All posts tagged: policing

Texas GOP and UT-Austin leaders shift from championing free speech to policing protester intentions

Texas GOP and UT-Austin leaders shift from championing free speech to policing protester intentions

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news. Four years ago, as Texas Republicans worried that conservative voices were being silenced at universities, Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill that enshrined new free speech protections on campuses. “Some colleges are banning free speech on college campuses. Well, no more because I’m about to sign a law that protects free speech on college campuses in Texas,” Abbott said in 2019. And six months ago, during a celebration of Free Speech Week, University of Texas at Austin administrators touted the school’s expansive protections for free speech on campus — including speech that was anti-war or considered hate speech. [Dozens more arrested at UT-Austin as police use pepper spray, flash bangs to break up protests] “Hate speech is not a category of speech the government can restrict,” Amanda Cochran-McCall, the university’s vice president for legal affairs, said at a school-affiliated Free Speech Week in October. “Imagine if the government at the whim of …

MEP Krah accessed ‘sensitive’ documents, EU Parliament trade committee chair says – POLITICO

MEP Krah accessed ‘sensitive’ documents, EU Parliament trade committee chair says – POLITICO

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] Lange denied that Krah’s office had retrieved documents with the classification level “restricted” via the trade committee. The “limited/sensitive” classification refers to sensitive content that is not necessarily subject to confidentiality. “Maximilian Krah has never received any EU Restricted documents” in the trade committee, Lange said. But Lange said the full extent of the scandal is still unclear. “It is really disappointing that we have no clear facts and names from the attorney or from the secret services,” Lange said. “This creates a situation of mistrust and uncertainty.” German public prosecutors in the city of Dresden earlier this week initiated preliminary investigations into Krah over the corruption allegations involving Russia and China. Before that, German police on Monday arrested one of Krah’s parliamentary aides, identified as Jian G., over claims he spied for China. The Federal Prosecutor General accuses Jian G. of having passed on internal European Parliament information to China. This activity most recently included information on a motion for a resolution directed against China’s persecution of minorities such as the Uyghurs and Tibetans, according …

Jewish campaign group cancels walk over safety fears as Met Police chief defends policing of pro-Palestinian march | UK News

Jewish campaign group cancels walk over safety fears as Met Police chief defends policing of pro-Palestinian march | UK News

Published by Sam

[ad_1] A Jewish campaign group has cancelled today’s Walk Together demonstration amid safety concerns, as the Met Police says the risk of disorder from a pro-Palestinian march is not high enough to seek a ban. Thousands had been expected to attend the event in central London as part of the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) event, which would have coincided with today’s pro-Palestinian march. The CAA said it cancelled the event, where people would have walked “where they please”, after receiving “numerous threats” and identifying “hostile actors (who) seem to have intended to come to any meeting locations that we announced”. It added: “The risk to the safety of those who wished to walk openly as Jews in London… as part of this initiative has therefore become too great. “We are no less angry about these marches than our Jewish community and its allies. We want to walk.” The CAA said it had suggested “concrete measures” to government aimed at changing how the pro-Palestinian protests are policed. Image: Thousands turn up every week to pro-Palestine protests …

ShotSpotter Keeps Listening for Gunfire After Contracts Expire

ShotSpotter Keeps Listening for Gunfire After Contracts Expire

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[ad_1] “At this time, there is no contract and there is no plan to move forward with the company,” a spokesperson for the department wrote in an email. San Diego and ShotSpotter entered into an agreement that allows the company to leave its sensors on city property. “However, as of September 2021, the equipment is deactivated, cannot collect any data, and is inoperable.” But emails the Weekly and WIRED obtained via a California Public Records Act request show that ShotSpotter stayed in touch with SDPD for more than 15 months after the city’s contract expired in September 2021. In those emails, ShotSpotter support staff routinely address SDPD as a “ShotSpotter Customer.” These weren’t just mass marketing emails that all customers past and present are frequently subjected to. The emails we obtained show that in October 2021, after the contract had lapsed, ShotSpotter also provided an SDPD officer with an “investigative lead summary” about a shooting in San Diego, including the precise location and the number of rounds detected, upon SDPD’s request. ShotSpotter also sent SDPD …

Met Police chief to meet home secretary and policing minister after calls for him to quit over antisemitism row | UK News

Met Police chief to meet home secretary and policing minister after calls for him to quit over antisemitism row | UK News

