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NYC Mayoral Inauguration bans Raspberry Pi and Flipper Zero alongside explosives
- tom_ 9mo agoWho cares about the Pi Zero? There's no umbrellas and no strollers/pushchairs/prams/etc. - and to add insult to injury you're not allowed booze as well.
- observationist 9mo agoOhnoes, circuit boards are so scary. Please protect us from the evil hackers mister Mamdani.
- dmitrygr 9mo agoYou’ve really made it to big time when you are causelessly banned by the gov. Congrats to flipper and Pi!
- hnlmorg 9mo agoThey’re not banned by the government. They’re just not allowed at the NYC Mayors inauguration party.
- dmitrygr 9mo agoNot allowed = “banned” By Government security apparatus = “by government”
- terminatornet 9mo agobanned at one event.
- hnlmorg 9mo agoExcept you can freely use them anywhere else in NYC. People aren’t complaining that umbrellas and beach balls are also on that list. They’re just reacting to the headline without reading the article. Which is why I make the distinction between “not allowed at an event” and “banned by the government”.
- weli 9mo agoHow are they going to enforce this? "No officer see this is an orange pi"
- girvo 9mo agoThe brand won’t matter. A PCB-like thing will be considered equivalent.
- afavour 9mo agoThey’ll say “that’s banned too”. Their language here is imprecise and that’s crappy but the intent is clearly to ban little microboard computers, they’re just using “Raspberry Pi” to describe it.
- dheera 9mo agoThis will be interesting because Adafruit is based in NYC and they have pretty much every variety of microboard computer you can imagine
- hnlmorg 9mo agoI doubt That would make any different unless Adafruit is opening a pop up stall inside the Inauguration party. These “bans” are actually just a list of prohibited items at a very specific event. Umbrellas are also on the list.
- Havoc 9mo agoArrest first understand later enforcement
- some_random 9mo agoDifficulty of enforcement has never stopped such things.
- BoorishBears 9mo agoI feel like programmers model the law as a programming language, while it only works like that in very limited contexts. They said Raspberry PI, but the spirit of the rule is "electronic looking thing that we can't immediately determine the function of". You could probably show up with an unpopulated PCB and get turned away because it's green.
- free_bip 9mo agoLots of products come with integrated rPis since they're so easy to work with and have good vendor support. I guess all those products are banned too lol.
- afavour 9mo agoNo, they won’t be. They’ll just stop anyone carrying a Raspberry Pi sized circuit board computer type thing.
- serf 9mo agoah yeah that popular youth past time of carrying around PCBs.
- burnt-resistor 9mo ago"Circuit boards and wires = Terrorism! Eeeek!"
- whycome 9mo agoWill they ban cell phones?
- DJBunnies 9mo agoOr pagers...
- websiteapi 9mo agoisn't "weapon" already general enough by definition? also why not disallow laptop then?
- some_random 9mo agoNYC (and other jurisdictions) have a long history of categorizing things as "not a weapon" so they can more strongly restrict them without 2A challenges.
- ghayes 9mo agoI am always worried when I bring development boards on airplanes. I assume most people are reasonable, but I worry for a few that might not be.
- arcfour 9mo agoI brought a 5G Peplink modem (which has 4 external antennas) in my checked luggage and got "randomly searched" by TSA on both legs of a trip once, which I thought was pretty hilarious.
- throwway120385 9mo agoI used to travel with a case full of parts for work and just started leaving extra zipties inside because the TSA agents that would search it wouldn't always ziptie it back closed after they were done.
- geerlingguy 9mo agoI've brought mini clusters of bare Pis many times before (and other strange contraptions with jumper wires all around), and the only time I was ever stopped for a deeper search was when I left my x-ray shielding bag for film in the same case with the mini cluster.
- Havoc 9mo agoThis makes me want to buy a flipper
- outofpaper 9mo agoThis is going to make a lotote people aware of flippers.
