Tag: police state

London authorities ban ‘Walk with Jesus’ march in Muslim-majority neighborhood

The Metropolitan Police banned a “Walk with Jesus” event from taking place in a London borough, citing concerns it would provoke the members of the community.

In a December social media post, the United Kingdom Independence Party announced a march scheduled for January 31 in Whitechapel, a predominantly Muslim community.

“Join our parade in Whitechapel worshipping Jesus Christ,” the post reads, describing the month as “dedicated to the holy name of Jesus.”

UKIP encouraged individuals who wished to participate in the march to gather outside Whitechapel Tube Station.

“Christ is King,” UKIP wrote. “All the Glory and honour to him.”

The Metropolitan Police revealed on January 23 that it was imposing conditions on the march “to prevent disorder.” Those conditions included a ban on anyone taking part in the event “in the London borough of Tower Hamlets,” which encompasses Whitechapel.

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Of Lies and Surges

Two headlines caught my eye this AM in my email media stream.

From the New York Times: “How the Trump Administration Rushed to Judgment in Minneapolis Shooting”

There was no “judgment” displayed in the execution of Alex Pretti. The Trump administration blatantly, maliciously, and viciously lied about what happened. Video evidence incontrovertibly shows that the Trump administration lied. Period.

Trump officials simply didn’t and don’t care about the truth. About justice. About the life of a U.S. citizen. They only care about their own petty lives and violent narratives. Anyone who gets in their way is a potential “domestic terrorist.” They’re sending a loud message clearly: resist us and you’ll end up bloodied in the streets – and maybe dead.

All governments lie, as I.F. Stone famously reminded us. But rarely can I remember lies of such obvious viciousness about regular people whose only real crime is exercising their right to dissent in democracy.

The other headline was this one from the Boston Globe: “Maine and Minnesota: A tricky tale of ICE surges in two states.”

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Oklahoma Governor Wants Voters To Revisit Medical Marijuana Legalization Law And ‘Shut It Down’

The Republican governor of Oklahoma says he wants voters to revisit the state’s medical marijuana law and “shut it down,” arguing that “liberal activists” conned the state and “opened up Pandora’s box’ with legalization.

During his State of the State address on Monday, Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) said his “top priority has always been keeping Oklahoma safe,” and one of the “greatest threats to public safety is the out-of-control marijuana industry.”

“When Oklahomans voted to legalize medical marijuana in 2018, we were sold a bill of goods,” he said. “Out of state liberal activists preyed on the compassionate nature of Oklahomans. Then, it opened up Pandora’s box.”

The governor complained that the state has “more dispensaries than we do pharmacies,” adding that marijuana retailers “hide an industry that enables cartel activity, human trafficking, and foreign influence in our state.”

While regulators and law enforcement have “done incredible work to hold back the tide of illegal activity,” Stitt said, the industry is “plagued by foreign criminal interests and bad actors, making it nearly impossible to rein in.”

“We can’t put a band-aid on a broken bone,” he said. “Knowing what we know, it’s time to let Oklahomans bring safety and sanity back to their neighborhoods. Send the marijuana issue back to the vote of the people and shut it down.”

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Hero British Bus Driver Fired For Stopping Thief And Protecting Passenger

In a nation where self-defense is apparently a fireable offense, Mark Hehir, a dedicated London bus driver, has been hailed as a hero by the public but sacked by his employer for daring to chase down a thief who snatched a passenger’s necklace.

This absurdity highlights how the UK’s bureaucratic overlords prioritize corporate protocols over actual justice, leaving ordinary citizens vulnerable to rampant crime while the establishment looks the other way.

Hehir’s act of bravery, which even the police deemed “proportionate and necessary,” has sparked petitions, fundraisers, and widespread fury online. But in today’s Britain, where globalist policies have eroded basic freedoms, punishing the good guys seems to be the new normal—echoing a broader decline that sees literal convicted terrorists eyeing political power while heroes like Hehir get the boot.

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Two CBP Agents Identified in Alex Pretti Shooting

The two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti are identified in government records as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez.

The records viewed by ProPublica list Ochoa, 43, and Gutierrez, 35, as the shooters during the deadly encounter last weekend that left Pretti dead and ignited massive protests and calls for criminal investigations.

Both men were assigned to Operation Metro Surge, an immigration enforcement dragnet launched in December that sent scores of armed and masked agents across the city.

CBP, which employs both men, has so far refused to release their names and has disclosed few other facts about the deadly incident, which came days after a different immigration agent shot and killed another Minneapolis protester, a 37-year-old mother of three named Renee Good.

