Surveillance: How China Plans to Track and Rate Everything Its Citizens Do

Imagine living in a society where every action you make in your day-to-day life is monitored, quantified and scored by the government using a massive surveillance network.

Now, imagine that score is used to determine everything from your career choices to whether or not you're allowed to travel outside the country. This kind of dystopian fantasy is common in science fiction, but in China, the Chinese Communist Party is working to make it a reality.

China aims to have the system fully implemented by 2020. It will no doubt be a massive undertaking to keep track of China's more than 1.3 billion people, but the country already has a head start thanks to its massive surveillance system. In addition to 200 million cameras, China has implemented facial recognition technology in an effort to recognize criminals on the street. (Circa, December 3, 2018)
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Many would consider the surveillance system of the Chinese Communist Party to be oppressive, an abuse of human rights. And while China may be a few steps ahead of other countries in the constant surveillance of its citizens, China is not alone in this surveillance state mentality.

Operating in Hostile and Non-Permissive Environments:

A Survival and Resource Guide for Those Who Go in Harm’s Way

Black Man Killed by Police in Alabama Was Shot From Behind, Autopsy Shows

A black man killed by the police in an Alabama mall in November was shot three times from behind, according to a forensic examination commissioned by the man’s family.

The finding, announced in a news conference on Monday, was seen by the man’s family and lawyers as evidence he was running away and posed no threat to the officer who shot him. The forensic examination indicated Mr. Bradford was shot in his back, the back of his head and the back of his neck.

“All of these shots were potentially kill shots,” said Ben Crump, the Bradford family’s lawyer.

Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Jr., 21, was fatally shot in the middle of a panicked crowd at the Riverchase Galleria in Hoover, Ala., on Nov. 22, as officers responded to reports of gunshots on Thanksgiving night.

Witnesses said Mr. Bradford, who was legally carrying a handgun, was directing shoppers to safety. (New York Times, December 4, 2018)
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Court Upholds Appeal For Maurice Clemmons' Alleged Getaway Driver (Darcus Dewayne Allen)

LAKEWOOD, WA — Darcus Dewayne Allen will not face aggravated murder charges for his role as getaway driver when in late November 2009 Maurice Clemmons murdered four Lakewood police officers at the Forza coffee shop in Tacoma (now called BlueSteele Coffee). The Washington Supreme Court on Thursday said retrying Allen for aggravated murder, since he was already acquitted by jury on those specific charges, would be tantamount to double jeopardy.

Allen was previously convicted on four counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to 420 years in prison. An appeal hearing, however, overturned the ruling based on prosecutorial misconduct; a retrial for the first-degree murder charges was set at that time and Pierce County prosecutors tried to lobby for the aggravated murder charges again, which, if convicted, would have condemned Allen to a mandatory life sentence with no chance for parole.

Allen has reportedly pleaded not guilty to his role in transporting Clemmons to the Forza coffee shop on the morning of Nov. 29, 2009, where Clemmons shot and killed Lakewood police Sgt. Mark Renninger and officers Tina Griswold, Ronald Owens, and Gregory Richards, who prior to his death struggled with Clemmons and shot him in the back.

Despite the Washington Supreme Court's 8-0 ruling in Allen's favor regarding the aggravated murder charges, his retrial for the first-degree murder charges could still see him spend the rest of his life in prison. Allen's next court dates are scheduled for February 2019.  (Patch, December 13, 2018)
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Nationwide E-mail Bomb Threats

Authorities say bomb threats sent Thursday to dozens of schools, government buildings and other locations across the U.S. appear to be a hoax. Law enforcement agencies across the country dismissed the threats, which they said were meant to cause disruption and compel recipients into sending money and are not considered credible.

