Rantings of a New Yorker

American and EU security officials are claiming that they need closer ties in order to fight terrorism.  To accomplish their goals, officials say that they need to be able to freely share information contained in their various databases.

The group’s controversial proposals are certain to trigger major disputes, not least its calls for Europe to create an expeditionary corps of armed gendarmerie for paramilitary intervention overseas.

Such a pact, which should be finalised by 2014 at the latest, would entail the transfer of vast volumes of information on European citizens and travellers to the US authorities. Negotiations have long been under way to agree such a pact, but have been bedevilled by divergences in privacy law and data protection regimes.

“The European Commission and the US homeland security department are also trying to iron out discrepancies in privacy laws to allow the wholesale exchange of data.”

While urging a comprehensive transatlantic electronic pact, the Future Group focuses mainly on boosting police cooperation and integration between EU states, policies which would reinforce the powers of European agencies and institutions bearing acronyms such as Europol, Eurojust, Frontex, and Sitcen and perhaps see new agencies established to deal with security and intelligence operations.

Several member states, not least Britain, will have deep qualms about the proposals, with the British likely to balk at automatic pooling of national intelligence.

Big Brother Britain would just like to keep all the details about their citizens in their own hands.

The Government will store “a billion incidents of data exchange a day” as details of every text, email and browsing session in the UK are recorded under new proposals published yesterday.

The information will be made available to police forces in order to crack down on serious crime, but will also be accessible by local councils, health authorities and even Ofsted and the Post Office.

Why do local councils and the post office need access to this data?  For that matter, why do health authorities need to know that your mom sent you a text to remind you to pick up some milk on the way home?  Oh, that’s right.  It’s because Big Brother needs to know every minute detail of your life.

Figuring out how the UK, EU, and USA are going to store, mine, and sort the massive amounts of data is going to be so huge, it could just be financially unviable.

Better go learn The GNU Privacy Guard, FireGPG, Encrypt This!, Fire Encrypter, GPG, and truecrypt.

If you don’t want the governments of the world knowing what you’re doing, regardless of legality, then you need to start scrambling and hiding what you do.  Governments are already snooping and want to expand further.  Don’t make it any easier for them.

If mass arrests happen at the Democratic Convention, those taken into custody will be jailed in a warehouse owned by the City of Denver.

The newly created lockup is on the northeast side of Denver. Protesters have already given this place a name: “Gitmo on the Platte.”

Inside are dozens are metal cages. They are made out of chain link fence material and topped by rolls of barbed wire.

“This is a secured environment,” Capt. Frank Gale of the Denver Sheriff’s Department told CBS4. “We’re concerned about how that’s going to be utilized by people who will be potentially disruptive.”

Potentially disruptive.  If the police believe you might be disruptive, in the cage you go.

Each of the fenced areas is about 5 yards by 5 yards and there is a lock on the door. A sign on the wall reads “Warning! Electric stun devices used in this facility.”

Ah, we know where this is going already.  Potentially disruptive people will be tasered for any little thing they say or do.  They might even use pain guns, goo guns, and powdered pepper spray.

The plans were to keep this lockup a secret, at least for now.

Oh, so you wanted to keep it a secret that you intended to arrest lots of people that probably haven’t done anything wrong because they might disrupt your setup for the perfect convention?

The American Civil Liberties Union is asking the City of Denver how prisoners will get access to food and water, bathrooms, telephones, plus medical care, and if there will be a place to meet with attorneys.

Well, this is why they wanted to keep it secret.  Now, they will have to give their prisoners access to all this stuff.

More disturbing is that the Denver police are already monitoring the protesters’ websites.  The police appear to be looking for any excuse to show who’s in charge and who they can provoke to make their original claim, that the cages are necessary, valid.

If you commit a violent crime, then, yes, you should go to prison.  However, the problem with these cages is that the Denver police wanted to keep it a secret.  The signs declaring the use of tasers is equally disturbing.  Added to this is the fact that the government and police departments have used agent provocateurs before, which helped create riots, which, in turn, got a whole lot of people arrested that shouldn’t have been arrested.  These cages’ sole purpose is for large, sweeping arrests, innocent and guilty.  It happened in 2004 at the Republican Convention.  It’s not really a stretch to see that it’s going to happen again.

