Law Enforcement

Alabama Bill Would Grant Mega-Church Right To Create It’s Own Police Force

Ben Carson, former candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, speaks to the congregation of Briarwood Presbyterian Church, June 28, 2015, in Birmingham, Ala. (AP/Butch Dill)
On Friday, the Alabama House Committee approved a bill that would grant one church the legal authority to establish their own police force.

Decrypt, or else…

Falkvinge:

An appeals court has denied the appeal of a person who is jailed indefinitely for refusing to decrypt files. The man has not been charged with anything, but was ordered to hand over the unencrypted contents on police assertion of what the contents were. When this can result in lifetime imprisonment under “contempt of court”, the United States has effectively outlawed file-level encryption – without even going through Congress.

Big Brothers little helpers

“It’s like this perfect test case,” says Andrew Ferguson, a professor of law at the University of the District of Columbia. “Alexa is only one of the smart devices in that guy’s house. I don’t know if all of them were on or recording, but if you were going to set up a hypothetical situation to decide if the internet of things could be used as an investigative tool, you’ve got this mysterious hot tub murder.”

How The CIA And A Tech Startup Are Arming Police, Intelligence Agencies

Police use surveillance software, which uses mobile technology and social media to keep tabs on citizens.
NEW YORK— It is run out of a quiet, unassuming office on a tree-lined avenue in Bethesda, Maryland.  The rows of hip restaurants are offering young urban professionals all the grande-iced-sugar-free-vanilla-soy-lattes they could ever need. However, this serene suburban idyll belies the fact that serious work for the police state is taking place out of view.

Wikileaks on CIA / Vault 7

“Year Zero” introduces the scope and direction of the CIA’s global covert hacking program, its malware arsenal and dozens of “zero day” weaponized exploits against a wide range of U.S. and European company products, include Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows and even Samsung TVs, which are turned into covert microphones. (…)

Law Enforcement Warns Trump His Recent Executive Orders Could be Disastrous

(ANTIMEDIA) A day after President Trump signed into law three executive orders to combat what he called “the menace of rising crime” — including one designed to protect police — a group of law enforcement professionals published a report on Friday urging the newly elected U.S. leader to rethink his crime-fighting strategy.