Pretti’s killing, and the subsequent secrecy surrounding the agents involved, comes as the country confronts the consequences of President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown. The sweeps in cities across the country have been marked by scenes of violence, against immigrants and U.S. citizens, by agents allowed to hide their identities with masks — an almost unheard of practice in law enforcement. As a result, the public has been kept from one of the chief ways it has to hold officers involved in such altercations accountable: their identity.

Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have called for a transparent investigation into the killing of Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse working at a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital.

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‘No one verified the evidence’: Woman says AI-generated deepfake text sent her to jail

Courts are now facing a growing threat: AI-generated deepfakes.

Melissa Sims said her ex-boyfriend created fake AI-generated texts that put her behind bars.

“It was horrific,” she said.

Sims said she spent two days of hell in a Florida jail.

“It’s like you see in the movies ‘Orange is the New Black’,” she said. “I got put into like basically a general population.”

Her story made headlines in Florida.

Sims and her boyfriend had recently moved there from Delaware County, Pennsylvania.

She said her nightmare began in November 2024 after she called the police during an argument with her boyfriend, when she said he allegedly ransacked her home.

“Next thing I know, I’m looking at him and he’s slapping himself in the face,” she said.

She said he also allegedly scratched himself. When police arrived, they arrested her for battery.

As part of her bond, the judge ordered Sims to stay away from her boyfriend and not speak to him.

Fast forward several months, and she said her boyfriend created an AI-generated text that called him names and made disparaging comments.

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EU Records Reveal Absurd Justifications for $150 Million Fine Against X

Newly disclosed internal records, obtained by the US House Judiciary Committee, reveal that Brussels privately warned X that it could be blocked from operating in the European Union unless it obeyed a set of Digital Services Act demands.

We obtained a copy of the records for you here.

The decision, stretching across 184 pages, became the foundation for a fine of nearly $150 million. Buried in the text is a clear threat: if X failed to comply, the Commission could “disable access to the infringing service.” That phrase, lifted straight from Article 75(3) of the DSA, turns regulatory oversight into a power switch.

The fines themselves read like parodies of seriousness. €45 million for “misappropriating” the blue checkmark. Somehow, allowing people to pay to show they’re a real person and get a checkmark supposedly distorted “cross-industry visual standards.”

€35 million for an ad repository deemed too limited. €40 million for withholding data from “qualified researchers,” some based outside the EU. We all know what type of “researcher” that is.

Even the supporting evidence borders on comic. One example cited a parody of a Donald Duck account. Regulators claimed the cartoon’s blue checkmark could “mislead users” into believing the fictional duck was real. In Brussels, satire is treated as a compliance issue.

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Alabama Lawmakers Pass Bill To Increase Penalties For Smoking Marijuana In A Car Where A Child Is Present

The Alabama House of Representatives Thursday passed a bill that prohibits smoking or vaping marijuana in a car with children.

HB 72, sponsored by Rep. Patrick Sellers, D-Pleasant Grove, would make it a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail,  for those who smoke marijuana in a car with a child under 19.

The bill passed 77-2 after an unusual debate largely limited to the 29 Democrats in the 105-member chamber over potential unintended consequences. Most Democrats abstained from the vote. Four voted in favor; Reps. Mary Moore, D-Birmingham and TaShina Morris, D-Montgomery, voted against the bill.

“It’s about protecting the children, protecting every single child in the state of Alabama,” Sellers said after the meeting. “And that’s the motivation behind making sure that every child has the 100 percent ability to learn in the best environment that they can and keep them safe.”

Under the bill, individuals who are found to have smoked marijuana in the car with a child would be required to go through an educational program conducted by the Department of Public Health and would be reported by law enforcement to local county human resources departments.

Several Democrats who spoke on the measure cited the toll that harsh drug laws had taken on minority communities.

“It goes back to the heart of criminalization of marijuana in certain communities,” Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham, said after the meeting. “And those are communities that are communities typical of people of color.”

Givan also said House Democrats had wanted to work with Sellers on the bill.

“The Democratic Party, on several attempts, said that this is a bill that we might need to sit down and curate,” she said. “I’m not sure why the sponsor of the bill did not do that.”

Morris raised concerns about the bill’s definition of a child during debate.

“So we’re making a parent responsible for an 18-year-old who has a marijuana smell on them,” she said. “We know at the ages of 16 and 17, especially with the influence of walking outside and going different places, that they are smoking, maybe without the parent even knowing.”

Rep. Rolanda Hollis, D-Birmingham, said during debate that parents don’t know everything that their child does.