The Harrold School District in Texas will allow teachers and staff to carry guns starting on August 25th when the new school year begins.

To deter and protect against school shootings, trustees have altered district policy to allow employees to carry concealed weapons if they have a state permit and permission from the administration.

Why?  If there are only 110 children in the entire district, why do you need to carry a weapon to school?  Surely, there are enough teachers and staff that they know the children well enough and a school shooting should not be a worry?  Or are these some sort of mutant children who just want to cause destruction and mayhem?

Superintendent David Thweatt said a main concern was that the small community is a 30-minute drive from the sheriff’s office, leaving students and teachers without protection.

Protection from what?  How bad is your tiny town that this is even a remote possibility?

The district’s lone campus sits 500 feet from heavily trafficked U.S. 287, which could make it a target, Thweatt said.

So here we go.  We must protect the children.  Blah.  Blah.  Blah.  Some random person might come in here and start shooting, even though there’s little to no chance of that, well, until now that you’ve told people!  Even then, there’s still no chance.

Other security measures are in place, including one-way access to enter the school, state-of-the-art surveillance cameras and electric locks on doors. But after the Virginia Tech massacre and the Amish school shooting in Pennsylvania, Thweatt felt he had to take further action, he said.

So, there is no threat near you.  There is very little chance that threat is going to increase, yet you’ve decided to make school a prison for the children.  How very progressive of you.  While you’re at it, make sure you indoctrinate them into believing the state is always right too.

“When the federal government started making schools gun-free zones, that’s when all of these shootings started,” Thweatt said. “Why would you put it out there that a group of people can’t defend themselves? That’s like saying ’sic ’em’ to a dog.”

Really?  I didn’t know that school shootings were so rampant in America.  Oh, that’s right.  They aren’t.  There are a handful of these unfortunate incidents, but there isn’t such a pandemic of school shootings that it’s necessary to arm yourselves in this way.

What is the school district going to do when they break up a fist fight and lose their gun?  Now, instead of just having a few bloody noses, you’ve got a loose weapon to finish the fight.

“The naysayers think [a shooting] won’t happen here,” he said. “If something were to happen here, I’d much rather be calling a parent to tell them that their child is OK because we were able to protect them.”

And, by arming up to 50 staff members, you’ve just increased the chances of someone’s child getting shot.  The teacher also now has a target on their head.  Anyone with a weapon is going to be taken out first by any attackers that might possibly appear.

You’ve also put the responsibility on the teachers and staff should any incident occur.  Sure, the teacher may put down a bad guy, but now, you’ve got to look for a new teacher because, at best, that teacher is going to go to jail for manslaughter.  Oh, and when they get out of prison, they can’t go back to teaching because they’ve been convicted of a felony.  This is a seriously bad idea that’s hard to believe ever got approval.

Guns will not solve the problem of making thugs behave in class either.  Yes, many thugs fear guns, don’t want to get shot, and don’t want to die.  However, they also know that the teachers would not be able to use the guns when they swear at teachers, when they punch people in the mouth, or when they are being generally disruptive.  Do you want your teachers pulling out their gun and saying, “Sit down and pay attention or I’ll shoot you?”  No.  That’s not going to happen.

Guns are not going to take care of the thug problem, it’s only going to worsen it.  The thugs will taunt the teachers into using the guns.  Eventually, someone is going to cave in and use it unnecessarily.  Remember, this is being implemented in a school of 110 students in the entire district.  What’s going on in this school that makes guns an ideal choice?  That is what people should be investigating.

Educational staff are not security specialists.  To use them in such a manner is a terrible idea, one that is going to eventually backfire.  If the school and the area it’s in is so bad that this is necessary, hire properly trained people instead of making your teachers do the work for free.