- astrange 9mo agoI mean, probably not. Nobody really thinks about mayoral inaugurations.
- jachee 9mo agoVery few mayors have as many constituents as NYC, though. So of all mayoral inaugurations, this one has among the most potential people thinking about it, even disregarding how on-the-national-stage the election played out.
- kstrauser 9mo agoYou should. I've had lots of fun with mine.
- lawlessone 9mo agoThey're very overpriced for what they do.
- mPReDiToR 9mo agoTrue, they are expensive, but that build quality and the availability of firmwares to do what you are looking for with just a quick flash makes them handy AF for keeping in a pocket to play with. I have found several uses for mine which weren't in mind when I made my decision to purchase.
- lawlessone 9mo agoTrue, nothing else equivalent all in one package but i still feel like an idiot for spending on one.
- dinkleberg 9mo agoThey ban drones and remote-controlled aerial devices, but nothing about RC ground-based devices or robots.
- GolfPopper 9mo agoThe reeks of someone new being in charge (at whatever level approves this list), and feeling compelled to "prove" themselves via a show of power - in this case, adding items to a prohibited list. As such behaviors go, this one is petty. Adafruit's point on the banning of specific devices stands out as being particularly foolish. I doubt security would react well to any obvious cyberpunk cyberdeck build, regardless of the hardware inside.
- neilv 9mo agoWhat's also hacker-unfriendly is giving all your hacker-friendly article's traffic to Cloudflare, and then letting Cloudflare block Tor exit nodes from reading your article.
- offmycloud 9mo agoI'm using Firefox on a Linux workstation (without Tor) and I still got the CAPTCHA. The statement "blog.adafruit.com needs to review the security of your connection before proceeding" is misleading at best. Shame on Cloudflare, this kind of dishonesty makes me not want to trust your RCA marketing pieces.
- tomstockmail 9mo agoSame with Firefox Focus on Android.
- 0x1ch 9mo agoI received the same prompt from a Windows 11 machine at work. This probably has nothing to do with Tor or Linux, but their Cloudflare settings.
- neilv 9mo agoIn addition to Cloudflare's usual nonsense (e.g., give us all the cleartext because reasons, and also unblock our bad-UX code that doubles as an additional tracker), it looks like Cloudflare here might also be blocking Tor exit nodes (either proactively, or in response to detected abuses from those addresses).
- anigbrowl 9mo agoProbably because the HN hug of death looks like a DDOS attack.
- superkuh 9mo agoProbably because they're using the cloudflare defaults which are terrible like everyone else.
- some_random 9mo ago>New York City usually gets this right. It has decades of muscle memory for doing hard things in public, under pressure, without panicking. Not something I would say about Stop-And-Frisk city but whatever.
- mc32 9mo agoWith A.I./ML and high def aerial and street video + other electronic signals you don’t need ineffective tools like stop and frisk. They had the technology in Iraq to figure out where IEDs were coming from. (TF Odin) They could also cut down on government fraud and all the homeless NGO waste/fraud. [1] We need people to vote in governments who are interested in rooting out fraud as well as other crimes, rather than those seeking political careers who would rather freeze wheels take a blind eye to things. [1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1gl4SESu2o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1gl4SESu2o
- krainboltgreene 9mo ago> With A.I./ML and high def aerial and street video + other electronic signals you don’t need stop and frisk. Imagine believing that this stuff is effective.
- BigTTYGothGF 9mo agoImagine believing that stop-and-frisk was.
- nerdponx 9mo agoIs digital stop in frisk run by a shadowy corporation better or worse than physical stop and frisk run by the police? Maybe it's better, but I'm not sure we should be ready to cheer it on either.
- wakawaka28 9mo agoWell, a corporation can't arrest you on bullshit charges, much less so for the bullshit reason of resisting arrest.
- Waterluvian 9mo agoHonestly that’s a relief. For a moment I was worried they would ban my ESP32-powered animated LED Mooninite.