“As a parent you may not know, and here I don’t know if the counselor or the principal can call you in to say ‘Hey this is what we smelled on your kid’s jacket, how are we gonna handle this?’ But instead you got me going to a class for something I don’t even know about,” she said.

When asked after the meeting about Morris’ concerns about the bill’s language regarding age, Sellers said parents should “stop making excuses” for their children.

“You know whether or not your child is smoking marijuana. If someone lives in your house, you know they’re smoking marijuana because you can smell it. It’s a distinct smell,” he said.

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Ukraine Moves To Purge Dostoevsky & Tolstoy From Public Mention

In the latest escalation of Ukraine’s cultural purge and targeting of all things Russian, Ukraine’s Institute of National Memory has this month formally branded the famed classic Russian authors Fyodor Dostoevsky and Leo Tolstoy as vectors of “Russian imperial propaganda”.

This has included a call from the body which operates under the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine for all streets, monuments, and public institutions bearing their names be wiped from the map.

According to Interfax, commenting on the ruling, “the assignment of their names to geographical objects, names of legal entities and objects of property rights, objects of toponymy, as well as the establishment of monuments and memorial signs in their honor in Ukraine was the embodiment of Russification – Russian imperial policy aimed at imposing the use of the Russian language, promoting Russian culture as superior compared to other national languages ​​and cultures, displacing the Ukrainian language from use, and narrowing the Ukrainian cultural and information space.”

In a January 20 statement, the Institute of National Memory’s ‘expert commission’ claimed the literary legacy of both writers is “directly connected to the glorification of Russian imperial policy.” The Ukrainian officials also asserted there are signs of “Ukrainophobia” in their books.

The move was met with complete silence in Western media, and the story has gone almost completely overlooked, despite Dostoevsky and Tolstoy having long been widely studied and appreciated across the globe, and in American colleges, literary programs, theaters – and among common avid readers.

Their works, from The Brothers Karamazov to the massive War and Peace have done much to shape Western culture and higher education in the 150 years of the works’ existence. 

And yet the Ukrainian government-linked institute now claims the historic prominence of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy across Ukraine was not because it is literary art with universal appeal, but somehow part of a long-running Russification campaign designed to marginalize the Ukrainian language and culture.

Ukraine has in essence just labeled two of the world’s greatest historical authors, which far pre-date both the modern Russian Federation and Soviet Union of the 20th century, as ‘propaganda’.

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Palantir’s ELITE: Not All Maps Are Meant To Guide Us

Many memorable journeys start with a map. Maps have been around for ages, guiding humanity on its way in grand style. Maps have helped sailors cross oceans, caravans traverse deserts, and armies march into the pages of history. Maps have been staple tools of exploration, survival, and sovereignty. And today? Today, they’re on our devices, and we use them to find literally everything, including the nearest taco truck, coffee shop, and gas station. Yet, today’s maps don’t just show us where we are and where we are going. Increasingly, they also tell someone else the gist of who we are. What does that mean exactly? It means not all maps are made for us. Some maps are made about us. Case in point—the objective of Palantir’s ELITE demands our immediate attention. ELITE is a digital map used by ICE to identify neighborhoods, households, and individuals for targeted enforcement, drawing on data that was never meant to become ammunition.

No, Palantir’s ELITE is not strictly limited to use by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), but its primary and reported use is specifically for immigration enforcement. ELITE, which stands for Enhanced Leads Identification & Targeting for Enforcement, is a software tool/app developed by Palantir for ICE to find, classify, and prioritize presumably illegal immigrants for deportation. It was rolled out in late 2025, with reports of use starting in September 2025. Essentially, ELITE is a map that pulls data from across federal systems—including agencies like Medicaid and Health Department information—and uses it to compile dossiers on people, complete with address confidence scores and patterns of residence density. It tells ICE agents where individuals live and how likely they are to be there so that ICE can prioritize “target-rich environments” for raids.

In other words, data that was once siloed for entirely different purposes—health records, public assistance, demographic lists—is now being fused into a single dashboard designed to help federal agents decide where to show up and who to detain. While no one wants criminal illegal aliens freely roaming the streets of our nation, the result of the operation is not “analytics”—it is anticipatory policing dressed as operational efficiency. One might think the scenario sounds like something only seen in dystopian fiction, and others agree. Advocates for freedom have pointed out that ELITE’s model resembles (in unsettling ways) systems designed to anticipate behavior rather than respond to actual wrongdoing. Beyond that, what else could it be used for, and when will that next step begin?

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