Surveillance makes all of us less safe. – Evan Greer
Anything that helps demystify sex work is a good thing:
It shouldn’t be surprising that sex workers around the country are boning up on firearms education. There’s a long tradition of both armed self-defense and general firearms enthusiasm…within communities that have historically been targeted for violence and oppression. Organizations like the Socialist Rifle Association, the Sylvia Rivera Gun Club, Yellow Peril Tactical, the Huey P. Newton Gun Club, the Pink Pistols, and Black Girls Shoot! take the activist maxim “we protect us” seriously, and offer their communities tools to do so in a world that doesn’t expect them to fight back…the Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP) Chicago…announced their first Intro to Concealed Carry course specifically for sex workers. All 40 spots filled up immediately…
Now that the damage is irreversible, the government can afford to grant him an appeal:
…the Ninth Circuit announced that it will hear oral arguments on Nov. 16 in Phoenix concerning one of the most significant First Amendment cases in recent memory — the vindictive prosecution of award-winning journalist Michael Lacey…Federal and state authorities hounded Lacey, the former executive editor of Village Voice Media, and his business partner, the late Jim Larkin, for more than a decade over their First Amendment-protected publication of speech in Backpage.com, the classified advertising website they co-owned…
“Smart” devices aren’t, part umpteen:
LG smart TVs are almost constantly logging and uploading data about owners and their homes, even when offline or on standby mode…The…TV sets scan Wi-Fi networks for nearby devices, record audio logs through their microphones, and use audio and video sampling to recognize exactly what you’re watching from [connected devices like DVD players]…and feeding the information back to LG Ad Solutions…the TVs…[even] record…microphone audio when in standby; this continue[s] even after the TV [i]s disconnected from the internet, with audio files stored offline and uploaded once a connection [i]s restored…Automatic Content Recognition…is used by almost every [“]smart[“] TV manufacturer to figure out what you watch…In July…LG monitors [started] automatically installing an app that…ran pop-up ads for LG’s other apps and even McAfee antivirus…[but] public pressure…led to LG disabling the pop-up ads…
Cops hate it when people turn the tables on them:
…US [cops] are increasingly concerned about the potential for [perve]rt glasses to be used against them…to secretly record [cops]…in the [act] of [committing] crimes and acts of [violence and] terrorism…[cop]s in the US typically [steal or break] any and all devices that would be capable of recording video footage…[but] some [perve]rt glasses have gone unnoticed…[cops, spooks, and goons] want…the exclusive right to use surveillance technology and cameras to monitor the public without those cameras being turned back on them. “These agencies surveil the public incessantly, but the moment we can watch them back, it’s deemed a security threat,” [said Ryan] Shapiro [of Property of the People]…
The dystopian future of Minority Report has arrived:
Border Patrol is running secretive predictive policing units that analyze Americans’ financial activity and other data, then feed that intelligence to local police who pull [innocent] people over…[using bogus excuses in order to attempt to pin manufactured “]crime[s” on them]…The units…are called Predictive Intelligence Targeting Teams (PITT). In one case, a PITT analyzed the financial activity of a man who was driving across Montana, and [dispatched] local [pigs, who then] stopped him under the pretense of an obstructed license plate and charged him with a DUI…Border Patrol…us[es]…ALPRs…as part of the…program…“genuine probable cause cannot be synthetically generated,” [said] Jake Laperruque…of the…Center For Democracy & Technology…”Border Patrol [is]…using parallel construction to cloak the reason behind its car stops”…
Domestic violence is never a cop’s sole offense:
A Huntsville [Alabama cop named]…John Holliday was…arrested…[on August 17 for slamming] his wife [to] the ground and [repeatedly] kick[ing] her…[then stealing] her…cellphone wh[en] she tried to dial 911…[the cop shop put him on desk duty and that did not change even]…after h[e was] arrest[ed again] on Sept. 3 for DUI…[but after] he was…arrest[ed a third time for waving a gun around while drunk]…he was [reward]ed with…a p[aid vacati]on…[A spokespig described this as] “tak[ing] allegations of misconduct involving its employees seriously”…
Some aspects of the modern dystopia are too odious even for authoritarians:
…the City of Sheboygan…[Wisconsin will]…terminate [its] contract with…Flock S[urveillance after it]…offered to sell the Sheboygan Department of Public Works…five years of data [collected by] the…15 cameras already deployed in the city…in violation of the [contract, which pretends]…the company does not own the data…and [will supposedly] only…retain [it] for 30 days. Since…their [announcement]…other cities have been following suit….[in] both…Fond du Lac County…and…Winnebago County…
But simply cancelling the contract won’t stop Flock:
Flock S[urveillance blamed a computer for illegally ordering]…the reinstallation of license plate cameras that Grass Valley [California] police had already removed after canceling the city’s contract with the company. Residents alerted police…after spotting a utility crew replacing [the] cameras at several locations…Flock [claims] its automated maintenance system interpreted the…[removals] as equipment failures and generated replacement work orders…The [cancellat]ion followed months of pressure from residents and privacy advocates…
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