Author: Joe from MassPrivateI

Ars Technica – by Cyrus Farivar

If you’ve ever filed a public records request with your local police department to learn more about how cell-site simulators are used in your community—chances are good that the FBI knows about it. And the FBI will attempt to “prevent disclosure” of such information.

Not only can these devices, commonly known as “stingrays,” be used to determine a phone’s location, but they can also intercept calls and text messages. During the act of locating a phone, stingrays also sweep up information about nearby phones. Last fall, Ars reported on how a handful of cities across America are currently upgrading to new hardware that can target 4G LTE phones.   Continue reading “FBI really doesn’t want anyone to know about “stingray” use by local cops”

Breitbart – by AWR Hawkins

On February 10, DKNY founder Donna Karan will join Michael Bloomberg, Gabby Giffords, Richard Martinez, and Everytown for Gun Safety for a gun control push that will be marked by the sale of custom bracelets bearing the message “Not One More.”

The gun control event will be held at Urban Zen.

Australian actor Hugh Jackman is also on board with the gun control message and “will be showing his support by posting an image of himself wearing one the [custom] bracelets via all avenues of his social media.”   Continue reading “DKNY Founder to Spread Gun Control Message on Custom Bracelets”

MassPrivateI

An Appeals Court in Washington, DC has ruled that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may withhold from the public a secret procedure for shutting down cell phone service.

Ironically a committee called the ‘President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee'(NSTAC) claims their should be a single governmental process to impede phone & internet service.   Continue reading “DHS claims revealing info. about “Internet kill switch” will endanger law enforcement”

NJ.com – by Matt Friedman

TRENTON — New Jersey schools would be required to teach students how they should interact with police officers under proposed legislation a sponsor says could protect both kids and cops.

The bill, (A4130), introduced last week, would require school districts to come up with instructions for students as part of their Social Studies Core Curriculum Content Standards that would include “the role and responsibilities of a law enforcement official in providing for public safety” and “an individual’s responsibilities to comply with a directive from a law enforcement official.”   Continue reading “N.J. schools would teach kids how to interact with police under proposed law”

ABC 7 News – by Jason Knowles

CHICAGO (WLS) — The ABC7 I-Team reveals the mobile technology that hackers can use to steal credit and debit numbers from you while you’re in public. The cards at risk are enabled with radio technology that allows you to “wave and pay.”

It may be convenient, but there are also remote tools that thieves can use to steal information from those cards. The I-Team tested a device that can “secretly swipe” while you are standing in line to pay, on an escalator, or in a crowded spot.   Continue reading “Secretly swiped: Your account numbers taken out of thin air”

New York Times – by J. DAVID GOODMAN and AL BAKER

Last year, a police oversight board substantiated six complaints by people who said New York City officers had restrained them with a chokehold, a banned maneuver that was used by an officer in the fatal encounter with Eric Garner on Staten Island in July.

The number, while small, is a notable increase. From 2009 to 2013, the oversight agency, the Civilian Complaint Review Board, substantiated a total of nine chokehold complaints.   Continue reading “Substantiated Complaints About New York Police Department’s Use of Chokeholds Increase”

MassPrivateI

Are you, your family or your community at risk of turning to violent extremism? That’s the premise behind a rating system devised by the National Counterterrorism Center, according to a document marked For Official Use Only.

The document–and the rating system–is part of a wider strategy for Countering Violent Extremism, which calls for local community and religious leaders to work together with law enforcement and other government agencies. The White House has made this approach a centerpiece of its response to terrorist attacks around the world and in the wake of the Paris attacks, announced plans to host an international summit on Countering Violent Extremism on February 18th.    Continue reading “Police and social workers using gov’t questionnaire to see if you & your family could be terrorists”

Down Trend – by Brian Anderson

The state of Okalahoma is on a roll with introducing unconstitutional unenforceable laws as of late. Yesterday Downtrend’s Robert Gehl told us how the state wants to ban people from wearing hoodies and today we learn that they also want to keep people who have been convicted of DUI from buying and consuming alcohol.

Fox 25 reports that state Senator Patrick Anderson (no relation) has introduced legislation that would further punish those convicted of driving under the influence:   Continue reading “Oklahoma Looks To Ban Alcohol Sales To DUI Convicts”

Richmond Times-Dispatch – by MARK BOWES

Electronic coding errors, reporting inconsistencies, jurisdictional issues and police noncompliance with standard crime reporting guidelines have caused an untold number of officer-involved fatal shootings of civilians to go unreported or uncounted in Virginia.

The full scope of the underreporting of police killings in Virginia cannot be quantified, but the Richmond Times-Dispatch has identified more than two dozen cases that have gone uncounted since 2000.   Continue reading “Untold number of police killings in Va. go unreported or uncounted”

Courthouse News – by ROSE BOUBOUSHIAN

(CN) – A family cannot sue Camden, N.J., over a SWAT team that allegedly threatened to kill children at gunpoint while searching their home for hours, a federal judge ruled.

