The conviction and sentencing to 20 years in prison of an abused woman, Melissa Alexander, for shooting a warning shot in the direction of her abuser.

This petition is to change the existing Vicious Dog Law (NJSA 4:19-22) in NJ to protect human beings from any dog who has been shown to be aggressive and has caused injury and pain by an attack on a person. The current law requires that the dog must be shown to have been previously vicious and attacked unprovoked before a municipal judge will order the dog to be euthanized. This is done by assigning a 3-digit number to the dog which follows it around the state. In other words, more than one person must suffer an injury before the law will stop the animal from causing more injury in the future. My 4-year-old granddaughter was maimed and disfigured by a pit bull/boxer mix who has shown previous aggression and has nipped others since. The dog is being protected by the municipality where it now resides because "It appears to be happy and healthy." Meanwhile the child is left to face mutiple surgeries and many nights of terror-filled dreams. We have no recourse against the animal with the current law as it is written and so I hope to encourage a change in the current law so that innocent children and other persons will not have to wait for an animal to viciously attack before it can be stopped by seizing and euthanizing it. Why should a vicious animal be allowed more chances to prove its dangerous temperament? My child will not have more chances, she is disfigured and traumatized for life!

Three local neighbors spent months trying to see an end to celebratory gunfire through deployment of gunfire location technology. After months of work, those same neighbors need five minutes of your time to give this technology the best possible chance at deployment. Our NPU Public Safety Chair (Ron Lall) sent out an email two weeks ago discussing an initiative to launch ShotSpotter gunshot location technology in Atlanta. This technology is capable of detecting the source of gunfire within inches, and allows distinguishing between actual gunfire events and other sounds which mimic gunfire, such as fireworks. Technical info is available at www.shotspotter.com and a short video explaining the technology is here: http://youtu.be/V28UMrWGARk In short, Councilmember Julian Bond proposed an ordinance that would allow for funding of the ShotSpotter technology in Atlanta. This is exacly what we need to isolate where gunfire is coming from and allow APD to respond to the exact site of gunfire incidents. This ordinance was held recently and is up for discussion with all involved parties and NOW is the time to request support from our representatives! If it bothers you that we can't tell the difference between gunfire and fireworks, that our APD officers waste time driving around in circles trying to locate a possible gunfire event, or that we can't prove where gunfire is coming from with any certainty, please take a moment to help:

Three local neighbors spent months trying to see an end to celebratory gunfire through deployment of gunfire location technology. After months of work, those same neighbors need five minutes of your time to give this technology the best possible chance at deployment. Our NPU Public Safety Chair (Ron Lall) sent out an email two weeks ago discussing an initiative to launch ShotSpotter gunshot location technology in Atlanta. This technology is capable of detecting the source of gunfire within inches, and allows distinguishing between actual gunfire events and other sounds which mimic gunfire, such as fireworks. Technical info is available at www.shotspotter.com and a short video explaining the technology is here: http://youtu.be/V28UMrWGARk In short, Councilmember Julian Bond proposed an ordinance that would allow for funding of the ShotSpotter technology in Atlanta. This is exacly what we need to isolate where gunfire is coming from and allow APD to respond to the exact site of gunfire incidents. This ordinance was held recently and is up for discussion with all involved parties and NOW is the time to request support from our representatives! If it bothers you that we can't tell the difference between gunfire and fireworks, that our APD officers waste time driving around in circles trying to locate a possible gunfire event, or that we can't prove where gunfire is coming from with any certainty, please take a moment to help:

Three local neighbors spent months trying to see an end to celebratory gunfire through deployment of gunfire location technology. After months of work, those same neighbors need five minutes of your time to give this technology the best possible chance at deployment. Our NPU Public Safety Chair (Ron Lall) sent out an email two weeks ago discussing an initiative to launch ShotSpotter gunshot location technology in Atlanta. This technology is capable of detecting the source of gunfire within inches, and allows distinguishing between actual gunfire events and other sounds which mimic gunfire, such as fireworks. Technical info is available at www.shotspotter.com and a short video explaining the technology is here: http://youtu.be/V28UMrWGARk In short, Councilmember Julian Bond proposed an ordinance that would allow for funding of the ShotSpotter technology in Atlanta. This is exacly what we need to isolate where gunfire is coming from and allow APD to respond to the exact site of gunfire incidents. This ordinance was held recently and is up for discussion with all involved parties and NOW is the time to request support from our representatives! If it bothers you that we can't tell the difference between gunfire and fireworks, that our APD officers waste time driving around in circles trying to locate a possible gunfire event, or that we can't prove where gunfire is coming from with any certainty, please take a moment to help:

Three local neighbors spent months trying to see an end to celebratory gunfire through deployment of gunfire location technology. After months of work, those same neighbors need five minutes of your time to give this technology the best possible chance at deployment. Our NPU Public Safety Chair (Ron Lall) sent out an email two weeks ago discussing an initiative to launch ShotSpotter gunshot location technology in Atlanta. This technology is capable of detecting the source of gunfire within inches, and allows distinguishing between actual gunfire events and other sounds which mimic gunfire, such as fireworks. Technical info is available at www.shotspotter.com and a short video explaining the technology is here: http://youtu.be/V28UMrWGARk In short, Councilmember Julian Bond proposed an ordinance that would allow for funding of the ShotSpotter technology in Atlanta. This is exacly what we need to isolate where gunfire is coming from and allow APD to respond to the exact site of gunfire incidents. This ordinance was held recently and is up for discussion with all involved parties and NOW is the time to request support from our representatives! If it bothers you that we can't tell the difference between gunfire and fireworks, that our APD officers waste time driving around in circles trying to locate a possible gunfire event, or that we can't prove where gunfire is coming from with any certainty, please take a moment to help:

