide the most detailed public account to date of the CIA torture programme.

Information about CIA torture programme prisoners had to be prised out of the US military’s unwilling bureaucracy. But already at that time, there were rumours of an even more secretive programme, run in parallel by the Central Intelligence Agency outside the Pentagon’s chain of command. Press stories spoke of people abducted in the middle of the night, manhandled onto planes and never heard of again. More…

The Facts:
The US routinely kidnaps, tortures and imprisons people indefinitely without access to any trial, legal counsel, families or the media.

Reflect On:
Most people in the US consider their nation to be a beacon of justice. What sort of nation does these sort of acts? What sort of nation promotes the overseer of a torture black site to Director of the CIA?

[Justice]
After Admitting to Felony Sex Crimes, Deputy Gets No Jail, Won’t Register as Sex Offender
by Jack Burns
Posted September 5, 2019

Despite pleading guilty to committing felony sex crimes with female inmates, a California cop will get no jail time, and is not forced to register as a sex offender.

Patrick Morseman, 28, was allowed to avoid jail time even though he pleaded guilty to four counts of “sexual activity with a confined, consenting adult.”

The sex-offending cop now joins the throngs of officers who use their blue privilege to take advantage of women while in custody. Whether or not the sex is consensual is of no consequence.

The fact remains judges often side with law enforcement when cops are charged with sex crimes involving inmates. Case in point, the cop in Hawaii who admitted to raping a five-year-old girl and was just sentenced to probation — no jail. More…

The Facts:
The police in the US rarely have to face real justice for their crimes. The concept of equal treatment by the law goes out the window when the “enablers”, such as prosecutors, judges, other police officers, and a system that protect police criminality.

Reflect On:
The next time you place your hand over your heart and say the words, “liberty and justice for all”, consider whether those words really ring true, or are they just ingrained in us through repetition?

What sort of sentence would you expect to receive if you were convicted of such a crime?

[Justice]
In Secretive Court Hearing, NYPD Cops Who Raped Brooklyn Teen in Custody Get No Jail Time
by Natasha Lennard
Posted September 2, 2019

The young woman who goes by Anna Chambers on social media had just a few short words for the public on Thursday evening. “Fuck the criminal justice system,” she tweeted. Earlier that day, through a call from her lawyer, Chambers learned that the two former New York Police Department officers who had raped her while on duty would serve no jail time.

Eddie Martins and Richard Hall, the cops who resigned after the incident involving the then-18-year-old Chambers, were sentenced to five years of probation after they pleaded guilty to 11 charges, including bribery and misconduct. Both men admitted to having sex with the teenage girl while she was held in their custody in 2017, an act that, thanks to Chambers’s case, now constitutes rape under the law (and always constituted rape under any moral reading of the word).

The pleas and the light sentences — handed down in a secretive court hearing — come at the same moment that NYPD officers and their belligerent union are protesting the long-overdue firing of Daniel Pantaleo, the cop who choked Eric Garner to death. Together with the closure of the criminal case surrounding Chambers’s ordeal, it could not be more clear the extent to which police impunity continues to rein. More…

[Justice]
Mega Group, Maxwells and Mossad: The Spy Story at the Heart of the Jeffrey Epstein Scandal
by Whitney Webb
Posted August 31, 2019

The picture painted by the evidence is not a direct Epstein tie to a single intelligence agency but a web linking key members of the Mega Group, politicians, and officials in both the U.S. and Israel, and an organized-crime network with deep business and intelligence ties in both nations.

Mega Group members founded and/or are closely associated with some of the most well-known pro-Israel organizations. For instance, members Charles Bronfman and Michael Steinhardt formed Birthright Taglit with the backing of then- and current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Steinhardt, an atheist, has stated that his motivation in helping to found the group was to advance his own belief that devotion to and faith in the state of Israel should serve as “a substitute for [Jewish] theology.” More…

[Justice]
Home Equity Theft: How a Man’s Home Was Seized Over $8.41 in Unpaid Taxes
by Brittany Hunter
Posted August 23, 2019

For three years, the pair scrimped and saved in order to fix up the four-unit property. On the weekends, Ramouldo would spend his days off making the 11-hour drive from New Jersey to Michigan to work on the house, making the much-needed repairs himself. In addition to the small complex, the family had purchased a small home next door. The plan was to renovate and rent out each unit and then use that money to help Ramouldo retire and move his family to the small home in Michigan, where the rest of their extended family resides.

Erica, who had seen her father work long hours and sacrifice to provide for her family over the years, was happy to help her father buy the property. She was eager to begin building her own financial legacy and saw the property as an excellent investment opportunity.

These plans were derailed, however, when their property was seized by Wayne County, Michigan, in 2017 and sold to a private buyer. All because they unknowingly underpaid their tax bill—by $144. More…

[Justice]
Jeffrey Epstein’s Death Adds to the JPMorgan Body Count
By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
Posted August 14, 2019

JPMorgan Chase has had an uncomfortably cozy relationship with law enforcement through the years. As we reported in 2012, an employee of JPMorgan Chase (along with several other Wall Street bank employees) was allowed to sit elbow to elbow with New York City Police officers in a high-tech surveillance center dubbed the Lower Manhattan Security Coordination Center watching thousands of street-level surveillance cameras as they spied on the comings and goings of pedestrians.

As we wrote at the time, “Not only is it unprecedented for corporations under serial and ongoing corruption probes to be allowed to spy on law abiding citizens under the imprimatur of the largest police force in the country, but the legality of the operation by the NYPD itself is highly questionable.” (See 60 Minutes Takes a Pass on Wall Street’s Secret Spy Center.)

JPMorgan Chase has also through the years maintained a steady roster of former CIA and Secret Service officials. More…