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] Met Police chief Sir Mark Rowley will meet the home secretary and policing minister this week to discuss antisemitism, Sky News understands. It comes after an antisemitism campaigner was threatened with arrest yards away from a pro-Palestine protest where officers described him as “openly Jewish” and said his presence was “antagonising demonstrators”. The force apologised but then had to apologise for their apology after suggesting opponents of pro-Palestinian marches “must know that their presence is provocative”. Sir Mark will also meet London mayor Sadiq Khan to discuss “community relations” and he is expected to speak to organisations including the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the London Jewish Forum and the Community Safety Trust. Gideon Falter, the campaigner who was threatened with arrest, said Jewish Londoners could not have confidence in the police under Sir Mark’s leadership, accusing the commissioner of “victim blaming”. In video from the incident, an officer appeared to prevent Mr Falter from crossing the road at the London protest, telling him: “You are quite openly Jewish, this is a pro-Palestinian …

Once again a Met Police commissioner is stuck in the middle of policing and politics. So what happens now? | Politics News

Once again a Met Police commissioner is stuck in the middle of policing and politics. So what happens now? | Politics News

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] In the Venn diagram of policing and politics, it’s often the Met Police commissioner who gets trapped in the middle. And so once again, Sir Mark Rowley is being pushed and pulled between the public order decisions made by his officers on the ground and the extensive public and political examination that follows. In the case of the high-profile interaction between Gideon Falter of the Campaign Against Antisemitism and an officer policing the pro-Palestinian march in London last Saturday, the best vantage point we have is the footage filmed by a Sky News camera crew at the demonstration. Politics latest: PM ‘appalled’ at Met Police ‘openly Jewish’ exchange Image: Met Police chief Sir Mark Rowley is facing calls to resign. Pic: PA The footage shows a lengthy and bad-tempered discussion, with the officer accusing Mr Falter of purposefully leaving the pavement and walking on the road against the flow of protesters. “You are looking to try and antagonise… I can already see what your mindset is,” the officer says at one point. Mr Falter …

Lego tells California police: stop putting our heads on your mugshots | US policing

Lego tells California police: stop putting our heads on your mugshots | US policing

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[ad_1] A southern California police department has been handcuffed by Lego after the toy company asked the agency to stop adding Lego heads to cover the faces of suspects in images it shares on social media. The Murrieta police department has been using Lego heads and emojis to cover people’s faces in posts on social sites since at least early 2023. But the altered photos went viral last week after the department posted a statement about its policy, prompting several news articles and, later, the request from Lego. “Why the covered faces?” the department wrote in an 18 March Instagram post that featured five people in a lineup, their faces covered by Lego heads with varying expressions. The post went on to reference a California law that took effect on 1 January, limiting departments in sharing mugshots on social media. “The Murrieta police department prides itself in its transparency with the community, but also honors everyone’s rights and protections as afforded by law; even suspects,” the department wrote. Across the US, law enforcement agencies have …

Can anyone control AI? – POLITICO

Can anyone control AI? – POLITICO

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[ad_1] Clegg, a former British deputy prime minister, argued that policing AI was akin to building a plane already in flight — inherently risky and difficult work. Harris trumpeted Washington’s efforts to address the dangers of AI through voluntary business agreements as the world’s gold standard. Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, who was also in attendance, urged others to follow Brussels’ new, legally binding rulebook to crack down on the tech.  The debate represented a snapshot of a bigger truth. For the past year, a political fight has been raging around the world, mostly in the shadows, over how — and whether — to control AI. This new digital Great Game is a long way from over. Whoever wins will cement their dominance over Western rules for an era-defining technology. Once these rules are set, they will be almost impossible to rewrite.  For those watching the conversation firsthand, the haggling in the British rain was akin to 19th-century European powers carving up the world. “It felt like an alternate reality,” said Amba …

Checkpoint Dreams | Caroline Tracey

Checkpoint Dreams | Caroline Tracey

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[ad_1] Judging from the architectural plans that the Border Patrol presented to Congress in 2009, the I-19 Border Patrol Checkpoint was supposed to be enormous. It was to be built in Tubac, Arizona, some twenty miles north of the conjoined border cities of so-called Ambos Nogales (“Both Nogales”). As freeway traffic approached, personal vehicles would be diverted into seven lanes with inspection booths. Later the engineers deemed the design insufficient: twenty-two lanes were needed. Passenger buses and commercial trucks would be directed to another inspection area, next to the parking lot built for the personal vehicles of the thirty-nine Border Patrol agents who would staff the checkpoint twenty-four hours a day. Elsewhere there would be kennels for drug-sniffing K-9s, a vehicle elevator for advanced searches, towers equipped with radar and other communication systems, a warehouse for seized contraband, a computer lab with access to databases of terrorists and organized crime organizations, and a detention center with space to house up to three hundred “illegal aliens.” All of this was necessary, the Border Patrol claimed, because …