Tag Archives: police

9 Reasons Why You Could Be a Terrorist

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James Wesley, Rawles has been in law enforcement for the past 18 years. He recently wrote a blog on SurvivalBlog expressing his concern with law enforcement teachings, specifically in regards to potential domestic terrorism.

Wesley points out the change of law enforcement training sponsors.
Before they were supported by the “local community” but now Big Brother ( represented here by the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the Transportation Security Agency) dominates the training sessions and is concerned with profiling potential terrorists.

According to Wesley this list contains traits and characteristics that Big Brother believes make you a potential terrorist:

  1. Holding Second Amendment-oriented views. (NRA or gun club membership, holding a CCW permit)
  2. Reading survivalist literature. (fictional books such as “Patriots” and “One Second After” are mentioned by name)
  3. Being self-sufficient (stockpiling food, ammo, hand tools, medical supplies)
  4. Fearing economic collapse (buying gold and barter items)
  5. Holding religious views concerning the book of Revelation (apocalypse, anti-Christ)
  6. Expressing fears of Big Brother or big government (Oops)
  7. Being homeschooled
  8. Declaring Constitutional rights and civil liberties
  9. Believing in a New World Order conspiracy

Wesley observes how easy it can be to target someone as a potential terrorist. Here he remembers a lecture that uses a plumber as an example:

The officers were told how to use his employment as a plumber as further evidence of terrorism.  The suspect’s employment would be described as an elaborate scheme to justify possessing pipes and chemicals so as to have bomb making materials readily available

To drive the point home Wesley puts it in laymen’s turns:

It is easy to frame anyone for possessing bomb making materials (or other crimes) if the officer knows what items to list in the report and how to link these items to terrorism.

Wesley goes on to provide multiple ways to calm polices’ phobia of anything without a badge. But after reading this article, meant to enlighten us on how to avoid an ignorant fascist militant dictatorship, my fear of Big Brother’s constant oppressive presence has only been reinforced.

Via: Survival Blog

Tricorders for cops: NIJ wants 'em

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Photo: Mike Seyfang/Flickr CC

Think Sipowicz with a hi-tech scanner.

The National Institute of Justice is seeking proposals for a device that can immediately scan crime scenes — bodies, suspects, CCTV camera data recordings, blood traces, you name it — and prisoners, for evidence in investigations.

The device should meet the following requirements:

1. Detection of the “broad spectrum” of contraband, including metallic and nonmetallic weapons, at any controlled access point. The preferred solution would be a product that, once commercialized, would be commercially available for under $25,000. To prevent contraband from entering correctional facilities, the preferred technology will be a portal that can also detect contraband concealed within body cavities. 2. Noninvasive, continuous monitoring of a subject’s use of both illegal and prescription substances. 3. Detection of trace blood at crime scenes from a distance of 5 feet or greater. 4. Accurate detection of gunshot residue in the field in real time. 5. Ability to extract full streams of digital multimedia evidence (DME) from incompatible systems, while maintaining the integrity of the metadata.

via Grants.gov – Find Grant Opportunities – Opportunity Synopsis.

Tiny planes to snoop inside homes

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Photo: John Brian Silverio. Flickr/CC

Photo: John Brian Silverio. Flickr/CC

Another wacky one, courtesy of DARPA:

The Defense Sciences Office (DSO) of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is seeking approaches to allow a small (Nano Air Vehicle to Micro Air Vehicle scale) air vehicle to be Teleoperated and Hover In Place (TeleHIP) in GPS denied environments. It is anticipated that the flight environment for this capability will be primarily in buildings or similarly sized enclosures. The development of a small unmanned aircraft system (UAS) capable of such missions would add a new capability to urban intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and provide increased situational awareness for warfighters.

via Defense Sciences Office.

Boston: Price of cheap wireless may be less privacy and security

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Photo: CC/Niall Kennedy

Photo: CC/Niall Kennedy

Universal Hub relays the news that Boston’s languishing municipal Wi-Fi project–that is, its government-run wireless internet service–has been reinvented as an ad-hoc, mesh network:

The effort initially focused on traditional wireless access points (like the ones you can see on lightpoles all over Brookline), but organizers realized that would prove impossibly expensive and so are now using a “mesh” approach, in which each subscriber’s computer is essentially equipped to act as an access point through a cheapo router. The result: Free WiFi in parts of the Fenway.

via Universal Hub | All Boston, all the time.

This is not likely to be good news for individual privacy and security.

First, consider the following:

  • Muni Wi-Fi projects in other cities have been marred by conflicts of interest and mismanagement
  • Users in other cities are already being charged for what they were told was going to be “free” access
  • Boston is among the cities planning to piggyback police and other government communications onto its muni Wi-Fi network. (This “dual use” for the network has the potential to bring Homeland Security dollars into the city’s coffers.)

