Facial recognition tech turns people into ‘waking ID cards,’ warn privacy activists

Source: Facial recognition tech turns people into ‘waking ID cards,’ warn privacy activists — RT UK

RT UK

18 Aug, 2017

© Roland Weihrauch / AFP

 

Police force use of facial recognition technology in public spaces risks turning people into “walking ID cards,” a civil rights group has told RT.

Campaign director at Privacy International, Harmit Kambo, said the technology, which scans people’s faces against a mass database of facial profiles, risks labeling innocent people as “troublemakers.”

His comments come after the Home Office announced it will invest more in facial recognition technology for police, despite widespread criticism that it may be illegal as it infringes the right to privacy.

Transparency activists, MPs and independent regulators are concerned that police forces across England and Wales currently have 16 million facial profiles stored in their databases – the equivalent of almost 25 percent of the population – which can be used alongside the technology.

“Widespread use of facial recognition technology in public will have a profound impact on the freedom we take for granted when we go about our daily lives in public spaces.

“It turns us all into walking ID cards,” the Privacy International campaigner said.
Although CCTV surveillance has been in use for several years, the new scanning technology brings monitoring to a “whole new level,” and risks giving the police unprecedented powers, Kambo warned.

“The police will have the power to know where you are, even if they do not suspect you of any crime whatsoever.”

The Home Office said a biomimetic strategy will be published in “due course.”

Kambo also raised concerns over the lack of a public and parliamentary debate about the use of the “intrusive” technology and the extent to which police forces are able to deploy it.

The Metropolitan Police plans to use facial recognition technology at the Notting Hill Carnival next week, which attracts up to 2 million revelers every year.

However, the Privacy International campaigner questioned the implications the real-time use of such technology will have on the public.

“Will it mean that everyone who attends the Notting Hill Carnival later this month will have their face photographed and kept on a police database permanently?

“Will it mean that everyone who attends peaceful protests, marches and demos in the future will be profiled as potential troublemakers?”

The use of the monitoring system at the carnival has been branded “institutionally racist,” as it targets Britain’s largest African-Caribbean event.

“It is racial profiling. They are coming and putting everyone’s face in the system,” Stafford Scott, of the anti-racism charity the Monitoring Group, said, according to the Guardian.

“A technique they use for terrorists is going to be used against young black people enjoying themselves.

“They are still institutionally racist, that will impact on communities like mine.”

Death toll continues to rise in Duterte’s war on drugs

Source: Death toll continues to rise in Duterte’s war on drugs | Philippines News | Al Jazeera

http://www.aljazeera.com

Aug 17, 2017

Police claim killing of 25 criminals in Manila’s week of bloodshed as President Duterte continues crackdown.

Duterte’s war on drugs, which resulted in thousands of killings, has earned condemnation from various human rights advocates [Romeo Ranoco/Reuters]

Twenty-five criminals were killed, including 14 in anti-drug operations, overnight in the Philippine capital Manila in a second night of heavy bloodshed this week as President Duterte’s fierce war on drugs intensified.

Thursday’s killings across Manila followed 32 deaths in near-simultaneous police operations on Monday night through to Tuesday in Bulacan province, marking the deadliest period of Duterte’s controversial crackdown that has killed thousands of Filipinos.

Joel Napoleon Coronel, director of Manila Police District, told reporters the 14 were killed in sting operations and 11 other deaths were robbers who were also involved in narcotics.

The identity of the killers of the 11 people were not known and the incidents were under investigation, police reports said. 

On Wednesday, President Duterte praised the operations, adding that he will order the shooting of human rights advocates.

“Let’s kill another 32 everyday, maybe we can reduce what ails this country,” local media quoted Duterte as saying in a speech during the 19th anniversary commemoration of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption at the presidential office.

The administration’s aggressive war on drugs, which resulted in thousands of killings, has earned condemnation from various human rights advocates not only in the country, but also from abroad.

The president said he is expecting an outcry from human rights advocates and assured that the police have his support. He lambasted local and international human rights groups for condemning his drug war, saying these groups were turning a blind eye on the victims of drug-induced crimes. 

“Many are being killed because the policemen are working. They are protected under my watch.

“Tell them [human rights advocates], ‘police, shoot those who are part of it. If they are obstructing justice, you shoot them’,” he said.

Despite the criticisms, Duterte expressed a firm stance to destroy the apparatus of the drug trade, which he said is “taking a toll on the lives of the people”.

