The Goat Pen

A group of Capitol Hill residents and businesses filed a class-action lawsuit Wednesday against the city of Seattle for the “extensive harm” they’ve faced as a result of CHOP, or the Capitol Hill Organized Protest.

Demonstrators have occupied several blocks around the Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct and Cal Anderson Park for about two weeks, since the police left the precinct following standoffs and clashes with protesters calling for racial justice and an end to police brutality.

Calfo Eakes LLP, the law firm representing the group, said in a statement the lawsuit is “not a step (their) clients have taken lightly,” adding that they stand with the Black Lives Matter movement and support demonstrators’ right to free speech and assembly. The plaintiffs include owners of apartment buildings in the area and local businesses such as Car Tender, Northwest Liquor and Wine, Sage Physical Therapy and Tattoos and Fortune. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.

“This lawsuit does not seek to undermine CHOP participants’ message or present a counter-message,” the lawsuit says. “Rather, this lawsuit is about the constitutional and other legal rights of Plaintiffs … which have been overrun by the City of Seattle’s unprecedented decision to abandon and close off an entire city neighborhood, leaving it unchecked by the police, unserved by fire and emergency health services, and inaccessible to the public at large.”

In a statement to The Seattle Times, a spokesperson for the City Attorney’s office said they haven’t received the lawsuit yet, but when they do, they will “review it and respond accordingly.”

The lawsuit blames the city for aiding CHOP occupants by providing them with stronger barriers, public restroom facilities and medical supplies. It also mentions that residents and business owners now have difficulty accessing their buildings, receiving deliveries and providing services to customers, with elderly and disabled community members facing magnified obstacles.

“The result of the City’s actions has been lawlessness,” the Calfo Eakes statement said. “There is no public safety presence. Police officers will not enter the area unless it is a life-or-death situation, and even in those situations, the response is delayed and muted, if it comes at all.”

Toledo makes almost $8m a year from traffic cameras

Ohio Sumpreme court says cities must magistrate camera citations in municipal court and cover the cost of court fees.

This ruling essentially kills the financial incentive of traffic cameras, so they are face with either eliminating them, operating them at zero revenue or significantly increasing the fine for being caught.

none of that is overly interesting to me but I bothered to google fu how many cameras Toledo has. They have 21 cameras.

What a fucking racket - 21 cameras bringing in $8m a year in revenue with zero overhead costs after the first year.

The EU has 450 million people, the US 330 million. The EU had 4,000 new virus cases yesterday - we had 36,000. Of course the European's are going to restrict travel from the US. To them, we're a very bad joke. "15 to zero."

"American exceptionalism was not supposed to mean this." - Tom Friedan, former Dir. CDC

it is a contest?

I think its pretty clear at this point Americans in general don't have the same level of concern for Covid-19 as other countries.

Maybe that's a reflection of Trump or maybe its just Americans are sick of being under quarantine.

Well there's an example of possible police reform. Is it really right for the police to look at law enforcement as a revenue stream? Obviously that's the way it's been for a long time (forever?) but is that really what law enforcement should be about, making money? How is that any different from a shakedown scheme by the mob? Keep the cameras up, so what if the local municipality doesn't make any money, it seems like if you automate traffic violations people would learn pretty quickly that they can't get away with speeding or running red lights or whatever other piddly traffic laws are in place. Then everyone is safer. Isn't that what laws are supposed to be in place for?

"Maybe that's a reflection of Trump or maybe its just Americans are sick of being under quarantine."

Well, it looks like we're going to be quarantined from traveling to Europe (and probably other places also)...

I will say I don't like the idea of camera everywhere issuing tickets for minor traffic violations (or anything else, really), but it seems like the technological cat is out of the bag on that one at this point...

its the precursor to AI being introduced as part of the judicial branch.

7.4 @ 21 cameras is roughly $350K per camera each year.