Creating the scenario where some nutjob just happens to be driving down the highway near your tiny school and decides that now is the perfect time to jump out of his vehicle and run into your school, shooting up the place is something from Hollywood.  It’s as likely as a terrorist blowing up your local Wal-Mart.

Putting innocent children into harm’s way is not only stupid, it’s irresponsible.  It’s too bad that the people in this tiny town probably think arming themselves for such a slim chance happening is a good idea.  Arming yourself against the boogeyman is never a good idea.  It only creates more fear over something that is highly imaginable.

Former New Orleans police officer, Scott Nugent, has been charged with manslaughter after being indicted on charges of repeatedly tasering a handcuffed man.  The man, Baron Pikes, 21, later died.

Pikes was shocked nine times with a 50,000-volt Taser as he was arrested on a drug possession warrant in January, authorities said. Winn Parish District Attorney Chris Nevils said Nugent broke the law when he “unnecessarily” used the Taser on Pikes multiple times and failed to get him medical attention “when it was apparent he needed it.”

Nugent was fired but is appealing his dismissal. Phillip Terrell, Nugent’s lawyer, has said his client followed department protocols and didn’t use excessive force.

The parish’s coroner, Dr. Randolph Williams, ruled in June that Pikes’ death was a homicide. Williams said he consulted with two other coroners, and both agreed that Pikes died of cardiac arrest caused by the Taser shocks.

We’ve known for many years that, while many towns claim that cops don’t have ticket quotas, many others do.  Many towns use speeding tickets as a source of revenue for their towns.  In the 21st century, however, towns don’t even need the police for such things as traffic violations.  With CCTV cameras to take photos and mail home to the owner of the car, Chevy Chase, Maryland is proving this point.

Easy-to-miss automated speed cameras on its half-mile main drag, where the speed limit is 30 mph, caught 3,500 speeders on their first day of operation last fall. Before that, the norm was six tickets a day.

3500.  That’s a giant cash cow for the city just from one camera.

Many speeders first learn they’ve been caught when citations, along with photographic evidence, show up at the addresses that match the violators’ license plates.

Be forewarned: More than 300 U.S. communities use automated “cop cam” systems like Chevy Chase’s. They’re after not just speeders but also red-light violators and railroad-crossing jumpers.

In the works are bus-mounted cop cams that ticket bus lane intruders, cop cams to punish speeders in highway construction zones, even cop cam systems that ticket motorists based on a car’s average speed over a mile. They catch drivers who brake for known camera sites, then resume speeding.

The same software that processes violations lets drivers view the five seconds before and after their alleged offenses on their home computers.

That’s nice, but what happens when the video evidence shows that you weren’t the one driving the car or that it isn’t even your car in the photo?  That’s right.  You have to take a day off of work, possibly without pay, so you can go to court and fight the ticket,.

The police hail the devices because crime is lowered in the immediate area surrounding the cameras.  Yes, that is because the crime moves to where the cameras aren’t.

They also claim that it prevents accidents, but that rear end accidents have increased.  This is often due to the fact that the timing of the yellow light has been shortened, therefore, increasing the risk of someone running a red light and causing an accident or someone slamming on the brakes, again causing an accident.  I certainly hope that no one rear ends one of those jeeps famous for their exploding gas tanks.

The police also think it’s a great idea to get loads of money off of the citizens driving past their cameras.

In Chevy Chase, for example, where speeding tickets brought in about $8,000 monthly before cop cams, “We are routinely bringing in approximately a quarter-million dollars per month,” Geoffrey Biddle, Chevy Chase’s village manager

This amount of money is being raised by a community of just 2000, meaning commuters are footing the bill for the upkeep of Chevy Chase.

Chevy Chase Police Chief Roy Gordon said in an interview, however: “It’s not about how much revenue we’re taking in with these cameras; it’s about changing driver behavior.”

Except that you just said that the cameras are a great cash cow, so how are we supposed to now believe you when you say you’re thinking about our safety?  If you want to see how quickly the police prioritize speeding tickets over other crimes, read about Daniel Jackson, a former traffic cop in South Africa.

