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Archive for August 4th, 2021

[Surveillance] is not what makes people or communities more safe.  –  Lauren Johnson

Unintentional Hilarity

Vancouver, Washington is a “hotspot” for “sex trafficking” hysteria:

Sex trafficking is a growing problem across Washington…[blah blah bogus statistics] as close as your child’s school, your neighborhood, or even the internet in your home.  It’s time we double-down on our efforts to put an end to it…Clark County’s…position between Seattle and Portland with Interstate 5 as one of our main corridors makes us part of the sex trafficking circuit in the West.  We need to protect our children…with [propaganda sourced from]…Shared Hope International…

Remember the imbecile who gave a strange man all her savings, then claimed she had “escaped sex trafficking” because he told her strippers make more money than waitresses?  She was encouraged & enabled by this same bunch.

The Punitive Mindset (#880) 

If there’s anything narrower and meaner than the mind of a prison official, I’m not sure what it might be:

The Prison Policy Initiative has campaigned for years to protect incarcerated people’s letters from home…We’ve been concerned for some time that private companies — which already make it costly for incarcerated people to make phone calls and video calls — would someday partner up with prisons to block people from sending physical mail, too.  Now…the telecom company Smart Communications is trying to sell prisons its “MailGuard” service — where the company scans incarcerated people’s letters from home and gives them…digital copies instead — and the federal Bureau of Prisons is piloting the service…Pennsylvania has been using MailGuard in its prisons since 2018…but if the federal system starts replacing letters from home with scanned copies, more states will follow…the Florida Department of [Torturing Caged Humans] is planning not only to convert incoming mail to scans, but to start charging incarcerated people to access their own mail…

Welcome to the Future (#1124)

Pasco County is already being sued and federally investigated over this:

It starts like an offer of admission from a prestigious university.  “We are pleased to inform you that you have been selected”…But the four-page letter from the Pasco [County, Florida] Sheriff’s Office goes on to tell recipients they will be facing enhanced police scrutiny under the agency’s controversial intelligence program…the Sheriff’s Office creates lists of people it [pretends are more] likely to break the law based on criminal histories, social networks and…[a lot of “AI” bullshit, then harasses them merciless]ly…without…warrant or [even the slightest shred of] probable cause…four [victims of these civil rights violations] are now suing the Sheriff’s Office in federal court…and…policing experts drew comparisons to child abuse and surveillance that could be expected under a…[more] authoritarian regime [than is allowed even in Florida]…the agency has a separate program that uses schoolchildren’s grades, attendance records and abuse histories to label them potential future criminals

The Course of a Disease (#1130)

Our recent Freedom Fest panel:

Dangerous Speech (#1146)

US “authorities” keep pretending “because sex” is an excuse for any tyranny:

The mendacity of the federal government’s prosecution of award-winning journalists Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin knows no bounds.  With less than a month before…trial…the government claims it had no duty to correctly define “prostitution” to the grand jury in the case.  And so far, prosecutors have dodged defining prostitution for the pending trial…Instead, the prosecution has taken a free-wheeling “it’s whatever we want it to be” approach…

Choke Point (#1150)

PayPal is becoming an active threat to civil liberties:

PayPal announced Monday a new initiative against [free speech] online…it…will track and shut down financial networks that…”profit…from all forms of hate and bigotry against any community [except sex workers]”…PayPal threatens to limit the ability of individuals or organizations that it deems intolerable to engage in private financial transactions.  Even worse, the judgment about what language or opinions stand beyond the limits of toleration will be outsourced to activists with their own…definition[s] of extremism [that are] not limited to terrorism, organized crime, or other direct threats to constitutional government…The goal is to make it as difficult as possible to organize [for groups popularly deemed]…offensive[, including sex workers]…

To Molest and Rape (#1154)

Rapists are attracted to police work for obvious reasons:

A [typical and representative] Greeneville [Tennessee cop]…was pushed out by his department after an internal affairs investigation concluded he sexually assaulted a woman onboard a Caribbean cruise in 2019…A group of three women [reported that] Alan Dotson…proposition[ed] them and [w]hen [they refused]…he…push[ed] his hand over [one of  the women’s] dress into her genitals…He continues to deny the allegations [on the grounds that cops virtually]…never face…criminal charges [when they rape]…

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