America's Supremes are notoriously hard right. Equal justice under law is just a figure of speech. Rule of law principles and egalitarian fairness don't matter. Power politics corrupts the High Court. It lacks legitimacy.

By Nikos Raptis - February 21, 2013

The owners of the world and their proxies in the various parts of the world, historically had two main tools to protect their "property", the professional soldier and the policeman...[T]he policeman has the "privilege" to attack, fully armed, his unarmed enemy; the citizen...He has the "privilege" to shoot and ask questions later. Finally, and most importantly, he has the "privilege" of full protection by his employer and "owner", no matter what his...crime.

By Alan Gilman - 1 March 2013

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca has been named “Sheriff of the Year” by the National Sheriffs' Association...The Los Angeles Sheriffs Department...had been embroiled in a series of scandals involving rampant abuse of inmates in the county jail, the existence of secret gangs within the department, racial harassment by deputies...and for having given special treatment to Baca’s friends and supporters.

By Laura Gottesdiener - February 28, 2013

Police violence in South Africa has been increasing rapidly. In 2008-2009, the police killed more than 500 people in the country, double the number from only a few years earlier...Police violence culminated last summer, when the police began shooting workers engaging in a strike — killing 34 unarmed plantation miners.

This video -- with commentary in French -- captures several minutes of footage of Montreal police charging protest lines.

State terrorism is official Israeli policy. Torture and cold-blooded murder define it. Arafat Jaradat is Israel's latest victim. He died wracked in pain Saturday.

By Michael Stapleton - 25 February 2013

Three witnesses in a grand jury investigation into acts of vandalism during May Day protests in Seattle last year remain incarcerated for refusing to answer questions about the political activities of people they know. None of the three — Matthew Duran, Katherine Olejnik, and Matthew Pfeiffer — are accused of participating in any criminal act.

By BEN ROSENFELD - Counterpunch Weekend Edition

The reality, too well known to the marginalized and dispossessed, but little known to their affluent fellow citizens on the other side of town, is that modern paramilitary police operate with virtual impunity, in a vacuum of both institutional accountability and societal ignorance and apathy. They patrol the urban streets with a siege mentality, regularly harassing and administering street justice to people they know wouldn’t dare complain, or whose word wouldn’t stack up against theirs anyway.

February 22, 2013 - Vancouver Media Co-op

With the 170 million dollar installment of the fare gates, the Transit Police's ridiculously above average wage and a $27 million dollar annual budget, you would think they would be in high spirits and excited to criminalize the poor by handing out tickets and hassling riders? Nope, these bastards are complaining about their morale slipping because of "negative" reports by the mainstream media.

By James Ridgeway - February 24, 2013

...[O]therwise progressive labor unions [further] America's addiction to mass incarceration. In terms of prisoners rights in general, and solitary confinement in particular, unions are seen as a major obstacle to more-humane conditions...[U]nions have fought proposed facility closures and the establishment of programs that would divert offenders into treatment and other lockup alternatives. They have frequently opposed reforms that could affect their members' autonomy, including oversight programs designed to curb abuses by prison employees.

By Greg Grandin - February 19, 2013

It seems that, between 9/11 and the day George W. Bush left the White House, CIA-brokered torture never saw a sunset...All told, of the 190-odd countries on this planet, a staggering 54 participated in various ways in this American torture system...No region escapes the stain. Not North America...Not Europe, the Middle East, Africa, or Asia. Not even social-democratic Scandinavia...No region, that is, except Latin America.

America is no democracy. It never was an isn't now. Obama enforces police state harshness. It's official policy. Lawless entrapment reflects it. Hammond is one many victims. Some call him the other Bradley Manning. They do so for good reason. He founded the web site HackThisSite. In 2003, he created it after graduating from high school.

By Ken Stone - Sat Feb 16 2013

[The Canadian Security and Intelligence Service] was...found complicit by a royal commission in the illegal rendition by the U.S. government of Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen, to Syria. Investigations of CSIS complicity in the illegal rendition of other Canadians are pending. Child soldier Omar Khadr was tortured in Guantanamo Bay partly on CSIS’ instigation. CSIS even spied on postal union leaders during a 1991 strike.

By Laura Gottesdiener - AlterNet

The case of a young man with Down's Syndrome who was asphyxiated while in police custody last week has spiraled into a shocking national news story...The tragedy began when 26-year-old Minnesota resident Robert Saylor was reluctant to leave a movie theater, prompting employees to call the police. Without stopping to learn from Saylor’s aide that he had Down's Syndrome, the police handcuffed him and restrained him on the ground until he died of asphyxiation...“A few times each week, across the United States, police shoot and kill mentally ill people in complicated, often incredible circumstances.”

By Karl Eisner - 20 February 2013

On February 8, federal authorities arrested a San Jose man for attempting to set off a car bomb outside a bank in Oakland, California. The charges filed against Matthew Llaneza, 28, stem from a months-long operation staged by the FBI’s South Bay Joint Terrorism Task Force. The event is the latest in a long series of bogus terror plots hatched or otherwise encouraged by the federal government.