Commentary: Law Enforcement Use of Social Networking Sites Needs Judicial Oversight
It is relatively easy to gauge the impact of social media on some levels of law enforcement. Simply watch expert testimony at gang trials as they cull incriminating photos of youths dressed in particular colors, adorning specific tattoos or slashing specific hand signs, and you can see how the advent and proliferation of social network sites, first MySpace and now Facebook and Instagram, have impacted law enforcement.
But while we may have particularized questions about such techniques, the use of photos to link defendants to gang activity is relatively straightforward, and even mundane, in most respects. After all, social network sites act more as a repository of images, and thus facilitate law enforcement efforts rather than create new issues.
I had my first and only conversation with Chief Deputy DA Jonathan Raven in January of 2010. We had just launched Yolo Judicial Watch and I was interested in having some sort of dialogue with the District Attorney’s office. It was a strange and meandering conversation.
I will never forget the feeling as we were watching reporters, cameras and news crews lined up to watch a high profile trial that everyone was covering. Everyone but us. We climbed past them, walked the other way.
I suppose I should have learned by now to expect the kinds of responses a couple of our stories got this week.
UC Davis student Thomas Matzat, who is also one of 12 protesters facing bank blocking charges, and here facing five felony counts along with another 15 misdemeanors, opted to take a plea agreement on Wednesday to a single charge stemming from an alleged incident at Starbucks on Orchard Road in Davis.
Judge David Reed on Friday denied the defense request for a Pitchess motion, citing a lack of evidence linking the officers’ conduct in the November 18 pepper spray case to the current case. However, defense attorney Alexis Briggs told the judge that she has additional information that she believes will lead the court to see the matter in a different light and may re-raise the issue at that time.
By George Gascón
The key witness described the scene that took place at the Woodland Arco AM/PM as one in which she could tell something was about to go down. She saw a number of youths running around and acting rambunctious. However, she was late into a day of driving her daughter to college and wanted to get her gas and move on.
It seems that every week or so another wrongful conviction is overturned in the courts somewhere in this country. The most recent was David Wiggins, who was convicted in 1989 for a sexual assault of a 14-year-old in Fort Worth, Texas.
by Bill Pursell
Critics Call For New Legislation Protecting Child’s Rights, and the Overhaul of the Family Court System
A series of reports have shown that the number of death sentences in California have been declining, with only ten such sentences handed down in 2011.
It has become a noteworthy phenomenon in and of itself. Every time we run a story critical of Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig, a handful of people defend the DA, not on the merits but by attacking the messenger, in this case the Vanguard.