Penny Dean and Your Rights

<img src="http://www.pewresearch.org/files/2015/10/FT_15.10.13_gunViolence.png" align="right" width="100">The number and rate of firearm murders has hit a new low since the sky-high gun killings during the 1990s, with California topping an FBI list despite having some of the toughest anti-gun laws on the books.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JhxFGq4_u84" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Comments about this documentary are invited. Please log in and <a href="http://www.pennydean.org/comment/reply/512#comment-form">click "Add new comment" below.</a>

While speaking to a group of police at a carefully stage-managed event in Camden, New Jersey, the president also touted some of his other efforts to exert more control over police — officers who, in accordance with the Constitution, are supposed to serve and be accountable to local communities and the wishes of local citizens, not the mandates of the White House.

FREDERICKSBURG, Tex. — The Rutherford Institute is challenging a warrantless raid carried out on a rural home by the Gillespie County (Tex.) Sheriff’s Department, which allegedly resulted in the homeowner being seized by police officers, placed in handcuffs, thrown to the ground and subsequently arrested for refusing to consent to the search of his home. In coming to the defense of Huntly and Susan Dantzler, Rutherford Institute attorneys are investigating the extent to which the Dantzler’s constitutional rights were violated by law enforcement officials.

Columbus, OH — A mother’s attempt to get medical help for a cut on her arm turned into a nightmare after a trigger happy cop showed up. The dramatic 9-1-1 recordings were just published, detailing this insane incident that happened back in June.

The nightmare began after Andrea Ellis had cut her arm on some glass and her sister dialed 9-1-1 for medical help.

“She’s bleeding all over the place!” her sister said in the call. “I need a paramedic!”

As she was on the call, her sister saw a police officer nearby and called him over for help.

Much of the information hunters give the state of North Dakota isn’t so private, Watchdog.org has learned.

When Park River resident Abraham Hankey got a bow-hunting license from the Game & Fish Department in the mail, he noticed something weird. A mailing from Pheasants Forever, of which he was never a member, also arrived — complete with the same typo in his name.

“It’s obvious my name was spelled wrong and that they gave out my name,” he told Watchdog.org in a phone interview.

<img src="http://media.breitbart.com/media/2015/09/Walmart-employee-Douglas-C.-Piz... align="right" width="200">On September 18 the Utah Supreme Court ruled that under circumstances where retreat is not possible, business policies requiring employees to disengage or withdraw when under duress cannot be used as grounds for firing an employee who takes action to protect his or her life.

Prosecutors who bend or even break the rules to win a conviction almost never face any punishment. But even given lax controls, the blatant and systemic misconduct in the Orange County district attorney’s office in Southern California stands out. In a scheme that may go back as far as 30 years, prosecutors and the county sheriff’s department have elicited illegal jailhouse confessions, failed to turn over evidence that is favorable to defendants and lied repeatedly in court about what they did.

What passes for thinking about the prevention of gun violence is not thinking at all. Thinking (as problem-solving) is a search for means that can be reasonably expected to achieve a given end. By reasonably I mean that supporting arguments can be provided to demonstrate to the satisfaction of reasonable people the connection between the means and ends. What we get from gun-control advocates is nothing like that; instead they operate on the magical belief that uttering certain words—codifying just the right incantation—will accomplish the end.

<img src="http://police-praetorian.netdna-ssl.com/article-images/endart.jpg" align="right" width="200">Michelle Tetreault's daughter didn't know what "repent" meant when she spotted a man with a sign around his neck warning "Repent! The end is near!" But she's plenty sorry now that her mom is facing a $124 traffic ticket for using her cellphone to snap a picture of the man.