Daily Archives: June 26, 2014

Massachusetts police claim exemption from accountablity because they are a private organization.

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15c6042cda9b852935c1d4959afe5ba5MASSACHUSETTS – Police militarization has reached an all-time low in Massachusetts. Not only are they armored and armed as well as any military unit in Afghanistan, they apparently now are not held accountable for their actions. The ACLU of Massachusetts claims a weakness in the Massachusetts public record laws.

ACLU-Tweet-Mass

Recent tweet by ALCUM

According to articles from the Boston Globe and Washington Post, various police forces are combining into groups called law enforcement councils, or LECs.

According to Boston.Com, the ACLU requested certain records concerning the police organizations:

As part of an effort to document regional policing operations, the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Massachusetts (“ACLUM”) requested documents concerning NEMLEC’s SWAT Team and RRT in July 2012. The request sought NEMLEC’s training materials, incident reports, deployment statistics, guidelines, procurement records, budgets, agreements with other agencies and documents relating to the structure of the SWAT team and RRT.

The North Eastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council, or NEMLEC, refused on the grounds that they are a private, non-profit 501(c)3 group that is not required to produce records for the public.

The Washington Post article stated:

Let’s be clear. These agencies oversee police activities. They employ cops who carry guns, wear badges, collect paychecks provided by taxpayers and have the power to detain, arrest, injure and kill. They operate SWAT teams, which conduct raids on private residences. And yet they say that because they’ve incorporated, they’re immune to Massachusetts open records laws. The state’s residents aren’t permitted to know how often the SWAT teams are used, what they’re used for, what sort of training they get or who they’re primarily used against.

In the 2005 ruling of Gonzales v. Castle Rock, the Supreme Court ruled that police are not Constitutionally obligated to protect you even to enforce a restraining order.

A follow-up tweet by the ACLUM concerning the militarization of Mass. police.

A follow-up tweet by the ACLUM concerning the militarization of Mass. police.


SEE ALSO: Our Homes are Not Battlefields

Tanker rollover closes I-17 northbound in New River most of Thursday

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An oil tanker rollover has triggered a closure of Interstate 17 northbound in New River that is expected to last most of Thursday, according to the Arizona Department of Transportation.

Drivers traveling from Phoenix to northern Arizona destinations such as Flagstaff will need to use alternate routes Thursday through Prescott or Payson and plan for extended travel times.

The Prescott route involves using US 60 from the Phoenix area to Wickenburg, where drivers will turn onto US 93 until reaching State Route 89. Once taking SR 89 into Prescott, drivers can take SR 69 to Dewey, and then SR 169 to return to I-17.

The Payson route involves taking SR 87 from the Mesa or Fountain Hills area. About 20 miles north of Payson, drivers will turn northwest on SR 260 to return to I-17 in Camp Verde. Drivers should expect extra traffic on either of these alternate routes today due to the I-17 closure.

There is no estimated time to reopen northbound lanes of I-17 while a hazardous materials crew responds to the tanker rollover. Southbound lanes of I-17 are unaffected and remain open.