Archive for the 'Police State' Category
Chinese Style Internet Censorship… in Britain?
June 10th, 2017Via: Independent: Theresa May has refused to rule out censoring the internet like China. The prime minister has looked to introduce sweeping and deep changes to the way the internet works, in what she claims is a necessary move to prevent terror. Those have included restricting the kinds of things people can post online and […]
Cost to Keep Each Prisoner Locked Up in California Per Year: $75,560
June 6th, 2017Madness. Via: Los Angeles Times: Gov. Jerry Brown’s spending plan for the fiscal year that starts July 1 includes a record $11.4 billion for the corrections department while also predicting that there will be 11,500 fewer inmates in four years because voters in November approved earlier releases for many inmates. The price for each inmate […]
Why Jails Are Booming
June 2nd, 2017Via: The Atlantic: A new report from the Prison Policy Initiative examines the reasons behind this explosive growth. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s not driven by crime. Crime rates nationwide have dropped over the past few decades, as have conviction rates in court. So then why do jails keep swelling? It basically comes down to two things, […]
How Facebook’s Tentacles Reach Further Than You Think
May 26th, 2017Via: BBC: Facebook’s collection of data makes it one of the most influential organisations in the world. Share Lab wanted to look “under the bonnet” at the tech giant’s algorithms and connections to better understand the social structure and power relations within the company. … “If Facebook were a country, it would be bigger than […]
Ex-L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca Sentenced to Three Years in Prison in Jail Corruption Scandal
May 12th, 2017Via: Los Angeles Times: Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, once a towering, respected figure in policing, was sentenced Friday to three years in federal prison for his role in a scheme to obstruct an FBI investigation of abuses in county jails, marking an end to a corruption scandal that has roiled the Sheriff’s […]
Europe: How Billions Vanish Into the Security Industry Black Hole
May 9th, 2017Via: The Correspondent: The European Union spends billions on research into advanced technologies meant to make society safer. But our investigation – with 22 journalists in 11 countries – shows that the generous subsidies are mostly good for one thing: filling the coffers of the security industry.
Courts Are Using AI to Sentence Criminals
April 18th, 2017Via: Wired: Algorithms pervade our lives today, from music recommendations to credit scores to now, bail and sentencing decisions. But there is little oversight and transparency regarding how they work. Nowhere is this lack of oversight more stark than in the criminal justice system. Without proper safeguards, these tools risk eroding the rule of law […]
DHS Lays Groundwork for Deportation Force
April 12th, 2017Via: U.S. News and World Report: The Trump administration is seeking ways to increase capacity within immigration enforcement agencies to create a deportation force President Donald Trump repeatedly advocated on the campaign trail. According to a document obtained by The Washington Post, the Department of Homeland Security has begun the process of ramping up its […]
Cyborgs at Work: Employees Getting Implanted with Microchips
April 3rd, 2017Like many of you out there, I first heard about this technology in the 1990s. Decades later, a passive microchip implant seems like a practically innocuous fairy tale compared to the privacy hell that has metastasized all around us. In terms of technologies of political control, think of a chip implant as something like a […]
Connecticut Considering Use of Drones Outfitted with Deadly Weapons for Police
March 31st, 2017Via: AP: Connecticut lawmakers are considering whether the state should become the first in the country to allow police to use drones outfitted with deadly weapons, a proposal immediately met with concern by civil rights and liberties advocates. The bill would ban the use of weaponized drones, but exempt police. Details on how law enforcement […]