Tying law enforcement to revenue only invites corruption, kickbacks, and payments to the makers of the cameras.  It is also difficult to fight these tickets, even when you are correct and the law is, technically on your side.  Law enforcement should not be automated.  Red light cameras are not about safety or law enforcement.  They are strictly a business to make millions of dollars for a community and should be fought every step of the way, until they are removed and tossed in a dumpster.

I wish I had the cash for one of these CCTV decals.  I’d love to have one hanging in my house, just as a daily reminder of things we seriously don’t need in our lives.

There are also some very cool CCTV tees to purchase as well.  The shirts below, titled “CCTV Government,” and “The Kiss,” are designed by Ross Robinson.  I’d really like to own the CCTV Government shirt.

A local TV sports crew caught, on camera, police officers beating a man while they were on assignment filming opening day activities at Coors Field.  The police, who didn’t know the cameras were there, filled out reports and were deposed in court, lying about what had happened.

On the video, which was shot outside Coors Field on the home opener of the Colorado Rockies game on April 4, undercover Denver Police detectives hit, kick and choke John Heaney.

Both officers said Heaney was throwing “wild punches” at them, hit the officers in the face and chest and continued to attack them, even when they had him on the ground.

The video clearly shows that this is not what happened.  At the start of the video, Heaney is already on his knees.  An officer puts Heaney into a headlock and punches him in the face several times before pushing him to the ground.  Heaney is on the ground, not fighting back at this time because he is cuffed, yet the officers feel it necessary to continue to hit him.

“They both unloaded on me and I started seeing stars and the whole thing was just bam, bam, bam after that,” said Heaney. “Someone had a chokehold and they were all on top of me and I couldn’t breathe and I thought I was going to die.”

After three detectives had Heaney facedown on the ground with his hands behind his back, the video shows undercover Det. Michael Cordova pull Heaney’s hair, lift up his head and slam it into the ground, breaking two of his teeth on the cement.

It doesn’t matter if Heaney is a jerk or not for flipping off the officer’s hat as he rode by.  It doesn’t matter if he came back and punched him in the stomach, which is disputed.  There is no way that Heaney could get off a good punch while riding a bike anyway.  Once Heaney was cuffed and lying face down on the ground, he should never have been touched again.  The video shows that he wasn’t fighting back.  Picking his head up and slamming it to the ground was totally uncalled for.

Heaney was charged with second-degree assault on a police officer and criminal mischief after one of the officer’s sunglasses were broken during the arrest. The officers claim Heaney rode his bicycle through a red light at 20th and Blake Streets and then punched Cordova in the nose.

Heaney, who didn’t know the men were undercover police officers, says he only flipped Cordova’s Rockies hat off of his head.

Is he a jerk?  Sure.  Did he need to be beaten up because some officer felt slighted that someone flipped his cap off?  No way.

Sadly, Cordova and Costigan are still on the job, pending the outcome of an investigation.  They don’t even have to do the “suspended with pay” bit.  They were videotaped using excessive force and lied about it in official police and court documents, yet they still get to keep their jobs?  If it was anyone except for a police officer, we’d be in the unemployment line.

The next time that you just need some time off of work or are planning a vacation, be thankful that your job has not yet implemented such invasive questions about your absence.

The form in use is not to be used for illnesses.  It is for future/scheduled absences that need to be approved, which makes one wonder why they are even using the form.

One interesting reason is surgery – thumb.  Are only thumb surgeries allowed?  Another is Wax.  What the hell does that mean?  HIV is another peculiar one.  Sorry, I can’t come in on the 20th, I’m having HIV that day.

Kidneys, bladder, Sexual Organ with that exact, random spelling and odd arrangement are a single choice.

Some of the other options include Alopecia, Amputation of Toe, Detachment from Reality, Eye Burn, H, Inability to cope, Nail Problems, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Oral / Tongue Problems, S20 Pain, Sunburn, Threatened abortion, Warts, and Wounds

While something like this would be illegal in the USA, the fact that it’s being reported by someone who uses the term “holiday” and the particular spellings of words indicates that this is most likely in the United Kingdom, where it might not be illegal.

