Archive for the 'Police State' Category
Man Threatened with Arrest for Taking Photo of His Freedom Fries
May 25th, 2007Via: ctnow.com: Take a picture of the french fries on the Bridgeport ferry, and you might as well just admit that you’re a charter member of Al Qaeda. This was going to be a happy story about how two of my nephews love the french fries on the Bridgeport-Port Jefferson Ferry. “Ferry fries,†they call […]
UK: Private “Super Wardens” Wear Headmounted Cameras, Issue Tickets for Antisocial Behavior
May 24th, 2007Via: Manchester Evening News: PRIVATELY-employed ‘super wardens’ are to go on patrol in Greater Manchester wearing head-mounted video cameras. The 20 parking attendants, who work for NCP Services, will be the first in the country to be issued with the equipment. Their main role is to issue parking tickets but under legislation brought in last […]
German Police Use Stasi Scent Profiling on G8 Protesters
May 24th, 2007Via: Guardian: Stasi scent-tracking methods are being used to keep a check on selected protesters planning to demonstrate at next month’s G8 summit. Scent traces collected directly from everything from people’s palm sweat to their vests and cigarette lighters have been made available to investigators so that sniffer dogs can detect potentially violent protesters, federal […]
And Now: The No Work List
May 23rd, 2007Sure. Via: cnet: The U.S. Congress is poised to create a set of massive new government databases that all employers must use to investigate the immigration status of current and future employees or face stiff penalties. The so-called Employment Eligibility Verification System would be established as part of a bill that senators began debating on […]
Health Fear Over Airport X-Ray Scanners
May 23rd, 2007Duh. Via: thisislondon.com: New X-Ray scanners at British airports could be exposing passengers to potentially dangerous levels of radiation, according to one senior radiologist. The machines are designed to “strip search” passengers by using low-level X-Rays, which produce an image of their bodies, revealing whether they are secretly carrying weapons, explosives or illegal drugs. But […]
California to Spend More on Prisons than on Higher Education
May 21st, 2007Via: San Francisco Chronicle: As the costs for fixing the state’s troubled corrections system rocket higher, California is headed for a dubious milestone — for the first time the state will spend more on incarcerating inmates than on educating students in its public universities. Based on current spending trends, California’s prison budget will overtake spending […]
UK: Police Using Surveillance Drones Designed for Military
May 21st, 2007Via: thisislondon: The UK’s first police “spy drone” took to the skies today. The remote control helicopter, fitted with CCTV cameras, will be used by officers in Merseyside to track criminals and record anti-social behaviour. The drone is only a metre wide, weighs less than a bag of sugar, and can record images from a […]
National ID: Biometrics Pinned to Social Security Cards
May 15th, 2007Via: Wired: The Social Security card faces its first major upgrade in 70 years under two immigration-reform proposals slated for debate this week that would add biometric information to the card and finally complete its slow metamorphosis into a national ID. The leading immigration proposal with traction in Congress would force employers to accept only […]
UK: Lip Reading Surveillance Cameras
April 28th, 2007Remember remember: you’re all a bunch of slaves on the 5th of November. Via: Infowars: “Read my lips….” used to be a figurative saying. Now the British government is considering taking it literally by adding lip reading technology to some of the four million or so surveillance cameras in order identify terrorists and criminals by […]
Really Small Houses
April 28th, 2007There are a lot of weird ways to avoid the mortgage/rent industrial complex… Via: SF Gate: Down a rambling residential road on the outskirts of Sebastopol, the dream house sits like a testament to discriminating taste. This dream house is the love child of artist-builder Jay Shafer, who lovingly hand-crafted it. The stainless-steel kitchen, gleaming […]
