COP SHOOTS HIS OWN CRUISER, TORCHES IT - BLAMES BLACK COMMUNITY

YouTube

by ron johnson

Published on Sep 8, 2015

A police officer accused of concocting a story about a shootout with a gunman before his cruiser crashed into a tree and caught on fire will faces charges, authorities confirmed Friday.

Bryan Johnson will be charged with misleading a criminal investigation, communicating false information to emergency services, malicious destruction of property and unlawful discharge of a firearm, Millis police Sgt. William Dwyer said.

Johnson, 24, had said a man in a pickup truck fired at his cruiser Wednesday afternoon, forcing him to crash into a tree. Johnson said his SUV caught on fire, and he climbed out of the vehicle and shot back at the gunman.

Dwyer said the only ballistics evidence recovered at the scene of the crash was from shots fired by the officer into his own cruiser. The possible motivations for the fabrication are not clear.

The hoax prompted a search by dozens of officers, a shelter-in-place order for residents, and a school lockdown.

Read more...
See also:   Solicitation for “role-players” confirms DoD training in Boston on heels of JADE HELM 15 

Anti Government Filmmaker and Family Found Murdered. Who Really Killed Them?

Blessings Buzz
by Brooke McGowan

American Veteran and Independent Filmmaker of “Gray State” Found Dead with His Family at Home in Minnesota

The creator, director and producer of the controversial movie about the encroaching police state and FEMA camps in America, David Crowley, has been found dead with his wife and young daughter over the weekend. The police are calling it a murder-suicide incident yet not ruling out anything suspicious.

The movie was currently in production and Crowley had recently received a contract of $30 million to complete the project of his dreams. While depression can have its harshest affects on people, his friends and co-workers have stated that the police story is highly unlikely.

His movie, Gray State, had a sort of cult following with nearly a million views of its trailer on YouTube.


The fiction movie is about the resistance to the police state and rise of enslavement here in America. It is set in the not-so-distant future with all the aspects one has come to expect about the end of our civilization and collapse of normal society: RFID chips, suspended travel, empty store shelves, FEMA camps, complete control through martial law.

There are many apocalyptic movies which don’t address these exact topics and many fans fear David Crowley may have been far too close to the truth.

We offer prayers for the families and all involved in this horrific tragedy, no matter whose hand caused it.

Watch David Crowley at PaulFest give a speech about his movie project and the current state of our devolved culture:



“The SECOND REVOLUTION in America may not be remembered.”- Gray State.
R.I.P. Crowley family

Uncensored Video: Police Execute Homeless Man for Camping

Infowars

The full uncensored footage of police killing 38-year-old homeless man James Boyd for camping is even more shocking than the edited version being shown by the media.

MUST see - BANNED! Jesse Ventura: Police State

YouTube
TruTv Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura, banned from television.



Former Wisconsin Governor Jesse Ventura documents evidence of concentration camps for US citizens, thousands of grave liners to contain bodies, and massive unconstitutional "Fusion Centers" that target political protestors without oversight.

Download this video while you still can.

Related:  Are DVRs and TIVOs Remotely Erasing Select Episodes of Jesse Ventura’s Conspiracy Theory?

Seattle Has Been Taken Over By The Department Of Homeland Security

GovtSlaves.info
by Montana Pike Hunter

I’m writing to you today to bring light to share with you some curious things I noticed this weekend. In order to put them into perspective, I must let you know a little about myself.  I was born in Seattle Washington and moved to Missoula Montana in July of 2001.  I still have friends in Seattle and I go there to visit yearly.

I went last year and observed a lot of peculiar infrastructure put in place, but nothing more noteworthy than the extremely sophisticated camera systems on the state borders.  This year I witnessed significantly more, a deterioration into an Orwellian setting that I never could have imagined. Seattle is now informally under Federal Control.  Whether the local police and sheriff’s departments know it or not, they are being groomed to relinquish control to the Department of Homeland Security, it would appear that vast amounts of resources are being placed inside the city on standby.  I would have gladly taken more pictures, but given the circumstances, which I will explain later, I was unable to.

Picture 1.  What you see here first, is a homeless man who got drunk and took a dive into the concrete.  What you can’t see to the left of the picture by the arrow, are 3 Department of Homeland Security vehicles which I will show later.  That’s right, our counter terrorist force is responding to domestic disturbances.

