Be SURE to read the "punch line" at the bottom of this article...
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Sometimes, real life can be stranger than parody. This can be particularly true when it comes to the civil liberties beat. With that in mind, I've gone out on a limb to make some predictions about what might happen on the civil liberties front in 2015. I realize that some of these prognostications may seem a wee bit hyperbolic, a bit paranoid, maybe even a little nutty. But let's hope none of them actually do come to pass.

So on with the predictions. In 2015, I foresee the following:
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-- A state judge will quite reasonably suggest that prosecutors shouldn't suborn perjury, shouldn't retaliate against political opponents, shouldn't suppress evidence, and that we should discipline those who do. That state's prosecutors will revolt, accuse the judge of bias and demand that the judge recuse himself from all criminal cases.
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-- In the name of "preparation," school officials will stage terrifying active-shooter scenarios on children in which cops and other community leaders storm school buildings with guns. In some cases, neither parents nor children will be notified ahead of time that the scenario is a drill. In others, kids will be recruited to play victims, complete with bloody bullet holes and gaping wounds.

-- We'll see a record number of wrongly convicted men and women get exonerated, including some on death row. We'll also see some horrifying executions gone wrong. Some death penalty states will respond by speeding up their executions - and making them less transparent.

-- A large percentage of those wrongly convicted people will never be compensated for their arrests, convictions and time in prison.

-- Officers at a major metropolitan police department will get caught breaking the law by fabricating tickets in order to steal overtime pay from taxpayers. However, a court will rule that because the officers' supervisors were also breaking the law, the officers can't be held accountable.

-- Indiscriminate police raids will continue, with aggressive, door-kicking raids on people suspected of increasingly petty crimes, such as credit card fraud and underage drinking. At least one federal appeals court will decide that maybe SWAT raids are an unconstitutionally excessive way to conduct regulatory inspections. But such raids will continue elsewhere.
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-- At least one former politician will come to appreciate how dangerous this trend really is, but only after he gets raided himself.

-- 2015 will also show that you can be subjected to a violent police raid for merely shopping at a gardening store.

-- The government will dispense with "due process" and just start seizing property from people without even charging them with a crime, much less convicting them of one. The proceeds from these seizures will then go back to the police departments and prosecutor officers that did the seizing.

-- Some cities will hand out free condoms . . . then arrest women who are in possession of them, on the theory that only women involved in sex work carry condoms.

-- The Supreme Court will rule that the government is allowed to charge you with a crime, then seize all of your money before trial, on the argument that it is connected to that crime, thus preventing you from paying for your defense.

-- The federal government will offer snazzy new ...

Don't forget.. you REALLY need to read the rest of the predictions, and the punch line.. here>>

http://www.newsday.com/opinion/oped/horrifying-civil-liberties-predictions-for-2015-radley-balko-1.9759823