Archive for the 'Police State' Category
Magic 8-Ball Future Crime Predictor Influencing Decisions About Prison Sentences
May 24th, 2016Via: ProPublica: Scores like this — known as risk assessments — are increasingly common in courtrooms across the nation. They are used to inform decisions about who can be set free at every stage of the criminal justice system, from assigning bond amounts — as is the case in Fort Lauderdale — to even more […]
BAY AREA: FBI MICROPHONES RECORD PUBLIC CONVERSATIONS
May 14th, 2016Keep in mind, this is just what’s admitted. Via: East Bay Express: At the Rene C. Davidson Courthouse in Oakland, the FBI planted hidden microphones inside light fixtures on the courthouse’s exterior steps to capture the conversations of people attending the foreclosure auctions. Cameras and microphones were installed in parked Alameda County vehicles next to […]
Cisco’s Latest Attempt to Dodge Responsibility for Facilitating Human Rights Abuses: Export Rules
April 19th, 2016Via: EFF: Cisco custom-built the so-called “Great Firewall of China,” also known as the “Golden Shield.” This system enables the Chinese government to conduct Internet surveillance and censorship against its citizens. As if that weren’t bad enough, company documents also revealed that, as part of its marketing pitch to China and in an effort to […]
Canadian Police Have Had Master Key to BlackBerry’s Encryption Since 2010
April 14th, 2016Via: Vice: A high-level surveillance probe of Montreal’s criminal underworld shows that Canada’s federal policing agency has had a global encryption key for BlackBerry devices since 2010. The revelations are contained in a stack of court documents that were made public after members of a Montreal crime syndicate pleaded guilty to their role in a […]
UC Davis Spent At Least $175,000 on PR Related to Pepper-Spraying of Students
April 14th, 2016Via: Sacramento Bee: UC Davis contracted with consultants for at least $175,000 to scrub the Internet of negative online postings following the November 2011 pepper-spraying of students and to improve the reputations of both the university and Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi, newly released documents show. The payments were made as the university was trying to […]
‘The Police Could be Controlling Your Self-Driving Car’
April 3rd, 2016Late library books? Unvaccinated children? Offensive comments on Facebook? Better keep your bicycle handy. Sarcasm. Sort of. Via: MarketWatch: More intrusive controls may be called for to deal with crime. For instance, high-speed chases could become a thing of the past. The vehicles of drunk/drugged individuals who insist on doing their own driving could be […]
Feds to Cops: Keep Robbing People
March 29th, 2016I wonder if the Feds will prosecute themselves under their own RICO laws… Via: Washington Post: The Justice Department has announced that it is resuming a controversial practice that allows local police departments to funnel a large portion of assets seized from citizens into their own coffers under federal law. The “Equitable Sharing Program” gives […]
Why Are Educators Learning How to Interrogate Their Students?
March 26th, 2016Via: The New Yorker: About a year and a half ago, Jessica Schneider was handed a flyer by one of her colleagues in the child-advocacy community. It advertised a training session, offered under the auspices of the Illinois Principals Association (I.P.A.), in how to interrogate students. Specifically, teachers and school administrators would be taught an […]
LAPD’s Air-Support Division
March 26th, 2016Via: New York Times: The air-support division of the Los Angeles Police Department operates out of a labyrinthine building on Ramirez Street in the city’s downtown, near the Los Angeles River. A looming mass of utilitarian architecture tucked beside the 101 Freeway, the complex appears to have no real public face; here the view from […]
Chicago: 82-Year-Old Woman Hospitalized After Police Raid Wrong Home
March 21st, 2016Via: ABC: A police raid sent an 82-year-old woman to the hospital, and her family says police were at the wrong address. Chicago police maintain officers did not target the wrong house and that they had reason to search the property for drugs. But that great grandmother in Roseland said she lives alone and that […]