Shown in the red oval, is a DHS operative,  clearly displaying “POLICE” on the back of his type III-A body armor.  A clear difference compared to the domestic officer pictured in the green oval, who is wearing the typical type II armor.  Also, observe his badges and identification obviously present on his left shoulder – clearly absent on the DHS official.

Picture 2.  Shown here are 2 DHS vehicles which are portrayed as standard police vehicles, but upon closer observation are shown to be Federal Agents, and this is where things got uncomfortable.

After taking these photos, the two DHS vehicles began to follow us down the block, circling the block several times that we were walking on and then slowing to a creep while passing us while they stared us down.  The close up photo was taken on their second pass.  This made my girlfriend very intimidated and unhappy, and I began to take less obvious pictures of them since we were on vacation, and this trip was about relaxing, but I was too puzzled by their blatantly  overwhelming presence.

These vehicles are EVERYWHERE in Seattle, making rounds on any particular block about every 10 minutes, driving in caravans as long as 6 vehicles, but mostly in twos and threes, and always in an aggressive fashion.  Speeding, sudden stops, unnecessary acceleration, and clear traffic violations.  The frequency with which I observed these actions while eating a long lunch in a local restaurant as well as while walking through the streets was startling.  I would say it might be a training exercise if it weren’t for their interaction in insignificant events like drunk bums and medical emergencies.

Picture 3.  The third photo shows another obscure medical emergency with 3 DHS vehicles present.  2 vehicles are obvious, the third is behind the white truck.  Once again, our counter terrorist force is responding to heart attacks or whatever else might be happening in this photo, which took one ambulance and one stretcher, Clearly a minor medical emergency. Are the 1.6 billion rounds starting to make more sense now?  they’re grooming and placing assets where they need them first.  Ever heard of the massacre at Hue, south Vietnam? on January 31st of 1968, the N. Vietnamese were able to go inside this city in the early hours of the morning and execute every single South Vietnam sympathizer without error. in one night they were able to pinpoint every household where they lived, pull them out and kill them.  at the time this seamed improbable, how could they organize this? informants, data systems, and useful idiots that thought something like that could never happen. And then it happened.  With the internet, Facebook, and other electronic resources in place, and others being put in place, I think it’s pretty clear what is going on, get ready Patriots, we’re in for the long haul.

Scotland: Every Child to Have “State Guardian” From Birth

Infowars
by Paul Joseph Watson

Every child in Scotland is to be assigned a “state minder” from birth under draconian new proposals that would enable the government to spy on families under the justification of preventing “child abuse”.

Writing in the Scotsman of how he penned a dystopian novel based around this very scenario of every child being assigned a government mentor, sociology and criminology lecturer at the University of Abertay Dundee Stuart Walton writes, “Unfortunately, this dystopian future has arrived a little faster than I imagined, as last week the Scottish Government’s plan to give every child a state guardian from birth was launched.”

“This state-appointed overseer will be a specific, named individual, and every child will have one, from birth. The responsibility for creating this named guardian will fall on the heads of the health boards for the first five years of a child’s life, before being transferred to councils.”

The program is a statutory initiative built into the Children and Young People Bill. Children’s minister Aileen Campbell justified the proposal by asserting it would “make sure there is someone having an overview of what is happening to that child, to make sure that early indicators of anything that would pose a threat or risk to that child are flagged up”.

Walton speculates on what kind of behavior could eventually be deemed “child abuse,” including the contents of a child’s school lunch box or a re-definition of “bullying” to include a parent shouting at their kid.

Indeed, as we have previously documented, schools are now encouraging children to spy on their parents’ recycling habits in the name of protecting mother earth. Could the alleged eco-crime of failing to place a piece of cardboard in the correct trash can prompt the child to report his parents to the “state guardian” and spark an investigation?

In the aftermath of the Jimmy Savile scandal, concern about child abuse is rampant in the UK but it is a fear that has largely been generated by media scaremongering and not an actual marked increase in cases of child abuse.

Top judges like Alan Goldsack QC are also calling on the government to intervene to remove children from “criminal families” at birth. As part of what it calls “Family Intervention Projects,” the British government has also forced thousands of families to install surveillance cameras inside their own homes while subjecting them to home visits to ensure that children go to bed on time, attend school and eat proper meals.

The idea of having a government social worker assigned to spy on every family via the child is an abhorrent notion that would only be accepted in despotic hellholes like North Korea, Maoist China, or Stalinist Russia, yet it is calmly being proposed in current legislation.