- croisillon 9mo ago[flagged]
- qnleigh 9mo agoPeople should bring raspberry pies in protest, see what happens.
- bryancoxwell 9mo agoNot being allowed to bring a raspberry pi to a mayoral inauguration is an incredibly weird thing to protest
- qnleigh 9mo agoHaha fair. But you would be protesting a weird thing in a weird way, so at least you'd be consistent.
- afavour 9mo agoThe language is unfortunately imprecise (or rather too precise) but I’d imagine this is simply allowing security staff discretion to refuse suspicious circuit board looking devices. They’re not going to be checking for brand names.
- Spivak 9mo agoYeah, I'm not really sure how this became news. It's not weird at all for event security to have a discretionary rule for if you don't know what it is and its purpose isn't obvious then feel free to not allow it. This just seems to be that but phrased weirdly.
- lynndotpy 9mo agoYeah, exposed circuit boards are things most people only see in three settings: (1) when one of their devices are broken, (2) bomb in a movie, or (3) it's the 00s. I think they're more concerned with preventing a panic over any of the concerns about what someone can do with a Raspberry Pi.
- dfxm12 9mo agoThey would not allow suspicious looking PCB's in regardless. If that's what you wanted to communicate, you would just add something like "suspicious electronic device" to the list. It's still a legitimate question as to why these two brand names were specifically added to the list.
- geerlingguy 9mo agoGuess I'll have to bring my Arduino then... lol, what a weird thing to add to the list. It's like someone watched Mr. Robot and determined their list of additional hacking tools from asking ChatGPT what tools Elliot would use.
- Apreche 9mo agoThe cops made this list. The idea that a smartphone can do everything a Raspberry Pi can do, and more, is a concept so far beyond their level of understanding that the discussion is pointless.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- Etheryte 9mo agoThis is not really accurate though. Both a Raspberry Pi and a Flipper Zero can easily and readily be turned into a signal jammer or spammer with off the shelf parts and nearly no technical skill. Modern smartphones are generally both more locked down and also don't come with an external antenna option.
- whatshisface 9mo agoReadily turned into a signal jammer? Do you know this or are you just guessing? Raspis are SBCs not tricorders from star trek. In terms of actual knowledge, wifi chips, like the one on your laptop or a raspi do not have software settings for that. They are predominately defined by hardware and by opaque binary blobs the kernel developers have their hands full reverse engineering compatible interfaces for. In addition, electrical interference far beyond what a tiny communications radio is capable of can come from dangerous items such as microwaves, electric motors and nine volt batteries plus spools of wire.
- Etheryte 9mo agoLiterally the first result on Google gives a simple to use jammer that works out of the box. Hook up an external antenna and you're good to go. Plenty of more sophisticated options if you dig a bit more.
- whatshisface 9mo agoAre any of the options you found banned?
- kstrauser 9mo agoI carried an RPi running a Meshtastic BBS around Def Con this year. I can kinda see why these combinations would make authorities nervous ("you have a computer-controlled radio what now?"), but the idea of getting arrested for toting around a souped up walkie talkie amuses me.
- lawlessone 9mo agoIt doesn't say you'd be arrested, just the items aren't allowed.
- kstrauser 9mo agoTrue, but exactly how unallowed an item is can greatly affect how their presence is handled. If you get caught with one, is this closer to having an air horn at a baseball game or a pistol in an airport? Neither are allowed, but one of those would make your day an awful lot worse than the other.
- Karliss 9mo agoCan anyone explain logic for beach balls and blankets?
- dylan604 9mo agobeach balls just cause havoc bouncing around and potentially knocking things over. they're a nuisance. blankets tend to want to be laid out on the floor for people to sit on which takes up a lot of space causing havoc for foot traffic when people are not expecting to have to step over someone. also, they can be used to start fires. these are the same reasons they are no longer allowed at outdoor concert venues for specific types of shows.
