Robocop a step closer- Google Glass App for police

Google Glass has lots of potential applications beyond just making it easier for people to check out their Twitter feed without taking their phones out of their pockets. Mutualink is demoing one such app today at APCO, a conference for public safety communications, with its Glass App for police, firefighters and first responders.

The app would allow public safety officers and officials to communicate in real-time via streaming video from the scene, as well as to receive and view key documents, including things like building schematics, medical records of victims, live feeds of security cameras in the area and more. It’s the ultimate on-demand intel platform for agents working in the field, and a way to stay in contact with HQ and other organizations even when radio systems won’t talk to each other.

Of course, there could be privacy concerns with such an app. Recently, news came out that NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other officials in the U.S. oppose the idea of police body cameras, suggesting they’d be open to all kinds of dangerous interpretation. Mutualink says its solution emphasizes agency control of media and recording on glass, so privacy would be in the hands of the cops and other officials using them and should be protected.

A tactical heads-up display being used by safety officers is a natural fit for Glass, and as the enforcement agents would be using the head-mounted computer as part of their uniform, they wouldn’t have to worry about looking like idiots, so this could be a place where Google actually finds some long-term adoption. Mutualink is also already a service provider used by NATO Special Operations Forces, homeland security, police and fire departments, so it has the relationships in place to make this happen. Read more >>

Government collecting millions of records on American drivers, study says

Law enforcement agencies across the United States are using automatic scanners to amass millions of digital records on the location and movement of vehicles, according to a study published Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The scanners – which can be affixed to police cars, bridges or buildings --  capture images of moving or parked vehicles that include such details as location and license plate numbers.
The images are then uploaded into police databases and kept for weeks or sometimes indefinitely.

While the Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that a judge's approval is needed to track a car with GPS, the ACLU says the image scanning raises concerns about government possibly over-intruding in the lives of everyday citizens.

"There's just a fundamental question of whether we're going to live in a society where these dragnet surveillance systems become routine," said Catherine Crump, a staff attorney with the ACLU, which wants police departments to immediately delete records of cars not linked to a crime. Read more >>

Shorthanded Police Ask Mail Carriers, Garbage Collectors To Help Spot Crime

The shorthanded Antioch Police Department is enlisting the help of local garbage collectors and letter carriers tospot crime on city streets.

Employees of the local trash collector, Republic Services Inc., as well as U.S. Postal Service employees have been given tips on how to act as effective witnesses to crimes. The program, dubbed “We’re Looking Out For You” aims to add some experience eyeballs looking out for the city’s 105,000 residents.

As part of the training, drivers received a list of questions designed to help them identity criminal activity, as well as a laminated copy of the police department’s non-emergency phone number.

“It’s a huge resource multiplier for us,” said Lt. T. Brooks of the Antioch Police Department. “These are people who are actively engaged in the community and are actively participating in making Antioch a safer place.” Read more >>

Crime-ridden Camden, New Jersey Dumps Police Department

Crime-ridden Camden, New Jersey - often referred to as the most dangerous city in the United States—is getting rid of its police department.

In the latest example of a cash-strapped municipality taking drastic measures to deal with swollen public sector liabilities and shrinking budgets, the city plans to disband its 460-member police department and replace it with a non-union “Metro Division” of the Camden County Police. Backers of the plan say it will save millions of dollars for taxpayers while ensuring public safety, but police unions say it is simply a way to get out of collective bargaining with the men and women in blue.

“This is definitely a form of union-busting," Camden Fraternal Order of Police President John Williamson told FoxNews.com. “This method is unproven and untested, to put your faith in an agency that doesn’t even [yet] exist.” Camden County Mayor Dana Redd has said layoffs of the city’s police force will begin by the end of the month. Only 49 percent of current city police officers will be transferred to the new county division, whose members will begin a four- to five-month training program. Read more >>

NYPD unveils new Orwellian super computer

The NYPD is starting to look like a flashy, forensic crime TV show thanks to a new super computer system unveiled Wednesday near Wall St.

The Domain Awareness System designed by the NYPD and Microsoft Corp. uses data from a network of cameras, radiation detectors, license plate readers and crime reports, officials said.

“We’re not your mom and pop police department anymore,” Mayor Bloomberg crowed. “We are in the next century. We are leading the pack.”

The system, which cost somewhere between $30 and $40 million to develop, could also help pay for itself with the city expecting to earn 30% of the profits on Microsoft sales to other city’s and countries, Bloomberg said.

The joint venture began when the NYPD approached Microsoft about the effort, officials said. Cops were involved with the programmers throughout the process, earning the city its cut of the proceeds.

Officials declined to predict how much the city’s share of the system could be worth. “For years, we’ve been stovepiped as far as databases are concerned,” NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. “Now, everything that we have about an incident, an event, an individual comes together on that workbench, so it’s one-stop shopping for investigators.” Read more >>

Public Workers Face Continued Layoffs

In California, the governor is threatening to eliminate 15,000 state jobs. When school begins in Cleveland this fall, more than 500 teachers probably will be out of work. And in Trenton — which has already cut a third of its police force, hundreds of school district employees and at least 150 other public workers — the only way the city will forestall the loss of 60 more firefighters is if a federal grant comes through.