Al Jazeera’s Jamela Alindogan, reporting from Pampanga in the Central Luzon region, said Duterte had been “flip-flopping” on his statement.

“President Duterte, in his campaign, promised to end this problem within the first six months of office. However, last week he said no president will be able to solve the problem of drugs in the country,” she said.

Police chief Romeo Caramat said that the series of raids has led to the arrest of 109 drug suspects and the seizure of 34 guns, two grenades and 14 live ammunitions.

He said $19,500 worth of methamphetamine and 765 grams of marijuana were also recovered. 

Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies

RCMP drug-squad officer inspired Cheech and Chong comedies

Source: RCMP drug-squad officer inspired Cheech and Chong comedies

http://www.timescolonist.com

August 10, 2017

John Mackie / Vancouver Sun

RCMP officer Abe Snidanko in his red-serge uniform. Snidanko was the RCMP’s premier narcotics agent in Vancouver during the hippie era, and inspired the Cheech and Chong character Sgt. Stadanko in the movies Up in Smoke and Nice Dreams.   Photograph By Vancouver Sun

 

 In the 1960s, the name Abe Snidanko sent chills up the spine of every hippie in Vancouver. Snidanko worked undercover with the RCMP drug squad, and busted numerous longhairs for pot and other drugs.

Snidanko’s fame went international when former Vancouverite Tommy Chong used him as the inspiration for Sgt. Stadanko, the opening track on Cheech and Chong’s 1973 comedy album Los Cochinos.

The fictional Sgt. Stadanko also appeared in the Cheech and Chong films Up in Smoke and Nice Dreams. But what the real Sgt. Snidanko thought about his fictional counterpart is unknown — he declined interviews.

Snidanko died Aug. 2 at his home in Richmond, two months shy of his 80th birthday.

“He had renal failure, heart (failure), everything just shut down,” said his son Ryan. “But he did pass away very peacefully. He was home, he didn’t want to go to the hospital. He was very stubborn that way.”

Adrian Snidanko was born in Smokey Lake, Alta., and grew up in Edmonton, where he was a Golden Gloves boxer. He joined the Mounties when he was 18 and was posted to B.C., initially in Penticton and then in Vancouver.

“He was one of the first members in the Vancouver street crew, (policing) street-level trafficking in the Downtown Eastside and around the city,” said Ryan. “Drugs were a federal jurisdiction back then, so the RCMP had jurisdiction over it.”

As Vancouver became a hippie haven and pot use spread, Snidanko worked hard to stem the tide. Psychedelic music promoter Jerry Kruz recalls that Snidanko went all out at a 1966 Steve Miller show at Kruz’s venue, the Afterthought.

“He had all the traffic stopped on (Fourth Avenue), it was like a movie scene,” said Kruz. “I came out in front and the whole street was blocked off, he had barriers at each end of the street, at Arbutus and Yew. Abe came in with a procession of cops behind him, Abe and (his cohort Const.) Brown.

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RCMP drug-squad officer inspired Cheech and Chong comedies

Cops Keep Posting Pics of Pathetic Weed Busts, and They Keep Getting Owned by the Internet

Source: Cops Keep Posting Pics of Pathetic Weed Busts, and They Keep Getting Owned by the Internet

thefreethoughtproject.com

By Matt Agorist

August 6, 2017

One by one, police departments across the country are learning how ridiculous they look when they brag in a Facebook post about arresting someone for a plant. 

Lakeland, FL — One by one, police departments across the country are learning the hard way just how asinine and tyrannical marijuana prohibition is. Despite the heavy backlash from those who see the drug war for the violent and racist despotism that it is, clueless cops keep bragging about arresting people for a plant that is legal in some form in over half the country. The latest department to get a dose of internet reality is Lakeland police department in Florida.

What stands out about this most recent Facebook pot bust post is the fact that the Lakeland police department couldn’t care less about the negative feedback they are receiving from the post. In more than a dozen comments on their post, the department defended kidnapping and caging a person for 116 grams of a plant — around the same weight as a stick of butter. 

Sadly, their only defense for the kidnapping and caging of an otherwise entirely morally innocent person for a plant is — it’s illegal, and we are just doing our job.

The idea of depriving someone of their freedom for possessing a plant is not only unjust it is immoral. Legality, as the Free Thought Project has pointed out countless times, does not dictate morality. Those who enforce an unjust and immoral law without question are responsible for the most heinous and violent deeds throughout humanity’s history.