Three local neighbors spent months trying to see an end to celebratory gunfire through deployment of gunfire location technology. After months of work, those same neighbors need five minutes of your time to give this technology the best possible chance at deployment. Our NPU Public Safety Chair (Ron Lall) sent out an email two weeks ago discussing an initiative to launch ShotSpotter gunshot location technology in Atlanta. This technology is capable of detecting the source of gunfire within inches, and allows distinguishing between actual gunfire events and other sounds which mimic gunfire, such as fireworks. Technical info is available at www.shotspotter.com and a short video explaining the technology is here: http://youtu.be/V28UMrWGARk In short, Councilmember Julian Bond proposed an ordinance that would allow for funding of the ShotSpotter technology in Atlanta. This is exacly what we need to isolate where gunfire is coming from and allow APD to respond to the exact site of gunfire incidents. This ordinance was held recently and is up for discussion with all involved parties and NOW is the time to request support from our representatives! If it bothers you that we can't tell the difference between gunfire and fireworks, that our APD officers waste time driving around in circles trying to locate a possible gunfire event, or that we can't prove where gunfire is coming from with any certainty, please take a moment to help:

Florida restricts those under 18 from visitation with an incarcerated parent, even alongside their other parent or adult family member, in many legal cases. The court, jail, or prison should not restrict children from visitation with their parent. Studies show children benefit from visiting with their parents.

FLORIDA restricts those under 18 from visiting with their parent, even alongside their other parent or adult family member in many legal cases. The Court, jail, or prison should not restrict children from visiting with their parent. Studies have shown children benefit from visiting with their parents.

I believe the "War on Drugs" to be a dismal failure; economically, as a means of curbing addiction, keeping drugs out of the hands of underage children, curbing crime associated with illegal drug trade, filling our prisons with drug related offenses (have heard that 70% and above of people in prison are there due to drug related crimes), loss of life due to drug overdose, crime related loss of life for citizens and police officers, clogging our court systems. This supposed "War on Drugs" has been going on for 3-4 decades and if anything the situation is worse today than ever. From my research, there appears to be as many "legitimate business" people who are profiting off the illegal sale of drugs as are the cartel people. I expect that these "legitimate business" people don't want it to end. I also believe there is more than a little evidence that our govt has benefited from illegal drug trade to pay for black op operations. It is the taxpayers and people caught up in the cycle addiction who end up paying the price. We need to grow up and take control where we can and realize that prohibition will never work.

People for the Reform of Criminal Law Against Indecent Material Involving Minors: This petition is in response to the ruling of the New York Court of Appeals which deemed that the viewing of child pornography is no longer a criminal offense.

The federal judiciary is composed of judges who have been chosen on the basis of their political standing and not because of their legal acumen. The President nominates judges for the United States District Courts, and Congress validates or rejects those appointments. Generally, a Republican President nominates good party conservatives who have "toed the line" and been good political allies to the party's positions. A Democratic President will nominate slightly more liberal candidates but due to Republican obstructionism in the approval process, even Democratic Presidents must be very careful to appoint moderate or conservative nominees who will be approved by the Republicans. Therefore, even a supposedly more enlightened President, such as Obama, will not be able to put in the judiciary those individuals who have a consistent record of standing up for civil rights, employee rights, union rights, minority rights, and essential civil liberties. Even one single state court decision, or a single speech by the candidate, that conjures up visions of civil libertarian justice or independent thinking "off the beaten path", can prevent that individual from ever serving on the federal judiciary. Take a look at President Clinton's record, for example, and you will see a failure to appoint "out of the box" thinkers. We, of the liberal stripe, thought that by electing Clinton twice in a row that we would at the very least improve the independence of the federal judiciary. But his appointments were mostly dismally political and 'neutral' in every sense of the word. The federal criminal justice system is frankly a mess, as I will explain in some of the entries to follow. For now, let us make no mistake about it: the federal judiciary is one of the broken spikes in the wheel of American democracy. We get only the mediocre individuals who have succeeded in not pushing any buttons or speaking out on anything even remotely requiring an independent view of life. Nice people though they may be, we expect and we want more. We want to have federal judges who are serving their true destiny in the job. We want more of those rare federal judges who have led the way for legal reform, and who have fastened to the ground the social framework of a progressive body of case law. We want those who are not afraid to guarantee strong civil rights despite the constant glare and meddling of ignorant political forces. Thus, the federal judiciary is currently populated by individuals who will not "rock the ship", those who do not have the habit of thinking for themselves, the people who have notable records for supporting all of the quirks and perceptions of the established system. And they support, nurture,and manifest, the injustices that permeate federal court decisions day in and day out currently throughout the United States. So much needs to be done to correct this catastrophe. We need to change the method of choosing federal judges. If this requires a constitutional amendment, then so be it. As much as we practically can, we need to take politics out of the process of choosing our federal judges. We need to examine some of the proven methods of finding independent judges, such as may be found in the recommendations of the American Bar Association. Again, a federal judge should be in that job because it is his destiny to follow his soul's natural path to self-fulfillment. A federal judge motivated by nothing other than love for the job, and the calling of truth and justice, is the miraculous achievement of public service that we as Americans cherish in our idealistic vision of society. I call on those of you who know the folly of our current system to stand up, take a position, call for change, and act for what you know to be right. Let's obtain an independent, highly qualified federal judiciary that fully, or at least nearly fully, satisfies the visions of justice and American democracy that we always took for granted, but which we were shocked to find out no longer exists.