- hamdingers 9mo agoPeople toss beach balls around and it's distracting. People use blankets to claim more space than they need and sit when they should be standing. Both of these are perfectly normal rules for big gatherings.
- observationist 9mo agoInteresting. Adafruit is now on the list of sites I will no longer visit, given their locking down and harvesting visitor data, and explicitly preventing archive sites.
- johann8384 9mo agoOh good. My OrangePi is safe.
- pbhjpbhj 9mo agoThat's a "travelling in a car isn't driving" level of legal argument.
- annoyingnoob 9mo agoRaspberry Pi clones are not on the list. Orange Pi anyone?
- mfro 9mo agoI feel like this isn’t the kind of thing that just shows up on normal people’s radars out of nowhere. There must be some precedent, maybe a bunch of kids recently showed up to a similar event with these items
- dylan604 9mo agolots of things. Remember the Cartoon Network PR stunt where they placed DIY LED "signs" of characters from a show around Boston not long after the bombing there? What about the kid in Texas that was accused of bringing a bomb to show his teacher his DIY electronics Arduino project? What about the Mr Robot episode using a RPi? Also, people putting these regulations in place are not normal people but people that think about how people might cause mayhem. None of the things I mentioned were real threats, but they very easily could have been is the point.
- edgineer 9mo agoBoston's reaction to the mooninite signs, especially in comparison to how all the other cities reacted to them, was ridiculous, and rightfully ridiculed. The alarm clock wasn't an arduino project, the student took an alarm clock apart and put the insides into case, specifically so that it would look like a bomb, then brought it to school, and rather than receive detention and that be the end of it, the news went wild with it as a discrimination case. These were cases of overreaction in the moment. Maybe that's the real lesson here; these rules for the inaugural block party are not to secure the block from electronic interference, but as part of a system to manage the reactions of panicky, irrational people.
- mrbluecoat 9mo ago> Today it’s Raspberry Pi and Flipper Zero. Tomorrow it’s ... a TI-83 held sideways Laughed so hard. That sarcasm is so sharp it might show up on next year's banned list.
- _zagj 9mo agoAll of the comments so far have been about > le heckin' security theater targeting tinkerbros and none addressing the elephant in the room of why Mamdani needs all of this security, or frankly, any security at all? Just a few years prior, he tweeted out #DefundThePolice, and of the NYPD specifically, suggested "Defund it. Dismantle it. End the cycle of violence." And even though he's walked some of that back, he still supports dismantling the NYPD's Strategic Response Group (whose duties including counter terrorism response). You can be sure however free of a rein the city's population of crazy transients are given to assault, slash, or push others in front of oncoming subway trains, he and his family will remain safe.
- SoftTalker 9mo agothey always exempt themselves
- _zagj 9mo agoA glaring example, the previous soft-on-crime mayor, Bill de Blasio, had a security detail with him, even when traveling: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/nyregion/deblasio-settlement-security-conflict.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/nyregion/deblasio-settlem...
- PieTime 9mo agoI agree with #DefundThePolice, buts that’s not his current position and he’s kept the police chief from the prior administration.
- undeveloper 9mo ago[dead]
- StrLght 9mo agoI assume that police compile such lists, right? If so, this once again says a lot about their competence.
- sitzkrieg 9mo agothey banned flipper zero? what about the thousands of rf mcu devboards still available!! think of the children!! what idiots
- firebot 9mo ago[flagged]
- dyauspitr 9mo agoI bet if you bring this up directly with Mamdani he would take the raspberry pi off the list. This is the result of several layers of abstraction.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- bvan 9mo agoIt’s quite amusing. Hopefully, you all can do without your Pi or Flipper for a day. You can leave home without it.
- smithkl42 9mo agoSomebody obviously raised the question in a meeting somewhere, and there's no incentive to be the guy who says, "Nah, that's perfectly safe" - and every incentive to CYA.
- JCharante 9mo agowhy not just list "exposed circuit boards" in the ban?