Now, for the “ad-hoc” piece:

  • Some of the equipment Boston will be using was developed with money from sources with direct ties to the intelligence community.
  • Ad-hoc networks were not created with privacy and security in-mind. Rather, the technology was first deployed in vineyards and parking lots.
  • Ad-hoc wireless networks are more prone to unreliable connections and speeds–which means the folks on Mission Hill, and in Boston’s other poor neighborhoods, will be getting less service for their money.
  • Cheap wireless equipment might also be more vulnerable to backdoor attacks.

No kidding: punks school others to be punks

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152316__bad_lStudy describes the failed interventions that bring bad boys together:

“For boys who had been through the juvenile justice system, compared to boys with similar histories without judicial involvement, the odds of adult judicial interventions increased almost seven-fold,” says study co-author Richard E. Tremblay, a professor of psychology, pediatrics and psychiatry at the Université de Montréal and a researcher at the Sainte-Justine University Hospital Research Center.

via Delinquent Behavior Among Boys ‘Contagious,’ Study Finds.

Cops scour the land for angels of death

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Photo: CC/tanya petrova

Photo: CC/tanya petrova

The “death with dignity” crowd in the US is in a state over law enforcement’s efforts to quash would-be Jack Kervorkians:

The internet is being kept under close watch by law enforcement to find more victims to back up their dubious prosecutions in Georgia and Arizona. Thus this is a time to be extra cautious and discreet. At trial, the defendants will be rigorously defended.

This harassment is most likely a right-wing backlash to our movement’s law reform successes in Oregon, Washington and Montana. We shall proceed.

via Law enforcement searching America for ‘assisted suicide’ cases | Assisted-Suicide Blog.

MBN Drama: Flux's bus on the blink

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Photo: CC/Shelley

Photo: CC/Shelley

A furious Flux Rostrum is pushing his wheezing green grease bus into Austin tonight.

Emblazoned with Flux’s Mobile Broadcast News, the hobbled bus is also proving to be a cop, and bee, magnet.

I don’t know what Flux’s current mission is all about, but I do hope it gets sorted out.

For all you green greasers out there, here is an excerpt of Flux’s latest post:

As I rolled around under the bus frantically trying to put tape on wet hose with one hand (because that’s all that would fit it the space) a trucker pulls up next to me hops out and leans down to warn me of the swarm of bees he saw behind my bus… I thanked him even though those bees and the ones I was laying on were all dead from the coolant that covered my entire body as well.

I cut an extra piece of hose and tried to cover the hole and protect the hose from the sharp metal it had been rubbing against for 25,000 miles. I called in for reinforcements from my Texas comrades, ideas for where i could limp the bus to for safety.. Thank you all, just knowing someone was helping me think it through was quite comforting. Also, Much thanks to Topher who I bugged ’til the wee hours last night trying to find a solution. You Topher, are my “real” favorite veggie mechanic; the title of this post however is a reference that that other guy will only get.

via To My Favorite WVO Mechanic | Fluxview, USA.

Met police take up torture

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It’s a meme, it’s gone viral…

Metropolitan Police officers subjected suspects to waterboarding, according to allegations at the centre of an anti-corruption inquiry.

The torture claims are part of an investigation which also includes accusations that evidence was fabricated and suspects’ property was stolen. It has already led to the abandonment of a drugs trial and the suspension from duty of several officers.

via Met Police accused of waterboarding suspects – Times Online.

Twit tweet of the day: Raise taxes to pay bus drivers

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This, Id pay extra for. Photo: CC/Joe Philipson

This, I'd pay extra for. Photo: CC/Joe Philipson

A Harvard Law blogger pats herself on the back, for Tweeting the fuzz about a jackass bus driver, who was texting-while-driving:

I tweeted as follows:

8:50AM headed to #MIT6 just missed getting photo of driver on #1 texting while bus moving. MBTA not on Twitter!! Maybe @Boston_Police care?

And some while later, the Boston Police answered:

thanks – will forward to T.

Now that is the just the kind of civic participation instant gratification elation the Twit-o-sphere is made for.

They also thoughtfully advised me on the proper use of their Twitter:

Thank you for following the Boston Police(beta). We monitor @ replies, but in case of emergency, always phone 911.

But the Harvard law blogger loses me here (emphasis mine):

Kudos to the Tweeting Boston Police, and Mass voters, please support increasing the gas tax to fund more better and more responsive mass transit.

via Media Re:public » Blog Archive » What Twitter is good for.

found at UniversalHub

Of course, throwing money at mass transit will only get us more, lousy, mass transit.

Another suggestion: Give taxpayers big, fat, dollar-for-dollar, tax rebate checks, specifically as a “reward” (as perverse as that sounds) for buying Smart cars ==>

Another note: I enjoyed seeing “civic participation” used in this context: a success story for ubiquitous computing, as a surveillance tool.