Tag: police state

The WHO is working on a global vaccine passport system

The World Health Organization will meet with member states and reps from vaccine certification credentials groups to discuss a global vaccine certification system.

Over the last two years, vaccine passports have become compulsory for international travel in some countries.

However, different regions and countries have different standards when it comes to proof of vaccination, meaning a passport that is verifiable in one country might not be verifiable in the other.

The World Health Organization wants to get involved in pulling it all together under a global system.

The WHO says it wants to create a “trust framework,” which will allow the verification of a vaccine passport anywhere in the world, co-founder of the Vaccination Credential Institute (VCI) Brain Anderson told POLITICO.

VCI is the group behind SMART Health Cards, which have been widely adopted in the US, and have become the de facto vaccine credentials standard.

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The State Took Their Children For 467 Days After An Alleged Slight. Now The Family Is Suing.

A family is suing the state of Illinois, a child welfare investigator contracted by the state, and others, alleging their three children were taken away for more than a year over the investigator’s hurt feelings.

The Center Square reported that Jacob and Patricia Krueger’s three children were taken into custody by the Department of Children and Family Services (DFCS) in 2019 after their child was supposed to be discharged from a hospital for a complex medical issue. Aaron Rapier, the attorney representing the family, told the Center Square that Dr. Channing Petrak, the contractor for DCFS, was at the hospital and prepared to discharge the child following a year-and-a-half long investigation, but reneged after she was slighted by Jacob Krueger.

“While [Petrak] went into the meeting intending to discharge this child home to the family, which means of course that she didn’t suspect any abuse or neglect at that time, she did a complete 180 after she was embarrassed in front of a colleague,” Rapier told the outlet.

The three Krueger children are referred to as AA, BB, and CC, in the lawsuit, which was filed on January 20 in the Peoria Division of the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois. The oldest of the Krueger children was three when they were taken from their family for more than a year, and the youngest was just three days old.

The Center Square reported that the middle child, referred to in court documents as BB, was being treated for a complex medical issue and about to be discharged when the nightmare began.

“Petrak was not BB’s doctor,” the lawsuit says. “Jacob told Defendant/Petrak he did not want her involved in BB’s care, treatment, or discharge planning. Defendant/Petrak was offended and embarrassed by Jacob’s statements. She left the room, as requested, but Defendant/Petrak was not done with the Krueger family.”

The lawsuit alleges that Petrak contacted the others named in the lawsuit and told them her investigative finding was that the child was medically abused.

Rapier, the family’s attorney, said that the family had previously endured a 17-month long investigation that had found no medical neglect of the middle child being treated, but because Petrak changed her finding at the last minute, according to the lawsuit, all three children were taken from the Krueger’s for 467 days.

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The creeping authoritarianism of facial recognition

In an effort to lower crime rates, American law enforcement is pushing to combine facial recognition with expanded video surveillance. Politicians worried about their re-election chances due to a perceived crime wave see the expansion as necessary. It’s a sharp swing from 2019 and 2020, when cities like San Francisco and New Orleans were banning or at least enacting limits on facial recognition technology due to privacy concerns.

Now, New Orleans plans to roll back its facial recognition prohibition. The Virginia State Senate gave law enforcement a late Valentine’s Day gift by passing a facial recognition expansion bill on February 15 — the Democrats who unanimously approved a ban on facial recognition last year suddenly changed their minds, as did five Republicans. New York City wants to expand its facial recognition program to fight gun violence.

Law enforcement has a long history of pining for any tool that might give it some sort of edge, citizen due process be damned. Supporters avow that the technology will help investigators find violent crime suspects, including those involved in the January 6 storming of the US Capitol. OneZero reported in 2020 that Wolfcom promoted its real-time face tracking software as perfect for police organizations looking to quickly identify suspects with outstanding warrants.

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Cop Arrested for Selling Large Amounts of Cocaine From His Police Cruiser, While On Duty, In Uniform

Thanks to the state’s immoral and often deadly war on drugs, countless American citizens have had their lives ruined or ended over their personal choice to put a substance in their bodies. Highlighting the colossal failure of the war on drugs is the fact that drug overdoses are at an all-time high while the DEA and other law enforcement programs for drug enforcement are receiving record amounts of taxpayer dollars.

Despite years of suffering, oppression, and the expansion of the police state, most lawmakers cannot see the atrocities that their policies are creating. Their answer to the war on drugs, is more war on drugs.

Nothing epitomizes this madness better than when cops — who are tasked with arresting people for arbitrary substances deemed illegal by the state — are caught selling or using those very substances. When the enforcers of the drug war actually become participants in the drug trade, it is high time we admit defeat and try something different.

A cop in Raleigh, North Carolina made this point perfectly after he was arrested for trafficking drugs — from his patrol car, while on duty, and in uniform. According to court documents, Keven Rodriguez, 33, a Field Operations Division Officer with the Raleigh Police Department, distributed cocaine while on duty in his patrol car.

Rodriguez had become so brazen with his drug sales that his own officers apparently found out that he was selling the drugs from his patrol car. After suspicions were raised, a DEA investigation was launched and subsequently ensnared the cop.