Sadly, and unfortunately, there was no shortage support for the officers in the comments. While most of the comments on the post called out the department for wasting taxpayer money by arresting people for a harmless and highly beneficial plant, there were the apologists praising the officers for ‘keeping them safe.’

Throughout history, people ‘just doing their jobs’ have wreaked havoc on humanity. Those who attack morally innocent people — without question — because it is ‘the law’, have slaughtered millions. Remember, slavery was legal, arresting black people for sitting in the front of the bus was legal, locking up Japanese people in internment camps was legal, everything Hitler did….was legal.

Hiding behind legality does nothing to remove one’s liability from being on the wrong side of history. It only helps those who carry out these atrocities — as well as those who blindly support them — to sleep at night. 

There is no ‘service’ in kidnapping and caging people for possessing something that we can grow in our backyards. There is no ‘service’ in wasting taxpayer money on enforcing these immoral laws, and there is no ‘service’ in depriving people the benefits of this amazing plant.

What’s more, this bust was made in spite of Polk County law enforcement getting exposed last year for having a backlog of hundreds of untested rape kits. As rapes go uninvestigated, cops in Polk County seem more interested in locking up people who haven’t caused anyone harm.

As TFTP has reported, when cops stop going after people for possessing substances deemed illegal by the state, real crimes are actually solved. 

In fact, a recent study out of Boston showed exactly that. The study indicated that the Boston Police Department has drastically increased the number of homicides they solved since they stopped making arrests for marijuana. The homicide clearance rate increase by 10% following the decriminalization of marijuana in the area.

“The BPD homicide unit increased the yearly Boston homicide clearance rate by nearly 10 percent […] and by more than 18 percent when the clearance rate definition was extended to include those cases awaiting grand jury decisions,” the study said.

Civil asset forfeiture pays. Busting low-level drug dealers by the dozen and confiscating their drugs, guns, cars, houses, and money pays. Writing tickets for victimless crime pays. Pulling you over for window tint, seat belts, arbitrary traveling speeds, and expired license plates; these are the things that pay — solving murders does not pay.

However, as the drug war toned down slightly with the decriminalization of marijuana, the department was miraculously able to funnel more resources and dedicate more officers towards solving murders. This is common sense.

In the United States, the murder clearance rate in 1965 was more than 90 percent. Since the inception of the war on drugs, the murder clearance rate has plummetted to an average of less than 65 percent per year.

This decline is in spite of there being far fewer murders. It is also in spite of new technological developments to help police solve crimes, like DNA testing, advanced forensic labs, and unethical spying devices like the stingray.

Despite the near complete erosion of the constitutional protections against unlawful search and seizure, the clearance rate for murder continued its free fall. This highlights the fact that no matter how many rights are given up or freedoms diminished — police cannot guarantee your safety — and all of this is due to the war on drugs.

The good news is, as most of the comments show in the Lakeland police department’s Facebook post, people are waking up. In fact, As the Free Thought Project reported, a paradigm shift, according to a new Harvard-Harris Poll, is taking place in the country. For the first time, 86 percent of Americans approve of some form of legal cannabis. 

Soon enough, the paradigm shift will over take tyranny and those who continue to go against the will of the people will be seen for the tyrants they are. To the Lakeland police department and all other departments across America, we are pleading with you to stop this madness. Please, be on the right side of history and stop enforcing a law you know is immoral. America’s freedom depends on it. Liberty is not granted through people enforcing immoral laws — it is taken when good people break bad laws.

‘Don’t get shot by police’ is goal of new advice in Arizona driver’s manual

Record shows that victims of police shootings during traffic stops are more likely to be black or Hispanic, lawmaker says.

Source: ‘Don’t get shot by police’ is goal of new advice in Arizona driver’s manual | Local news | tucson.com

tucson.com

By Howard Fischer

Capitol Media Services

Jul 24, 2017

Dashcam footage showed Minnesota officer Jeronimo Yanez fatally shooting motorist Philando Castile in 2016.

 PHOENIX — If the new language in Arizona’s driver’s license manual sounds like something written by Black Lives Matter, there’s a good reason for it.

The provisions tell motorists what to do if they’re pulled over by a police officer. They also provide specific warnings about what not to do, like reaching around in the vehicle or getting out.

The goal is pretty simple, said state Rep. Reginald Bolding, a Laveen Democrat who helped write the section.