Government payrolls grew in the early part of the recovery, largely because of federal stimulus measures. But since its postrecession peak in April 2009 (not counting temporary Census hiring), the public sector has shrunk by 657,000 jobs. The losses appeared to be tapering off earlier this year, but have accelerated for the last three months, creating the single biggest drag on the recovery in many areas. 

Fourteen states plan to resolve their budget gaps by reducing aid to local governments, according to a report by the National Governors Association and the National Association of State Budget Officers.  Read more >>

Has a Zombie Apocalypse Arrived on US Streets?

Raw Story
The other day, a Miami man ate another man's face while the man was still alive.

Now...

A New Jersey man who repeatedly stabbed himself and threw pieces of his flesh and intestines at law enforcement officials remains hospitalized in critical condition on Tuesday. Police on Sunday responded to call from someone saying 43-year-old Wayne Carter was threatening to hurt himself with a 12-inch knife.

When police arrived at the residence, the man yelled at the officers and stabbed himself. As police entered, he threw pieces of his own body at them and threatened them with his knife.

When pepper-spray had no effect on Carter, police retreated and called the SWAT team, who subdued him with beanbag projectiles. “The scene was a bloody mess,” a police official told Cliffview Pilot. “The SWAT team members had to be decontaminated due to the amount of blood.”

Carter reportedly damaged a major stomach artery and had more than 50 stab wounds. Police are awaiting the results of a blood test to determine if Carter had ingested any psychoactive substances.

FBI to launch nationwide facial recognition service

Image via WikipediaThe FBI by mid-January will activate a nationwide facial recognition service in select states that will allow local police to identify unknown subjects in photos, bureau officials told Nextgov.

The federal government is embarking on a multiyear, $1 billion dollar overhaul of the FBI's existing fingerprint database to more quickly and accurately identify suspects, partly through applying other biometric markers, such as iris scans and voice recordings.

Often law enforcement authorities will "have a photo of a person and for whatever reason they just don't know who it is [but they know] this is clearly the missing link to our case," said Nick Megna, a unit chief at the FBI's criminal justice information services division. The new facial recognition service can help provide that missing link by retrieving a list of mug shots ranked in order of similarity to the features of the subject in the photo.

Today, an agent would have to already know the name of an individual to pull up the suspect's mug shot from among the 10 million shots stored in the bureau's existing Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System. Using the new Next-Generation Identification system that is under development, law enforcement analysts will be able to upload a photo of an unknown person; choose a desired number of results from two to 50 mug shots; and, within 15 minutes, receive identified mugs to inspect for potential matches. Users typically will request 20 candidates, Megna said. The service does not provide a direct match. More...

Banker Jumps Off Roof Committing Suicide

According to the police, Jessica Fashano, 27, an investment banking associate at Citi Global Markets, entered a West Side apartment house that she did not live in, took an elevator to the roof and jumped to her death.

"At 8:13 a.m., the police found her body in an internal courtyard, where she was pronounced dead. The police said they did not suspect foul play. Why Ms. Fashano chose the Riverside Boulevard building is among the many questions surrounding her death. She left no note, and although the police said she was undergoing treatment for depression, friends and associates said she was always in high spirits." More...

Greeks try to kill Police Minister; kill aid instead

ATHENS (Reuters) The Greek cabinet minister in charge of the police force escaped unhurt on Thursday after a bomb in a booby-trapped package exploded next to his office, killing one of his closest aides, officials said.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the blast, on the seventh floor of the ministry that caused serious damage to the office of Civil Protection Minister Mihalis Chrysohoidis.

"I lost a valuable and dear colleague," Chrysohoidis, visibly moved, told reporters outside the ministry. He had been in the building at the time of the explosion at 8.15 p.m.

The victim, George Vassilakis, adjutant to the minister, was father to two children.

"It was a wrapped package that exploded in the aide's hands after he apparently picked it up and tried to open it," police spokesman Thanassis Kokkalakis told Reuters. "We heard a big bang, there was a lot of smoke and damage."

There was no warning and no reports of other injuries.

Greece has been rocked by a series of bomb attacks claimed by leftist militants since its worst riots in decades in 2008. Earlier this year, Greece arrested six suspected members of the country's most militant group, Revolutionary Struggle.

When he took office in 2009, Chrysohoidis said that he would crack down on militants. In a previous spell in the job in 2002, he dismantled November 17, Greece's most lethal guerrilla group.

Greece is also facing a deep economic crisis and last month won a 110 billion euro ($147.6 billion) bailout package from the European Union and the IMF.

Three people died in a petrol bomb attack on a Greek bank during an anti-austerity demonstration in May. In March, a 15-year old boy was killed and his mother and sister injured after a bomb exploded outside a building in central Athens.

Extend & Pretend: A Matter Of National Security

Image via Wikipedia

Gordon T. Long via ZeroHedge
There is something seriously wrong in America. We all sense it, but few in the mainstream media are willing to touch it or can effectively articulate it within the public’s sound-bite oriented attention span.

It isn’t just about the remnants of the financial crisis; it isn’t the protracted jobs recession and slow recovery; it isn’t the trillions of dollars in deficit spending; it isn’t the degree of rampant financial malfeasance. It is something deeper which reaches into the soul of who we are as a people and society. It will soon be the central theme to your investment strategy and financial security.

