Tag Archives: police

U.S.

Texas tries to criminalize TSA grope fest, gets slammed by Department of Justice, Utah says will criminalize TSA

“The absolute overbearing audacity of the federal government in threatening Texas while Texas is trying to protect their citizens should really offend any red-blooded American.”-Carl Wimmer, Utah State Representative

Texas tried to make it a crime if Transportation Security Administration screeners touched your fiddly bits during a pat downs.  The U.S. Department of Justice stopped it by threatening to shut down flights in and out of Texas.

Now Utah says they want to criminalize TSA pat down grope fests as well: “Texas needs us to stand with them.”-Carl Wimmer

The Utah Legislature will vote on their bill next year.

Technology, U.S.

The U.S. IS a Police State: FAST system completes first field test, will determine if you “intend” to commit a crime

According to nature.com, Homeland Security field tested the new Future Attribute Screening Technology system, at an undisclosed location in March 2011.  Up ’till now testing was done in a laboratory setting, officials claim 70% success rate.

FAST is a system that is supposed to tell if you are going to commit a crime (they call it “malintent”).  It measures things like heart rate, and eye movement.  U.S. Department of Homeland Security wants to use it at airports, sporting events, shopping malls, etc.

Many scientists question the rational of the FAST system: “Even having an iris scan or fingerprint read at immigration is enough to raise the heart rate of most legitimate travelers.”-Tom Ormerod, Investigative Expertise Unit at Lancaster University, U.K.

“I believe that the premise of this approach — that there is an identifiable physiological signature uniquely associated with malicious intent — is mistaken.”-Steven Aftergood, Federation of American Scientists

 

U.S.

The U.S. IS a Police State: Videos posted on the Internet prove it!

If you’re wondering if the United States could become a Police State, stop, you’re too late, it already is!

For proof go to YouTube and type in “police brutality” and get ready for hundreds of videos.  You can even get specific by typing in city names, or something like “nypd brutality” or “lapd brutality”, etc.

Here’s some of the titles: “police turn off camera then beat woman sensless”, “Grandpa, Pregnant Mom get Tasered at Baptism Party!”, “Deaf Wood Carver gets Murdered by Cop in Cold Blood!”, “Iraq Veteran gets Tasered and Beaten Down @ Airport”, “NYPD Officer Smith beat a girl in the street…”, “LAPD May Day brutality”.

Enjoy. Maybe your city’s police are on YouTube?

 

Fukushima

TEPCo discovers radiactive waste water storage leaking also

In another example of corporate leadership not thinking things through, Tokyo Electric Power Company has discovered that the buildings it’s been using to store highly contaminated water in are leaking.

TEPCo was using the buildings to store contaminated water that leaked into the basements of the reactor buildings, and contaminated water from reactor cooling systems.  Even though TEPCo claimed it has stopped the massive leaks from the reactor buildings, contaminated water continues to pour into the Pacific Ocean.

On Friday, 27 May 2011, TEPCo discovered that the buildings used to store contaminated water are leaking.  They will now stop transferring contaminated water and try and plug the leaks.

TEPCo admits they know the buildings are damaged, and they failed to plug any leaks before transferring the contaminated water!

Fukushima

TEPCo backtracks on blaming employees for Reactor 1 meltdown

Recently Tokyo Electric Power Company tried to blame the metldown of reactor 1 on an employee turning off the cooling system.  Turns out the employee was following TEPCo’s own operating manual!

TEPCo now says the employee was following procedure because coolants temps had actually dropped, so much that their manual called for the shut down of the cooling system.

They also revealed that data recorded immediately after 11 March 2011 does not show any cooling problems, for at least 30 minutes after the 11 March quake/tsunami.  A week ago TEPCo said reactor 1 began meltdown in the early hours of 12 March.  Reactor 3 melted down on 13 March and reactor 2 on 15 March.   I have to think that TEPCo’s instrumentation is faulty, or TEPCo officials are inept at reading the data collected, why else are they just now figuring this out?