The secret police of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu also recruited thousands of children aged 12-14 to spy on their school friends, parents and teachers, according to communist-era archives. At the height of the dictatorship, a staggering 15 per cent of the country’s informants were children. They were encouraged to report anyone who expressed a political opinion contrary to the status quo or those who merely made a joke of Ceausescu.

Is the Scottish government also taking cues from George Orwell’s 1984? In the dystopian classic, “children who turned in their own parents as traitors” are treated as heroes by the Party.

The notion of children being the collective property of the state is also creeping into American society. As we reported last month, college professor and MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry caused an outcry amongst conservatives when she remarked, “We have to break through our private idea that kids belong to their parents or kids belong to their families,” as part of a promotional video for an MSNBC campaign entitled ‘Lean Forward’.

Naked Citizens

YouTube

Increasing numbers of 'terror suspects' are being arrested on the basis of online and CCTV surveillance data. Authorities claim they act in the public interest, but does this intense surveillance keep us safer?

"I woke up to pounding on my door", says Andrej Holm, a sociologist from the Humboldt University. In what felt like a scene from a movie, he was taken from his Berlin home by armed men after a systematic monitoring of his academic research deemed him the probable leader of a militant group. After 30 days in solitary confinement, he was released without charges.

Across Western Europe and the USA, surveillance of civilians has become a major business. With one camera for every 14 people in London and drones being used by police to track individuals, the threat of living in a Big Brother state is becoming a reality.

At an annual conference of hackers, keynote speaker Jacob Appelbaum asserts, "to be free of suspicion is the most important right to be truly free". But with most people having a limited understanding of this world of cyber surveillance and how to protect ourselves, are our basic freedoms already being lost?

Biometric Database of All Adult Americans Hidden in Immigration Reform

Wired

The immigration reform measure the Senate began debating yesterday would create a national biometric database of virtually every adult in the U.S., in what privacy groups fear could be the first step to a ubiquitous national identification system.

Buried in the more than 800 pages of the bipartisan legislation (.pdf) is language mandating the creation of the innocuously-named “photo tool,” a massive federal database administered by the Department of Homeland Security and containing names, ages, Social Security numbers and photographs of everyone in the country with a driver’s license or other state-issued photo ID.

Employers would be obliged to look up every new hire in the database to verify that they match their photo.

This piece of the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act is aimed at curbing employment of undocumented immigrants. But privacy advocates fear the inevitable mission creep, ending with the proof of self being required at polling places, to rent a house, buy a gun, open a bank account, acquire credit, board a plane or even attend a sporting event or log on the internet. Think of it as a government version of Foursquare, with Big Brother cataloging every check-in.

“It starts to change the relationship between the citizen and state, you do have to get permission to do things,” said Chris Calabrese, a congressional lobbyist with the American Civil Liberties Union. “More fundamentally, it could be the start of keeping a record of all things.”

For now, the legislation allows the database to be used solely for employment purposes. But historically such limitations don’t last. The Social Security card, for example, was created to track your government retirement benefits. Now you need it to purchase health insurance.

“The Social Security number itself, it’s pretty ubiquitous in your life,” Calabrese said.

David Bier, an analyst with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, agrees with the ACLU’s fears.

“The most worrying aspect is that this creates a principle of permission basically to do certain activities and it can be used to restrict activities,” he said. “It’s like a national ID system without the card.”

For the moment, the debate in the Senate Judiciary Committee is focused on the parameters of legalization for unauthorized immigrants, a border fence and legal immigration in the future.

The committee is scheduled to resume debate on the package Tuesday.

The 'Robocop' headset that lets police see through walls and identify suspects just by LOOKING at them

Daily Mail

A headset computer promises to give police officers and other emergency services Robocop-like abilities.

The Golden-i device, similar to the Glass project being developed by Google, offers the ability to see through walls thanks to infrared technology.

It is operated by voice commands and head movements and allows the wearer to access vital information without using their hands.

Golden-i has been developed by U.S. company Kopin Corporation, but software solutions tailored to police, firefighters and paramedics have been created by Nottinghamshire-based firm Ikanos Consulting.

It was shown off at the CES 2013 show in Las Vegas last month, although the firm says it is 'too early' to give a price.

It is set to be trialled this year, and could go on sale before Google's Glass project, which is a far more compact headset the search giant also plans to release this year. The Police Pro application provides real-time situational awareness in the field by allowing officers to record incidents for later analysis and view live video feeds from other Golden-i headsets.