On the surface it might appear we have lost our optimism about the future and our confidence that America is still the ‘beacon on the hill’ that countries around the world admire and look to for leadership. Though our children mouth the platitudes taught by older generations, they ring hollow in the hallways with video surveillance, motion sensors and metal detectors when recited by them. The high minded ideals seem misplaced in unemployment lines where they stand with freshly minted advanced degrees in hand, huge education debts and little hope other than the faint possibility of a non-paying internship position.

Our leaders have become propaganda machines promising change but delivering the lobbyists’ agenda which appears to make matters only worse. Every election, waves of our well intentioned fellow citizens go to Washington with high hopes of making a difference, but are quickly ground into submission by an unscrupulous culture of power, influence and compromise. The few who maintain their convictions are quickly neutralized and removed like an ugly infection by the party apparatus. So what is to be done?

First we need to recognize the real problem, not what the media spin machine purports the problems to be. We need to realize that we are in an era of trading personal freedom for what is economic freedom or touted as national security. Like slavery we are succumbing to a sacrifice of our liberty for the basic primeval needs of safety and survival. Few recognize the insidious cancer other than possible slave masters behind the curtain.

Many of you will no doubt think this harsh. Consider the personal freedoms we have surrendered in the last decade, for what we are sold with high pressure tactics, as increased personal security and labeled a matter of national security on our war on terror:

1. Personal surveillance has become ubiquitous due to the fear of terrorism as represented by: surveillance cameras, metal detectors, security guards in every public and even private gathering place.

2. Borders are tighter, money movement is tighter and government reporting requirements on movement has increased.

3. Regulations, fees and taxes have exploded at all levels of government while basic public services are reduced.

4.Personal Information under the Patriot Act has made available unlimited amounts of personal information to the government’s watchful eye. There is no longer any privacy from the government.

5. A more than one $T annual military budget (including an off-budget sheet war) is spent to enforce police activities in over 130 countries yet we can’t implement a ‘half baked’ response to an oil spill on our own shores or assist our own citizens in the wake of a devastating hurricane. These are complete government failures to actually deliver the national security we have entrusted to them.

WHAT IT MEANS TO YOUR FINANCIAL STRATEGY & PLANNING

It is almost indisputable that as future events unfold, the US government will become larger, more controlling and more interventionist. It will exert more power over ever increasing levels of our personal decision making. This will include our investment choices, which will be increasingly represented and framed as what is in the best interest of the state and national security. They will increasingly be policed by taxation, regulatory reporting and predatory restrictions on available options that were previously available.

In EXTEND & PRETEND: A Guide to the Road Ahead I stated:

“Hard assets such as physical gold and silver have traditionally been the ideal vehicle for an environment of high inflation coupled with a currency crisis. I fully expect governments will strip these assets from holders either directly or through predatory taxation, fees or other trading limitations. They will be classified somewhere in the four categories discussed above. Alternatively, if it is not done in this fashion it will be controlled through intervention similar to national currencies in the forex arena. I personally suspect it is already being controlled in some fashion based on the March 25th whistleblower testimony by Andrew Maguire. It is a matter of national security in a beggar-thy-neighbor environment since gold and silver are the only real money in a fiat based system. Protect yourself accordingly.”

More...

What's UP - Police Chiefs Across US Resign? 50 CEO's Resign?

fourwinds10.com
Does anyone find this weird? This report was dated on Feb.7th, 2010.

1. Gaithersburg, MD Gaithersburg Police Chief John King resigned with little explanation last week, leaving his colleagues and community members wondering what happened.

2. Guttenberg, IA Police Chief Resigns After Seven Months on the Job, no reason

3. Harrisburg, PA - Richard Pickles retires after serving a month as Harrisburg police chief

4. Culpeper, VA When Scott Barlow announced two weeks ago he would step down from his job as chief of police with the town of Culpeper, it caught a lot of people off guard, including us.

5. Carbondale, IL - Police Chief Resigns, no reason given

6. Austin, MN - Several Austin City Council members said they were "shocked" by Austin Police Chief Paul Philipp's resignation Tuesday morning.

7. Jonesboro, GA - The City of Jonesboro’s new police chief has resigned, five weeks after being named to the top job.

8. Manassas, VA - found this quote: "I hope the Chief enjoys his retirement. Between his service in the Secret Service, Fairfax and Manassas, he’s earned it."

9. West Covina, CA - Tolich, a 21-year veteran of the force, retired nine years before he was eligible for full retirement benefits, Finance Director Thomas Bachman said.

In an email Tolich sent to members of the department, he tells fellow officers that a personal matter involving him and his family led to the sudden departure.

These were either benign stories or little info given. (Bearing in mind that a seasoned cop could probably make a pretty believable alibi for leaving.)

10. Oroville, CA

11. Burlington City, PA

12POLICE CHIEFS RESIGNING!!