- zyxzevn 9mo agowhat about a smart lamp?
- OGEnthusiast 9mo agoThis seems very amateur hour and likely to have the opposite of the intended effect, i.e. I expect there will be tons of Flipper Zeros that people bring as "jokes".
- nemomarx 9mo agoDo you think a lot of techies are attending the inauguration? I don't think this will get a lot of attention outside of nerd circles really.
- neilv 9mo agoI noticed that they didn't ban "walkie talkies" or "radio transceivers", and I wonder... Some of the more niche/hobby transceivers could be used by a group of bad actors at an event, for comms that are less-monitorable than smartphones and mainstream COTS handheld transceivers. And such hobby transceivers/transmitters might not operate on the list of RF bands that would be jammed by authorities when there's a suspected terrorist situation. Many of these devices have exposed PCBs (either general-purpose SBCs, or specialized). So, saying "no Raspberry Pi" could be an attempt to ban all exposed PCB devices. And "no Flipper Zero" is the non-exposed-PCB problematic device that everyone has also heard of. Kudos to the people keeping the event safe, especially given all the recently emboldened bad actors right now, who might be attracted to the event. For hobbyists, there are numerous opportunities to advocate for your right to, e.g., carry electronics hobbyist gadgets, or to wear an artistic blinking LED jewelry piece strapped to your chest. Some of those opportunities need help, while some other opportunities could be counterproductive to your cause.
- giancarlostoro 9mo agoOr pagers
- crazygringo 9mo agoIt's not like they're banning them across all of NYC... it's just security at the inauguration event. "Large bags" are banned too. > When a policy bans specific devices rather than behaviors or capabilities, it creates ambiguity for people on the ground. To the contrary, how the heck is someone working security at the entrance supposed to check for a device's "behaviors or capabilities"? This is a quick visual inspection, this reduces ambiguity. Presumably, the cops are aware of previous disruption with these specific devices, or threats thereof. And it's not like they're going to say exactly what, nor should they, lest it give people ideas... > Today it’s Raspberry Pi and Flipper Zero. Tomorrow it’s BeagleBone Blacks, Arduino Qs, ESP32 dev boards, Teensy boards, Pine64s, Orange Pis... Which is totally fine. There's no legitimate purpose in bringing any of those to a high-profile political event. Drones, laser pens, and beach balls are prohibited too.
- anigbrowl 9mo agoAgreed. This comes off as self-absorbed and entitled - 'how dare the security team not recognize my ascended morality and technical genius! Suppose an evil hacker does plan to disrupt the event - the only thing that stops a bad guy with a Flipper Zero is a good guy with a Raspberry Pi running wireshark!'
- dfxm12 9mo agoAdafruit is headquartered in New York and selling raspberry pi is a big part of their business. Reading this as self absorbed or entitled is disingenuous. They're worried about their business & asking why these brand names are singled out is a legitimate question.
- apetresc 9mo agoLiterally not a single prospective RPi customer would have even known Mamdani banned them from his inauguration party if Adafruit hadn't gone out of their way to point it out. And literally not a single one of those prospective customers would have cared, similarly to how nobody cares that "strollers" are also banned. This is the stupidest thing to get mock-offended by.
- ianpenney 9mo agoImplanted ESP32 powered by some body mod with connects to some innocuous looking piercing? (I agree this is all ridiculous from all sides. Might as well join the circus with a cheap comment.) Inspired by: https://youtu.be/3EFKJ9KaWGY https://youtu.be/3EFKJ9KaWGY
- rincebrain 9mo agoIt's going to be more interesting, I think, to see what the campaign says if asked about this, than the actual policy itself.
- WaitWaitWha 9mo agoFor those who suggest the police came up with this list, why do you think so? Asking because I believe the Block Party organizers likely just handed a list to the NYPD instead of asking them for input. Also, what is the expected training to NYPD street cops what is a RasPi or Flipper? Both come in all kinds of shapes, colors, and general appearance. Far stretch, but this could be a subtle ploy to do get technologist (i.e., here) talk about this make it go viral.