The system can also identify suspects using facial recognition, receive alerts from motion sensors, scan licence plates instantly, monitor basic vital signs and call up floor plans and GPS coordinates.

The Firefighter Pro application allows firefighters to call up floor plans and GPS coordinates, see through walls using infrared technology, monitor crew and surroundings, navigate through unknown environments and provide on-site video streaming.

The Paramedic Pro application allows first responders and paramedics to share multiple video and data feeds over a private network, enabling critical information to be shared instantly across multiple devices, improving decision making and safety. They can also access medical records, stream live video, discuss options with associates and view maps or use GPS.

Office workers can also benefit from the technology with the Ikanos-created Lifeboard application. This system enables you to customise up to 6 different screens to meet personal working preferences and manage your day.

The Golden-i unit features an inertially stabilised 14-megapixel camera with optional infrared camera for thermal and night vision.

A 1080 HD detachable camera for recording or sending real-time video can also be added.

Selected Golden-i devices come pre-loaded with a set of core Gi-OS applications, including E-mail Center, Ask Ziggy, Web Browser and File Explorer. The Golden-i platform will continue to evolve as the developer community works together to build voice-controlled augmented reality applications for Golden-i. The Golden-i hardware and software developer kit is expected be released by the summer, while a consumer version is slated for later in the year.

Futuristic handcuffs would administer shocks, drugs

CNet
by Chris Matyszcyk

A patent for next-generation handcuffs offers a future in which the detained can be zapped directly from their restraints, and even injected with a medication, sedative, irritant, paralytic, or other fine substance.

Sometimes an invention comes along that makes you excited about the future.

For a long time, it seems that handcuffs have been stuck in the movies of old. They restrain you, but, odd for our interactive world, that's all they seem to do.

Might I tempt you toward futuristic handcuffs that will offer you a small involuntary judder?

I am grateful to Gizmodo for discovering that Patent Bolt has lucked upon a patent that offers bound(less) excitement.

For these are handcuffs that offer surprises. Indeed, they might make the idea of being tased, bro, not quite so bad.

The patent is called "Apparatus and System For Augmented Detainee Restraint."

The augmentations it offers are truly quite something. You see, these handcuffs are "configured to administer electrical shocks when certain predetermined conditions occur."

These shocks might be "activated by internal control systems or by external controllers that transmit activation signals to the restraining device."

This progressive tool is the brainchild of Scottsdale Inventions.

And while you might be shocked or even excited by the idea of handcuffs with electric shock capabilities, might I move you further?

For Patent Bolt points out that this patent also allows for the idea of a substance delivery system. Yes, these handcuffs might also be used to, well, inject the detained with who knows what -- to achieve "any desired result." Clearly, the desires of the detained and the detainer might differ. Yet, this patent allows for the possibility of the substance being in the form of "a liquid, a gas, a dye, an irritant, a medication, a sedative, a transdermal medication or transdermal enhancers such as dimethyl sulfoxide, a chemical restraint, a paralytic, a medication prescribed to the detainee, and combinations thereof."

Yes, you really did read the word "paralytic."

Naturally, some will be wondering whether, as in fine restaurants, the arresting officer will ask whether the detained has any allergies.

Some might be concerned, though that -- at least theoretically -- this creation might put quite some power into the hands of those who might not always be lucid or learned enough to use that power wisely.

Nowhere to Run or to Hide From the New Killer Robots

The Common Sense Show
by Dave Hodges

Gene Roddenberry’s production, Star Trek, demonstrated that there is a fine line between science fiction and science fact.

Who could forget the omnipresent tricorder, designed to ascertain, among other things, one’s health status? Today, we have portable and wireless medical imaging devices

Do you remember the Star Trek’s communication device? Compare this to a modern day cell phone

Moving along in science fiction movie history, take a look at the killer robot which appeared in the movie, Terminator.

Compare science fiction with DARPA’s science fact as killer robots have been unveiled.



The use of drones to kill suspected terrorists is controversial, but so long as a human being decides whether to fire the missile, it is not a radical shift in how humanity wages war. Since David killed Goliath, warring armies have sought ways to more effectively kill their enemies while protecting their troops.

However, a new innovation has come to the battlefield which is unparalleled in the art of war. It strongly appears that DARPA developed military robots have the capacity to identify and to attack enemy soldiers on the battlefield and decide on their own whether to go for the kill. Do the DARPA killer robots possess the capacity to hunt down a human being? View the following for the unquestionable answer to this question.