. Bellmead, TX

13. Bridgeport, WV

14. Gaston, ID

15. Meigs, GA

16. Independence, LA

17. Miami, FL

18. Britt, IA

19. Nickerson, KS

20. New Holland, PA

21. Navarre, OH

22. Glocester, RI

23. Lithonia, GA

24. Harrison, NY

25. Huntsville, AL

26. Moose Lake, MN

27. Boxborough, MA

28. Sutton, WV

29. Itta Bena, MS

30. St. Cloud, FL

31. Menomonie, WI

32. Fanwood, NJ

33. Morton's Gap, KY

34. New Haven, CT

35. Guttenberg, IA

36. South Amboy, NJ

37. Santa Cruz, CA

38. Bakersfield, CA

39. South Pasadena, CA

40. Tulsa, OK

41. Hastings, MN

42. Stamford, CT

43. Dallas, TX

44. Somerville, MA

45. Greensboro, NC

46. Avon, CO

47. Benton, IL

48. Nogales, AZ

49. West Tisbury, MA

50. Gainesville, GA

51. Anniston, AL

52. West Richland, WA

53. Watford City, ND

54. Ponce Inlet, FL

55. Clearwater, FL

56. Monmouth, ME

57. Brookfield, IL

58. Ludowici, GA

59. Orland, CA

60. Springfield, NJ

61. Holt, MO

62. Brookneal, VA

63. Chesterton, IN

64. Edina, MN

65. Birmingham, MI

66. Montebello, CA

67. Vonore, TN

68. Ventnor, NJ

69. New Hartford, NY

70. Kennedy, AL

Some major cities had Police Chief turnover in 2009 (early Infragard info?)

Seattle

Atlanta

Los Angeles

Miami

San Francisco

Dallas

Add this the rumor that 50 CEO's have recently resigned:

"Most notably are telecoms, banks and energy companies. People who would have insider knowledge if something huge were about to happen.

I stopped at 50 just to get it posted, but there are more, including lots of board members and other executives."

1. Sun Microsystems
2. Royal Bank of Scotland
3. Bank Leumi of Israel
4. Lenovo
5. Wellpoint (on March 1)
6. Ingersoll-Rand
7. Gasco
8. Syntel
9. Motion Picture Television Fund
10. GrainCorp
11. Connaught Plc
12. Netplay TV
13. AgResearch
14. Zain Telecom
15. Ethan Allen Institute
16. Fahrney-Keedy Home & Village
17. Nordzucker
18. France Telecom
19. TransWorld Entertainment
20. Parlux
21. Medical Developments International Ltd
22. PBR (on March 1)
23. Aeropostale
24. Cook Islands Tourism
25. Uranium International Corp
26. San Francisco AIDS Foundation
27. Borders Books
28. YTB International
29. Western Australia Business News
30. Bergen Group Rosenberg
31. Phumelela
32. Bartow Regional Medical Center
33. NV Energy (CFO)
34. Shanda Interactive
35. NB Power
36. Empire Aero
37. Argentina Central Bank
38. Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing (CFO)
39. Arbitron
40. Lihir Gold Ltd
41. Meredith Corp
42. Red Bull
43. Golden Harp
44. Endo Pharma
45. Nuplex
46. CLICO
47. Mirada (chairman)
48. Remedial Offshore
49. Abercrombie & Fitch Co
50. Commerce Resources (CFO)

Girls aged 12 and 14 hold up bank in Ohio

The U.S. unemployment rate among those 16 to 19 years is almost thirty percent.

Telegraph
The young girls walked into a branch of 1st National Bank in Cincinnati, Ohio and handed a note to the cashier demanding money. According to police the note implied the girls would harm employees if the money was not given to them. They did not appear to have any weapons.

Staff complied and the girls walked out with a bag full of money. They then evaded an extensive police search which included a helicopter and sniffer dogs. One of the girls was described as heavy set, around 5 feet 4 inches tall, and was wearing a hooded top and blue jeans.

The other was said to be second thin, around 5 feet tall and wearing a baseball cap. Local police released a grainy black-and-white surveillance photograph of one of the alleged bank robbers.

The robbery took place at 3.20pm on Tuesday and the girls were seen leaving on foot and heading for a nearby housing estate.

RAND Corporation Blueprint for US Gestapo Force

Image via Wikipedia

William Grigg
RAND Corporation Blueprint for Militarized “Stability Police Force”

The RAND Corporation, one of the most fecund research arms of the Military-Industrial-Homeland Security Complex, has released a study entitled A Stability Police Force for the United States: Justification and Creating U.S. Capabilities.

The SPFOR (to use the inevitable acronym) would be a “hybrid” military/law enforcement unit created within the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) for use “in a range of tasks such as crowd and riot control, special weapons and tactics (SWAT), and investigations of organized criminal groups” — both abroad, in UN-directed multilateral military operations, and at home, as dictated by the needs of the Regime.

Initially as small as 2–6,000 personnel, the SPFOR’s size “could be increased by augmenting it with additional federal, state, or local police from the United States” as necessary.

The RAND study, which was conducted for the U.S. Army’s Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute, recommended using the Marshals Service rather than the US Army’s Military Police as host for the SPFOR in order to avoid conflicts with the Posse Comitatus Act, which forbids (albeit in principle more than in practice) the domestic use of the military as a law enforcement body.

“The USMS hybrid option … provides an important nondeployed mission for the force: augmenting state and local agencies, many of which currently suffer from severe personnel shortages,” states the report without explaining how the SPFOR could at once “augment” those under-manned agencies while at the same time being “augmented” by them if necessary.

That little lapse in logic is one of several indications that the report’s authors weren’t so much addressing a “problem” as making a case for a preordained “solution” — in this case, creating the vanguard of a militarized internal security force.

Building the SPFOR within the Marshals Service “would place it where its members can develop the needed skills under the hybrid staffing option,” summarizes the document. “Furthermore, the USMS has the broadest law enforcement mandate of any U.S. law enforcement agency…. [This model] provides significant domestic policing and homeland security benefits by providing thousands of additional police officers across the United States.” (Emphasis added.)

