Tag: police state

New Study Reveals The Most Heavily Surveilled Cities on Earth

2021 is a big moment for CCTV: the world’s one-billionth surveillance camera is likely to be installed by the end of the year. A single CCTV camera per every eight humans on Earth.

But of course, it doesn’t quite work like that. Each camera doesn’t follow a set group of people around, creating a neatly edited portrait. The cameras are (mostly) fixed in position, and some countries have many more cameras than others.

In China and the US, for example, there is already one camera per 4.1 and 4.6 people, respectively – way ahead of the curve. But what if it is more pertinent to think of how cameras are distributed spatially? After all, more cameras across a city with a smaller footprint makes for greater coverage of everybody’s comings and goings.

The increasing levels of CCTV surveillance could have direct implication to people’s privacy, so Surfshark wanted to know which cities have the highest number of CCTV cameras per square kilometer. We gathered the numbers, crunched them, and produced a series of new visualizations to illustrate just how pervasive surveillance cameras are in the 130 most populous international cities.

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Biden Has No Legal Authority for an Actual National Mask Mandate

President-elect Joe Biden released his 100-day plan intended to combat the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) on Tuesday evening. That three-part proposal, however, features at least one unworkable premise: “Everyone wears a mask.”

Biden’s proposed national mask mandate was not elaborated on in the initial offering but the incoming administration made an effort to clarify that prong of their plan after several hours of nonstop and trenchant criticism online; from various shades of political opinion.

“My first 100 days is going to require–I’m going to ask for a masking plan–everyone for the first 100 days to wear a mask,” Biden explained in a video posted on Twitter late Wednesday morning.

The soon-to-be 46th president elaborated: “It will start with my signing an order on day one to require masks where I can under the law, like federal buildings, interstate travel on planes, trains, and buses.”

Overall, Biden’s proposal is a bit unclear, contains multiple caveats, and poses definite legal problems.

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Charity Builds Dozens of Tiny Homes for the Homeless, Cops & Gov’t Destroyed All Of It

Several months ago, the Free Thought Project cofounders made a small donation to the groups Food Not Bombs and the Sidewalk Project who were raising funds to build tiny homes for the homeless in Las Vegas. The group raised $16,000 and built 26 tiny homes for for people who had previously been living on the streets. It was an amazing feat put together by a handful of caring people trying to better their community. But thanks to the City of North Las Vegas government, the tiny homes are no longer.

Police and city officials raided the camp last week and destroyed all the homes. All the hard work and dedication of the volunteers was wiped away in an instant, along with all the personal belongings of the ones living there.

“Last week our local government destroyed the Houseless encampment we were building tiny homes for, that you both donated to help build,” Joey Lankowski, who does homeless outreach with Food Not Bombs, told TFTP. “They destroyed all 26 homes we built.”

The City of Las Vegas claimed that the destruction of the homes was just as they maintain “this right of way for NDOT, the property owner.” Officials claimed that destroying the homes was necessary for “the safety of those staying there and to the surrounding homes and businesses” because of trash build up and two alleged crimes they claim are tied to the encampment.

But Lankowski says the government was threatened by the encampment because it was a self-sustaining community. In an interview with NPR, Lankowski explained why this place was so important.

Lankowski said the city of Las Vegas doesn’t want people camping downtown and Clark County doesn’t want them sleeping on the Strip. So, the area, which has been used by homeless people for a long time, is a good place to be.

In addition, there is a natural spring that allows people to get fresh water. Lankowski and his group envisioned a self-sustaining community at the encampment.

They had a plan to put solar panels on the tiny huts for power, start gardens for free food, install compostable toilets for waste management and divert the spring for more water.

“Free food, free water, free energy, free housing,” he said, “It really was going to be something beautiful and completely self-sufficient, self-sustaining and I think that’s what really scared the government.”

Now, these folks, who had a place to keep their belongings as they attempt to get back on their feet, are back on the streets looking for a place to go — ensuring unsafe conditions for all of them.

As for the trash build up, Lankowski said they had dumpsters on the site, but then the city stopped emptying them, which created the build up.

“That’s how we knew a raid was coming, even before they told the residents, is that they would stop servicing the dumpsters and then trash would accumulate and then they could point to the trash and say, ‘See, this is why we had to come in,’” he said, “It was a completely state-created problem and such an easy fix, just do your job – just service the dumpsters.”

Sadly, it’s not just the homes that were lost in the raid. Residents of the encampment were not allowed to grab their belongings, so that was all destroyed as well.

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Despite Guilty Plea, 50 Child Porn Charges, Cop Gets NO JAIL, Will Not Register as Sex Offender

This trafficker of child abuse was charged with five felony counts of promoting and distributing child pornography, as well as 50 misdemeanor counts of possession of child pornography. To show you how much time he was facing in prison, each one of the 50 misdemeanors alone, came with a sentence of up to 5 years in prison, a fine of up to $2,500, or both.

Just two days after his arrest, Wise posted a $25,000 bond and was released. He would never spend another day in prison. Instead he would make a plea deal with prosecutors, who somehow thought dropping all but three of the misdemeanor charges was a just move.

Still, he faced the possibility of 15 years for the three charges, right? Wrong.

As Ocean City Today reports, as part of his plea deal, Wise waived his right to a jury trial and pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts of child pornography possession, which are punishable of up to 5 years in prison, a fine of up to $2,500 or both. A pre-sentence investigation was ordered, with the sentencing date contingent upon those findings.

Last week, Wise was “sentenced” to no jail. After the hearing, Wise walked out of the court room a free man. On top of his insulting lack of punishment, Judge Thomas Groton also said that as he complies with his probation terms for the next two years, no convictions will be entered on his record — meaning he could become a cop again. However, he is not likely to do this as he is currently selling real estate in Ocean City. 

That’s not all. Despite being on probation for admitting to being a literal sex offending pedophile, this former “hero” in blue will not have to ever register as a sex offender.

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