In 2010, an Air Force report speculated that with increased robot capabilities, the human soldier will be obsolete. The Defense Department road map for killer robot systems states that its final goal is the unsupervised ability for (killer robots) mechanical assets to carry out their specified missions. In other words, the world will witness entire units of killer robots carrying out their missions without any human oversight. Isn’t the next logical step for these totally independent killer robots to be devise their own mission goals? This brings into distinct real of possibility of a man vs. machine war in our future and it could very well transpire within our children’s lifespan. Science will inevitably pass the realm of science fiction.

Although the Pentagon still requires autonomous DARPA killer robots to maintain human oversight, the real advantage of such a weapons system would lie within the ability for the weapons systems to have the capacity to make judgments on the battlefield. This one principle runs contrary to maintaining human oversight. Soon, it is clear, that the DARPA killer robots will soon be operating autonomously.

With the advent of killer robots, an international killer robot arms race will take place resulting in future battles being fought between competing armies of AI robots. Will the rules of war apply? What about the Geneva Conventions? If a DARPA killer robot commits atrocities against humans, will it held accountable? Does accountability even matter to an inanimate object? So what if a robot is “put to death,” and a duplicate is constructed. Can science ever develop a conscience for a killer robot? And if the purpose for the killer robots is war, why would governments provide an ethics override mechanism?

Human soldiers (e.g. Gestapo) have been programmed to commit genocide. It is a far simpler task to program a robot to commit the act more efficiently and without any second thoughts. Dictators always face the threat of human insurrection against their tyranny. With an army of DARPA killer robots, the threat of a palace revolt would be removed. In fact, killer robots are a perfect choice to carry out Obama’s NDAA provisions for disappearing and murdering political dissidents. If a present or future American dictator wished to eliminate a class of people from society, Nazi style, the killer robots are the ideal selection due to the efficiency of this weapons system.

Fox News reported that Human Rights Watch is advocating for a ban on these artificial weapons systems. I believe that humanity has more to fear from DARPA killer robots than creating an unethical and brutal army and/or tyrannical police force. When considering the principle of Moore’s Law, in which computer capacity doubles every 18 months, how long will it be until these machines will develop the capacity to stop following orders and begin to make their own decisions? And what if in their new found decision making process, the DARPA killer robots stop viewing “foreign robots” as the enemy and begin to focus on man as their new enemy? Since their prime directive is killing, how long would it take until humans become the most endangered species on the planet? Perhaps the DARPA killer robots will create an Agenda 21 style of a human “Wildlands/Human Refuge Zone” creation, which will prevent robot intrusion into protected human habitats, except, of course, during hunting season.

The 'scum villages' of Amsterdam: City plans to rehouse anti-social neighbours in caravans under constant police watch

Daily Mail

Nuisance neighbours in Amsterdam will be exiled from the city and rehoused in 'scum villages' made up of caravans or containers under constant police supervision.

Holland's capital already has a special hit squad of municipal officials to identify the worst offenders for a compulsory six month course in how to behave.

Social housing problem families or tenants who do not show an improvement or refuse to go to the special units face eviction and homelessness.

Eberhard van der Laan, Amsterdam's Labour mayor, has tabled the £810,000 plan to tackle 13,000 complaints of anti-social behaviour every year.

He complained that long-term harassment often leads to law abiding tenants, rather than their nuisance neighbours, being driven out, The Daily Telegraph reported.

The project also involves setting up a special hotline and system for victims to report their problems to the authorities.

The new punishment housing camps have been dubbed 'scum villages' because the plan echoes a proposal from Geert Wilders, the leader of a populist Dutch Right-wing party, for special units to deal with persistent troublemakers.

'Repeat offenders should be forcibly removed from their neighbourhood and sent to a village for scum,' he suggested last year. 'Put all the trash together.'

Whilst denying that the new projects would be punishment camps for 'scum', a spokesman for the city mayor stressed that the special residential units would aim to enforce good behaviour.

'The aim is not to reward people who behave badly with a new five-room home with a south-facing garden. This is supposed to be a deterrent,' he said.

The tough approach taken by Mr van der Laan appears to jar with Amsterdam's famous tolerance for prostitution and soft drugs but reflects hardening attitudes to routine anti-social behaviour that falls short of criminality.

There are already several small-scale trial projects in the Netherlands, including in Amsterdam, where 10 shipping container homes have been set aside for persistent offenders, living under 24-hour supervision from social workers and police.