It’s designed to keep drivers from getting shot by police.

Bolding, who is black, said the record shows that victims of police shootings during traffic stops are more likely to be black or Hispanic.

“When you look at what’s taken place across the country, you have seen a majority of individuals who are people of color that have had higher incidence of interactions with law-enforcement officers, particularly in shootings,” he said. “Hopefully we can get to a place where that’s not the reality.”

It was one such shooting of a black man — the 2016 killing of Philando Castile by a Minnesota police officer — that prompted Bolding to seek a rewrite of Arizona’s driving manual.

Officer Jeronimo Yanez pulled Castile over because a brake light was out. Castile told the officer he had a firearm on him, to which the officer said, “Don’t reach for it then.” Castile said he wasn’t pulling it out, but the officer fired seven rapid shots into the vehicle, striking Castile five times.

The incident was captured on the dash camera of the patrol car. Prosecutors charged the officer with one count of second-degree manslaughter and two counts of intentional discharge of a firearm that endangers safety. Yanez, who testified he feared for his life, was acquitted earlier this month.

In the wake of that incident, Bolding said he reached out to eight different police departments, asking them what motorists should do to avoid becoming victims.

“I got eight different recommendations,” he said.

Continue:

‘Don’t get shot by police’ is goal of new advice in Arizona driver’s manual | Local news | tucson.com

 

Pot charges rise in Montreal despite downward trend in rest of Canada

Montreal police are handing out more cannabis-related charges, but the rest of Canada has eased its policing of the soon-to-be legal drug.

Source: Pot charges rise in Montreal despite downward trend in rest of Canada – Montreal – CBC News

CBC News

By Roberto Rocha, Verity Stevenson

Posted: Jul 25, 2017

Montreal and Quebec police aren’t scaling back cannabis-related charges as legalization looms

Marijuana possession charges are declining in most of Canada — but not in Quebec. (Graham Hughes/Canadian Press)

Marijuana charges are on the rise in Montreal and elsewhere in Quebec, while in the rest of Canada cannabis-related charges are declining ahead of Ottawa’s plans to legalize the drug.

The number of cannabis-related charges has ebbed countrywide from last year, continuing a downward trend since a peak in 2011.

For Canadians older than 12, 17,700 were charged with possession last year, according to police-reported statistics released by Statistics Canada. This is down from 21,300 in 2015.

More serious charges of trafficking were also down, while production and importation charges remained flat but relatively low.

This trend was observed across most provinces, and in many of them, the rate of charges is the lowest on record.

• Pot charges drop in 2016, Statistics Canada reports

But Montreal and other Quebec cities have been bucking the trend. Charges for possession have been slowly going up since 1998, and are virtually unchanged from 2015.

Quebec apprehensive of legalization

Eric Sutton, a criminal defence lawyer in Montreal, said the disparity surprised him, but he has noticed concerns of the medical community and other lobby groups being aired in Quebec media more than elsewhere in the country.

“In Quebec, there has been a fairly hot debate, and that may have had an effect on policing and the attitude of prosecutors,” Sutton said. “Legalizing something doesn’t mean it’s good. It’s a legal decision, not a moral decision.”

• The reasons behind Quebec’s surprising pessimism toward legalizing pot
• What will marijuana legalization look like in Quebec?

Sutton said prosecutors usually take into account whether someone has a prior criminal record, as well as other factors that could determine whether charges are pursued or not. 

He said the push to legalize “reflects an understanding that so many people use marijuana and, like it or not, it’s probably here to stay.”

In 2016, an average of 73 Montrealers per 100,000 people charged for cannabis possession, and 76 in Quebec as a whole, while the Canadian rate was 56 per 100,000 people.

One of the most dramatic decreases was in Alberta.

Because the population in the territories is so low, the rates tend to skew higher. Here they are, in separate charts with a different scale. All have seen lower numbers.

The picture is more varied in metropolitan areas. While most police forces seem to be reducing pot-related enforcement that leads to charges, some forces are more ambitious than others.

Halifax, Winnipeg, Calgary, Windsor, Ont., and Barrie, Ont., have changed the least from 2015 in the number of charges.

Police in Canada reallocating resources

In other police districts, the abating of charges may be a question of resources and capacity, according to the president of the Canadian Police Association, Tom Stamatakis .

He said police forces haven’t targeted simple possession “for years now.”

