Keeping up with Paul Hetznecker

"Pre-Crime "and the Danger of "Risk Assessments"

Monday, September 12, 2016

By Paul J. Hetznecker

“Pre-crime” derived from the science fiction novel and movie “Minority Report,” describes the efforts of a futuristic police agency to identify and eliminate “the criminal” before the crime is committed. This enhanced method of law enforcement is no longer just a dystopian nightmare, but an important feature of the emergent police state.

The science fictional “Pre-crime,” has been re-defined as a “risk assessment,” a present day data driven, computer based form of profiling. As far back as the 1920’s “risk assessments” have been used to create “scientifically” based methods of predicting future criminal behavior.

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The First Amendment and The Surveillance State On Full Display During the Conventions

Friday, August 19, 2016

By Paul J. Hetznecker

Last month during both the Republican National Convention in Cleveland and the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, the federal government declared each of these conventions as “National Security Events.” Following months of planning in conjunction with these declarations, the government designated large areas of public space as “national security zones,” excluding protestors, as well as the general public from large segments of each city. As far back as the 1980’s the federal government’s effort to undermine the First Amendment rights of protesters encompassed a number of controversial measures. In advance of the political conventions the federal government, coordinating with state and local law enforcement agencies, would create “protest zones” cordoning off areas far from the conventions sites designated for protest activity. In classic “Orwellian” double speak, these “free speech zones” were essentially “speech prisons” or islands of dissent, clearly marked “cages” far from the convention sites, political candidates, corporate benefactors and the media, designed to marginalize and ultimately silence the voices of democracy. Although legal challenges to the protest zones have been mixed, many protesters have ignored the courts pre-convention restrictions re-affirming the historic lesson that First Amendment rights cannot by curtailed by governmental institutions.

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The History of Police Brutality in Philadelphia

Monday, July 25, 2016

By Paul J. Hetznecker

The recent deaths of Philandro Castille and Alton Sterling at the hands of police has brought renewed national attention to the issue of police brutality. Unfortunately, for the families of Jamil Moses Belton Lomax, Hassan Pratt, Albert Purnell, Bryan Jones and Brandon Tate, all killed by Philadelphia Police officers in the past several years, their names have not received the same attention from the national media. Link Police brutality in Philadelphia has been a decades old, systemic problem. Documented in numerous reports, including the United States Commission on Civil Rights, 1981, Link Human Rights Watch 1998, Link, The Ceisler Report , Link and more recently the Justice Department, Link, police misconduct has been an integral part of the culture of the Philadelphia Police Department for decades.

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