Author: Joe from MassPrivateI

MassPrivateI

If you have never heard of Virtual Block Watch (VBW) don’t worry, you soon will.

At first glance, you might think it’s like law enforcement’s Neighborhood Watch but you’d be wrong.

VBW’s are law enforcement’s latest national surveillance program that encourages the public to use surveillance cameras spy on one another.

Why do we need another national spying program? Don’t we already have DHS’s ‘See Something Say Something’ spying program?   Continue reading “‘Virtual Block Watch’ wants every home to have four surveillance cameras to spy on the public”

Bloomberg – by Suzanne Woolley

Drawing cash from an ATM is beginning to feel like a ritual from a bygone era. Like buying a record on vinyl, it’s a once-universal experience for which dedicated fans are now paying a premium.

This year marks the 11th consecutive annual increase in bank ATM fees for customers using out-of-network machines, according to a new Bankrate.com report. Over the past decade, such fees have risen 55 percent. The average cost of such a transaction is now over $4.50.    Continue reading “ATM Fees Are Out of Control”

Tech Dirt – by Tim Cushing

Jails and prisons continue to sacrifice what few physical interactions prisoners have with loved ones on the outside to phone service provider Securus. The New Orleans Advocate reports a local jail is the latest in a long line of correctional facilities to ban in-person visits, replacing them with Securus communication software and hardware.

Inmates at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Gretna will no longer be able to receive in-person visits from relatives and friends beginning Oct. 10, when the facility will begin a “video visitation” program similar to one put in place at New Orleans’ lockup a couple of years ago.  

Continue reading “More Prisons Banning In-Person Visits, Adding To Securus Tech’s Pile Of Cash”

WBFO News

The Buffalo Police Department’s Strike Force and Housing units are the vanguard of Mayor Byron Brown’s campaign against the scourge of guns, drugs and gangs in Buffalo. But the tactics used by officers in the two units have come under fire by members of both the public and the legal community.

These squads are not like regular street cops, who typically respond to calls for service within their districts. Strike Force is deployed in high crime areas and conduct traffic checkpoints. The Housing Unit patrols the city’s public housing projects.   Continue reading “Investigative Post: Buffalo Police tactics described as ‘stalk and frisk’”

Bloomberg

Toymaker Mattel Inc. has announced plans to sell a nursery gadget that will listen to infants and watch over them, record their sleep patterns, and even play a lullaby should they awaken.

Put another way: It eavesdrops on kids.

Skeptics are asking if the device, similar to Amazon.com’s Echo with its Alexa voice assistant, will violate children’s privacy and deepen a trend of surrendering intimate human connections to technology that talks and listens.   Continue reading “Mattel Gadget Listens to Babies, Setting Off Privacy Alarms”

LA Times

Northern California police officer was arrested and accused of assaulting with his baton a man suspected of driving drunk, authorities said.

Rocklin Police Officer Brad Alford was taken into custody Tuesday and booked into Placer County jail on charges of assault with a deadly weapon causing great bodily harm, assault under the color of authority and filing a false police report, said Rocklin Police Chief Chad Butler.   Continue reading “Northern California police officer arrested, accused of beating DUI suspect with baton”

CNN – by Shachar Peled

Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby’s office released the updated numbers Wednesday. She said the actions of eight officers indicted for racketeering have affected 295 cases, and three more incidents of questionable use of body-worn cameras have impacted a total of 569 cases. Overall, she said up to 338 cases have been or could be dismissed.   Continue reading “Baltimore prosecutor says more than 850 cases impacted by questionable police conduct”

New York Daily News – by Blake Alsup

An Idaho woman was confronted by police after breaking a glass door to help rescue a child in a burning truck.

Truck driver Tequila Isaacson was at a rest stop in Snoqualmie Pass, Wash. on Sunday when she noticed a family trying to get their child out of a burning pickup truck in the parking lot, she wrote in a Facebook post.

Isaacson searched for a fire extinguisher while someone called 911. She was unable to find one until she noticed an extinguisher behind the locked door of Red Mountain Coffee.  Continue reading “Woman scolded after helping to rescue child from burning truck”

ABC News

A retired sheriff’s officer in Florida was injured when a trainee fired a gun with a blank at him during a use of force training exercise.

