Phoenix police raid home of blogger whose writing is highly critical of them, page 1
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Topic started on 3-4-2009 @ 01:54 AM by The_Tick

Phoenix police raid home of blogger whose writing is highly critical of them


www.azcentral.com
In what should send a frightening chill down the spine of every blogger, writer, journalist and First Amendment advocate in the United States, Phoenix police raided the home of a blogger who has been highly critical of the department.

Jeff Pataky, who runs Bad Phoenix Cops, said the officers confiscated three computers, routers, modems, hard drives, memory cards and everything necessary to continue blogging.

The 41-year-old software engineer said they also confiscated numerous personal files and documents relating to a pending lawsuit he has against the department alleging harassment - which he says makes it obvious the raid was an act of retaliation.

Maricopa County Judge Gary Donahoe signed the search warrant that allowed at least ten cops to raid his home in North Phoenix on March 12 while handcuffing his female roommate for three hours as they tore the place apart.

Pataky, who was out of town on a business trip during the raid, also believes police were retaliating against him for the content of his blog, much of it which comes from inside sources within the department.

“They broke into my safe and took the backups of my backups,” he said in a phone interview with Photography is Not a Crime on Wednesday.

“I can’t even file my taxes because all my business plans are gone. They took everything.”

The search warrant lists “petty theft” and “computer tampering with the intent to harass” as probable causes. He has yet to see an actual affidavit that lists in detail the probable cause and is skeptical that one even exists.
(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
digg.com
badphoenixcops.blogspot.com


reply posted on 3-4-2009 @ 07:24 AM by Raist
Well partly to thank for this is the family who worked on getting legislation passed because of the MySpace suicide ordeal. Remember they didn’t want anyone bothering others over the internet. While I agree it was a bad thing and the other adult was stupid there is more to that story than a simple few posts. But no one listens to normal people anymore. We now need laws to protect us from ourselves and make up for our obvious lack of common sense. So this is where the now said harassment could have come from, by posting “abusive” material about the police.

As for the petty theft that sounds strange unless someone is saying that he stole an idea of theirs and claimed it as his own. In other words plagiarism, it could be he used an image or even some wording without giving credit to the owner of said material.

I really do not know enough about the guy to say for sure if these are possible. I can say though that a lot of things can be done over the computer that at one time only a few years ago where no big deal, but because of many new laws being passed they have now become illegal. Mostly I think of the harassment stuff. Plagiarism though seems to be something that is becoming more popular (even the POTUS does it, though he got away with it). I agree do though think that something should be done about plagiarism.


It will be interesting to see the outcome of the signed search warrant. If the judge screwed this one up he/she will face repercussions as well. His will be worse than those the police will have to face. Most of those doing the warrant will most likely have known nothing about the case other than the fact they were supposed to serve it and collect evidence or possible evidence. Though at least one officer should have known something about the case prior to this.


Raist


reply posted on 3-4-2009 @ 07:34 AM by uplander
reply to post by TwiTcHomatic



I think you are absolutely right here in your advice to people.

When the police do this kind of thing it usually just drives people to either shut up or publish in secret.

Most people will shut up and decide that this harrassment and intimidation is not worth the effort.

But there are people, bless their hearts, that cannot be shut up. They will not back down no matter the cost. They will be the noted ones when our history is written.
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