New York City: Prototype of the American Police State?

John W. Whitehead
March 12, 2012

“I have my own army in the NYPD, which is the seventh biggest army in the world. I have my own State Department, much to Foggy Bottom’s annoyance. We have the United Nations in New York, and so we have an entree into the diplomatic world that Washington does not have.”—Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York

“There are no safeguards to ensure that the NYPD doesn’t break the law. So far as I know, there are no mechanisms in place to ensure that the NYPD does not become a rogue organization.”—Leonard Levitt, author of NYPD Confidential: Power and Corruption in the Nation’s Greatest Police Force

New York City has long been celebrated as the cultural capital of the world, renowned for its art, music and film. Presently, however, the “city that never sleeps” is serving as the staging ground for a futuristic police state operated, in large part, by Mayor Bloomberg and the New York Police Department (NYPD). Although the NYPD was recognized for its countless acts of bravery during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the department has gained notoriety in recent years for its overt racial profiling, a spying program which targets Muslim communities and political activists, and a stop-and-frisk program that has targeted more than 4 million New Yorkers—the majority of whom were black or Latino and had done nothing wrong—over the course of the past seven years.

Boasting a $4.5 billion budget, a counterterrorism unit that includes 35,000 uniformed police officers and 15,000 civilians, and a $3 billion joint operations center with representatives from the FBI, FEMA, and the military, the NYPD operates much like an autonomous Department of Homeland Security—only without the constraints of the Constitution. Read More

Germany proposes taxing news aggregates like the Coming Crisis in the latest attempt to control information

European politicians are on the hunt for new sources of revenue as the continent’s fiscal situation worsens. The level of desperation is clear in the latest move from German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition government to tap into the cash reserves of Internet search engine giant Google to bolster that country’s ailing publishing industry.

The second item on the coalition’s list of priorities released last week was a proposal to slap online news aggregators with a tax. “Online commercial vendors, such as search engines and news aggregators, should in the future pay a fee to publishers for the distribution of press products (such as news articles) on the Internet,” the document explains. Any business that links to a news article with a brief excerpt is subject to the scheme.

This action has far more to do with protectionism than protecting intellectual property rights. Websites such as the indispensable Drudge Report, Times 24/7, Real Clear Politics, Digg, Fark and Reddit collect news from sources spread across the Web. These sites are wildly popular because they draw the important stories together in one convenient place, fulfilling a very specific need among a news-hungry public. Read More

“A funny thing happened on the way to stop Obama from signing HR 347 …”

A funny thing happened on the way to figuring how to get President Obama not to sign HR 347. Yesterday late afternoon, I was on an urgent national conference call to discuss how to stop the bill. HR 347 is a bill that was passed with lightening speed with almost no opposition just recently by the Senate and House.

During the call, we were told that the bill is on President Obama’s desk and that he had until March 12th to sign it or veto it. This national phone connect was a “call to action” against the bill.

The bill has been nicknamed the “anti-Occupy Wall Street” bill, the “No Trespass” bill, the “end of dissent” law, and various other terms to describe its potential draconian effects on protest and dissent in America. It authorizes restricted zones where all protest is banned in and around government buildings and facilities, and bans protest around those receiving Secret Service protection. It does more and I’ve included its text – scroll down. “It kills protest around these people,” a moderator flatly stated at the beginning of the call.

So, a funny thing happened while on this conference call to urgently figure out what we could to prevent Obama from signing it. After all, he was a constitutional law professor before he became a politician.

During the conference call, a woman broke in, and said: “I have some very bad news. Obama signed this bill – HR 347 – today. He signed it today.” Today – March 8th – International Women’s Day. The bill was law. Read More

Drones in our World, Part I: From Battlefield to Backyard

This is the first article in an ongoing series examining the role of UAVs - commonly called "drones" - in our lives, as well as the implications and applications of this ever-more common technology.