Not surprisingly, before the head of school security, Don Homer, could even demonstrate the use of tasers, parents were voicing their opposition to the very idea of using tasers on schoolchildren.  Considering tasers are a step just before using your gun and that they are lethal weapons, there is no excuse for ever using tasers on children.

One resident, Mary Hackney, a teacher at Laurel Highlands School District for 35 years, said she had to break up many fights in her years but no incident required a Taser.

Another resident, Thelma Lahue, was opposed to having Tasers in school, but offered questions: how would the Tasers make a difference in safety, would someone innocent get hurt in an incident, who would be using the Taser, would those carrying the Tasers be drug-tested and was there an incident in the school to cause the need for Tasers.

Other concerns included the cost of the Tasers, the cost of training and if they’re opening a door for possible lawsuits.

Schools got rid of whacking you with a paddle years ago because they realized that it was inhumane and had negative effects on the students they were trying to control.  Being rowdy and occasional fist fights in school are common, but they don’t warrant tasering a person into submission.  What is Mr. Homer going to do when he tasers a student who gets pissed off at being taserd?  He’s going to taser the kid again and again until the student complies.  This will now be in the category of abuse and the school will be on the hook for a lawsuit.  I highly doubt anyone using the taser in school is going to stop after a single 1-5 second burst of a taser.

Homer said the school has tried to be pro-active over the years in terms of security, and his job is to look within and outside of the school to stay ahead of trends in society, citing there was no school security 20 years ago but the ways of the world have made it commonplace.

“We have to think of the future,” Homer said, adding that there had been recent incidents outside of the school where police would need Tasers, and it’s possible that similar incidents could make it into the schools.

It’s possible.  That’s the key here.  The fact is that inside and outside of school are not the same thing.  There are differences in people’s behavior between the two, as well as different laws governing what one can and cannot do.  While there are occasional school shootings in America, what justification is there to ever use tasers on children?  Why is this even a possibility?

The projectile Taser that Homer has is equipped with a CO2 cartridge with two darts connected to 21 feet of copper wire. When the user aims the Taser, a laser sight is activated for accuracy as well as an audio and video recording device. The Taser is equipped with safety-like guns and a switch to limit the duration of the charge between one and five seconds.

What they don’t tell you is that you can taser someone repeatedly, just only a 1-5 second intervals.

When the darts penetrate a maximum of a half-inch of skin, they send a shock that contracts muscles in the body and causes the person to go into a fetal position, Homer said. He added that people with heart conditions or differences in weight are not in danger from the shock.

Except that they are.  And what if the person you taser has a pacemaker?  That’s a heart condition.  Well, you’ve just killed them because the taser has the potential to short out the pacemaker.  Mr. Homer probably isn’t using the statistics of people who have died from taser shock in his statement either.

Homer said the body is back to normal after five seconds, and anyone who touches a person being shocked by a Taser would not be shocked.

Really?  Try telling that to the numerous people who have been shocked by tasers.

…officers must use the device as a last measure of force

Good luck with that because it’s worked so well in the past.

After Homer’s presentation, most of the audience appeared unsatisfied and still anti-Taser.

Gee, what a surprise.  In the end, a taser will always be a weapon.  It should never be used as a form of punishment, which is exactly what is being proposed here.

Unfortunately, we are breeding a generation that is hyper-violent, scared shitless of their government, can’t think for themselves, and have no idea what conflict resolution is.  This sort of attitude will only get you so far in controlling those you wish to oppress.  Eventually, they are going to push back and the authorities are going to be in a world of trouble.

Surfing around the Internet I discovered this gem titled, The World Will End This Sunday at 3:31PM.  It’s a photo and text story of John McCain and how he will snap and end the world.

It covers topics that include Bruce Ivins, anthrax, John Lennon, stupid Americans, Abraham Lincoln, killer animals, Peter Jennings, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, cocaine covered money, fried chicken, UFOs, the Asgard, Dr. Edgar Mitchell, and the destruction of the world.

Seriously, it sounds strange, and it probably is, but it’s also kind of funny too.