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Illinois Bill Would Make Drunk Sex Illegal

A proposed bill in Illinois would make it illegal to have sex while intoxicated, classifying such an act as a person being “unable to give knowing consent.”

The ill-conceived bill was introduced in the Illinois House of Representatives at the end of January by state Rep. Mark Walker, a Democrat, and has since gained nine co-sponsors, including Republican Rep. Chris Bos. The text of the bill would amend the Criminal Code of 2012 to update the Sex Offenses Article of the Code to include a new definition for “unable to give knowing consent” that “includes when the victim is intoxicated, but the accused did not provide or administer the intoxicating substance.”

This means that someone who willingly drinks alcohol but then has sex with someone, possibly due to lowered inhibitions, can automatically claim to be a rape victim.

Defense attorney Scott Greenfield lamented the bill on Twitter, calling it “a nightmare.”

“Intoxication, rather than incapacitation, would make sex a crime for lack of consent, even if both are drunk. Whoever goes to the police first wins,” Greenfield tweeted. “This will be a nightmare.”

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Which Dystopian Story Does 2022 Resemble the Most?

Imagine waking up one day unable to access your bank account because of your political beliefs. Imagine faking your facial expression whenever people were around to avoid committing “facecrime.” Imagine if the economy ground to a halt like a train that ran out of fuel. Does it sound far off?

It may sound like paranoid hyperbole to say we are living in a dystopia. But the core of valuable dystopian fiction is exploring what elements of our society have effects that would, if taken to the extreme, destroy our freedom and go against human dignity.

My Out of Frame colleagues have analyzed the meaning and relevance of a variety of dystopian fiction: Demolition Man, The Hunger Games, Arcane, The Matrix, The Handmaid’s Tale, Brave New World, V for Vendetta. But what dystopia is most relevant right now? Here are three contenders (excluding examples that bear similarity purely due to the presence of a pandemic).

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Russians face 15 years in prison for posting ‘fake news’ about Ukraine war under new law

Russians face 15 years in prison for posting ‘fake news’ about the Ukraine war under a new law. 

State TV in Russia, controlled by the Kremlin, has said the new measure could be discussed in its parliament, the Federal Assembly, during next week. 

The news comes as Russian officers detained over 1,000s of people during anti war protests in cities across the country and half of Russians have said they support the war against Ukraine. 

Both Russians and Ukrainians also protested the war in Trafalgar Square in London yesterday. 

Along with the ‘fake news’ measure, media reports will only be able to say the amount of Russian miliatary losses that have been ‘verified’ by Putin’s defence ministry, according to the Times. 

So far Russia has admitted some of its soldiers have been killed since they began their invasion, which Ukraine estimates totals 5,000 soldiers, but the Kremlin has not issued numbers so far. 

Vyacheslav Volodin, Russia’s parliamentary speaker, allied with the Russian government, supports the measure. 

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State Revokes Man’s License Plate Over 6 Letters That Seemingly Insult Joe Biden

The Alabama Department of Revenue threatened to revoke an Oneonta man’s vehicle registration if he does not relinquish a custom license plate containing an apparent insult to President Joe Biden.

According to the Trussville Tribune, Nathan Kirk ordered the license plate in question when he bought a new Ford truck in October. The design of the license plate contains the words “Don’t Tread on Me” along with the distinctive snake from the Gadsden flag.

For the personalized portion of the license plate, Kirk chose the letters “LGBF JB.” Many people deduced these letters were meant to stand for the anti-Biden phrases “Let’s go, Brandon” and “F*** Joe Biden,” a conclusion seemingly supported by the “Let’s Go Brandon” license plate frame Kirk put around it.

Personalized license plates in Alabama are supposed to take two to six weeks to arrive, the Tribune reported. However, this period passed and Kirk’s temporary paper license expired before he was issued the new plate. Kirk said the state blamed the delay on an aluminum shortage.

In December, he reordered the custom license plate, and he finally received it in January.

Throughout the process, Kirk said, no one raised an issue with the content of the personalized plate.

But this month, the state Department of Revenue sent a letter to Kirk’s wife, Courtney, AL.com reported. The truck with the license plate on it was registered in her name.

“The Alabama Department of Revenue, Motor Vehicle Division, has determined the above referenced license plate contains objectionable language which is considered by the Department to be offensive to the peace and dignity of the State of Alabama,” the letter said, according to the report.

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California weighs punishing doctors for challenging ‘contemporary scientific consensus’ on COVID

Disagreement with the “contemporary scientific consensus” on COVID-19 issues could be deemed “unprofessional conduct” for California doctors.

Democratic Assemblyman Evan Low’s AB 2098 “may” be the subject of a March 17 hearing in the Assembly Committee on Business and Professions, where it was referred last week, according to the legislative history.

The bill, which was cowritten by five other California Assembly and Senate members, goes beyond regulating how California doctors can treat their own patients. It opens their statements about COVID — public or private — to review by the Medical Board of California and the Osteopathic Medical Board of California, with possible sanctions to follow.

“Existing law requires the applicable board to take action against any licensed physician and surgeon who is charged with unprofessional conduct,” according to the legislative counsel’s summary, and the bill would “designate the dissemination or promotion of misinformation or disinformation” about COVID as “unprofessional conduct,” without specifying what’s prohibited.

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