“As government continues to expand, finding ever more ways to feed itself through taxation, it seeks to justify this burgeoning existence. Enter the Nanny State. New York is a leader in developing laws and regulations to protect us from ourselves, perhaps most famously with the Big Apples attempt to ban-large size sugary drinks. The Empire State has the highest cigarette taxes in the nation, which fuels a black market, and it places heavy restrictions on other sins. No one doubts that cigarettes and an excess of suga...”

“Bald Head Island, NC — A family's dream vacation would quickly morph into a nightmare after they crossed paths with police in North Carolina. For allowing her son to drive a golf cart, a woman was brutalized, arrested, shackled, and charged with child abuse. Part of the incident was caught on film. Julie Mall and her family look forward every year to their vacation at the luxury resort on Bald Head Island. However, thanks to police in North Carolina, the Mall family has changed their annual destination. The incident...”

“There is a theme among certain parts of society that take nationalism to the extreme. To ‘keep us safe' some will say, we must build a wall around the United States to ‘keep out them foreigners!' Unfortunately, the state has criminalized the act of human movement across this planet. What was once referred to as ‘moving' is now ‘immigration' and humans fear and judge other humans based on the random geographical region from which they were born. People allow imaginary lines drawn on a map to define others and themsel...”

“Baton Rouge, LA — Last year, in an outburst of pure insanity, the National Fraternal Order of Police, a union representing over 300,000 officers, called for cops to be included under Congress's hate crimes statute. This demand has now materialized into actual legislation about to be signed into law in Louisiana. Bill HB 953 , which passed the legislature this week, is going to change the states hate crime law to include law enforcement and firefighters. A hate crime is defined by Congress as a criminal offense aga...”

“Jacksonville, FL — For walking into a convenience store, an innocent Florida man was attacked, thrown to the ground, beaten in the head and body, arrested and charged with two crimes by people claiming to protect society. The entire incident was captured on multiple surveillance cameras. The victim, Demarcus Brown, and his father are both plumbers who stopped at the Ethio Food Mart to grab a snack on Monday when all hell broke loose. In the video, we see Brown's father inside at the register trying to pay for his fo...”

“For as long as there has been college, there has been the study of religion. The study of atheism, however, has fought an uphill battle. Thanks to a hefty donation in late April, establishing the nations first academic chair for the study of atheism, humanism, and secular ethics,the University of Miami seeks to lead the way in this novel collegiate field. Retired businessman, Louis J. Appignani, and former president and chairman of the modeling school Barbizon International donated $2.2 million to aid the school in...”

“Bronx, NY — A family is now heartbroken after attempting to get in touch with their incarcerated son only to find out that he'd died months prior and had been buried without any word. To make matters worse, the prison never conducted an investigation into his death, and the family has still yet to receive a cause of death. The family of the deceased, Lonnie Hamilton, received this horrible news earlier this month after unsuccessfully trying to call him, write him, and eventually going to the state's correctional web...”

“New York, NY — The diligent police accountability group, Copwatch Patrol Unit (CPU) of New York caught a disturbing act of police aggression on video this week. As a member of the group filmed an arrest, which is his first amendment right to do so, an officer with the NYPD's Anti-Crime Unit drew his pistol and aimed it at him. The man filming had done nothing wrong and was listening to the officer's command to back up when all of the sudden the officer snaps and aims his loaded weapon at innocent bystanders. In the...”

“Tukwila, WA — A Washington man was just granted $100,000 to settle a civil rights lawsuit after police were seen on dashcam, repeatedly punching him, repeatedly tasering him, and allowing their K9 to maul him continuously in spite of appearing unconscious. On Aug. 22, 2014,the victim, Linson Tara was found dancing in a freight yard. Tara was not violent, and when police arrived, the dashcam shows him standing there with one hand on his hip and another in the air. As police attempt to walk Tara over to the vehicle, t...”

“Video uploaded to YouTube recently shows a man in Newington, Connecticut, refusing to fall for Police State tactics of intimidation at a police checkpoint widely known as a sobriety or DUI checkpoint, but in reality what amounts to an excuse for cops to surveil and keep tabs on citizens. Though The Free Thought Project has covered numerous checkpoint refusals over the years, this particular assertion of rights stands out for several reasons. This time, the driver said he had not one, but multiple firearms i...”