Michael Brewer spent 14 days in jail for a crime that was never even committed. He goes to a local gun store to buy a gun. The store employees run the routine NICS instant criminal background check, as per federal law. But there was apparently a mistake in Michael’s criminal record somewhere, making it look like he’s not allowed to possess, purchase, or even handle, a firearm. Days later he’s driving down the road and gets pulled over. He ends up getting arrested and going to jail. As he’s sitting in jail, his lawyer provides proof that they’ve made a mistake. But they ignore him.
Imagine there’s a bank heist committed in Fargo, North Dakota. Cops pull a grainy photo of the suspect off a surveillance camera. They run that photo through AI facial recognition software, and it matches with an innocent grandmother down in Tennessee (who has never even been to North Dakota). Imagine they just run with that AI match and issue an arrest warrant, without performing an actual investigation into whether the AI is correct… Angela Lipps was arrested at her home in Tennessee, jailed and extradited to Fargo, North Dakota. She sat in jail for months, with nobody even bothering to check and see if she was the actual suspect they’re looking for (she wasn’t).
In America, we don’t jail people for political speech. Yet Larry Bushart spent 37 days behind bars simply for posting a meme in a Facebook group. Perry County, Tennessee Sheriff Nick Weems sent cops to Larry’s home to intimidate him over a Facebook meme he posted. But he wasn’t intimidated. He knew his rights and didn’t back down. So then the sheriff obtained an arrest warrant that he knew was false and had Larry arrested and then put in jail for over a month. Only after national public outrage did county officials drop the charges and set Larry free. But now Larry’s out for justice and he’s being helped by FIRE, a national nonprofit First Amendment advocacy organization, who has now filed a civil rights lawsuit on his behalf. I got a chance to talk with Larry’s lawyer about the case – what actually happened, why it was so egregious, and how you can help.
On March 10, 2022, Lexington KY police officers responded to a report of a “disorder” at St. Joseph Hospital. The call was dispatched to LPD officer Myles Foster and officer Daniel Helo. The caller was a hospital employee reporting that a 61 year old female was being “disorderly” and was refusing to leave Emergency Room #3. The 61 year old female was later determined to be Linda Trapp, a homeless woman. Rather than help her, within 21 seconds of meeting her, Officer Myles Foster threatened physical force. He would make good on that threat shortly afterwards, violently breaking her left leg. Then the nurses and emergency room physician would do nothing to help Linda Trapp, leaving her in agony for another 18 hours.
Police Practices expert witness Ryan Wilfong’s report on the incident:
Imagine you go into a business and their AI surveillance camera thinks it recognizes you as a trespasser. So that business handcuffs you and calls the cops. The cops arrive. You show them your Real ID. But they don’t believe it. Instead, they believe the AI. Crazy, right? This happened. On September 17, 2023, the Peppermill Casino in Reno telephoned the Reno Police Department to report that a man we’ll refer to by his initials – M.E., a trespasser, had unlawfully returned to the casino. The casino reported that their A.I. facial recognition software positively identified the man as M.E., a man they had barred from the casino months earlier for sleeping on the premises. But the Peppermill’s AI software was wrong. They had the wrong guy.
In Newton, Iowa in 2022, disgraced police officer Nathan Winters falsely arrested Tayvin Galanakis, a completely sober college football player for DUI. A local kid, Noah Peterson, was outraged and calmly criticized the Newton Police Department, as well as the Newton Mayor, during a city council meeting. The ignorant and corrupt mayor ordered his arrest, in violation of the First Amendment. The Institute for Justice took on his case, filed a lawsuit, and just scored a huge win for free speech. I got the chance to speak with Patrick Jaicomo, Senior Attorney with the Institute for Justice about Noah’s case.
This man goes into a Walmart to buy his elderly mother some over-the-counter arthritis medication. Meanwhile, this woman is riding around on a mobility scooter, even though she’s not disabled. Her kids are literally hanging off it as she puts around the store. The man can’t find what he’s looking for, so when he sees this woman, he asks her if she knows where he can find it. Then, all hell breaks loose. The man, “Mick” Patel, ends up spending 47 days in jail over what were obviously-false accusations (and as it turns out, this may not have been her first time). A lawsuit was just filed. I got the chance to speak to his civil rights attorneys.
A little over a year ago, an army of small town cops, went outside their jurisdiction, showed up at the wrong address for a midnight raid over a stolen weedeater that belonged to a local politician. They busted into an innocent man’s home in the middle of the night, shooting and killing 63 year-old Doug Harless, a man loved by his community. As you may know from my first video on this from back on January 3 of last year, the cops were refusing to release any information on what happened. They claimed they had a warrant, but they still haven’t released it – even a year later. The mayor has played dumb for over a year. They claimed that the Kentucky State Police were investigating – though they’ve basically said nothing – even now, a year later. As it turns out, now we know why.
Officers were dispatched to a business to assist an elderly customer who appeared to be suffering from dementia. At the scene, officers found him extremely confused. He told them the year was 1948 and that the president was George Washington. So they call his daughter to come pick him up. So how did things go so terribly wrong that day, that this 74 year old man ended up dying alone in a jail cell 9 hours later, confined in a restraint chair with a hood over his head? The story of Lester Isbill is one that could happen to anyone. He wasn’t a criminal. He was a good man. He had committed no crime. Yet he would nevertheless fall victim to this terrible death at the hands of the very people who were supposed to protect and care for him.
Cops respond to a silent alarm coming from within their own county courthouse, where they find intruders locked inside the dark, closed building. After taking them into custody, the ‘burglars’ tell the cops they are actually professional hackers, hired by the State Judicial Branch to test the courthouse’s security measures.
Then the local sheriff arrives, apparently embarrassed by the fact that the hired hackers were able to just walk right in an unlocked door in the middle of the night, and angry that he wasn’t informed of the security testing ordered by the state. So instead of releasing them, he orders handcuffs put on them and has them taken to the county jail and charged with burglary.
Then it gets even worse. The bureaucrats at the state judicial branch then get worried about their own jobs, and they attempt to throw the hackers they hired under the bus, initially claiming they did not authorize the “burglary,” even though they did. Eventually the State Supreme Court admits they hired the hackers and apologized for the confusion.
But the county still wanted to prosecute the two innocent hackers, who were caught in the middle of this government power struggle. Even up through the day before trial, the county prosecutor was refusing to drop the charges. He finally had to though, because they were innocent. So then the two hackers filed a civil lawsuit, which took years to litigate. Now, that just settled, with the two hackers receiving $600,000 from the county for their false arrest and malicious prosecution.
This is an absolutely insane story out of Iowa.
The official statement of facts from Justin and Gary’s lawsuit that was presented to the Court, much of which is quoted in the video:
