Matt Agorist | The Libertarian Institute

No Charges Filed After Cops Kill Innocent Husband in Pursuit of Unarmed Suspect

by Matt Agorist | Jan 12, 2023 | Criminal Justice, Featured Articles

On the night of Aug. 21, 2021, Juan Olvera-Preciado, 59, had committed no crime, was not a suspect in any crime and harmed no one. These facts, however, were no defense against government-sponsored bullets being fired into his body, killing him. On the night he died, Olivera-Preciado was sitting in a parked car, nowhere near the Guadalupe police officer who killed him. Now, over a year after the shooting, we are learning that the officer who killed Olvera-Preciado, Officer Miguel Jaimes, will face no consequences. Though Jaimes did not intend to kill Olvera-Preciado that fateful night, it...

Cops Killed More Than 1,100 People in 2022, Deadliest Year on Record

by Matt Agorist | Jan 4, 2023 | Criminal Justice, Featured Articles

As 2023 begins, American police polish off another deadly year, ending 1,176 lives in 2022. This number is a new record for police killings in America and yet still, it is set to increase by one, on average, every 8 hours. Since 2018, cops in America have killed 5,668 citizens. And most people are not saying anything about it. While it may be easy for some to write off police killings as a problem of American gun culture, this is not major factor. According to a report by the Institute for Criminal Justice Training Reform (ICJTR), Finland has one the highest gun-ownership rates in...

HOAX: Florida Police Dept. Releases Fake Video of Officer ‘Almost Dying’ From Touching Fentanyl (With Gloves)

by Matt Agorist | Dec 28, 2022 | Criminal Justice, Featured Articles

In case you've been completely in the dark for the last decade, you've likely noticed that the United States is currently in the midst of an opioid crisis. This crisis knows no demographic, no race, no gender, no age limit, and no occupation—it hits them all. Due to the government-imposed lockdowns, 2021 marked the deadliest year in history for fatal drug overdoses with fentanyl claiming the lives of countless individuals. Because the state enforces a drug war that outlaws far safer alternatives, fentanyl has grabbed a large portion of the illegal drug market and these synthetic opioids that...

WATCH: Cop Shoots Man Over Ordinance Violation, Gets Exonerated

by Matt Agorist | Dec 21, 2022 | Criminal Justice, Featured Articles

In February 2020, Ariel Roman, 33, while traveling on Chicago's public transit train, walked from one train car to another. That is all. For this action, two officers, assigned to Chicago's mass transit unit, chased him and tackled him on the train platform before one of them opened fire. The unarmed man was shot twice. The video was so outrageous even the mayor weighed in, calling it "extremely disturbing." The FBI was subsequently called in to investigate and multiple videos were released showing what amounts to little more than attempted murder by two of Chicago's finest. A year and a...

Cop Fired For Feeding Homeless Man a ‘Shit Sandwich’ Is Rehired 30 Miles Away

by Matt Agorist | Dec 14, 2022 | Criminal Justice, Featured Articles

In November of 2016, the Free Thought Project brought you the disgusting story of a San Antonio cop putting feces on a piece of bread and giving it to a homeless man as food. For making a literal sh*t sandwich, San Antonio police officer Matthew Luckhurst was fired. Months later, the Free Thought Project learned that Luckhurst was involved in yet another feces-related 'prank'—after the sh*t sandwich. After both of these incidents, Luckhurst was quietly rehired in 2019, only to be fired again in 2020. As the SA Express points out, Luckhurst appealed again when he was re-canned for the second...

WATCH: Homeowner Investigating Break-In Killed by Cops on His Own Property

by Matt Agorist | Dec 7, 2022 | Criminal Justice, Featured Articles

On the night Rajan Moonesinghe was killed by police, he had committed no crime and appeared to be investigating a potential break-in at his own home. Unfortunately, however, the fact that Moonesinghe had harmed no one was of no consequence to the Austin police officer who showed up that night and killed him. Moonesinghe was a successful Texas entrepreneur who had just returned home from a business trip. The 33-year-old and his brother Johann Moonesinghe founded inKind, an Austin-based business that helps restaurants access capital without traditional investment or loans. On the night he got...

Alabama Cops Jail 82 Year Old Grandmother for Unpaid $70 Trash Bill

by Matt Agorist | Dec 5, 2022 | Criminal Justice, Featured Articles

Over the years, the Free Thought Project has reported on many asinine reasons police have used to arrest entirely innocent people who have harmed no one. Frequently, long grass on one's own property or a burnt-out license plate light can get people killed in the land of the free as officers fail to use their discretion and instead react with brute force and callousness toward their fellow human. Martha Menefield, an 82-year-old Black woman in Alabama—who's never had a run-in with the law in her entire life—learned recently that police can and will arrest and kidnap you, even for the most...

Justice Denied: The Contrast of Ross Ulbricht and Sam Bankman-Fried

by Matt Agorist | Nov 30, 2022 | Criminal Justice, Featured Articles

“How did this dude steal billions of dollars and is now speaking at a summit as a free man? Make it make sense.”- the internet. This is the question that millions of people are asking after weeks have now passed since Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX scandal unfolded. Bankman-Fried is accused of treating FTX as a ‘personal fiefdom’ as he squandered billions in cash and digital assets of his former clients. According to a Bloomberg News report, customer funds were seemingly used to buy real-estate while Bankman-Fried himself took a $1 billion loan out from Alameda Research, a trading firm founded by...