Civil Liberties – Occupied Tucson Citizen

Prosecuting Homeless for Sleeping Outside May Violate U.S. Constitution, Court Rules

January 21, 2019January 21, 2019 by The Editors

An important court decision regarding the homeless was handed down by the Ninth Circuit, in Martin v. City of Boise, when they ruled in September that if a person experiencing homelessness has no option of sleeping indoors, a city cannot cite him or her for violating an ordinance disallowing sleeping outside in a public space. …

Re-trial Begins for Border Patrol Agent Charged in Cross-border Killing of Teen

October 31, 2018October 30, 2018 by Norah Booth

Painting showing Jose Antonio Rodriguez on a mule and Death

October 26, 2018 Sitting in the courtroom on the afternoon of the first day of proceedings in border agent Lonnie Swartz’ second trial left the distinct impression on most in the courtroom that we had been here before. Swartz was acquitted of the most serious charge of 2nd degree murder in his first trial. This …

Ed Morgan: Attorney for the Victims of the System

April 28, 2018April 28, 2018 by Thomas Moore

Soon after I first arrived in Tucson in September 1960 as an idealistic undergraduate Government student at the University of Arizona, I learned that there was only one lawyer in town who would take on the cases of the victims of the system in southern Arizona, against all odds of success, W. Edward Morgan. In …

Surveillance

January 15, 2016January 15, 2016 by David Ray

Picture of a demonstration of a hummingbird drone

Whirly Bird hovers like a copter, and gazes in your window. He passes for a hummingbird although his tiny eyes are lenses. There’s nothing not subverted now, recruited for the art of war. He hovers like a copter and when he whirs away you’ll never know if he is just an iridescent little bird like …

Fatal Encounter: Deadly Use of Force in Tucson

July 2, 2015June 30, 2015 by Norah Booth

No matter who Freddy Batt Sosa was, the 22-year-old’s shooting death by Tucson police in May two years ago deserves a more thorough public accounting than it has received. Because there is no government release or, in some cases, required accounting of the number of people killed by police in the U.S., journalist D. Brian …