Back in 1961, the U.S. Government produced a document entitled “Freedom From War” that envisioned the creation of a globe-spanning United Nations “Peace Force” that would work in collaboration with a militarized “internal security” force in each country. Since that time, critics of the UN have anticipated the day when foreign “peacekeepers” would be assigned to police American streets and, if necessary, confiscate privately owned firearms.

While the monstrosity headquartered on the East River is a proper target of our scorn and hostility, the new RAND study underscores the fact that if “peacekeepers” end up patrolling American streets, they probably won’t be foreigners in blue berets, but homegrown jackboots commanded by Washington.

Police prepare drill for pneumonic plague at Illinois school

The Northwest Herald in Illinois reports citizens infected with a fictitious pneumonic plague will line up outside Lincoln Prairie Elementary School on Saturday to help test the site as a medication dispensary in case of an emergency.

The Lake in the Hills Police Department is carrying out the test as part of a grant from the McHenry County Department of Health for its emergency health plan. In case of a biological terrorist attack or widespread disease outbreak, the site would be able get medicine to the community, Lake in the Hills Chief of Patrol Services David Brey said.

“This is just a functional test of the site,” he said.

The event will use volunteers pretending to have been stricken by the plague to help test the flow of the site, from initial triage through receiving proof of being medicated.

“We picked the plague on purpose so it would have nothing to do with the swine flu,” Brey said.

The test will start at 9 a.m. Saturday at Lincoln Prairie, 500 Harvest Gate, across from Lake in the Hills Village Hall.

Twitter Crackdown: NYC Activist Arrested for Using Social Networking Site during G-20 Protest in Pittsburgh

Democracy Now
Elliot Madison was arrested last month during the G-20 protests in Pittsburgh when police raided his hotel room. Police say Madison and a co-defendant used computers and a radio scanner to track police movements and then passed on that information to protesters using cell phones and the social networking site Twitter. Madison is being charged with hindering apprehension or prosecution, criminal use of a communication facility, and possession of instruments of crime. Exactly one week later, Madison’s New York home was raided by FBI agents, who conducted a sixteen-hour search. We speak to Elliot Madison and his attorney, Martin Stolar.

Guests:

Elliot Madison, New York-based social worker and member of the Tin Can Comms Collective. He was arrested and later had his home raided for using Twitter to spread information about police actions during the recent G-20 protests in Pittsburgh.

Martin Stolar, attorney for Elliot Madison

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: For our first segment, we turn to a case of a New York activist who’s believed to be among the first to face criminal charges for communicating electronically with protesters about police actions. Elliot Madison was arrested last month during the G-20 protests in Pittsburgh when police raided his hotel room. Police say Madison and a co-defendant used computers and a radio scanner to track police movements and then passed on that information to protesters using cell phones and the social networking site Twitter. Madison is being charged with hindering apprehension or prosecution, criminal use of a communication facility, and possession of instruments of crime.

Exactly one week later, Madison’s New York home was raided by FBI agents, who conducted a sixteen-hour search. The agents seized items including computers, clothing, books and the records of Madison’s clients in his job as a social worker. Madison has since won a temporary order barring agents from examining his seized property.

For more, Elliot Madison joins us here in the firehouse studio. We’re also joined by his attorney, Martin Stolar.

We welcome you both to Democracy Now!

ELLIOT MADISON: Thank you.

MARTIN STOLAR: Thank you, Sharif.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Elliot, let’s begin with you. Begin by describing exactly what you were doing in Pittsburgh during the G-20 and your subsequent arrest.

ELLIOT MADISON: Well, there were protests during the G-20, and a group of people came together called the Tin Can Comm—Communications—Collective. And they were putting up basically message boards. There was a message board for food. There was a message board for legal. There was a general message board. There was a message board just for announcements.

And how Twitter works is, traditionally people can text one—instead of just texting from me to you, I could text everyone that chose to follow me, OK? So, the only difference in this setup is that we allowed points to go to everybody in the group. So, if Martin wanted to text you and me, he could. If I wanted to text the two of you, I could. So it was a point of access issue. So it changed Twitter and made it more decentralized, so people could carry on a conversation knowing that people were spread out throughout the city. Sometimes it gets loud and noisy, and it was a way for people to communicate, not substantially different than the way the three of us are talking now.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: And what exactly—what kind of messages were people putting out on this site?

ELLIOT MADISON: All sorts of messages. We put on the—about different trainings. There was a Know Your Rights training. We talked about the—there were messages I received about the raid on the Just Seeds food bus. There was information about where meet-ups were for different marches, like the students’ march. To be honest, I didn’t see most of the messages, because I was arrested very early on Thursday.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: That’s the first day of the G-20.

ELLIOT MADISON: The first day. So, before the first day, there weren’t many messages, because there were just a few announcements about, you know, different meetings and things like that.

And the thing to remember is this was a public site. I mean, the AP articles with the lieutenant detective of operations says he was on our LISTSERV. CNN said they were on our LISTSERV. I mean, a whole variety of journalists, New York Times journalists, joined. Anybody could join. It was a public number. We don’t know who joined. It wasn’t important. And anybody could send information to the group, and it would be sent out to everybody.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: And so, you were sitting in your hotel room, and the police came in. Describe what happened.

ELLIOT MADISON: Where there was a—door was flung open. I assume they had a key.