Jacksonville Sheriff’s Director Tom Hackney says Chip Williams was training 10 officers Wednesday at the Criminal Justice Center in Jacksonville.

The Florida Times-Union reports Williams initially fired a weapon and corrections officer Tyler Kovacs was supposed to respond with his own gun loaded with soap-tipped simulated bullets.   Continue reading “Instructor injured in sheriff’s use-of-force drill”

Reason – by Scott Shackford

The head of the Salt Lake Police Association has watched the country’s outrage over the videos showing a nurse getting arrested for refusing to draw a man’s blood without a warrant and has decided the correct response is to complain that the public got to see what its officers did.

Union head Stephen Hartney sent a letter to the city’s mayor and police chief to complain video of the brief arrest of nurse Alex Wubbels has made “pariahs” of Det. Jeff Payne and his watch commander at the time of the incident, Lt. James Tracy.   Continue reading “Police Union Complains That Public Got to See Them Roughing Up Utah Nurse”

Hartford Courant – by Vinny Vella

Two Hartford police officers who were disciplined earlier this year in connection with an excessive-force investigation have been promoted.

Officer Steven Barone and Detective Christopher Mastroianni were promoted to sergeant Thursday by police Chief James Rovella. The promotions are effective Sunday, according to police officials.
Continue reading “Hartford Cops Disciplined In West Hartford Arrest Probe Promoted”

The Newspaper

Arizona residents wondering whether it is safe to ignore their speed camera tickets might take inspiration from the new executive team at American Traffic Solutions (ATS). Court records show that high-ranking employees of the Arizona-based speed camera and red light camera provider have dodged process servers and ignored their own photo radar tickets.

For example, Liz Caracciolo, senior vice president of ATS Safety Solutions, was busted in 2012 for running a stop sign. In July 2014, she received a photo radar ticket in Scottsdale and promptly ignored it. After she successfully dodged the process servers that came to her door to personally deliver the citation, a judge ordered alternate service in October. She cleared up the ticket in December, the same month she was hired by ATS — the same company that issued the ticket.   Continue reading “Speed Camera Executives Still Ignore Own Photo Radar Tickets”

MassPrivateI

Can you recall when your parents bought your first bicycle? Can you recall how thrilled you were when you didn’t need training wheels?

Those were great memories right?

Now imagine a future, where parents are forced to buy a bicycle that uploads all your kids data to a NASA spy satellite that knows exactly where they are are at all times.   Continue reading “Spying bicycles let police know who and where you are”

Truthout – by Brian Dolinar

The election of Donald Trump has already has already given an economic boost to those profiting from mass incarceration. The stock prices of the two biggest private prison builders — CoreCivic (formerly Corrections Corporation of America) and GEO Group — doubled after Trump took office.

Companies that charge for expensive phone calls from prisons and jails also won big after Trump’s victory. One of the president’s first appointments placed Ajit Pai at the helm of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), who promptly rolled back the agency’s 2015 decision to regulate the prison phone industry. The companies hailed it as a victory.  Continue reading “Profiting Off Mass Incarceration: Detroit Pistons Owner Buys Private Prison Phone Company”

Eric Peters Autos – by Eric

If you’ve gone to get new tires recently, you may have already dealt with the latest outcropping of technocratic busybodyism: The scanning of your car’s electronic ear tag, its Vehicle Identification Number or VIN.

The VIN is a bar code – literally – just like the one on the packages of stuff you buy at the supermarket or anywhere else that’s corporate. The VIN specifically identifies your car – including every last detail about it, such as the engine/transmission it came with, the color it was painted and the tires it came equipped with from the factory.   Continue reading “Tire Tyranny”

MassPrivateI

Ever wonder who’s responsible for our daily dosage of fear, terror and crime?

Look no further than our colleges and universities.

According to DHS, ‘Homeland Security Centers of Excellence’ (COE) are ‘led by a college or university’.   Continue reading “Hundreds of universities have helped DHS create a nation of fear”