Civil Rights

A Maryland teacher has been incarcerated for writing science fiction. Set 900 years from now, Patrick McLaw’s stories depict the aftermath of a school shooting — a subject that alerted the police. He was forced to take a psychological evaluation, is now barred from school property, and is suspended from his job.

How to Protect Your Phone From the Police

Police forces around the country have developed the nasty habit of confiscating the phones of citizens who choose to film them, unilaterally deleting images and video of their actions. Whether that’s a Fourth Amendment violation is still being decided by the courts; until that happens, here’s how to protect your phone from the prying eyes…

Registered Sex Offenders Are Fighting for Facebook Access

The Associated Press is reporting that registered sex offenders are fighting hard in state courts to try and gain access to social networking sites like Facebook—sites which they’re currently blocked from using to help protect against potential abuse. The legal battles are taking place across the US, in the courts of Indiana, Nebraska and Louisiana.…

7 Rules for Recording Police

Last week the City of Boston agreed to pay Simon Glik $170,000 in damages and legal fees to settle a civil rights lawsuit stemming from his 2007 felony arrest for videotaping police roughing up a suspect. Prior to the settlement, the First Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that Glik had a “constitutionally protected right…

How a Smart Photographer Beat Out a Bunch of Abusive Cops

Accredited Journalist Carlos Miller was arrested while covering the Occupy Miami eviction, following orders by Miami-Dade police’s Major Nancy Pérez. Then they deleted his footage, which is illegal and may lead to a federal lawsuit. Fortunately, Miller is smarter than these cops. He recovered the deleted footage from his camera’s memory card, part of which…

Recording a Police Officer Could Get You 15 Years in Jail

Citizens recording their public interactions with police sure seems like the kind of thing that would prevent corruption, harassment and bad behavior by cops. Just don’t do it in Illinois, where it’s punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Sixty-year-old Chicago artist Christopher Drew is currently facing an eavesdropping charge because he recorded his…

Martin Luther King In Science Fiction

Today’s the day when we celebrate the life of visionary leader Martin Luther King, Jr. But the civil-rights legend is also an important figure in science fiction… as an influence, and an occasional character. As an influence: Nichelle Nichols decided to quit playing Lt. Uhura at the end of the first season of Star Trek,…

Martin Luther King In Science Fiction

Today’s the day when we celebrate the life of visionary leader Martin Luther King, Jr. But the civil-rights legend is also an important figure in science fiction… as an influence, and an occasional character. As an influence: Nichelle Nichols decided to quit playing Lt. Uhura at the end of the first season of Star Trek,…

Apple Giving $100,000 to Oppose Anti-Gay Marriage Proposition in CA

Apple, long a proponent of gay rights, is putting its money where its mouth is, donating $100,000 to the group No on Prop 8. Proposition 8 is a ballot initiative in California that would deny the rights of same-sex couples to marry. Kudos, Apple. Apple is joining Google in publicly opposing proposition 8. It has…

United Nations Urges Human Rights for Clones (Sort Of)

Now that human clones are everywhere, how should we treat them? It’s not just Clonaid asking anymore. The United Nations has just released a policy report saying that if we cannot reach global consensus on banning human cloning, we’ll have to cope with a world full of human clones. And you know what that means.…