Just to be clear, the hotel room was under our names. Our car was parked right out front. We weren’t doing anything clandestine, weren’t expecting the police to come in.

A number of agents from the state police came in and—you know, with guns drawn, and held us for about an hour in handcuffs, though we weren’t arrested at that time, and told us we were free to go. But we decided to stay and watch them and wait for the warrant. We weren’t presented a warrant right away. A warrant finally came, but it’s a sealed warrant, so we only got to see the face sheet of it. We don’t know why—we know what they were looking for, but we don’t know the—how they got the information, because it’s sealed. According to the face sheet, it’s eighteen pages long.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: And Martin Stolar, explain the charges. They include charged with hindering apprehension or prosecution, criminal use of a communication facility, and possession of instruments of crime. What does that mean?

MARTIN STOLAR: Essentially, what Elliot is charged with is using the computer or the cell phone to put up an announcement that said that the police had issued an order to disperse. Having done that and having informed people that the police had issued the order, then it is claimed that that announcement hindered prosecution somehow by, I guess, having people avoid being arrested. It would seem to me that that is something that provides some benefit to the police department, in terms of saving them the expenditure of resources in processing people. But they’ve decided to criminalize that communication, or at least in their complaint that’s what they say, that the communication that said, “Hey, there’s been a dispersal order; everybody be aware of it,” somehow turns into a crime of hindering prosecution. The communication facility then, the cell phone or the computer that was used to post that message, becomes an instrument of the crime, and the use of that mass communication facility becomes, they claim under Pennsylvania law, a third crime.

This is just unbelievable. It is the thinnest, silliest case that I’ve ever seen. It tends to criminalize support services for people who are involved in lawful protest activity. And it’s just shocking that somebody could be arrested for essentially walking next to somebody and saying, “Hey, don’t go down that street, because the police have issued an order to disperse. Stay away from there.” All of a sudden, essentially, that becomes the crime that Elliot and his co-defendant are charged with.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: And they may be the first to be charged criminally with sending information electronically to protesters about the police. What’s the significance of this in terms of First Amendment rights?

MARTIN STOLAR: It—

ELLIOT MADISON: Can I just clarify it?

MARTIN STOLAR: Sure.

ELLIOT MADISON: We’re not—we’re not the first. We’re the first in this country. During the Twitter revolution going on in Iran, in Moldova, in Guatemala, in the earlier newscast about Honduras, in all those cases, repressive governments have arrested folks for using Twitter. The only difference is, in all those cases the State Department, the US State Department, has condemned the arrest of these Twitter activists and had gone so far in the Iranian situation, the State Department, according to an article, asked Twitter to postpone its regular maintenance so as not to interfere with Iranian protesters to be able to send out their tweets. So the only difference is we’re the first arrested here. But this is a—over the past two years, repressive governments have been arresting people. The only difference is, the State Department has supported—I’m expecting the State Department will come out and support us also.

MARTIN STOLAR: Oh, you think so, do you?

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Well—

MARTIN STOLAR: I mean, it is shocking. This is really the first case, and my preliminary research has found that this is the only case where people involved in protest activity have been arrested for using or for passing out information. Essentially, this country has the First Amendment. The First Amendment protects speech, and it protects protest activity. And what Elliot and his co-defendant are accused of doing tends to support speech and protest activity itself. It is speech that goes out. Putting something up on Twitter is a form of speech. And we have some serious First Amendment problems in connection with the prosecution in Pennsylvania.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: And I want to say, we did contact Twitter and the FBI to invite them on the program. They both declined our request. Twitter didn’t respond. But to what extent did Twitter cooperate with the police?

MARTIN STOLAR: We don’t know.

ELLIOT MADISON: We don’t know.

MARTIN STOLAR: We don’t know. We don’t know if Twitter is cooperating with the police. We don’t know if Twitter has been asked to cooperate with the police. Twitter essentially is neutral here. The police could have logged onto Twitter and seen whatever was being posted, in the same way that individuals can log onto the police radio bands and emergency service responders, all of which is up on the internet. If Elliot is receiving from the internet notice that an order to disperse has been issued at a particular location and passes that public information on to other members of the public, that’s protected speech. It is inconceivable that that could be a crime. But that’s what he’s charged with.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: So, a week later after your arrest, the FBI raids your home in Queens. What happened?

ELLIOT MADISON: About 6:00 in the morning, the FBI, on a Thursday, broke into the door—we don’t know if there was a knock or not, because we were asleep—stormed up with guns—it was about twenty or so agents with Joint Terrorist Task Force; it was a combination of FBI and NYPD—and handcuffed me and my housemates, held us for a few hours, two or three hours, in handcuffs, wouldn’t let us talk, wouldn’t let us make phone calls, wouldn’t let us get dressed, because we were all asleep. And eventually, sometime after that point, they showed us a warrant. They wouldn’t let us read the warrant; they just showed it to us. Our hands were cuffed behind our back. And for sixteen hours, proceeded to take everything, from plush toys to kitchen magnets and lots of books.

I’m an author. I’ve written fiction. I’ve written lots of nonfiction. I’m an anarchist, so I’ve written lots of political works. So they not only grabbed all of my works, and they grabbed anything that they felt like grabbing from our pretty large library.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: And they apparently took photos, as well, posters—

ELLIOT MADISON: Yeah.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: —from the walls, one of Lenin and one of Curious George, apparently?

