Minnesota educators are in the news once again, and for all the wrong reasons, just as before. Last time, they were busted by the feds for knowingly allowing bullying, especially of LGBT kids. Now, they’re truly playing at authoritarian fascism:
A 12-year-old Minnesota girl was reduced to tears while school officials and a police officer rummaged through her private Facebook postings after forcing her to surrender her password, an ACLU lawsuit alleges. The claims are the latest in a string of tales showing that even password-protected, private online activities might not be safe from curious government agencies and schools. The girl, whose identity is withheld in the lawsuit, came home “crying, depressed, angry, scared and embarrassed” after she was intimidated into divulging her login information by a school counselor and a deputy sheriff, who arrived in uniform, armed with a Taser, the lawsuit alleges.
“(The student now) fears that the school could make her give up her passwords at a moment’s notice, at any time, for any reason,” the lawsuit claims. It also alleges that password prying is standard practice at the Minnewaska Middle School, which the student still attends. “(Officials) have compelled other students to disclose their private information and have accessed students’ online accounts on multiple occasions,” it states.
(via truth-has-a-liberal-bias)
occupy SF shuts down a FIDI branch of bank of america. the cops don’t like it. the cops start hurting people. including myself. i took a night stick to the chest for helping a young woman out of harms way after the cops sent her flying to the ground right in front of me. she was the second woman and peaceful protester that was thrown violently to the ground, literally right before my eyes, for simply exercising their rights. they were not a threat to the officers who attacked them. before you judge anyone please go check things out for yourself. don’t let life pass ya by.
(via cancerninja)
I figured I should write down what happened today, before I forget or before too many stories get muddled together.
My friend, my partner, and I arrived at Zucotti Park around 3 for the march, which began quickly, after everyone shared various rules. (No violence, write the phone number for legal council on yr arm, etc, etc)
We marched through lower Manhattan, and no route was specified, but we were told to not pass the head of the crowd, which was carrying a banner. Cops stood by and kept us on the sidewalk.
Then I noticed we were approaching the Brooklyn Bridge.
Cops were ushering people onto the bridge, but as I noticed we were walking into the roadway, I started to get scared. We climbed over the fence onto the pedestrian bridge. The first half of the crowd continued on the road, while the second half continued on the pedestrian bridge. Cops were flanking both sides of the entrance to the bridge and there was no way to turn back. As we walked up the elevated pedestrian bridge, we heard cops call for backup and they drove 2 police vans backwards up the bridge to where the protesters were. They stopped traffic and then brought vans in from the other side as well and trapped the protesters.
We watched from above as people began climbing the cords and metal of the bridge to escape the cops. People on the pedestrian bridge were trying to pull people up out of the roadway.
We continued forward into Brooklyn as the cops brought a net onto the bridge from the Manhattan side.
By the time we gathered into the park in Brooklyn, only a few hundred of us were left.
Cops began surrounding the park, and we all disbanded.
One of my friends was in the area where cops had people corralled. According to her Facebook updates and tweets, and other updates from trapped protesters, a child was arrested, and busses were brought in to arrest every single person. All of the men were taken first, and then all of the women.
They were told they were being arrested for disorderly conduct.
The police led them there and trapped them.
Please reblog this. People need to know what happened, and cops need to be held accountable for their actions.
(via robot-heart-politics)