Some of the emails had the subject line: "Think Twice." The sender claimed to have had an associate plant a small bomb in the recipient's building and that the only way to stop him from setting it off was by making an online payment of $20,000 in Bitcoin. (KOMO 4 News, December 13, 2018)
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Operating in Hostile and Non-Permissive Environments:

A Survival and Resource Guide for Those Who Go in Harm’s Way

 

Military personnel deployed to a combat area, their supporting contractors overseas, government civilian employees overseas, non-government organizations (NGOs), journalists working on international stories, businesses attempting to establish a foothold in developing countries, and individual travelers to remote areas of the world can all find themselves in hostile and non-permissive environments. This guide covers a broad range of subjects that are intended to aid individuals, living and working in dangerous areas, in being safer in their daily lives and in being better able to protect themselves and survive in case of an emergency, disaster, or hostile action.

 

Judge Won't Drop Suit Against Deputy in Parkland School Shooting

A judge has rejected a deputy's claim that he had no duty to confront the gunman during the school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

Refusing to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a parent of a victim, Broward Circuit Judge Patti Englander Henning found after a hearing Wednesday that ex-deputy Scot Peterson did have a duty to protect those inside school where 17 people died and 17 were wounded on Feb. 14. Video and other evidence shows Peterson, the only armed officer at the school, remained outside while shots rang out.

Peterson attorney Michael Piper said he understands that people might be offended or outraged at his client's defense, but he argued that as a matter of law, the deputy had no duty to confront the shooter.

"There is no legal duty that can be found," Piper said. "At its very worst, Scot Peterson is accused of being a coward. That does not equate to bad faith."  (Police One, December 12, 2018)
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Warren v. District of Columbia (1981) is an oft-quoted District of Columbia Court of Appeals case that held that the police do not owe a specific duty to provide police services to citizens based on the public duty doctrine.

The Supreme Court ruled in Castle Rock v. Gonzales (2005) that the police did not have a constitutional duty to protect a person from harm.

There are several similar cases that hold the same, the police have no duty to protect individual citizens from harm.

We may not like the fact that Deputy Peterson chose to standby and do nothing while 17 people were being killed in the high school he at, but court ruling seem to be on his side.

Operating in Hostile and Non-Permissive Environments:

A Survival and Resource Guide for Those Who Go in Harm’s Way

 

Is Amazon Echo is Recording You 24/7?

A New Hampshire judge has ordered Amazon to turn over two days of Amazon Echo recordings in a double murder case.

Prosecutors believe that recordings from an Amazon Echo in a Farmington home where two women were murdered in January 2017 may yield further clues to their killer. Although police seized the Echo when they secured the crime scene, any recordings are stored on Amazon servers.

The order granting the search warrant said that there is “probable cause to believe” that the Echo picked up “audio recordings capturing the attack” and “any events that preceded or succeeded the attack.”

Amazon is also directed to turn over any “information identifying any cellular devices that were linked to the smart speaker during that time period,” the order said.  (TechCrunch, November 14, 2018)
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White Supremacists Attack DJ at Lynnwood, WA Bar

According to witnesses, a group of about 15 to 20 alleged white supremacists used racial slurs and assaulted a black DJ at the Rec Room Bar and Grill in Lynnwood at 12:40 a.m. Saturday morning.

All suspects are ages 20 to 40.

When deputies arrived, multiple cars with alleged white supremacists were fleeing the scene. A County Sergeant pulled over one car with six people inside and arrested them. Lynnwood units also pulled over a vehicle with two people, who were also taken into custody.

Eight people were arrested for malicious harassment, assault and malicious mischief. One was arrested for driving under the influence. (KOMO 4 News, December 8, 2018)

The DEA and ICE Are Hiding Surveillance Cameras in Streetlights

The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have hidden an undisclosed number of covert surveillance cameras inside streetlights around the country, federal contracting documents reveal.

According to government procurement data, the DEA has paid a Houston, Texas company called Cowboy Streetlight Concealments LLC roughly $22,000 since June 2018 for “video recording and reproducing equipment.” ICE paid out about $28,000 to Cowboy Streetlight Concealments over the same period of time. (QZ, November 9, 2018)
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Attaching surveillance cameras to utility poles is nothing new. Here is an example of the same type of camera attached to a utility pole in Tacoma in 2008 as part of surveillance of political activists.