Part I: The Expanding Tasks of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Remote sensing has played many transformational roles in the world, originally dating back to when Noah sent a dove from the ark and it returned to him with an olive branch. Two millennia later, the peaceful nature of the first remote sensing endeavor was wiped from the slate as it was discovered that aerial vehicles could be tactically useful in warfare. While military interventions are responsible for the technology’s current notoriety, there are myriad new and innovative capabilities that offer immense promise for peacetime use of modern unmanned aerial systems, giving them a role more similar to the one they fulfilled in Noah’s day.

Although "drones" have primarily made headlines as of late for their role in taking out key insurgent leaders and stoking international tensions, they are increasingly being used for less sensational but more vital missions, interventions, and operational support. Beyond the tactical military use, which has provoked debates on sovereignty, and the New York Time's recent article suggesting drones may undermine democracy, unmanned aerial vehicles are also increasingly serving many under-recognized (and sometimes underutilized) purposes. Though healthy dialogue should continue about the controversial ethical issues and outcomes surrounding drone usage in warfare, their utilization and their potential positive contributions should not be dismissed solely because of these concerns. Read More

Wall Street Protesters Complain of Police Surveillance

On Nov. 17, Kira Moyer-Sims was near the Manhattan Bridge, buying coffee while three friends waited nearby in a car. More than a dozen blocks away, protesters gathered for an Occupy Wall Street “day of action,” which organizers had described as an attempt to block the streets around the New York Stock Exchange.

Then, Ms. Moyer-Sims said, about 30 police officers surrounded her and the people in the car.

All four were arrested, said Vik Pawar, a lawyer for Ms. Moyer-Sims and two of the others, and taken to a police facility in the East Village. He said officers strip-searched them and ignored their requests for a lawyer. The fourth person could not be reached for comment.

Ms. Moyer-Sims, 20, said members of the Police Department’s intelligence division asked about her personal history, her relationship with other protesters, the nature of Occupy Wall Street and plans for upcoming protests.

“I felt like I had been arrested for a thought crime,” she said. Read More

Putin builds "walls" around Kremlin as paranoia begins to govern his decisions

Vladimir Putin won re-election this week largely by campaigning on a few themes: fear, paranoia, and an obsession with loyalty and betrayal, according to his critics.

And to hear those close to Mr Putin tell it, this is a faithful reflection of the former KGB colonel’s own mind as he heads into a third term as president of the world’s second largest nuclear power.

In numerous speeches, Mr Putin alluded to the presence of foreign plots against his rule and internal enemies of Russia’s sovereignty, accusing protesters of responding to “signals” from Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, and being part of a foreign-inspired effort to “show us that they can rock the boat”.

While this may have been scripted for public consumption, analysts say that the behind-the-scenes Putin is very much like the one he projects in public, his behaviour symptomatic of the same outlook he evokes in political speeches. Read More

U.S. military unveils its latest weapon... A non-lethal heat ray that makes the enemy feel 'uncomfortably hot', By Enemy they Mean Crowd Control

The US military have unveiled their infamous non-lethal weapon - an electromagnetic beam of fierce heat.

When the Active Denial System (ADS) is activated, it beams a high-frequency electromagnetic ray beam at a target up to one thousand metres (0.6 miles) away.

Mounted on a military vehicle for crowd control, the waves create a heat so uncomfortable the natural response is to flee.

'This is the safest nonlethal capability that we have,' said Director of the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate, Marine Col. Tracy Tafolla.

You’re not going to see it, you’re not going to hear it, you’re not going to smell it. You’re going to feel it,' she added.

Military leaders and researchers demonstrated the system at the weekend to the media at the US Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia.

Several journalists stepped forward to test the heat - which is said to feel like a hot oven - with amusing results. Read More

Mount Sterling, Ohio police department shut down after officer 'tasered boy, nine, who refused to go to school'

A town's police department has been closed amid claims of a cover up after an officer allegedly used a taser to subdue a nine-year-old boy.

