Archive for the 'Police State' Category
New Police Radars Can ‘See’ Inside Homes
January 19th, 2015Via: USA Today: At least 50 U.S. law enforcement agencies have secretly equipped their officers with radar devices that allow them to effectively peer through the walls of houses to see whether anyone is inside, a practice raising new concerns about the extent of government surveillance. Those agencies, including the FBI and the U.S. Marshals […]
Holder Limits Seized-Asset Sharing Process that Split Billions with Local, State Police
January 18th, 2015I’d like to believe that, sometimes, good news is just good news and not some setup for more body cavity searches and surveillance. This is Cryptogon, though, so if there is another shoe to drop, someone will post it pretty quick. My guess is that the states will just make up ways to keep the […]
The U.S. Has More Jails Than Colleges
January 13th, 2015Via: Washington Post: There were 2.3 million prisoners in the U.S. as of the 2010 Census. It’s often been remarked that our national incarceration rate of 707 adults per every 100,000 residents is the highest in the world, by a huge margin. We tend to focus less on where we’re putting all those people. But […]
Leaked Palantir Doc Reveals Uses, Specific Functions and Key Clients
January 12th, 2015Via: TechCrunch: Palantir’s data analysis solution targets three industries: government, the finance sector and legal research. Each of these industries must wrestle with massive sets of data. To do this, Palantir’s toolsets are aimed at massive data caches, allowing litigators and the police to make connections otherwise invisible. For example, a firm hired by the […]
Judge Orders NYPD to Release Records on X-ray Vans
January 11th, 2015Via: ProPublica: The NYPD has a secretive program that uses unmarked vans with X-ray machines designed to detect bombs. ProPublica tried to find out more about it, but the NYPD refused to answer for three years.
FBI Says Search Warrants Not Needed to Use “Stingrays” in Public Places
January 6th, 2015Via: Ars Technica: The Federal Bureau of Investigation is taking the position that court warrants are not required when deploying cell-site simulators in public places. Nicknamed “stingrays,” the devices are decoy cell towers that capture locations and identities of mobile phone users and can intercept calls and texts. The FBI made its position known during […]
When a Cartoonist Landed in L.A. County Jail, She Drew What She Saw, Using Only a Golf Pencil
January 5th, 2015Via: L.A. Weekly: In June 2014, I was arrested for violating a court order. I bailed out on July 3. But because I had no money and an overworked public defender, I knew I’d have to serve time for my violation. That’s when my mentor, animator-director Ralph Bakshi, advised me to “document my exploits.” Jailed […]
Verizon’s “End to End” Encryption Includes Backdoor for Law Enforcement and Intelligence Agencies
December 17th, 2014Via: Businessweek: Verizon is the latest big company to enter the post-Snowden market for secure communication, and it’s doing so with an encryption standard that comes with a way for law enforcement to access ostensibly secure phone conversations. Verizon Voice Cypher, the product introduced on Thursday with the encryption company Cellcrypt, offers business and government […]
Who’s Making Money Off The War On Drugs?
November 28th, 2014Via: AJ+:
No Indictment for Ferguson Officer
November 25th, 2014Via: USA Today: A white police officer will not face charges for fatally shooting an unarmed black teenager in a case that set off violent protests and racial unrest throughout the nation. A St. Louis County grand jury declined to indict officer Darren Wilson, 28, for firing six shots in an August confrontation that killed […]