Under the new policy, from January next year, victims will no longer have to move to escape their tormentors, who will be moved to the new units.

A team of district 'harassment directors' have already been appointed to spot signals of problems and to gather reports of nuisance tenants.

The Night Dad Went To Jail: Shocking children's book explains what happens when a family member gets arrested

Daily Mail

A shocking new children's book aims to help children cope with a parent being arrested and thrown in jail. 'The Night Dad Went to Jail: What to Expect When Someone You Love Goes to Jail' follows a young rabbit as his father is arrested at their house in front of the neighbors and sentenced to six years in prison.

It offers tips for dealing with the hardship of losing a parent for many years and an explanation of what to expect as a mother or father going through the legal process.

Sketch, a young rabbit, recounts his first-hand experience of witnessing his father’s arrest in their home and shares his lingering confusion.

'We were at Dad's apartment the night the police came. Lights flashed. Neighbors stared. The officers put my dad in handcuffs,' the young rabbit recounts with a drawing of the potentially highly traumatic scene for a child to experience.

'Your dad may have broken a law,' a furry police officer addresses the three children after taking their father away. 'We need to ask him some questions at the police station.'

The book follows young Sketch as he experiences confusion and even anger at his father being hauled away to jail.

It also provides comprehensive footnotes for children to better understand what their locked-up loved ones are going through.

'Laws are rules that tell people how they should behave. When people break a law, they may be put in jail or prison. They have to stay there for a period of time. How long depends upon what law they broke,' one such footnote tells.

Eventually Sketch and his siblings visit their father in jail where he apologizes for what has happened and admits having made mistakes.

'I hope you'll forgive me,' the boy's father tells him from the other side of a glass wall.

Sketch cannot think of anything to say back to his father.

The book explains that this is normal - and suggests talking about school or everyday life instead.

'Dad's sentence is for six years. That's a long time to wait to go fishing again. I'm still a little angry. But I'm working on forgiving my dad because I love him,' Sketch later says in the book while recalling their better days together.

'When someone you love goes to jail, you might feel lost, scared, and even mad. What do you do? No matter who your loved one is, this story can help you through the tough times,' the book describes its purpose.

Since its publication in August of 2011, the book has received wide acclaim by readers on Amazon.com who write having used it personally to bridge their own personal strife.

'I was pleased to see that this book has child-friendly drawings that my son was able to enjoy. I like how it explains the process in simple ways that a child would understand and it has been very helpful with my son in our current situation. Very useful and colorful,' one reader writes.

'If you ever have a family member go to jail, this is the book to buy. It explains the situation in a way children can understand,' another agrees.

Additional books by the author, Melissa Higgins, include Weekends with Dad: What to Expect When Your Parents Divorce.

The TSA's mission creep is making the US a police state

OpEdNews

Ever since 2010, when the Transportation Security Administration started requiring that travelers in American airports submit to sexually intrusive gropings based on the apparent anti-terrorism principle that "If we can't feel your nipples, they must be a bomb", the agency's craven apologists have shouted down all constitutional or human rights objections with the mantra "If you don't like it, don't fly!"

This callous disregard for travelers' rights merely paraphrases the words of Homeland Security director Janet Napolitano, who shares, with the president, ultimate responsibility for all TSA travesties since 2009. In November 2010, with the groping policy only a few weeks old, Napolitano dismissed complaints by saying "people [who] want to travel by some other means" have that right. (In other words: if you don't like it, don't fly.)

But now TSA is invading travel by other means, too. No surprise, really: as soon as she established groping in airports, Napolitano expressed her desire to expand TSA jurisdiction over all forms of mass transit. In the past year, TSA's snakelike VIPR (Visual Intermodal Prevention and Response) teams have been slithering into more and more bus and train stations – and even running checkpoints on highways – never in response to actual threats, but apparently more in an attempt to live up to the inspirational motto displayed at the TSA's air marshal training center since the agency's inception: "Dominate. Intimidate. Control."

Anyone who rode the bus in Houston, Texas during the 2-10pm shift last Friday faced random bag checks and sweeps by both drug-sniffing dogs and bomb-sniffing dogs (the latter being only canines necessary if "preventing terrorism" were the actual intent of these raids), all courtesy of a joint effort between TSA VIPR nests and three different local and county-level police departments. The new Napolitano doctrine, then: "Show us your papers, show us everything you've got, justify yourself or you're not allowed to go about your everyday business."