ELLIOT MADISON: Yes, yes, and they took Curious George stuffed animals. They took magnets from the refrigerator. They took a needlepoint of Lenin that my wife’s grandmother had made, a whole variety of bizarre things that they’ve taken. We don’t know everything they took, because the voucher we received is fairly vague. It will say something like “documents.” So, since the house was tossed, it’s hard to tell if the documents are just lost or if they’re, you know, seized at this point.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Martin Stolar?

MARTIN STOLAR: Well, I mean, the search was just extensive. And the problem with the search warrant, which actually asked for evidence that indicated that potentially there were violations of federal rioting laws, this is the same law that was used to prosecute the Chicago Eight following the Republican Convention in Chicago in 1968. Well, what would be evidence of violations of federal rioting laws is open to question. Anarchist literature? Fiction writings that Elliot has written? Pictures of Lenin? It’s completely vague.

And so, they rambled around and searched and pulled things. They’re not only from Elliot and his wife Elena’s property, but also there were other residents of the house who are living there who had their private property taken and swept up in this, including computers and discs of somebody who’s making a film, computers and discs of somebody who produced a weekly radio show, a computer that actually belonged to the United States government. One of the residents of the house was a contract employee for one of the federal agencies, and that computer was also taken.

So, in response to that, we immediately went to federal court to say, “Hey, wait a minute. You can’t take all this stuff. This is all sorts of private property that has nothing to do with the violation of federal rioting laws, and we want it back.” And we got a federal judge to say, “Maybe you have a point there. FBI, don’t examine the boxes that you seized. Hold on, until I can examine this and issue a further order of the court.” And so, that’s what she did. She stopped them from going through the boxes, stopped them from going through and indexing, cataloging and analyzing what had been seized at the house. And that’s on hold, pending further briefing in court and pending further order of the court, which will happen a week from Friday.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: And Elliot, you spoke about how—the so-called Twitter revolution in Iran and how that was portrayed and condemned by the State Department in this country. I just want to go back to those days during the so-called green revolution in Iran and how the media in this country, the corporate media, the news networks, covered the use of Twitter in the protest. Let’s go to a clip of them.

FOX 11 ANCHOR: Iranians are turning to social media websites like Twitter and Facebook to tell their stories.


UNIDENTIFIED: Twitter.


MARTIN SAVIDGE: Twitter.


UNIDENTIFIED: Twitter.


HOWARD KURTZ: Has Twitter become the CNN of the masses?


KIRAN CHETRY: Here’s what some people have been tweeting about.


SCOTT HURLEY: Just type in “#iranelection.”


The US State Department actually asked the website to put off scheduled computer maintenance.


IAN KELLY: This is about the Iranian people. This is about the—getting their voices a chance to be heard.


ISHA SESAY: More and more tweets were appearing.


UNIDENTIFIED: Twitter.


KEITH OLBERMANN: A Twitter revolution.


BRIAN WILLIAMS: Is this the first true internet uprising?


RACHEL MADDOW: This revolution might not be televised, but it is definitely being tweeted.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Elliot Madison, some of the coverage back in summer of the Iranian uprising following the elections. Everyone’s supporting Twitter, the State Department actually asking Twitter not to—not to do an update. And now you’re being arrested for using Twitter. We’re not seeing the same kind of coverage. Your thoughts?

ELLIOT MADISON: Yeah, I think it’s a clear case where, you know, the government authorities act like government authorities in Moldova and China and Iran, where they like it when people have access to information, be it radio stations, newspapers, free press, in other countries, but they’re uncomfortable with it in their own country. And in this case, they decided to try to criminalize it.

And I think what’s very interesting in all these stories about me is that the Tin Can Communications Collective was one Twitter feed. I have found that there were at least twenty-four Twitter feeds going on, everywhere from the police to the G-20 to Ron Paul supporters. Everybody had their own Twitter feeds going on. They decided to criminalize me, I think, because of the fact that we were in solidarity with the protesters.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Well, Elliot Madison and Martin Stolar, I want to thank you very much for joining us. We’ll continue to follow this story.

Mysterious Private Security Firm Saga Continues

Channel 8 in Billings, Montana, reports:
On Sunday morning, there were some visible changes to California-based security company American Police Force's website. What previously read "American Police Force" now uses the company's formal name "American Private Police Force."

Another notable change is the company's crest. The previous crest was a near copy of the Serbian Coat of Arms. On Friday, KULR-8 news first reported the Serbian government was looking into possible legal action against APF for using the crest.

The group's leader, Capt. Michael Hilton said the crest was a family emblem and he used it to honor his grandfather. APF Spokeswoman Becky Shay said she is not aware of any lawsuit from the consulate and Hilton made the change as, "the quickest thing he could to diffuse tension" with the old logo. She would not elaborate on exactly what those tensions were.

Along with changes to the company's image come changes to the potential contract with Hardin's economic development group Two Rivers Authority. Spokesman Al Peterson said board members will meet Monday afternoon to discuss the contract, which was recently looked over by an independent tax expert. Peterson said some of the language has been changed to ensure the bond, held by U.S. Bank, remains tax exempt.

If TRA board members approve the contract, it will still need to be approved by APF and U.S. Bank. Peterson added that the bond is a revenue bond; meaning residents of Hardin will never be responsible for paying it back. It can only be paid for by income from the Hardin Jail itself.

