Civil Liberties

Frank Soccoccio and Richard August on State of the State

State of the State: Recent Gun Control Legislation/Recent Supreme Court Decision

By Richard August | July 10, 2022 |

Host Richard August discusses recent legal events related to Second Amendment rights with RI Second Amendment Coalition President Frank Soccoccio.

A blindfolded man disintegrating

The rights that are really in danger are freedom of speech and association.

By Justin Katz | July 9, 2022 |

Have Rhode Islanders asked themselves how far they’re willing to let government go prosecuting (or persecuting) political groups that they find objectionable?

Monkey hear no, see no, speak no evil statues

Politics This Week with John DePetro: Polls, Cynical Politics, and McMentum

By Justin Katz | July 5, 2022 |

John DePetro and Justin Katz take the temperature of Rhode Island politics.

The mob tackles Jeann Lugo

Providence Police Chief Hugh Clements is shameless in executing injustice against Jeann Lugo.

By Justin Katz | July 1, 2022 |

From the beginning, the likelihood that Providence police officer Jeann Lugo would receive a fair hearing was vanishingly small.  His political views conflict with those of the ruling class in Rhode Island, and he therefore does not enjoy basic rules of justice and due process. How egregiously brazen this injustice can be is shocking, nonetheless. …

Surveillance cameras on a pole

How exactly will license-plate cameras prevent suicide on the Mount Hope Bridge?

By Justin Katz | June 29, 2022 |

Oddly, that’s a question Melanie DaSilva doesn’t manage to answer in her WPRI article about the plans of local police to put license plate recognition cameras on both sides of the bridge that connects Portsmouth and Bristol.  It’s almost as if a paragraph is missing: [Investigating criminal activity is] not what [the cameras will] be…

Jeann Lugo Should Consider Suing Bill Bartholomew for Defamation

By Monique Chartier | June 28, 2022 |

Justin Katz called it early.  Bill Bartholomew’s extremely clipped video of Jeann Lugo striking Jennifer Rourke at the State House melee Friday night is a serious disservice to the truth. Bartholomew’s clipped video doesn’t show what happened leading up to that moment. So you don’t see Jennifer Rourke laying hands on Jeann Lugo.  Without his…

McKee signs gun control bills

Governor McKee’s gun-control photo-op was wildly inappropriate.

By Justin Katz | June 28, 2022 |

The image used as the featured image of this post shows Rhode Island Democrat Governor Dan McKee signing gun control legislation recently at the State House, and even people who support the outcome should be concerned by it. For the good of our states and our country, Americans used to have a clear, if undefined,…

A fist punches water

Politics This Week with John DePetro: Punches and Polls

By Justin Katz | June 27, 2022 |

John DePetro and Justin Katz review up-to-the-minute politics in Rhode Island.

A woman in a hedge maze

Politics This Week with John DePetro: Everybody’s Losing the Plot

By Justin Katz | June 20, 2022 |

John DePetro and Justin Katz talk about the ways insiders are missing the point in Rhode Island politics.

Sabina Matos takes the oath of office.

What does Matos have against the First Amendment?

By Justin Katz | June 17, 2022 |

No sooner do I resolve to take the summer off from social media than the Lieutenant Governor of the State of Rhode Island, Sabina Matos, decides it’s politically advantageous to involve me in her primary campaign to retain her seat.  According to her press release: The Ocean State Current and the Center for Freedom and…