Censorship with a gun.
Berkeley Police Chief Michael Meehan sent his public information officer to an Oakland Tribune reporter’s house in the middle of the night on Friday to push for changes in a story that Meehan thought was inaccurate.
Chief Meehan then twice called the reporter, Doug Oakley, and sent him numerous follow up emails urging him to alter wording in the story about a community meeting called to examine Berkeley police response to the Feb. 18. murder of Peter Cukor.
The 12:45 am visit by Sgt. Mary Kusmiss on March 9 and subsequent police demands have left Oakley disturbed and shaken.
“I haven’t slept in 24 hours,” said Oakley, who lives in Berkeley and has written about the city for six years. “It was really intimidating.”
Unbelievable jerks of 2007 are now the unbelievable jerks of 2012.
There wasn't much mention of this in the news, but this could have a huge impact on the Occupy movement:
Only days after clearing Congress, US President Barack Obama signed his name to H.R. 347 on Thursday, officially making it a federal offense to cause a disturbance at certain political events — essentially criminalizing protest in the States.
Good news for police, however, as they won't have to come up with any more ridiculous, ancient "felony" laws to charge protesters with. It would be nice if they called it what it is, a felony charge for exercising your first amendment rights.
Anonymous Hacks Abortion Clinic:
A member of the hacking group Anonymous broke into the website of Britain's biggest abortion provider because he "disagreed" with the decisions of two women he knew over their pregnancy terminations, a court heard.
James Jeffery, 27, stole around 10,000 database records containing the personal details of women who had registered with the British Pregnancy Advisory Service's site, before boasting of his crime on Twitter.
Jeffery had decided on his own not to publish the women's abortion records, because he decided that doing so would be "wrong." Yet another report claims that Jeffery may have launched cyber attacks on the CIA, FBI and Houses of Parliament.
Earlier in the week I shared the Kony 2012 video with you, The campaign, produced by the Invisible Children movement, seeks to make Joseph Kony one of the most infamous people in the world. On its website, the campaign says, "If the world knows who Joseph Kony is, it will unite to stop him. It starts here."
Shortly after the video went viral on the internet, the Invisible Children's movement began to come under intense criticism, most of which I concluded was questionable, and didn't amount to much. This, however, cannot be ignored: Tax Forms Show Invisible Children Funded By Antigay, Creationist Christian Right.
I urge you to read the full report, and watch for much more in the days to come.