Monday's meeting will be open to the public, but it is up to the group's president to determine if there will be a public comment period. The meeting will start at 3:00 p.m. It is held at Hardin's City Hall. Shay said if TRA approves the contract, APF will move quickly to sign off as well.

On September 30, Justin Elliott with TPMMuckraker reported:

Mysterious Private Security Firm Gets Control Of Empty Jail In Small Montana Town

A shadowy private security company that has no known clients but claims to have helped foreign governments combat terrorism and will protect anything from cruise ships to Pakistani convoys has taken over a jail in a small Montana town, with plans to build a law enforcement training facility on the property.

The state legislature is looking into the matter and residents of Hardin, MT, were alarmed last week when executives from the firm, American Police Force, showed up in the town, which does not have its own police department, with Mercedes SUVs bearing "City Of Hardin Police Department" decals.

And the town has had to tamp down reports on conspiracy Web sites that APF plans to impose experimental H1N1 vaccines on residents under threat of quarantine in the jail.

Under a lease signed with Hardin, APF, based in Santa Ana, California, and incorporated just six months ago, is now in control of a 400-bed detention facility the town built a few years ago but never used, a town official confirmed to TPMmuckraker today. The town reportedly stands to make over $2 million per year.

Just what American Police Force plans to do with the detention facility, which comes with 50 acres of land in the small south-central Montana town, is unclear. Also not clear is who, if anyone, APF plans to put in the jail. (Watch a video tour of the jail here.)

Hardin, which is in default on the bonds it used to build the jail, recently undertook an unsuccessful campaign to make the jail a new home for Gitmo detainees. When that failed, the town turned to APF

The 10-year contract that is now awaiting final approval of lawyers gives APF the option of building a training facility, said Al Peterson, spokesman for the Hardin economic development authority. APF has said it plans to invest $30 million in the site, including $17M in the training facility, where law enforcement will get sniper training and learn "DNA analysis" skills.

And where is American Police Force getting the money for this venture? Company spokeswoman Becky Shay -- until about a week ago the Billings Gazette reporter covering APF -- says they are no plans to answer that question. She did not respond to a request for comment.

The matter has attracted the attention of the Montana state legislature, which is seeking more information about the arrangement between Hardin and APF. The committee that deals with legal matters will send a letter to Hardin officials to get more details on the deal, Representative Bob Ebinger (D) tells TPMmuckraker.

"Because of the apparent secretiveness of this, it gives the far right and far left to come up with all kinds of ideas. That's why I'd like to see some clarification," Ebinger says.

Peterson, the Hardin official, says the controversy sparked last week when APF executives appeared in black SUVs marked "City Of Hardin Police Department" was a misunderstanding of an act of goodwill by the company. The decals were taken off within the day, he says.

Peterson hopes lawyers will approve the contract by next week, and at that point, a press conference is planned and the contract will be made available. Asked if he knew about the background of APF and what they do, Peterson replied: "No comment."

Visitors to APF's Blackwater-esque Web site listen to Ravel's Boléro and peruse a menu of services that include: harbor patrol threat interdiction, interdicting terror activity, interdicting weapons of mass destruction, international airline security, cheating spouse investigations, polygraph testing, kidnapping response, weapons sales including "Nuclear/Biological/Chemical (WMD)," and, finally, private investigative services that draw on "vast global network of highly ranked officers and government officials."

APF's double-headed eagle coat of arms appears to be the same as Serbia's Prince Aleksandar Karageorgevich, Raw Story points out. And the AP reported that a lawyer for APF describes the firm as "a fledgling spin-off of a major security firm founded in 1984."

Late Update: Yet another strange development: This page on APF's Web site brags about "our extensive tactical firearms training facility, the U.S. Training Center." But the U.S. Training Center is part of Xe, nee Blackwater. And Xe spokeswoman Stacy DeLuke told us there is no affiliation between Xe and APF.

In a Depression Life is Cheap - Hitman for $200

Woman hires hitman for $200
CBS12: Authorities arrest a 21-year-old South Florida woman accused of having her boyfriend killed for just $200. The death occurred six months ago, but police in Davie just arrested Sibia Martinez this week. They also arrested two others, including the hitman and the man who helped broker the deal. The hitman was supposed to get $100 before the hit, then $100 after the death. It's not clear if he ever got the second batch of money.

Blackwater claims they're authorized to use lethal force in U.S.

The Examiner's Jim Kouri reports Kentucky’s Lexington Police Department contracted Blackwater Security International to provide what’s described as homeland security training.

Lexington is on the nation’s list of so-called Sanctuary Cities in which police officers are prohibited from working with ICE or Border Patrol agents in the United States.

Kouri claims Lexington isn’t the only city using hired guns to help local police officers. In New Orleans, heavily armed operatives from the Blackwater private security firm are openly patrolling the streets. Some of the mercenaries were reportedly “deputized” by the Louisiana governor and were issued gold Louisiana State law enforcement badges to wear on their chests and Blackwater photo identification cards to be worn on their arms, says Kouri.

Kouri reports that while they are working in Louisiana, Blackwater officials say they are on contract with the Department of Homeland Security and have been given the authority to use lethal force if necessary. Some of the mercenaries assigned to patrol the streets of New Orleans recently returned from Iraq, where they provided personal security details for the former head of the US occupation, L. Paul Bremer, and the former US ambassador to Iraq, John Negroponte.