"Using the database, ICE agents will be able to see where license plates have been located over the past five years, as well as find individual’s residences, according to The Verge. Officials can also be instantly alerted when new records of specific plates are located. Civil liberties groups slammed ICE’s access to the database."
"What does the United States have to show for tens of billions of dollars of Homeland Security antiterrorism spending by local and state governments? Michael Sheehan, former New York City deputy commissioner for counterterrorism, observed, 'I firmly believe that those huge budget increases have not significantly contributed to our post–9/11 security.' But the war on terrorism has been an unmitigated victory for Leviathan and politicians at every level of government."
"Many of the heavily-armed activists who flocked to the scene feared that the FBI snipers had a license to kill the Bundys. Their reaction cannot be understood without considering a landmark 1990s case that continues to shape millions of Americans’ attitude towards Washington: the federal killings and coverups at Ruby Ridge."
"ELUCD uses location (tracking) technology to ask citizens questions like "do you feel safe in your neighborhood? Do you trust the police? Are you confident in the New York Police Department? 24 hours a day 7 days a week. One should assume that law enforcement is using ELUCD's data to identify individual cell phone users. As Tech Crunch revealed, the NYPD is keeping all the data they collect a secret. ELUCD hopes that police departments across the country will use ELUCD to gauge people's sentiments."
"This is a march that will be nearly impossible to stop. This is the permanent destruction of the right to privacy. This is the exaltation of safety over liberty, and it will lead to neither. This is the undoing of limited government, right before our eyes."
"If '#Resistance' means anything, at a minimum it should entail a refusal to trust a dangerous authoritarian to wield vast power with little checks or oversight."
"Parallel construction is when law enforcement originally obtains evidence through a secret surveillance program, then tries to seek it out again, via normal procedure. In essence, law enforcement creates a parallel, alternative story for how it found information. That way, it can hide surveillance techniques from public scrutiny and would-be criminals. A new report released by Human Rights Watch Tuesday, based in part on 95 relevant cases, indicates that law enforcement is using parallel construction regularly."
"Tancítaro represents a quiet but telling trend in Mexico, where a handful of towns and cities are effectively seceding, partly or in whole. These are acts of desperation, revealing the degree to which Mexico’s police and politicians are seen as part of the threat."
"Their guidance claims the authority to search a traveler’s electronic devices 'with or without suspicion.' The guidance now claims passengers are 'obligated' to turn over their devices as well as passcodes for examination. If they fail to do so, agents can seize the device. That is all considered a 'basic search.' Agents must have suspicion in order to conduct an 'advanced search.' This includes copying information from devices, or analyzing them with other equipment. Finally, CBP agents can not 'intentionally' search information stored on the cloud, versus on the device’s hard drive."
"The DEA’s Special Operations Division is one of several tools the government uses to hide the origins of criminal investigations nationwide, in potential violation of constitutional protections. In a report released today, 'Dark Side: Secret Origins of Evidence in U.S. Criminal Cases,' Human Rights Watch documents the use of parallel construction by federal and local police agencies, finding the practice is used in the United States 'frequently and possibly even daily.'"