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Gizmodo reports that the FBI has responded to an ACLU FOIA request by releasing 18 hours of surveillance video from the protests in Baltimore that followed the death of Freddie Gray in 2015. From the article:
According to the ACLU, the videos are all shot from traditional piloted aircraft. But as the ACLU points out drones can be seen in many of the videos. It's unclear if these drones were piloted by police, protesters, curious onlookers, or all of the above.
The videos, which all date from April 29, 2015 to May 3, 2015, switch from infrared (IR) to traditional camera mode and zoom in at various times -- though even at the maximum zoom it doesn't appear that any faces are clearly discernible. All 18 hours of raw video are available at the FBI's website. [The article contains the link.]
[...] After the protests occurred it was revealed in October 2015 that FBI planes using night vision and registered under fake businesses had been operating around the protest locations. This is the first time that footage from those planes has been released. As the ACLU notes, it's not clear what the FBI's records retention policy for videos like these might be and how they could be used for future investigations.
In response to an ACLU Freedom of Information Act request, the FBI has released more than 18 hours of video from surveillance cameras installed on FBI aircraft that flew over Baltimore in the days after the death of Freddie Gray in police custody in 2015. The videos, which were released to the ACLU before being posted online by the FBI this week, offer a rare and comprehensive view of the workings of a government surveillance operation. While the release of the footage addresses some questions, it leaves others unanswered.
https://www.aclu.org/blog/speak-freely/fbi-releases-secret-spy-plane-footage-freddie-gray-protests
(Score: 3, Interesting) by kurenai.tsubasa on Sunday August 07 2016, @06:42PM
Did some googling. That was a trip down memory lane and a good laugh.
I was one of three kids in our community whose parents let them go to government school
Yet another classic example of a sovereign citizen only objecting to shit when it's convenient. Did your parents pay property taxes? No? Just say the magick words! “I am an original citizen not a US citizen! I am an original citizen not a US citizen! I am an original citizen not a US citizen!” *poof* Laws I don't like no longer apply to me!
I did find a list of prosecutions of sovereign citizens [adl.org]. Here's a fun one:
North Platte, Nebraska, September 2007: Dentist and sovereign citizen Thomas Miller pleaded guilty in federal court to fraud and tax related charges related to a complicated investment scheme involving “certificates of deposit” that took in more than $2.4 million. Ironically, Miller himself was being defrauded by other con artists at the same time. During subsequent legal proceedings, Miller claimed that he was not subject to federal law because he was a member of the Little Shell Pembina Band of North America (a fictitious tribe created by sovereign citizens) and threatened to convene a grand jury to indict treasonous court officials. A psychiatrist believed Miller’s sovereign citizen arguments were indicators of a “delusional disorder” and he was ruled incompetent and the charges against him were dismissed prior to sentencing.
Also this guy must have gone on to join the IOC:
Dane County, Wisconsin, February 2008: Sovereign citizen Bryan D. Hoel was sentenced to a year in jail after being convicted for criminal slander. Hoel had filed a $600,000 bogus lien against a state revenue department investigator who was investigating a state tax case against Hoel. Hoel claimed that his name was trademarked and that the investigator “violated” the trademark by using his name without his permission. Wisconsin has the oldest bogus lien law in the country, as public officials had been repeatedly victimized in the past by members of the Posse Comitatus.
Plenty of other nutters at that link.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 07 2016, @07:54PM
My parents were not sovereign citizens. In fact, my dad worked for a local community college. We just happened to live in a sovereign community that grew up around us. Property came cheap ($1k/acre) and there was a huge lake in the middle. Easy peazy for people to move in. My parents paid taxes, were law-abiding, and nobody objected to our presence in the community. Live and let live. Our family is Montagnard and nobody cared because we minded our business and worked hard (and many of them had served with our people during the Vietnam/Lao/Cambodian wars). I had many friends in the community, none of the parents were racist. There was one way in and one way out of the community, a dirt road that was never maintained. We lived the side farthest from any paved road and it took maybe 30 minutes to get home once we left pavement. Most people had generators and solar panels, and we were better off than the rest of the area when Hurricanes Fran and Floyd came through.
Sheriffs refused to patrol our neighborhood though and the State/county left matters to the community to decide. Of course no school busing. There were many shootouts, like the television show Justified.