Penny Dean and Your Rights

Two former police officers were acquitted of all charges Monday in the 2011 beating death of a homeless man at a Fullerton, Calif., transit station.

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It took a single day of deliberations for jurors to reach their verdicts regarding the culpability of former Fullerton Officer Manuel Ramos and former Cpl. Jay Cicinelli in the death of 37-year-old Kelly Thomas.

<p>For the first time in open court, a federal judge has ruled that the NSA's phone metadata program, which collects information on almost all calls in the nation, <a title="Judge: NSA phone program likely unconstitutional" href="http://www.politico.com/story/2013/12/national-security-agency-phones-ju... target="_blank">is likely unconstitutional</a>.</p>

An unarmed, emotionally disturbed man shot at by the police as he was lurching around traffic near Times Square in September has been charged with assault, on the theory that he was responsible for bullet wounds suffered by two bystanders, according to an indictment unsealed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan on Wednesday.

The man, Glenn Broadnax, 35, of Brooklyn, created a disturbance on Sept. 14, wading into traffic at 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue and throwing himself into the path of oncoming cars.

<img src="http://www.opposingviews.com/sites/opposingviews.com/files/imagecache/30... align="right">A mother is furious after being banned from a Hepzibah, Georgia elementary school several weeks ago, which she says stemmed from her posting a picture on Facebook of her concealed weapons permit, WRDW reports.

“I feel like a criminal. I want to be heard. I want a public apology,” Tanya Mount said.

The parents of a young man who was attacked by the police and an unidentified police officer speak out about police brutality.

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<img src="http://bikeportland.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/ashland_lead.jpg" align="right">Just after 6:00 pm on August 15th, 35-year-old Medford resident Dallas Smith was riding in the bike lane on Main Street in Ashland when he was pulled over by Ashland police officer Steve MacLennan. The offense? Officer MacLennan claimed that Smith was riding his bicycle outside of the bike lane.

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(thanks ReasonTV)

<img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/travel.aol.co.uk/media/2012/09/toyrexfeatures1293... align="right" width="200"><p>Sheriff's deputies Tuesday <a title="Sheriff's Deputies Shoot, Kill Teen Boy With Replica Rifle In Santa Rosa" href="http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2013/10/23/sheriffs-deputies-shoot

This is the common story: bad guy committing a crime; honest homeowner has a gun; good guy stops bad guy; no shots fired; cops eventually show up to take the bad guy away.

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This scenario supports the right of the people to keep and bear arms. What is not clear is why so many politicians do not want the public to be armed.

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The video, dated Sept. 27, was recently posted to YouTube by one of the frisked pedestrians. After an officer calls out “Yo, my man,” from inside the cruiser, things quickly go downhill. The two officers allege that the two pedestrians said hi to a stranger, and in that particular neighborhood of Philadelphia, “you don’t just say ‘hi’ to strangers.”