ACLU's Crockford makes point at council hearing.
City Council President Ed Flynn (South Boston, South End, Chinatown, Downtown), who last year joined all his other colleagues in passing an ordinance requiring Boston Police and seven other departments to detail their use of cameras, cell-phone interceptors and other surveillance technologies, today voiced concern that forcing BPD to actually comply could result in the release of information that would help bad guys. Read more.
The ACLU's Massachusetts chapter today sued various three-letter federal agencies to try to prove the former president is, in fact, a lying liar who lies about his alleged "declassification" of those documents. Read more.
The ACLU and a private law firm have sued the city of Boston over its current program to remove tents and their occupants from Mass and Cass, saying that despite what Acting Mayor Kim Janey claims, many of the displaced people are not being put in housing or treatment programs and their property seized and destroyed, in violation of their rights against cruel and unusual punishment and for due process. Read more.
The ACLU of Massachusetts today sued the city of Boston for what the organization says is the city's refusal to turn over documents related to the planning and carrying out of "Operation Clean Sweep" - in which police swarmed the area around Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard for several days in August of 2019 after a Suffolk County corrections officer was beaten just outside the South Bay House of Corrections. Read more.
The Globe reports the ACLU of Massachusetts and other civil-rights groups have sued BPD to find out what sort of information about "noncitizen youth" that officers arrest or just question that is getting put into a database accessible by ICE.
More information from the ACLU, including a copy of the complaint, filed in Suffolk Superior Court.
The ACLU of Massachusetts this week asked a federal judge to order federal prosecutors and judges to stop sealing information about requests to unlock phone data - if they are, in fact, doing that. Read more.
The local ACLU today announced its Technology for Liberty and Justice for All program, funded initially by $2 million in donations and challenge grants from Vertex founder Joshua Boger and Akamai Vice Chairman Paul Sagan:
The city has agreed to pay Simon Glik $170,000 in damages and legal fees over the way he was arrested in 2007 while using a cell phone to record police making an arrest on Boston Common, the ACLU of Massachusetts reports.
News of the settlement of Glik's federal lawsuit comes several months after a federal appeals court ruled the officers involved could not claim immunity for doing their job because the public has the right to record police officers in public settings.
Whatever it is Suffolk Superior Court Judge Carol Ball ruled is on a subpoena issued by the Suffolk County District Attorney's office to Twitter for information about certain tweets related to Occupy Boston and possibly to the release of information about Boston police officers.
The ACLU of Massachusetts says it's looking into how people were arrested and processed following the "heavy handed" Greenway crackdown on Tuesday.
The group wants to know what BPD has been doing with video its shot at protests; filed suit in Suffolk Superior Court, along with several other groups and two people arrested at a "die-in" outside the Israeli consulate in 2009. The suit says BPD should turn over records of its surveillance efforts under the state Public Records Law.
You don't see that everyday! Tax filers who are in civil unions (or domestic or same-sex partnerships) were prevented from using TaxCut software, and had to go in person to an H&R Block office to get taxes filed. The ACLU complained, and the big green tax folks listened.
The ACLU threatens to sue the T over its photography policy - which basically says you can't - unless you've gotten a permit.
About time somebody stood up to the T bullies, who are more concerned about potentially embarassing photos exemplifying bad service than stopping potential terrorists, BadTransit writes:
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