Fukushima

Good thing Hamaoka nuclear plant was shut down; damage has been found

In the past week the Hamaoka nuke plant, east of Tokyo, was shut down, at the request of the government.

The reason was that the plant sat on two fault lines, and scientists expect a 8+ quake. The plant was not built to withstand such a earthquake.

Now Chubu Electric Power Company says they’ve discovered that at least 400 tons of salt water has gotten into the reactors.  Salt water can damage the reactors and coolant pumps.  They think the salt water is coming from a damaged water line connected to a turbine room.

International, Opinion

10,000 Israeli Police bracing for Nakba protests

Israeli media reporting that 10,000 police are being used for the expected Nakba protests.  Officials say they will allow protests, but not violence.

But already Israeli military forces have committed violence by attacking a funeral precession, for a teenager that was killed by them a few days earlier.

The police units are being focused around Jerusalem (where the funeral was attacked), and northern Israel.  This is probably because Egypt and Jordan are blocking protesters from reaching the Israeli border, but Lebanon, to Israel’s north, has not indicated that they will do the same.

 

International

Canadian Mounties lie about tasing a man to death

Four Royal Canadian Mounties are being charged with perjury, about the circumstances surrounding the death of a distraught Polish immigrant.

Reports say the Polish immigrant was tased five times by Canadian police, at the Vancouver International Airport in 2007.  The cops lied about the circumstances, and they would have gotten away with it, if it wasn’t for a witness who took video of the incident, and posted it on YouTube.

The man was obviously distraught, but cops simply rushed him without trying to reason with him.  In the video it’s clear the cops know he does not speak English, they think he is speaking Russian.  They’re several taser sounds, then at the end of the video someone calls “code red”.

According to some reports the immigrant was held for 10 hours at the airport customs office, before becoming distraught.  No clear explanation why he was held.

The man who took the video gave it to police, after they promised to give it back within 48 hours.  They lied.  He had to hire a lawyer to get the video back.

Some lies the cops told include that there were only three police involved, and that the immigrant was in an area crowded with people.  Watch the video, it’s obviously not what they say.

The British Columbia attorney general says the four Mounties will not be charged with the immigrant’s death, or with obstructing justice, because there is a low probability that they will be convicted.

The Polish government is not happy to say the least: “…does not diminish the fact that we find it disappointing that there are no recommendations for criminal charges in the incident.”

This is not the only case of Canadian cops being charged with perjury.  There are several cases going on this year, all across Canada.

Fukushima

Fukishima Daiichi Reactor 1 officially in Meltdown

13 March 2011, Tokyo Electric Power Company has announced that fuel rods in reactor 1 have melted.  Government officials think this might be the cause of holes where highly contaminated water is pouring from.

TEPCo officials say that most of the fuel rods have melted and are now melting through the bottom of the reactor.  Officials think the melted rods are cooling down at the bottom of the reactor because there is still water there.

TEPCo is now trying to find out how much water is actually in the reactor, and come up with a new plan to address the meltdown.

International

Reports show that you can not trust a British bobby

Recently British Home Secretary Theresa May said they “…trust the police.” But several reports say otherwise.

A report by the Howard League of Penal Reform shows that 278,000 children under the age of 18 were arrested in 2009.  Of that 5,176 ended up in juvenile prison.  The report condemned the British bobbies for “…excessive and inappropriate use of arrest for children.”

Why arrest so many kids?  The report suggests that since Police Commissioners are elected, they go after the easy to arrest youth, because then Police Commissioners can run for election on the grounds that they have high arrest records.

In another scandal, the London Times reports that an average of 160 British bobbies lose their jobs for breaking the law, every year.  The law violations include everything from carrying their gun while drunk to assault and tampering with evidence.

In the past three years, 477 bobbies were fired or forced to quit, hundreds were fined, and 52 demoted.

The reports come at a time when the British government is considering giving police the authority of prosecutors.