Monthly Archives: December 2012

Reality Check: Elmwood Place Speed Cameras An example Of “Policing For Profit”?

"For months, we have told you about the controversy over speed cameras in the village of Elmwood Place. In just a matter of months, $470,000 dollars in speeding tickets were mailed to drivers. While hundreds of residents in Elmwood Place have argued to have the cameras removed, the village leadership isn’t listening. Ben Swann of Reality Check is investigating the idea behind 'policing for profit'." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingReality Check: Elmwood Place Speed Cameras An example Of “Policing For Profit”?

Baltimore man gets speed camera ticket for going 0 MPH

"The City of Baltimore recently issued a ticket to Daniel Doty for speeding 38 miles per hour in a 25-mph zone — but photos and video captured by the speed camera system showed that his car was stopped at a red light at the time. Xerox State and Local Solutions, which is the contractor for Baltimore’s speed and red light cameras, said that each citation went through a two-step review to verify its accuracy, including an officer who must swear that the vehicle was going at least 12 MPH over the posted speed limit. Police spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi would not reveal which officer reviewed Doty’s ticket." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBaltimore man gets speed camera ticket for going 0 MPH

Extremely Serious Privacy Problem in America

"One effect of undermining privacy is to suppress free speech. It makes the person afraid or reluctant to speak for fear that at some undetermined future time , his actions or statements will be used against him. They can be misconstrued. They can be taken out of context. He can be forced to defend himself, and that's costly. He may be subject to a police inquiry or invasion whereby his belongings are seized and his whole life disrupted. The State's powers turned against a person in this way are enormous. Privacy is one of those socially-useful and socially-necessary things that we take for granted when it's there." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingExtremely Serious Privacy Problem in America

Black boxes in cars raise privacy concerns

"Many motorists don't know it, but it's likely that every time they get behind the wheel, there's a snitch along for the ride. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Friday proposed long-delayed regulations requiring auto manufacturers to include event data recorders—better known as 'black boxes'—in all new cars and light trucks beginning Sept. 1, 2014. But the agency is behind the curve. Automakers have been quietly tucking the devices, which automatically record the actions of drivers and the responses of their vehicles in a continuous information loop, into most new cars for years." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBlack boxes in cars raise privacy concerns

It’s Happening Faster Than Even I Thought

"Since I manage an internet privacy company, people expect me to be pessimistic on the development of the surveillance state. But even I didn't expect the surveillance state to form this quickly. 2012 has been a banner year for amoral marketers and soul-dead overseers, and the situation is probably much worse than you realize. A very deep surveillance state is being completed now. It's your choice whether or not you'll escape it." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIt’s Happening Faster Than Even I Thought

Son of top DHS border cop busted for running cocaine

"Four south Texas police officers, including the son of a top cop advising the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on border issues, were charged Thursday with accepting thousands of dollars in bribes to guard cartel cocaine shipments. One of the officers arrested, 29-year-old Alexis Rigoberto Espinoza, is the son of Hidalgo Chief of Police Rodolfo Espinoza. Another one of the officers, 29-year-old Jonathan Treviño, is the son of Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño. The elder Treviño also serves on the Southwest Border Task Force, a group established by DHS chief Janet Napolitano in 2009 to advise her on border issues." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSon of top DHS border cop busted for running cocaine

Obama signs Russian human rights law, angers Putin

"President Barack Obama Friday signed legislation that sanctions alleged Russian human rights abuses, which outraged Moscow after being coupled with a bill granting it normal trade relations. Obama signed the measure into law a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned the so-called Magnitsky Act, which blacklists Russian officials allegedly implicated in the prison death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. The Russian foreign ministry issued a statement minutes after Obama formally signed the legislation in the Oval Office, saying the move amounted to 'open meddling' in its internal affairs and was 'a blind and dangerous position.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingObama signs Russian human rights law, angers Putin

Activists to U.S.: Release 5 Prisoners Serving Life Terms for Marijuana

"Recently, the law office of Michael Kennedy filed an historic legal petition with the federal government seeking clemency for five elderly prisoners serving lifetime sentences for cannabis-only related crimes. I’m vexed to no end when they make the ridiculous claim: ‘no one gets arrested for marijuana anymore and certainly no one is incarcerated for the stuff!’ This federal petition to release these men back to their loving families and to get off the tax roll is born out of the non-profit organization called Life For Pot, where the groups is tracking at least twenty prisoners serving life sentences for cannabis-only related offenses." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingActivists to U.S.: Release 5 Prisoners Serving Life Terms for Marijuana

Mandatory Sentences Face Growing Skepticism

"Three decades of stricter drug laws, reduced parole and rigid sentencing rules have lengthened prison terms and more than tripled the percentage of Americans behind bars. The United States has the highest reported rate of incarceration of any country: about one in 100 adults, a total of nearly 2.3 million people in prison or jail. State spending on corrections, after adjusting for inflation, has more than tripled in the past three decades, making it the fastest-growing budgetary cost except Medicaid. Even though the prison population has leveled off in the past several years, the costs remain so high that states are being forced to reduce spending in other areas." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMandatory Sentences Face Growing Skepticism

Prison Labor Booms As Unemployment Remains High; Companies Reap Benefits

"The American government has been critical of China's forced-labor policies, but the United States has a burgeoning prison labor pool of its own. Hundreds of companies nationwide now benefit from the low, and sometimes no-wage labor of America's prisoners. Nearly a million prisoners are now making office furniture, working in call centers, fabricating body armor, taking hotel reservations, working in slaughterhouses, or manufacturing textiles, shoes, and clothing, while getting paid somewhere between 93 cents and $4.73 per day. Companies that pay workers can get up to 40 percent of the money back in taxpayer-funded reimbursements." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPrison Labor Booms As Unemployment Remains High; Companies Reap Benefits