Expanding the use of facial recognition doesn’t hurt authoritarians like Putin — it helps them. – Evan Greer
Nobody will be safe until this odious, contemptible practice is recognized as unconstitutional:
Police in Rochester, New York, s[tole] $8,040 from Cristal Starling during a raid on her apartment in October 2020…[in] the…process of…[harass]ing her former boyfriend, who[m they had decided to accuse] of dealing drugs. The police didn’t find any drugs in the apartment, but they did find and [steal] Starling’s cash…Starling, who runs a food cart and…was saving up for a food truck, began trying to fight the [robbery] without a lawyer…[but] the Rochester [cop shop] had [laundered] her money t[hrough] the…DEA…and [byzantine]…federal court…[procedures allowed a crooked judge to rule that]…her money [was not hers]…the Institute for Justice…will file an appeal on her behalf…if successful, Starling’s case will be kicked back to district court, where she will have the opportunity to challenge the seizure [with IJ’s help]…
Your “leaders” refer to this as “correction”:
Los Angeles jail guards have frequently punched [caged] people in the head and subjected them to a “humiliating” group s[exual assault after which] they were forced to wait undressed for hours [outdoors], according to a new report from court-appointed monitors documenting a range of abuses. The Los Angeles sheriff’s department (LASD)…[also regularly refuses] to provide information to the monitors…The report…adds to a long string of scandals for the department…The [mass molestation was excused by claiming that there was a rumor]…that a firearm “might have been smuggled” into…jail. Guards responded by…tak[ing their victims] out of their cells in the morning, g[roping them using the pretext of a]…search…then walked naked en masse through the jail…to the room with the X‐ray machine…they…were [then] taken to a yard where they were forced to wait for hours until they returned to their cells later that night…
Since they’re claiming this was a “mistake”, there’s nothing to stop them doing it again and again:
Texas…jail[ed] a woman…for an alleged self-induced abortion. Lizelle Herrera was arrested Thursday [of last week], charged with murder, and [caged]…for two nights before Starr County District Attorney Gocha Allen Ramirez said he would dismiss the charges. While a state law passed in Texas last year bans performing an abortion on another person after six weeks pregnancy, it does not apply to self-induced abortions, nor does it allow for criminal charges. Its mechanism of enforcement is through civil lawsuits brought by citizens, not agents of the state…[though] Ramirez…dismiss[ed] the charges…he…did not…condemn…the Starr County Sheriff’s Office…and [even made excuses for their behavior]…Herrera…was in the hospital and had a miscarriage and divulged some information to hospital staff who then [tattled] to police…
The most horrifying part of this is, unfortunately, not new; it’s that thanks to the ongoing war on bodily autonomy, American women cannot trust medical professionals to respect patient confidentiality.
Clearview is once again trying to rehabilitate its reputation among useful idiots:
In the weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine…Hoan Ton-That…[CEO] of…Clearview AI, began thinking about how he could [exploit the tragedy for his own profit]…Ton-That drafted a letter [to the Ukraine government] explaining that his app “can instantly identify someone just from a photo” and that [pigs and spooks]…in the United States used it to [further police-state surveillance]…He said the tool could identify people who might be spies, as well as deceased people…less than a month later…Clearview has created more than 200 accounts for…Ukrainian government agencies, which have conducted more than 5,000 searches…Critics warn…that [Clearview is]…taking advantage of a crisis to expand with little privacy oversight…Evan Greer…[of] Fight for the Future [explained]…“War zones are often used as testing grounds not just for weapons but surveillance tools that are later deployed on civilian populations or used for law enforcement or crowd control purposes…Companies like Clearview are eager to exploit the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine to normalize the use of their harmful and invasive software”…
Seems like a significant fraction of child porn is spread by cops:
A Miami-Dade [cop] has been arrested and relieved of duty following his arrest on child pornography charges…David Jay Behney…[was snitched on by] Kik messenger [which is now apparently scanning]…upload[s]…a search warrant…revealed a video montage of 11 prepubescent girls…If he posts bond, he must surrender his passport and is not allowed to have any contact with minors, including his own children…he…has three…between the ages of 8 months and 6 years…
The Last Shall Be First (#1216)
Alabama can’t let Texas beat it in the psycopathic cruelty department:
Alabama…passed a bill making it a felony to provide transition-related medical care to transgender minors and mandating prison time for th[e newly-invented “crime”]…S.B. 184…also [demands] that [all school employees snitch on the gender dysmorphia of any legal]… minor [that comes to their attention, regardless of possible consequences]…Another measure (H.B. 322)…would ban transgender students from using sex-segregated bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity. And an amendment to the bill limits school-based discussions about gender identity or sexual orientation (in the manner of a recent Florida law that opponents dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill)…
The “Online Safety Bill” is becoming a UK version of FOSTA:
The Online Safety Bill [had]…the stated aim of cracking down on “harmful” content online. A clause has now been added to the bill to include the offence of “inciting or controlling prostitution for gain” as one of the priority offences that tech companies…[are] obliged to remove…from their platforms…this would…would undoubtably lead to…platforms clamping down on sex workers’ advertisements.in order to avoid any chance of being prosecuted – essentially criminalising the online advertising of sex work…
If you’re in the UK, click on the headline link to send a message to your MP via the ECP site.
Re “A Broker in Pillage” — for folks unfamiliar with the odious practice of civil asset seizure and forfeiture, here’s a video clip from John Oliver explaining it (with touches of humor, of course):
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kEpZWGgJks&w=560&h=315%5D
Here’s a better embed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kEpZWGgJks
As much as I think Oliver is overrated and a blatantly dishonest, cowardly hack–he’s actually right on this issue.