big brother round-up
This is why we don’t trust the surveillance state. If they can’t resist needling one of their own over his needler, how are they going to treat the rest of us?
- For Airport Security, Size Matters
Cops: New high-tech screener triggered fight over manhood insult
Negrin … and his co-workers had been training with new “whole body image” machines–the controversial kind that provide very revealing images of a traveler–when Negrin walked through the scanner. “The X-ray revealed that [Negrin] has a small penis and co-workers made fun of him on a daily basis,” reported cops. Following his arrest, Negrin told police that he “could not take the jokes anymore and lost his mind.”
Americans accused of being involved with terrorist organizations, even if they have never been convicted of a crime, could have their citizenship revoked under a bipartisan bill that has been introduced in Congress.
This by way of Ani:
Made without the knowledge or approval of the NYPD, the tapes—made between June 1, 2008, and October 31, 2009, in the 81st Precinct in Bedford-Stuyvesant and obtained exclusively by the Voice—provide an unprecedented portrait of what it’s like to work as a cop in this city.
They reveal that precinct bosses threaten street cops if they don’t make their quotas of arrests and stop-and-frisks, but also tell them not to take certain robbery reports in order to manipulate crime statistics. The tapes also refer to command officers calling crime victims directly to intimidate them about their complaints.
Worth reading to the end for this nugget:
Three weeks after his meeting with QAD investigators, on October 31, Schoolcraft felt sick and went home from work. Hours later, a dozen police supervisors came to his house and demanded that he return to work. He declined, on health grounds. Eventually, Deputy Chief Michael Marino, the commander of Patrol Borough Brooklyn North, which covers 10 precincts, ordered that Schoolcraft be dragged from his apartment in handcuffs and forcibly placed in a Queens mental ward for six days.
The Voice says they’ll be doing a follow-up on what happened to Schoolcraft. I’ll be keeping an eye out.
And finally, on to the everyday surveillance we’ve come to take for granted:
- Portland attorney Mark Ginsberg fights red-light camera ticket — and wins
- (Atlanta) Collisions at Red Light Camera Intersections Go Up
The Oregonian article has a link to the claim that the cameras reduce accidents, but it turns out to be a statement buried in another article, relying on the Portland police. No idea how the actual study stands up.