The cameras probably cost $80K a piece so they pay for themselves in 4 months give or take and I would guess they have a life span of 8-12 years

I'm generally fed up with all of these local revenue streams. I had to pay $260 for a permit to put a roof on my house - a roof that was already existing, I'm just replacing the shingles. They didn't even inspect it.

Sleepy Joe is up by 14 points. Cue the fat lady.

A new ruling today by a vote of "7 to 2" Trump can deport asylum seekers with out a court hearing over turning the 9th circuit court.

that wasn't even close, and I think that proves the 9th circuit is just making their own interpretation without caring about the law.

Former Vice President Joe Biden appears to have “personally raised the idea” of investigating Michael Flynn for potentially having violated the obscure Logan Act during his phone calls with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, according to newly filed court papers Wednesday.

The previously sealed document also says that former President Barack Obama told top members of his administration that “the right people” should investigate Flynn.

But then-FBI Director James Comey acknowledged during the meeting — which also involved Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates and possibly national security adviser Susan Rice — that Flynn’s conversations with Kislyak “appear legit,” according to the Washington, DC, federal court filing by Flynn’s defense lawyers.

The revelations are contained in handwritten notes prepared by disgraced ex-FBI Agent Peter Strzok that Flynn’s lawyers called “stunning and exculpatory evidence” in the government’s since-abandoned case against President Trump’s former national security adviser

According to Strzok’s notes, it appears that Vice President Biden personally raised the idea of the Logan Act,” defense lawyers Jesse Binnall and Sidney Powell wrote.

”That became an admitted pretext to investigate General Flynn.”

The revelation contradicts Biden’s claim of total ignorance regarding the Flynn probe when he was vice president, which he was asked about during a May 12 interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.

"that wasn't even close, and I think that proves the 9th circuit is just making their own interpretation without caring about the law."

I think this statement proves you're just making your own interpretation of how often the 9th Circuit gets overturned. From Wikipedia (and I'm sure easily verified by any other source you care to consult):

"Some argue the 9th Ciruit's rulings are reversed by the Supreme Court at a higher rate than other courts. For example, in 2018, President Trump claimed that the Ninth Circuit "is overturned more than any Circuit in the Country, 79%."[6]

From 1999 to 2008, of the 0.151% of Ninth Circuit Court rulings that were reviewed by the Supreme Court, 20% were affirmed, 19% were vacated, and 61% were reversed; the median reversal rate for all federal appellate courts was 68.29% for the same period.[7] From 2010 to 2015, of the cases it accepted to review, the Supreme Court reversed around 79% of the cases from the Ninth Circuit, ranking its reversal rate third among the circuits; the median reversal rate for all federal circuits for the same time period was around 70 percent.[8]

Some argue the court's high percentage of reversals is illusory, resulting from the circuit hearing more cases than the other circuits. This results in the Supreme Court reviewing a smaller proportion of its cases, letting stand the vast majority of its cases."

So basically in the 20 year period b/w 1999 and 2008, the Supreme Court only chose to review 1.5 cases out of 1000 from the 9th Circuit, and only reversed 61% of those, meaning that over 999 cases out of 1000 that the 9th Circuit ruled on were the final say. I'd say that's a pretty good track record. Only a blind partisan could interpret that as the 9th Circuit "making up their own interpretation and not caring about the law"...

I was specifically referencing immigration

A 29-year-old Greek-American was killed by police in New York’s borough of Queens, after a neighbour misreported that he was carrying a gun inside his own home.

George Zapantis, who suffered from bipolar, was in his basement dressed as a gladiator and was carrying a samurai sword when police arrived at his house on 150th St just before 9:30pm.

When police entered the house, they ordered Zapantis to drop the sword, but when he refused to, they tasered him. As they attempted to handcuff him outside of the house, police tasered him again.

It is suspected he died of cardiac arrest in an ambulance and was pronounced dead at New York-Presbyterian Queens hospital.