In a 2012 complaint, Ella Baker describes how two police officers showed up at her home shortly before 11 p.m. on Nov. 5, 2010.

The officers were searching for Anthony Fontanez, whom Baker’s daughter Tawana had dated and who was the father of her children.   Continue reading “Police Dodge Claims of Death Threats to Kids”

Courthouse News – by Ryan Kocian

AUSTIN, Texas (CN) – Austin police put a bag over a woman’s head, strapped her to a chair and used “choke hold pressure points” to draw her blood for a DUI test, the woman claims in court.

Caroline Callaway sued Austin, Travis County, Austin police officers, county sheriff’s officers, Pro-touch Nurses and one of its employees, alleging unlawful search and seizure, excessive force, assault and battery, negligence and medical malpractice.   Continue reading “Woman Sues Police for Brutal Blood Draw”

National Review – by Ryan Lovelace

As multi-billion-dollar international conglomerates intent on smuggling drugs, people, and other contraband across America’s southern border, drug cartels are always looking for the newest and best technology to help move their product. And the smugglers have come a long way from the days when border tunnels and small private planes were state-of-the-art. Their latest innovation: drones.

Drones by definition do not need an on-board pilot. This means that drones can be far smaller than manned aircraft — and that in the case of a crash, there is no one on board to be killed, or captured and interrogated.   Continue reading “DEA Agents Worry Drones Being Used to Surveil Law Enforcement”

Consortium News – by Elizabeth Murray

On a chilly morning in late January 2015,  an unlikely assortment of former U.S. and U.K. intelligence officers gathered at the former headquarters of the Stasi — the former East Germany’s Ministerium fuer Staatssicherheit  [Ministry of State Security] — for a tour of Berlin’s “Stasi Museum.”

The delegation – which included ex-officers from the National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency and British MI5, who count themselves among the members of the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence (SAAII) – had traveled to Berlin to confer the 2015 Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence on former NSA senior technical director-turned-whistleblower William Binney, for his role in exposing the extent of mass surveillance of ordinary citizens in the United States.   Continue reading “Examining the Stasi, Seeing the NSA”

The Register – by Iain Thomson

A Nevada court has ruled FBI agents can dress up as ISP repairmen to blag their way into a suspect’s home without a search warrant – but must tell the courts about it when they do.

The ruling stems from a case brought by the Feds against Malaysian poker player Wei Seng Phua and his son, whom the agency accused of running an illegal betting syndicate from a luxury Las Vegas villa during last year’s FIFA World Cup.   Continue reading “Who’s come to fix your broadband? It may be a Fed in disguise. Without a search warrant”

KFGO – by Daniel Kelley

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – A grand jury has criminally charged two Philadelphia police officers with knocking a man from his motor scooter, beating him and then falsely accusing him of assault, in the latest case of alleged police misconduct in the United States.

Officers Sean McKnight, 30, and Kevin Robinson, 26, were charged with aggravated assault and related offenses in the May 2013 incident which occurred after a traffic stop in a gritty section of north Philadelphia, said Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams.   Continue reading “Two Philadelphia police officers charged in beating of motor scooter rider”

NBC Bay Area – by Cheryl Hurd

Council members in San Leandro on Monday voted in favor of allowing the city to use a grant to purchase a controversial armored rescue vehicle.

The Medevac Armored vehicle is the only one of its kind in Northern California.

Residents packed a meeting Monday night to voice opposition against the armored rescue vehicle. But reaction in the room was mixed, with council members ultimately giving the go ahead for this controversial piece of equipment.   Continue reading “San Leandro Approves Purchase of Armored Rescue Vehicle”

Sea Coast Online – by Elizabeth Dinan

PORTSMOUTH — A 78-year-old man was Tased twice after driving into several parked cars, including a police cruiser, while suffering a medical emergency and refusing police commands to stop driving, said police and fire officials.

First responders were called about the incident on Sunday at 11:37 a.m., when they were dispatched to the BJ’s Wholesale Club store on Woodbury Avenue, said Deputy Police Chief Corey MacDonald. Initial reports were that a man crashed his car into a couple of parked cars in the BJ’s parking lot and when officer Andre Wassouf arrived, the man was starting to drive away, MacDonald said.    Continue reading “NH Cop uses Taser on elderly man suffering diabetic episode: ‘Our police officers are not paramedics’”

Huffington Post – by Ali Watkins

WASHINGTON — When the new Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, Richard Burr (R-N.C.), announced that, allegedly unbeknownst to him, the former chairwoman had widely distributed the panel’s study of CIA torture, he said he was perturbed. A sensitive document — one whose validity he has vehemently challenged — now being spread within the executive branch? Concerning, Burr said, to say the least.

Except most of the recipients that Burr is concerned about never even opened their copy.   Continue reading “CIA Torture Report Sinks A Little More, As Agencies Don’t Bother To Read It”