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee praised these violations of her constituents' rights with an explanation asinine even by congressional standards:

"We're looking to make sure that the lady I saw walking with a cane … knows that Metro cares as much about her as we do about building the light rail."

See, if you don't support the random harassment of ordinary people riding the bus to work, you're a callous bastard who doesn't care about little old ladies.

No specific threats or reasons were cited for the raids, as the government no longer even pretends to need any. Vipers bite you just because they can. TSA spokesman Jim Fotenos confirmed this a few days before the Houston raids, when VIPR teams and local police did the same thing to travelers catching trains out of the Amtrak station in Alton, Illinois. Fotenos confirmed that "It was not in response to a specific threat," and bragged that VIPR teams conduct "thousands" of these operations each year.

Still, apologists can pretend that's all good, pretend constitutional and human rights somehow don't apply to mass transit, and twist their minds into the Mobius pretzel shapes necessary to find random searches of everyday travelers compatible with any notion that America is a free country. "Don't like the new rules for mass transit? Then drive."

Except even that doesn't work anymore. Earlier this month, the VIPRs came out again in Virginia and infested the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, also known as the stretch of Interstate 64 connecting the cities of Hampton and Norfolk. Spokesmen admitted again that the exercise was a "routine sweep", not a response to any specific threat. Official news outlets admitted the checkpoint caused a delay (further exacerbated by a couple of accidents), but didn't say for how long. Local commenters at the Travel Underground forums reported delays of 90 minutes.

I grew up in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia. When I was a kid, my dad crossed the bridge-tunnel every day while commuting to work. When I was in university, I did the same thing. The old conventional wisdom said "Get to the airport at least two hours early, so TSA has time to violate your constitutional rights before boarding." What's the new conventional wisdom – "Leave for any destination at least 90 minutes early, so TSA can violate your rights en route"?

Airports, bus terminals, train stations, highways – what's left? If you don't like it, walk. And remember to be respectfully submissive to any TSA agents or police you encounter in your travels, especially now that the US supreme court has ruled mass strip-searches are acceptable for anyone arrested for even the most minor offence in America. If you're rude to any TSA agent or cops, you risk being arrested on some vague catch-all charge like "disorderly conduct". Even if the charges are later dropped, you'll still undergo the ritual humiliation of having to strip, squat, spread 'em and show your various orifices to be empty.

Can I call America a police state now, without being accused of hyperbole?

Police fight cellphone recordings

Boston
Daniel Rowinski

Witnesses taking audio of officers arrested, charged with illegal surveillance

Simon Glik, a lawyer, was walking down Tremont Street in Boston when he saw three police officers struggling to extract a plastic bag from a teenager’s mouth. Thinking their force seemed excessive for a drug arrest, Glik pulled out his cellphone and began recording.

Within minutes, Glik said, he was in handcuffs.

“One of the officers asked me whether my phone had audio recording capabilities,’’ Glik, 33, said recently of the incident, which took place in October 2007. Glik acknowledged that it did, and then, he said, “my phone was seized, and I was arrested.’’

The charge? Illegal electronic surveillance.

Jon Surmacz, 34, experienced a similar situation. Thinking that Boston police officers were unnecessarily rough while breaking up a holiday party in Brighton he was attending in December 2008, he took out his cellphone and began recording.

Police confronted Surmacz, a webmaster at Boston University. He was arrested and, like Glik, charged with illegal surveillance.

There are no hard statistics for video recording arrests. But the experiences of Surmacz and Glik highlight what civil libertarians call a troubling misuse of the state’s wiretapping law to stifle the kind of street-level oversight that cellphone and video technology make possible.

“The police apparently do not want witnesses to what they do in public,’’ said Sarah Wunsch, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, who helped to get the criminal charges against Surmacz dismissed.

Boston police spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll rejected the notion that police are abusing the law to block citizen oversight, saying the department trains officers about the wiretap law. “If an individual is inappropriately interfering with an arrest that could cause harm to an officer or another individual, an officer’s primary responsibility is to ensure the safety of the situation,’’ she said.

Homeland Security: Pretty Much All Bodily Movement is an Indicator of Potential Terrorism

by Madison Ruppert
Intel Hub, Mar. 21, 2012

If you thought the criteria for suspicious activity in terms of potential terrorism couldn’t get any more broad and ludicrous, prepare to be taken aback.

The culture of citizen spying and pervasive paranoia in the United States is getting to the point of patent absurdity, yet somehow many American nonsensically seem to continue to treat it as gospel.

