By now, the establishment ought to be painfully aware that the FBI/NSA retro-scope is aimed at them, as well. Sometime in the next couple of years I expect a legislative backlash, especially if it keeps being used to take down friends of the high and mighty.
In the late 1990s, the US Government was setting up a case to argue that hacking equated to terrorism. Because, while it was mostly being used for illicit state-craft, it could potentially be used by terrorists. In 1997, at a keynote for Black Hat Briefings, I warned the hacker community what was coming but – at that time – there was a great deal of “community outreach” being done by NSA – they were hiring hackers (whose work we now see leaking on a regular basis) and it was all very hip and friendly.
I wish all the 2nd Amendment nuts cared as much about the 4th Amendment as they do the 2nd. Many of them say they need their guns in case the government turns oppressive.
As computers and AI recognizers get better and faster, recognition techniques will continue to get better and faster; I think that’s a given. But it’s also a given that as procurement managers keep throwing more money at a system that doesn’t quite work, they will … Well, they’ll have spent more money! It doesn’t necessarily mean that the system will work better.
This is a sad one; I’m afraid we’re looking at more police malfeasance.
The tactical needs of Americans continue to boggle my mind. Given the way many of us buy tactical gear, you’d get the impression that we are in a constant state of being attacked.
Nobody should, for a fraction of a second, think that this is “new” news and has not been widely known in ‘certain circles’ for some time. Apparently the FBI got into the “torturing muslims” racket, too. I choose my words carefully, since some of the techniques of humiliation and intimidation included shaving their victims’ beards.
The Baltimore Police have a huge problem. Not only has it turned out that the street cops are thugs that murder citizens, lie when giving testimony, and retaliate against whistleblowers – they’ve got a large contingent that appear to pad their books very heavily.
Americans my age grew up to imagery in LIFE Magazine, of cops beating black protesters. Oddly, I think of desegregation as something that happened, and jim crow was a bad period we mostly grew out of.
“American Justice” should always be scare-quoted. If you didn’t notice, the justice system has been dragooned into being part of a general push for voter suppression and forced labor that is highly racialized. It has also become a means of farming poor people for money – there are ridiculous crimes like “jaywalking”, and speed traps a’plenty to make sure that a steady stream of fines flows into the coffers of the police.