Cops at it again

[Diane Amberg]

 I really don't think extremists in the blowhard political sense will ever be that powerful nationally unless the people who follow the money in big business can make a profit from it.  Look at the money behind the tea party movement. Quiet but powerful people who don't want their revenue stream upset.
    There are only 3,000 or so people in Elk County. Nice forum, but also very small, only 624 members, many of whom are not active. There are many more dissenters on here than you might think. They just don't choose to speak out because they live there and don't care to be threatened.  I don't blame them one bit.  Much of what the few "meanies" say just goes to show the true character of the speakers. Very suspicious and closed minded.. and prone to ranting and raving as if they are on drugs.  (In some cases their knuckles are still dragging on the ground.) If that is really the only way they can communicate, fine, but they better be ready to have it handed back to them on occasion....As in untruthful personal attacks. I can't speak for Kansas but here we have a Governor and a state Gov't that aren't about to let the "radicals" take over. They are amazing in their bipartisanship and lack of mean squabbling among themselves. Even election campaigns are surprisingly mild. I've been on here for more than three years now and I am just starting to get used to the nastiness that is accepted there as normal. I think I went off the topic a bit, sorry.

[Anmar]

well, I think what we have is a representation of a large portion of opinions.  I read this morning the story about a man who jumped into a taxi, asked the driver if he was muslim, then tried to slit his throat when the driver said yes.  People are losing their minds.  Its amazing to me how just a few weeks ago, people were saying how much they loved the constitution, now we want to change the 14th amendment and deny the first amendment to muslims and the fifth to just about everyone.

[Roma Jean Turner]

I worry about that as well Anmar....for all of us.

[Diane Amberg]

I wonder why nobody is protesting the Muslim prayer room in the Pentagon? I also wonder how much is done for media attention. I watched some clips of the pro and con protests in NYC. At least a third of the people there were Media reps with cameras and I watched people maneuvering into position to be in the shots.Things got very tense when one black man was singled out as a Muslim and tormented erroneously.  He stood up for himself but was asked to go for the sake of getting things calmed down again. I'm glad mob psychology didn't take over. It could have been "Gangs of New York" all over again. I don't think he was a Dead Rabbit though.
   I'd love to know how many were paid to be there and how many weren't even from NYC. I looked up that poor taxi driver. He was really hurt bad.  So sad. It looks like the very people who think they are protecting this country are actually the ones harming it.

[Varmit]

You've got to be kidding! Why in the world would I ever be "detained"for any reason? I'm not likely to ever be out there pushing the limits to attract attention to myself and cause anyone to notice me, let alone look at me with doubt as to my character as a law abiding citizen. Besides, my fire company plates give me some leeway and I taught part of every police Academy in the state. Every body knows me!  But that's another story. I assume you have lots of personal experience in being detained?

Way to avoid the question..

As for political blowhards, what do you think obama is?  Money behind the Tea Party movement...those are average folks, jesus, you really don't understand a damn thing do you?

And another thing, you really don't understand a damn thing about Elk County, how could you after all you don't live here, right?  Isn't that what you stated about that Black Panther thing...that we didn't know what was going on because we didn't live there?  True nature of the speakers...suspicious and close minded...Better that than a brain dead sheep that will go along with whatever hand is feeding them.  Now you may consider this a "personal attack" and you know what...you're damn right it is!! You attack my friends and neighbors and I will come back at you, you flabby mouth know-it-all!!

Anmar, deny the 1st to Muslims...when those Muslims want to deny every right to every Non-Muslim, then yes they need to be stopped.  

[Varmit]

Full-Body Scan Technology Deployed In Street-Roving Vans
By ANDY GREENBERG

As the privacy controversy around full-body security scans begins to simmer, it's worth noting that courthouses and airport security checkpoints aren't the only places where backscatter x-ray vision is being deployed. The same technology, capable of seeing through clothes and walls, has also been rolling out on U.S. streets.

American Science & Engineering, a company based in Billerica, Massachusetts, has sold U.S. and foreign government agencies more than 500 backscatter x-ray scanners mounted in vans that can be driven past neighboring vehicles to see their contents, Joe Reiss, a vice president of marketing at the company told me in an interview. While the biggest buyer of AS&E's machines over the last seven years has been the Department of Defense operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, Reiss says law enforcement agencies have also deployed the vans to search for vehicle-based bombs in the U.S.

"This product is now the largest selling cargo and vehicle inspection system ever," says Reiss.

The Z Backscatter Vans, or ZBVs, as the company calls them, bounce a narrow stream of x-rays off and through nearby objects, and read which ones come back. Absorbed rays indicate dense material such as steel. Scattered rays indicate less-dense objects that can include explosives, drugs, or human bodies. That capability makes them powerful tools for security, law enforcement, and border control.

It would also seem to make the vans mobile versions of the same scanning technique that's riled privacy advocates as it's been deployed in airports around the country. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) is currently suing the DHS to stop airport deployments of the backscatter scanners, which can reveal detailed images of human bodies. (Just how much detail became clear last May, when TSA employee Rolando Negrin was charged with assaulting a coworker who made jokes about the size of Negrin's genitalia after Negrin received a full-body scan.)