Nearly 2,000 residents of Mount Sterling, in Ohio, have been left without local law enforcement after their police chief was suspended while officials investigated the incident.

The town's part-time officer was called to an apartment where a child was refusing to go to school, according to reports.

But during the call out, the visit became hostile and a taser was used to subdue the unnamed boy, Madison County Prosecutor Steve Pronai said.

The police chief Mike McCoy is accused of hiding the incident from village leaders.

City officials suspended him for three days, leaving the town without a functioning police department.

The office's computers and weapons were also seized, and state investigators are probing the incident. Read More

China backs down from legalising secret detentions

China has abandoned controversial plans to make it legal to "disappear" criminal suspects following a huge public outcry, in a move hailed as a victory for judicial reformers.

Proposed changes to China's criminal law being debated this week by the parliament originally included a clause that allowed police to hold people suspected of terrorism or endangering national security in secret locations without notifying their families.

Secret detentions in China are already well-documented -- the renowned artist Ai Weiwei was among several dissidents to be taken to unknown locations and held for months without charge during a crackdown on government critics last year. Read More

Russia jails female "Pussy Riot" members upon Putin victory: ..And so It begins

Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot, two of whose alleged members face up to seven years in jail for a "punk prayer" they staged in Moscow's main cathedral, have received unexpected backing from a group of Orthodox Christians who say they are being too harshly punished.

The group's performances have seen them appear in masks in a range of unexpected places to sing anti-government songs.

Part of the growing protest movement against Vladimir Putin, who was elected to a third term last Sunday, the group sang an obscenity-strewn song in Christ the Cathedral Saviour last month, including an appeal to the "Holy Mother, Blessed Virgin," asking her to "chase Putin out".

The Russian Orthodox Church condemned the stunt and called for the group to be punished. Days after the performance the group's alleged members were arrested and two, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, have been charged with hooliganism. The pair, both of whom have young daughters, have been refused bail. Neither has admitted being part of the group. Read More

Google leans on developers to use payment service (Time to break up the company?)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc has been pressuring applications and mobile game developers to use its costlier in-house payment service, Google Wallet, as the Internet search giant tries to emulate the financial success of Apple Inc's iOS platform.

Google warned several developers in recent months that if they continued to use other payment methods - such as PayPal, Zong and Boku - their apps would be removed from Android Market, now known as Google Play, according to developers, executives and investors in mobile gaming and payment sectors.

Developers say the Internet search giant is trying to simplify consumer payments, hoping apps-buying will rise and offset their higher costs. Google's payment service charges a higher cut per transaction than some rivals'. But the move also suggests Google is using its powerful position in the mobile apps market to promote an in-house offering.

"Although this move by Google might seem high-handed, it reduces the friction for purchases inside Android apps and therefore makes users more valuable," said Hugo Troche, chief executive of Appsperse, a cross-promotion network for app discovery.

A Google spokesman declined to comment on Thursday. Read More

Chinese Authorities: Dead Tibetans Are "Criminals", Repression "Does Not Exist"

Real money for an imaginary war

At the height of the Occupy Wall Street evictions, it seemed as though some diminutive version of "shock and awe" had stumbled in from Baghdad, Iraq, to Oakland, California.

US police forces had been "militarized", many commentators worried, as though the firepower and callous tactics on display were anomalies, surprises bursting upon us from nowhere.

There should have been no surprise. Those flash grenades exploding in Oakland and the sound of cannons on New York's streets simply opened small windows on to a national policing landscape long in the process of militarization - a bleak domestic no man's land marked by tanks and drones, robot bomb detectors, grenade launchers, Tasers and, most of all, interlinked video surveillance cameras and information databases growing quietly on unobtrusive server farms everywhere.

The ubiquitous fantasy of "homeland security", pushed hard by the federal government in the wake of September 11, 2001, has been widely embraced by the public. It has also excited intense weapons- and techno-envy among police departments and municipalities vying for the latest in armor and spy equipment. Read More