7 ms·

Monitoring America

37 points by pierrefar 16y ago

pmorici 16y ago
""We have got things now we didn't have before," said Memphis Police Department Director Larry Godwin, who has produced record numbers of arrests using all this new analysis and technology. "Some of them we can talk about. Some of them we can't."" Since when does a local city police department have things they "can't talk about"? Is that even possible given that eventually the arrests they make will have to go to court and presumably whatever technology or process they are using will have to be made public as part of that case?
- shareme 16y ago
  it use to be that there was law on the books that military cannot pass on military training and technology to local law enforcement..see Waco.. When did this change?
  - artmageddon 16y ago
    Not too recently, it seems, as this link shows: http://www.examiner.com/page-one-in-houston/police-line-up-to-use-drones-on-patrol-after-houston-secret-test http://www.examiner.com/page-one-in-houston/police-line-up-t... I wasn't on Hacker News at the time(I'm on here now just as much as I've been on Reddit) but I could only imagine the storm it created. There was also a more recent incident of a Mexican UAV crashing across the border into El Paso, TX: http://www.policemag.com/Channel/Vehicles/News/2010/12/18/Mexican-Drone-Crashes-In-El-Paso-Backyard.aspx http://www.policemag.com/Channel/Vehicles/News/2010/12/18/Me... I don't know if I'm more freaked out at the possibility of seeing dozens of these flying around at any given time in the future, or the fact that I won't be able to see even a single one at any given time, knowing it could be observing innocent civilians for no good reason.
- zoomzoom 16y ago
  When the local police start talking like that, it is a slippery road to the point where they become the terrorists and we the people must take on the role of law enforcement. OTOH, he is just trying to sound important for the sake of the interview, so who knows how seriously we should take him. I think we all know that the NSA, CIA, FBI etc are doing "secret" surveillance out of 1984 for a long time now.
- halostatue 16y ago
  I've been reading some books (novels) about the Soviet Union recently ("Child 44" and "The Company") and it really does strike me that many of the things being said today by "anti-terrorist" LEOs and the DHS sound very much like the MGB (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_for_State_Security_(USSR) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_for_State_Security_(US...) and its successor, the KGB.
forgotAgain 16y ago
I am struck by the dichotomy of recent rules and regulations in our society. How is it that controls and surveillance of individuals are justified by individuals being inherently bad and at the the same time they are wrong for corporations because corporations are inherently good?
jimfl 16y ago
The boy who cries wolf at 10Hz.
JSig 16y ago
"There have been no convictions yet." Amazing.
maukdaddy 16y ago
Or, as most often happens, it could make no specific determination, which would mean that Suspicious Activity Report N03821 would sit in limbo for as long as five years, during which time many other pieces of information about the man photographing a boat on a Sunday morning could be added to his file: employment, financial and residential histories; multiple phone numbers; audio files; video from the dashboard-mounted camera in the police cruiser at the harbor where he took pictures; and anything else in government or commercial databases "that adds value," as the FBI agent in charge of the database described it. The most terrifying part of that is "commercial databases"
mcantelon 16y ago
Terrorism is merely the pretext for building a massive counter-insurgency apparatus. If the federal government is this concerned about insurgency it seems likely that they plan to consolidate their power.

37 points by pierrefar 16y ago

""We have got things now we didn't have before," said Memphis Police Department Director Larry Godwin, who has produced record numbers of arrests using all this new analysis and technology. "Some of them we can talk about. Some of them we can't."" Since when does a local city police department have things they "can't talk about"? Is that even possible given that eventually the arrests they make will have to go to court and presumably whatever technology or process they are using will have to be made public as part of that case?

shareme 16y ago
it use to be that there was law on the books that military cannot pass on military training and technology to local law enforcement..see Waco.. When did this change?
- artmageddon 16y ago
  Not too recently, it seems, as this link shows: http://www.examiner.com/page-one-in-houston/police-line-up-to-use-drones-on-patrol-after-houston-secret-test http://www.examiner.com/page-one-in-houston/police-line-up-t... I wasn't on Hacker News at the time(I'm on here now just as much as I've been on Reddit) but I could only imagine the storm it created. There was also a more recent incident of a Mexican UAV crashing across the border into El Paso, TX: http://www.policemag.com/Channel/Vehicles/News/2010/12/18/Mexican-Drone-Crashes-In-El-Paso-Backyard.aspx http://www.policemag.com/Channel/Vehicles/News/2010/12/18/Me... I don't know if I'm more freaked out at the possibility of seeing dozens of these flying around at any given time in the future, or the fact that I won't be able to see even a single one at any given time, knowing it could be observing innocent civilians for no good reason.
zoomzoom 16y ago
When the local police start talking like that, it is a slippery road to the point where they become the terrorists and we the people must take on the role of law enforcement. OTOH, he is just trying to sound important for the sake of the interview, so who knows how seriously we should take him. I think we all know that the NSA, CIA, FBI etc are doing "secret" surveillance out of 1984 for a long time now.
halostatue 16y ago
I've been reading some books (novels) about the Soviet Union recently ("Child 44" and "The Company") and it really does strike me that many of the things being said today by "anti-terrorist" LEOs and the DHS sound very much like the MGB (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_for_State_Security_(USSR) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_for_State_Security_(US...) and its successor, the KGB.

forgotAgain 16y ago

I am struck by the dichotomy of recent rules and regulations in our society. How is it that controls and surveillance of individuals are justified by individuals being inherently bad and at the the same time they are wrong for corporations because corporations are inherently good?

jimfl 16y ago

The boy who cries wolf at 10Hz.

JSig 16y ago

"There have been no convictions yet." Amazing.

maukdaddy 16y ago

Or, as most often happens, it could make no specific determination, which would mean that Suspicious Activity Report N03821 would sit in limbo for as long as five years, during which time many other pieces of information about the man photographing a boat on a Sunday morning could be added to his file: employment, financial and residential histories; multiple phone numbers; audio files; video from the dashboard-mounted camera in the police cruiser at the harbor where he took pictures; and anything else in government or commercial databases "that adds value," as the FBI agent in charge of the database described it. The most terrifying part of that is "commercial databases"

mcantelon 16y ago

Terrorism is merely the pretext for building a massive counter-insurgency apparatus. If the federal government is this concerned about insurgency it seems likely that they plan to consolidate their power.