"It's no surprise that goverments and vendors are very enthusiastic about [the vans]," says Marc Rotenberg, executive director of EPIC. "But from a privacy perspective, it's one of the most intrusive technologies conceivable."

AS&E's Reiss counters privacy critics by pointing out that the ZBV scans don't capture nearly as much detail of human bodies as their airport counterparts. The company's marketing materials say that its "primary purpose is to image vehicles and their contents," and that "the system cannot be used to identify an individual, or the race, sex or age of the person."

Though Reiss admits that the systems "to a large degree will penetrate clothing," he points to the lack of features in images of humans like the one shown at right, far less detail than is obtained from the airport scans. "From a privacy standpoint, I'm hard-pressed to see what the concern or objection could be," he says.

But EPIC's Rotenberg says that the scans, like those in the airport, potentially violate the fourth amendment. "Without a warrant, the government doesn't have a right to peer beneath your clothes without probable cause," he says. Even airport scans are typically used only as a secondary security measure, he points out. "If the scans can only be used in exceptional cases in airports, the idea that they can be used routinely on city streets is a very hard argument to make."

The TSA's official policy dictates that full-body scans must be viewed in a separate room from any guards dealing directly with subjects of the scans, and that the scanners won't save any images. Just what sort of safeguards might be in place for AS&E's scanning vans isn't clear, given that the company won't reveal just which law enforcement agencies, organizations within the DHS, or foreign governments have purchased the equipment. Reiss says AS&E has customers on "all continents except Antarctica."

Reiss adds that the vans do have the capability of storing images. "Sometimes customers need to save images for evidentiary reasons," he says. "We do what our customers need."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wht ever happened to freedom, privacy?

[twirldoggy]

orwellian

[Varmit]

Deputy constable accused of beating, exposing woman at school, suit says
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Published: 8:20 p.m. Thursday, July 8, 2010

Post a Comment E-mail Print ShareLarger Type Small Type
A federal lawsuit filed Thursday accused a Travis County deputy constable of beating a woman and exposing her breast in front of an elementary school with her grandchildren watching in May 2009.

Lawyers with the Texas Civil Rights Project filed the suit against Deputy Constable Richard Furrs on behalf of the woman, who used a pseudonym in the court filings. Furrs targeted the woman because she is a Mexican immigrant, according to the suit.

Misdemeanor criminal charges that Furrs filed against the woman were later dropped, the suit said. It said Furrs was suspended for five days, but the constables office would not confirm that. Gwendolyn Doyle, a manager at the office, would only say that Furrs was still employed there. Furrs could not be reached for comment.

The woman went to Sims Elementary School off Springdale Road in East Austin to pick up her grandchildren on May 21, 2009, the suit said. She pulled into the school's driveway, where Furrs was directing traffic, the suit said. It said Furrs began to show the woman where to wait, and as she did, he began yelling at her.

The woman thought he was asking for identification, so she reached for her license, the suit said. Furrs then dragged her out of her truck, the suit said.

The lawsuit contained three sworn affidavits by witnesses. One was from Lorena Sanchez, who said she was walking with her daughter from the school to their car and saw Furrs yelling at the woman.

Sanchez said she knew the woman and saw Furrs yank her from her truck so forcibly that Sanchez was able to see the woman's feet.

She said she saw Furrs beat the woman with his baton and dragged her on the hot pavement, while the woman was yelling in Spanish that she did not know what she did wrong.

Furrs was overheard calling the woman an ethnic epithet and told her she needed to speak English because she was in America, the documents said.

Another witness said Furrs was yelling slurs at the woman while throwing her around like a rag doll.

Sanchez said a few people were trying to take video and photos of the incident, but the constable and other responding officers ordered them not to, the suit said.

Jon Saucedo, a teacher, said he saw the woman on her knees and bleeding from her lip. His statement also said one of her breasts was exposed and that she was crying.

Witnesses said the woman begged Furrs to cover her up, and he responded by saying, "I don't care. I like it."

Saucedo said he stepped forward and offered to help translate for the woman, but Furrs reached for his gun and told him to back up.

Saucedo's statement said that Furrs and his supervisor went to the principal's office to apologize for the incident. Yet, when Saucedo asked Furrs why he thought it was appropriate to reach for his gun, Saucedo said Furrs became enraged and yelled at him.

"I felt very intimidated by Mr. Furrs. I thought this meeting was an effort to apologize for this officer's actions the day before, but it quickly turned into another situation where this officer was out of control," Saucedo wrote in his sworn statement.

Maria Jaramillo said her children who witnessed the incident are now traumatized and are afraid of police officers. She said when they see a police car, they try to take off their seat belts and hide.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And they wonder why people don't like cops...

[Diane Amberg]

Nothing worse than a bad cop who is also a bigot. No excuse for that business at all. But judge it on its own merits.

[Varmit]

Judge it on its own merits??  This is a perfect illustration of the Law Enforcement community...that "cop" still has a job.  Hows that for merit?