Lets spend that spy plane money on mental health professionals and stuff that actually helps people and lets us not use the police for everything all the time.
AKA "Defund the police."
Baltimore police lied about almost every aspect of its spy plane program
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Re: Baltimore police lied about almost every aspect of its spy plane program
#12Police can't really face any consequences for lying, so why wouldn't they? On an individual level it doesn't matter even if the lie is in a courtroom for the purpose of turning a murder into justified deadly force! Why wouldn't an organization of police lie even more when they know full well neither the org nor the individual officers will be punished? Even in this story the truly disturbing part is this: > A three-j…
In the current system maybe. All things can change, laws especially.
But there seems to be heavy bipartisan support federally/executively for mass surveillance in the US so good luck with getting your privacy protected nationally.
Your best hope is some local policy changes at the state or municipal level in Baltimore or Maryland. Which may inspire change elsewhere.
Re: Baltimore police lied about almost every aspect of its spy plane program
#13ACLU just needs to file a briefing asking "could this data be used to track the movement of judges, or city officials around the city?"
Sadly, the ACLU today would support surveillance if someone made the argument that it could be used to track “racists and Nazis”. It’s a shame what has happened to the institution. I stopped donating a few years ago because it’s been captured by ideologues whose ideologies incompatible with civil liberties.
Re: Baltimore police lied about almost every aspect of its spy plane program
#14Lets spend that spy plane money on mental health professionals and stuff that actually helps people and lets us not use the police for everything all the time. AKA "Defund the police."
False dichotomy
Re: Baltimore police lied about almost every aspect of its spy plane program
#15Unsurprising. I wish that mass surveillance didn't have complicit bipartisan support, but people in power only ever seem interested in expanding it.
In general, yes, but not on the whole. This article goes into some detail about recent votes related to the Patriot act. https://inthesetimes.com/article/bernie-sanders-patriot-act-... Interestingly, there was a three-month extension of the three Patriot Act provisions, included in a House resolution to prevent a government shutdown . It's bad that these things are linked in the same resolution to begin wi…
> It really makes no logical sense why these things are bundled together as one bill, either.
It makes perfect logical sense for a majority-government party which wants to quash scrutiny from the opposition, while also ensuring support from its own dissenters.
Re: Baltimore police lied about almost every aspect of its spy plane program
#16Unsurprising. I wish that mass surveillance didn't have complicit bipartisan support, but people in power only ever seem interested in expanding it.
In general, yes, but not on the whole. This article goes into some detail about recent votes related to the Patriot act. https://inthesetimes.com/article/bernie-sanders-patriot-act-... Interestingly, there was a three-month extension of the three Patriot Act provisions, included in a House resolution to prevent a government shutdown . It's bad that these things are linked in the same resolution to begin wi…
Why are they tied together? Because someone proposed an amendment to the bill, and enough people voted for it for the amendment to pass. Then politicians don't have to put their name on voting for the extension to the "Patriot" Act. But some of them still voted for this. With some research, they could be named and shamed.
Re: Baltimore police lied about almost every aspect of its spy plane program
#17It seems like the more I read about the police, the more I realize that in their current form, they are unnecessary. For general policing, as in keeping the population safe and dampening crime, they don't need spy planes, they need legs; they don't need pistols, they need communication skills; they don't need body armor, they need to earn the trust of the people that pay them.
If 99% of police encounters don't involve violence, then 99% of police don't need to be equipped for violence. We need 1% of high speed, low drag, well funded SWAT teams, and the rest can just trudge around on foot.
Re: Baltimore police lied about almost every aspect of its spy plane program
#18ACLU just needs to file a briefing asking "could this data be used to track the movement of judges, or city officials around the city?"
Why does that matter? You could block literally anything if all you need to show is that it can be used again a judge or city official.
Because the powers that be get sensitive about things that could allow people to physically attack members of the powers that be. Or, in simpler terms: Because the person hearing the lawsuit is a judge.
Re: Baltimore police lied about almost every aspect of its spy plane program
#19Unsurprising. I wish that mass surveillance didn't have complicit bipartisan support, but people in power only ever seem interested in expanding it.
There is also huge support to reduce high crime rates. People will compromise some things to achieve this.
> There is also huge support to reduce high crime rates. People will compromise some things to achieve this.
Except crime rates are at their lowest points in decades[0].
[0] https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/amer...