- WaitWaitWha 9mo agohttps://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/nyc-mayoral-inauguration-bans-flipper-zero-raspberry-pi-devices/ https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/nyc-mayoral-i... >"How do you say that you have no idea without saying it?" >Modern laptops can run penetration-testing Linux distributions such as Kali Linux, and smartphones can run advanced security toolsets like Kali NetHunter. >Event organizers have not provided any details explaining why the Flipper Zero and Raspberry Pi were singled out.
- cebert 9mo agoIt seems like an Android phone could easily be modified for nefarious activities. Plus, it has the added benefit of having cellular connectivity.
- lacoolj 9mo agoNot seeing why this is a strange. Also, not seeing why someone would care - why are you bringing your Raspberry Pi to an inauguration? Or worse, your blatantly suspicious "Flipper Zero", which, quote: > The Flipper Zero is a portable multi-functional Security device developed for interaction with access control systems. The device is able to read, copy, and emulate RFID and NFC tags, radio remotes, iButtons, and digital access keys. It also has a GPIO interface.
- anthk 9mo agoSo can a rooted Android with custom software. Even some older PSPs can simulate some IR signals.
- lacoolj 9mo agoOh also, to the writer of this "news" article, maybe mask your emotion a little when writing...the news... Though I don't read Adafruit, so maybe this is a normal way of writing for them.
- bmandale 9mo agoAdafruit sells raspberry pis. This is a blog post not a news article.
- ptorrone 9mo agoi am the writer. which specific emotions are you asking me to mask? confusion? concern? expertise? the blog is written by people who use these tools — raspberry pi, flipper zero — in classrooms, accessibility projects. occasionally puppet shows. when a policy names devices, brand names specifically, instead of the actual threat, i wrote about it. at least you cannot complain i am ai... oh way, a i adafruit industries ! PAID POST FOR BIG AI if this is where you get your news, welcome. the weather is still up next.
- peteforde 9mo agoDang, I'm going to have to leave my Korg OpSix synth at home. I guess they don't want anyone to jam the GPIO headers into someone's eye.
- shagie 9mo agoTo whom it may concern; Congratulations on your hiring for head of digital security for the inauguration of the mayor of New York City. The mayor elect has drawn scrutiny from right wing agitators and there are creditable threats that some of the "angry twenty something tech bros" are going to attempt to disrupt the event or otherwise prank it. As this event makes significant use of projectors and large digital displays, please advise the security (regular law enforcement officers that may not be familiar with the latest digital devices) for any objects that may be things that are likely inconspicuous but could be used to disrupt the event. Items that would be conspicuous in their use or have other legitimate use that the general public or credentialed reporters would be using should not be considered (e.g. laptops, cellphones). These items will be added to the standard list of items prohibited at political events. ---- This is a bit of creative writing, but you could imagine it being fairly close to what the person who is hired to preform this role is faced with.
- oliwarner 9mo agoI understand the weirdness of picking out a couple of examples, but I'd expect they'll confiscate and destroy any DIY SOC/microprocessor encased in a bundle of wires or aerials. An exhaustive list is tedious, a class would undoubtedly catch random consumer electronics. They don't mention cookware or DIY either but try entering with a pressure cooker and a bag of nails. They won't pause to look for explosives. For the sake of one day in one place, it's not worth getting angry about.
- uncletammy 9mo agoTIL about Flipper Zero and I'm definitely buying one
- fmajid 9mo agoWhy not ban pens, after all, they are said to be mightier than swords?
- burnt-resistor 9mo agoMore than likely, this isn't the mayor's doing but his NYPD protection detail. Actions will reveal if this mayor is honest or merely says a few populist things that sound "socialist"; whether he abolishes NYPD's civil-rights-violating SRG or not.