“The focus is on high-level trafficking, organized crime, and other related activities that are more serious and have a bigger impact on the community,” Stamatakis said.

“I would anticipate that police forces are redirecting priorities on the basis that marijuana will become legal in the near future.”

It’s unclear whether Montreal police are doing that or not. 

“There’s a much bigger market here, there’s much more activity, more grow-ops, just as a percentage of criminality,” said Montreal Coun. Alex Norris, speculating on what could cause the discrepancy, which he said was interesting. 

Norris is part of Montreal’s public safety commission and said he planned to ask police Chief Philippe Pichet or senior staff on the force about it at the commission’s next meeting.

‘A disappointing trend’ in Quebec

Marc-Boris St-Maurice, a longtime advocate of legalization and the head of the Montreal Compassion Centre, said it’s a disappointing trend.

“It would be nice if there could be a bit more tolerance towards people who are using marijuana, given that legalization is just around the corner,” St-Maurice said.

He said provincial leadership “is a lot more afraid of marijuana in Quebec.… We think we’re all so open, but I guess these numbers here show that it’s not always the case.”

Historically, Quebec police appear to have been more tolerant of cannabis possession than other provinces. In 1998, there was an average of 53 people charged with possession per 100,000 in the province. Canada’s rate at the time was 76. 

The rate in Quebec has risen ever since, following the Canadian trend, but still registering lower every year until now.

• Federal-provincial showdown looms over legal pot deadline

Judge grants absolute discharge for marijuana dispensary operators

Give it up ye pathetic wankers! All you prosecutors and politicians behind this are a disgrace to Canada.  (The coppers had no choice but to enforce these laws). What part of Canadians want marijuana legalized don’t you troglodytes understand? All you are doing is inflicting unnecessary pain and wasting moneys that could be better used. Pathetic wankers.

This case is important as it sets a precedent. And what did the judiciary do ye pathetic wankers (Crown and politicians behind this)? It ignored your feeble argument and gave an absolute discharge, which in law is the equivalent of fuck you Crown. 

“The rule of law protects us from chaos and anarchy. I have yet to hear about any anarchy created by medicinal dispensaries,” he said.”

Source: Judge grants absolute discharge for marijuana dispensary operators | TheRecord.com

http://www.therecord.com

by Liz Monteiro

Jul 21, 2017

KITCHENER — A provincial court judge granted an absolute discharge to a young Kitchener couple who were running an illegal marijuana dispensary in Waterloo.

Justice Colin Westman said Nour and Shady Louka committed “an offence of compassion” when they operated a medical marijuana dispensary in uptown Waterloo and sold pot to adults with medical marijuana licences.

Westman described the couple as “activists in favour of their fellow human beings” and running a marijuana dispensary was “essentially civil disobedience.”

Westman agreed the couple broke the law and a finding of guilt was issued, but the pair will not have a criminal record.

“You are not going to be compromised in my court, not for circumstances like this,” Westman said in his judgment Friday.

Nour Louka, 30, owned and operated the Waterloo Dispensary, which sold marijuana out of a second-floor business on King Street. Her husband, Shady Louka, 32, was a part-time, temporary employee.

The Loukas opened their dispensary in April 2015 and four months later they were busted by Waterloo Regional Police. Both pleaded guilty to possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking.

Shady Louka also pleaded guilty to careless storage of a 9 mm Glock handgun in their home. That charge will be dealt with at a later date.

Shady Louka was arrested with more than $10,000 cash in the trunk of his car. Another $4,400 in Canadian money and $1,829 in U.S. cash was found at their house, plus a money counter.

The Crown was seeking convictions and $10,000 fines.

 Defence lawyer Sean Safa, representing Shady Louka, said the judge was fair to the accused and ruled that running the dispensary was an act of compassion.

“They were helping other people,” he said after the judgment. “The community wasn’t harmed here.”

Safa said it was the first time an absolute discharge had been issued in a case like this in the region and could be precedent-setting for other jurisdictions.

Court heard the couple started the business after a serious car crash in 2015. Both suffered from chronic pain because of their injuries. Shady has been unable to work.

Westman described the couple as intelligent, happily married and not needing rehabilitation because of the offense.

Westman said the pair started the business for others who were suffering in pain like them but couldn’t access marijuana.

“They are proud Canadians who did not want to be associated with criminality,” Westman said.

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Judge grants absolute discharge for marijuana dispensary operators | TheRecord.com