Upstairs neighbours Ricky Noble, 42, and his 16-year-old daughter Shakira, described Zapantis as a church-going man who took care of his 33-year-old sister with down syndrome.

The two witnesses said Zapantis was threatening no one with the sword when the neighbour called the police on him, with things escalating quickly once cops arrived. The video indicates the suspect was unarmed when finally arrested.

“There were moments where George did say that he couldn’t breath to (police), when they were pulling on his shirt,” said Shakira. “And the officers said ‘Don’t play that card, no one’s choking you.‘”

Athanasia Zapantis said the family was waiting for the results of an independent autopsy on her son’s cause of death, and expressed her frustration that police didn’t call in a social worker to defuse the situation.

“If my son was wrong…” she said. “I don’t think he was wrong at all. He had so good a heart. He was kind to everybody.”

A video taken by a neighbour show cops tasering Zapantis as they struggled with him outside the door to his apartment, with one officer shouting “Get down! You’re going to get tasered again if you don’t get down!”

A second cop is heard saying “Hit him again!” before Zapantis was tasered once more

It's Obamas fault!

"I was specifically referencing immigration"

So b/c they made one ruling you don't agree with, you see that as proof that they're just making shit up? A circuit whose overall rate of getting it right is 99.9%??

they have been defiance with White House immigration actions for quite some time.

here is the good news though...

When President Trump ticks off his accomplishments since taking office, he frequently mentions his aggressive makeover of a key sector of the federal judiciary — the circuit courts of appeal, where he has appointed 51 judges to lifetime jobs in three years.

In few places has the effect been felt more powerfully than in the sprawling 9th Circuit, which covers California and eight other states. Because of Trump’s success in filling vacancies, the San Francisco-based circuit, long dominated by Democratic appointees, has suddenly shifted to the right, with an even more pronounced tilt expected in the years ahead.

Trump has now named 10 judges to the 9th Circuit — more than one-third of its active judges — compared with seven appointed by President Obama over eight years.

“Trump has effectively flipped the circuit,” said 9th Circuit Judge Milan D. Smith Jr., an appointee of President George W. Bush.

To assess the early impact of these appointments, the Los Angeles Times interviewed several judges on the 9th Circuit. Some either declined to discuss their colleagues or inner deliberations or refused to be quoted by name, saying they were not authorized to speak about what went on behind the scenes.

To be sure, some of the new appointees to the 9th Circuit have quickly won the respect of their colleagues. But the rapid influx of so many judges — most without judicial experience — has put strains upon the court and stirred criticism among judges appointed by both Democratic and Republican presidents.

“Ten new people at once sends a shock wave through the system,” a 9th Circuit judge said.

"Because of Trump’s success in filling vacancies, the San Francisco-based circuit, long dominated by Democratic appointees, has suddenly shifted to the right, with an even more pronounced tilt expected in the years ahead."

Why are even more expected in the years ahead? And really, don't you want to judiciary to be above politics? Actually, I don't think you or most Trump supporters do want that, you want the judiciary to be a reflection of the political stance of the person that appointed them. I understand that it's kinda always been that way, but if the judiciary becomes nothing more than a mirror image of the political stance that the president that appoints them holds, we're fucked...

look at Sotomayor and tell me she is above politics, look at Ginsburg making public comments about Trump running for president. I can't imagine a Hillary presidency selecting Scotus with those two already on the court.

you only see what you want to see in regards to this stuff

when it comes to immigration the 9th district was a reflection of Obama's politics, not interpretation of our existing laws.

Sotomayor will never go against affirmative action, womens rights or any significant laws regarding immigration. How can that be justice when she is consistent in her rulings regardless of case circumstances?

for me it doesn't really matter which side started trying to stack the deck, it only matters that a side *can* stack the deck. You try to hold out for ideology in regards to justice and next thing you know Sotomayor is being appointed while saying gender and ethnicity of judges does and should influence decisions.

She is a horrible, horrible representative for blind justice.