According to a document entitled “Terrorism Awareness and Prevention: Participant Guide” distributed by the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security Preparedness (which you can see embedded below), almost every single action should be treated as suspicious.

These include glances, wide open eyes, cold penetrating stares, trance-like gazes, exaggerated yawning when engaged in conversation, protruding or beating neck arteries, repetitive touching of face, tugging on or covering ears, increased breathing rate, panting, excessive fidgeting, clock watching, head turning, pacing or jumpiness, trembling, unusual perspiration, goose bumps, and/or rigid posture with minimal body movements and arms close to sides.

In other words, if you’re late for something or in a rush (“excessive fidgeting, clock watching”), you might be a terrorist. If you’ve been exercising (“increased breathing rate, panting,” “protruding or beating neck arteries”), you might be a terrorist.

On the other hand, if you’re tired (“trance-like gaze,” “exaggerated yawning”) you also might be a terrorist. Yet, if you’re energetic or perhaps drank too much coffee (“wide open ‘flashbulb eyes,’” “pacing or jumpy,” “trembling,” “unusual perspiration,” “excessive fidgeting”), you might also be a terrorist.

You’d better not be too energetic, too tired, in a rush, plagued by a wide range of medical conditions, returning from exercise, or generally display almost any bodily behaviors as someone might consider you a suspicious person and report you for possible terrorist activity.

But it doesn’t stop there! Other suspicious activities when it comes to vehicles are “unusual behavior,” which is undefined and could mean just about anything, “signs of fear or stress,” or “refusal or disregard of directions.” It gets even more insane when they go over signs which make a vehicle itself suspicious. These include, “Unusual items clearly visible inside or attached to the outside [of the vehicle],” “stopped or parked in strange or out-of-place locations,” “parked close to agency assets such as terminals, rail lines and bridges,” “missing or altered license plates,” “visibly overloaded or sagging.” This means that the ultimate potential terrorist might be someone who has a brand new truck with temporary tags overloaded with paint removal equipment or anything else “unusual” or with an off-road driving kit on the outside who happens to be stopped in an “out-of-place” location, perhaps in order to go hiking, or maybe parked near a bridge, perhaps to remove graffiti.

Keep in mind that I – and I’m sure most other thinking people – could come up with hundreds of different situations that fit all of the above criteria yet are wholly innocuous. Also, any “unexpected mail from a foreign country” should be treated as suspicious, along with any packages with restrictive markings like “personal or confidential” and anything which is “poorly printed” with “excessive tape or string” and “misspelled names,” among other laughable indicators of suspiciousness.

Continuing on with some ridiculous examples of “suspicious activity” are people who are “drawing or taking pictures in areas not normally of interest,” “taking notes or annotating maps,” or even just “sitting in a parked vehicle.” Some choice tools used by terrorists for surveillance, according to the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security, are: “Cameras – video, still or panoramic,” “laptop computers or PDA’s (Personal Data Assistants),” “diagrams or maps,” “binoculars or other vision-enhancing devices,” and “GPS (Global Positioning System) Devices.”

Apparently, the government even considers “Staring or quickly looking away from personnel” and “Vehicles entering parking areas or leaving designated facilities” to be indicators of possible terrorist activity. The document encourages people to report everything they see and they make a point of emphasizing that, “Staying alert is NOT paranoia.”

Contrary to all of the information they give previously, they claim, “No one is asking for block wardens who log every activity in their neighborhood or workplace. No one wants you to spy on people. This isn’t about informing on ‘disloyal’ Americans or people who are ‘different’ or don’t fit in.” That is, of course, unless you display any of the massive list of behaviors which marks you as a possible terrorist.

Hilariously, they even claim that if a UPS truck drives down a street three times during the holidays and they have several delivery trucks making different deliveries, it might be a terrorist. They cite Timothy McVeigh who allegedly rented a truck to carry out the Oklahoma City bombing, even though McVeigh’s vehicle was allegedly a rented Ryder truck, not a UPS truck which is not available for public rental.

So, if you’re lost or trying to find a parking spot in a truck, you’d better be aware of the fact that someone might report you as a potential terrorist. With this culture of voluntary surveillance expanding into the world of smartphones, it will only be easier for the government to encourage people to report any and all activity as suspicious and potential indicators of terrorism. If you come across similarly ludicrous guidelines and recommendations, please do not hesitate to send them my way so I can cover them.

This article originally appeared on End the Lie