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Tag: police state
Amazon’s Ring is the ‘largest civilian surveillance network the US has ever seen’ with one in ten police departments using video from doorbell cameras, warns security expert
Amazon’s Ring doorbell camera ‘is effectively building the largest corporate-owned, civilian-installed surveillance network that the US has ever seen,’ it has been claimed.
The stark warning came from Lauren Bridges, a PhD candidate at University of Pennsylvania, who told The Guardian that one in ten police departments around the country have access to video from the civilian cameras after the company partnered with more than 1,800 local law enforcement agencies.
Bridges raises serious concerns that cops are able to request Ring videos from members of the public without a warrant, which she claims is deliberately circumnavigating the Fourth Amendment – the right not to be searched or have items seized without a legal warrant.
Last year alone, law enforcement agencies filed 22,337 individual requests for Ring videos, according to data compiled by Bridges.
A report in the California Law Review claimed that Amazon even assisted and coached law enforcement on how to circumvent legal requirements—such as the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement.
The claims are supported by ‘scripts’, obtained by Vice in 2019 from the Topeka, KS police department, which tell police how to encourage users to share camera footage with police and encourage friends to download the Neighbors app.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, nonprofit organization for ‘defending civil liberties in the digital world,’ has even formed petitions calling on Ring to end its partnerships with law enforcement agencies.
Gov. Whitmer Pushes MIOSHA to Establish Permanent COVID-19 Rules
On May 15, following the new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer authorized the state’s health department to modify its gatherings and face mask mandate to exempt people who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Meanwhile, the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA)—currently attempting to establish indefinite COVID-19 rules—announced on Monday that it plans to update COVID-19 workplace regulations to match the CDC while it strives to implement permanent restrictions.
The CDC’s sudden change in policy disrupts Whitmer’s recent mask update, as reported by UncoverDC, which declared that once her state reaches a 70 percent vaccination rate, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) extensive gatherings and face mask mandate will be lifted—unless unforeseen circumstances appear, such as vaccine-resistant variants.
Chicago Cops Use Asset Forfeiture Funds to Buy Drones “Off the Books”
Asset forfeiture funds help build the ever-growing national surveillance state.
Civil asset forfeiture is a pernicious policy in its own right. It is nothing more than legalized, institutionalized, government-sanctioned theft. Forfeiture laws flip due process on its head and create perverse “policing for profit” incentives.
On top of that, we have long suspected that police departments use forfeiture money to secretly purchase surveillance technology. Recent Chicago Police Department emails obtained from a trove of hacked documents prove this happens, revealing that cops used asset forfeiture money to buy drones off the books with no oversight or accountability.
According to reporting by the Chicago Sun-Times, details of the CPD drone program were revealed in an email sent by the director of police research and development. In the email exchange, Karen Conway told other high-ranking police officials that the department’s counterterrorism bureau “utilized 1505 funds for a pilot Drone program that operates within the parameters of current laws.”
Conway wrote that drones “have been purchased and the Electronic & Technical Support Unit (Counter-terrorism) is in the process of creating a training to start a pilot. Some of the Drone uses will be for missing persons, crime scene photos, and terrorist-related issues.”
The city refused to answer specific questions about the drone program, saying the city would not answer questions relating to hacked emails.
Vote harder!
They’re not done with us just yet…
DHS Issues New Advisory, Warns “Extremists” May Exploit Easing of Covid Restrictions to Plan Attacks – But Admits There is No Credible Plot or Threat!
The DHS on Friday issued a terrorism advisory warning that violent “domestic extremists” may exploit the easing of Covid restrictions to plan new attacks.
The DHS also admitted that the agency has zero information to indicate a specific, credible plot.
The Department of Homeland Security issued a new domestic terrorism advisory that is active through August 13, 2021 – JUST BECAUSE.
“Ideologically-motivated violent extremists fueled by perceived grievances, false narratives, and conspiracy theories continue to share information online with the intent to incite violence,” the DHS National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS) bulletin reads.
Mississippi Supreme Court overturns medical marijuana Initiative 65
The Mississippi Supreme Court on Friday issued a much-anticipated ruling that strikes down the Medical marijuana program enshrined in the state constitution by voters in November.
The ruling also voids — for now — the state’s ballot initiative process that allows voters to take matters in hand and pass constitutional amendments. The court ruled that the state’s ballot initiative process is “unworkable and inoperative” until lawmakers and voters fix state law and the constitution.
With six of the nine state justices agreeing, the court wrote, “We grant the petition, reverse the Secretary of State’s certification of initiative 65 and hold that any subsequent proceedings on it are void.”
Madison Mayor Mary Hawkins Butler filed a Supreme Court challenge to Initiative 65 just days before voters approved it on Nov. 3. Butler argued that Mississippi’s ballot initiative process is constitutionally flawed and Initiative 65 was not legally before voters. She said a provision requiring an equal number of signatures from Mississippi’s five congressional districts could not be met, because Mississippi has only had four districts for two decades.
Besides derailing the medical marijuana program, the ruling also jeopardizes six pending ballot initiatives, including one to expand Medicaid and others to reinstate the state’s 1890 state flag, allow early voting and to approve recreational marijuana use. The ruling also could open to challenge two constitutional amendments that voters have passed since they were allowed to do so in 1992, one limiting eminent domain powers over government to take private land and one requiring a government-issued ID to vote.
California bar owner arrested for selling fake COVID-19 vaccine cards
A bar owner in California was arrested for allegedly selling fraudulent COVID-19 vaccination cards.
On Tuesday, 59-year-old Todd Anderson was booked on multiple charges for allegedly altering a medical record, forgery of a public seal, identity theft and conspiracy, a spokesperson for the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) told FOX Business.
The San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office is prosecuting the case.
In April, ABC began investigating the Old Corner Saloon in Clements after receiving a complaint that fake cards were being sold at the bar, ABC said.
Philadelphia health commissioner resigns after cremating MOVE bombing remains
Philadelphia’s health commissioner has resigned after admitting he improperly cremated the remains of victims of a 1985 bombing, Mayor Jim Kenney announced Thursday.
Kenney said he was “disturbed” when he learned that the commissioner, Dr. Thomas Farley, “made a decision to cremate and dispose of” the remains from the bombing ordered by Philadelphia officials 36 years ago of a home whose inhabitants belonged to a revolutionary group called MOVE.
The bombing killed 11 people, including five children, and sparked a fire that spread and destroyed dozens of homes in the Cobbs Creek neighborhood.
Kenney said in a news conference Thursday that an investigation was underway to find out more about what happened to the remains, adding that they had been described as “bone fragments” and were thought to have been cremated in 2017.
“This action lacked empathy for the victims and their families,” Kenney said, adding that he asked Farley to resign effective immediately. Another official was placed on leave, and Dr. Cheryl Bettigole will serve as acting health commissioner, Kenney said.
Hellbound and Down 
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