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Photographer Arrested "Under Patriot Act"
posted by md on Sunday December 08, @09:35PM
from the dept.
Civil Liberties A number of alternative online news outlets, namely 2600 Magazine, and more recently Declan McCullagh's Politech are carrying a story of a Denver photographer who was apparently arrested while taking pictures in Denver, during Vice President Dick Cheney's visit to the city. Denver resident Mike Maginnis reports being physically assaulted by Denver police, and then held for hours while being verbally assaulted by men who represented themselves as federal agents working for the Secret Service. The latter, Maginnis claims, threatened to charge him as a "terrorist" under the USA Patriot Act.

Maginnis apparently tried to phone a Denver area newspaper, only to have his phone call disconnected when authorities discovered who he was contacting. No doubt, this is only a small taste of what's to come from the USA Patriot act and other bang-up efforts at defending the U.S. against terrorism.

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    Photographer Arrested "Under Patriot Act" | Login/Create an Account | Top | 8 comments | Search Discussion
    Threshold:
    The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
    independent check ? (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 09, @08:44AM (#521)
    Has anyone been able to verify any of the amateur photographer's claims ? He might be telling the truth--or the whole thing might be a hoax.
    Re:independent check ? (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 10, @10:07AM (#524)
    I'm with the other anonymous coward on this one. I've searched the Denver Post for some report of this and have found nothing. It's frustrating to me that everyone is getting up in arms about this without ANY validation of any of this guy's claims! I am as suspicious of the government as anyone, but I don't want to be paranoid until I have some real FACTS.
    Re:independent check ? (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 11, @09:32AM (#528)
    2600's followup is here. [2600.com] As I read, there is still no intedepentend corroborating evidence, but 2600 finds the story, for now, internally consistent and inherently credible.
    Re:independent check ? (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 11, @10:25AM (#529)
    Nothing at all in any Denver paper. Nothing on the Denver Police department website. Nothing on the ACLU website. Nothing on the internet except the almost exact text from the 2600 article. Smells like dog doo, looks like dog doo, tastes like dog doo, better not step in it.
    Re:independent check ? (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 11, @04:04PM (#533)
    You're probably not going to read about it in the Denver Post, at least not yet. According to Mr. Maginnis, when he called the Post about it after being released from custody they said that without proof it was his word against theirs. For all they knew, he could be some nutcase making it all up... which is basically what everyone else is accusing him of. If he's not just some nutcase and doesn't give up trying to prove that it DID happen, the evidence will eventually come out. Stay tuned...
    Re:independent check ? (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 11, @06:32PM (#534)
    Name of the person he called at the Post in jail or after jail? Why is that fact not in the follow up.

    If he was in super secret detention, why did he get a phone call at all? They could have said no.

    Why did he not call a lawyer, the lawyer could have called the Post all day and night, and could have validated the story. A lawyer could have at least laid eyes on him in dentention, and he could have been able to say, "He was held on this day". This facet of the story is too neat and clean.

    Why does the major source and seem to be the only source of this story 2600? Every single chink of this tale of woe points back to 2600. There are no independent sources.

    CNN, NBC, ABC and CBS would love to have a smear job on the Secret Service. They would love to poke a hole in the Homeland Security Service. Why is he not telling this tale to all the reporters? If they are banging down his door, why doesn't he talk to them and bring out the truth?
    The reason... (Score:1)
    by Audacious on Monday December 09, @12:01PM (#522)
    User #541 Info
    ...revolutions occur is because of the abuses by those in power. Look at our past history. We've come very close several times to having another civil war - only between the people and the government (and not the North versus the South). These next few years are going to be very interesting as I believe we are quickly approaching another emotional crest in the abuses and reactions to those abuses wave.

    If things go the way I think they are going to go I give it another year before we see the first out breaks of true violence against these new laws which were passed in knee-jerk reaction to events.

    Remember - police states only work so long as you continue to sodomize your people.
    Fraud? Probably... (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 11, @03:29PM (#532)
    From 2600:

    >Now let's turn the tables and examine the other
    >side. We contacted both the Denver Police and
    >the Secret Service to find out if the story was
    >true. They both took our information and neither
    >of them ever got back to us. Their silence has
    >been deafening and it's perhaps the most
    >significant statement they could have made.

    This is a red flag. Thinking that the caller is either a nutcase, or having no response is an admission of guilt? This somehow bolsters your case?

    What newspaper was called, to what number, to whom did he speak before getting cut off?

    Who saw him on the street being taken away? Did they rub out all witnesses with a flash of light?

    Sounds too much like black choppers...

    Humanity has the stars in its future, and that future is too important to be lost under the burden of juvenile folly and ignorant superstition. - Isaac Asimov

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