Madison's Capital Times (not so fondly known to me as the "Communist Times") prints a sob story of a area resident who accidently got caught up in protests in NYC and was arrested. Now don't get me wrong, I feel bad for the guy. He was just moving his daughter back to college and ended up in jail. But the "reporter", Samara Kalk Derby, wants to put her own spin on the whole event. She quotes the unfortunate man's daughter:

The whole ordeal left her wondering if the New York City Police Department was using special powers granted under the USA Patriot Act.

"It makes me think about what is happening in this country right now with some of our basic rights getting abused and taken away."

That's how the article ends. Kalk Derby doesn't actually investigate whether or not the NYPD did have any special powers granted by the Patriot Act or anything else. She leaves it to some 20-year old to speculate about it. This is completely irresponsible journalism. Kalk Derby wants to blame the Patriot Act for this but doesn't want to actually do a lick of work to prove that it had anything to do with what happened in NYC. And Big Media wonders why they are becoming more irrelevant every day.

Update: Both the DNC & RNC were designated as "national special security events" The NYPD has lots of information about the event, but I see no mention anywhere of the Patriot Act, except for people protesting against it.