Gizmodo reports that the FBI has responded to an ACLU FOIA request by releasing 18 hours of surveillance video from the protests in Baltimore that followed the death of Freddie Gray in 2015. From the article:
According to the ACLU, the videos are all shot from traditional piloted aircraft. But as the ACLU points out drones can be seen in many of the videos. It's unclear if these drones were piloted by police, protesters, curious onlookers, or all of the above.
The videos, which all date from April 29, 2015 to May 3, 2015, switch from infrared (IR) to traditional camera mode and zoom in at various times -- though even at the maximum zoom it doesn't appear that any faces are clearly discernible. All 18 hours of raw video are available at the FBI's website. [The article contains the link.]
[...] After the protests occurred it was revealed in October 2015 that FBI planes using night vision and registered under fake businesses had been operating around the protest locations. This is the first time that footage from those planes has been released. As the ACLU notes, it's not clear what the FBI's records retention policy for videos like these might be and how they could be used for future investigations.
In response to an ACLU Freedom of Information Act request, the FBI has released more than 18 hours of video from surveillance cameras installed on FBI aircraft that flew over Baltimore in the days after the death of Freddie Gray in police custody in 2015. The videos, which were released to the ACLU before being posted online by the FBI this week, offer a rare and comprehensive view of the workings of a government surveillance operation. While the release of the footage addresses some questions, it leaves others unanswered.
https://www.aclu.org/blog/speak-freely/fbi-releases-secret-spy-plane-footage-freddie-gray-protests
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Sunday August 07 2016, @11:50AM
Dammit, it's supposed to be black helicopters! All the conspiracy nuts have told me for years it was supposed to be black helicopters!
That always gave me a good laugh, because I figured that even the government wasn't stupid enough to use something so obvious.
Somehow though, I expected the quality of the footage to be somewhat better. So here's my conspiracy theory. The 'film' has been digitally degraded and in the original footage, you could count nose hairs!
I hope that catches on, I always wanted to start my own conspiracy theory....
1984 was supposed to be a warning.....not an instruction manual.*
*Something I saw posted many years ago. Not mine unfortunately.
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Sunday August 07 2016, @01:43PM
They may have trans-coded it for "internet consumption", much like a jpg can be converted into a gif to save space (bad example, I know).
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 07 2016, @03:20PM
That always gave me a good laugh, because I figured that even the government wasn't stupid enough to use something so obvious.
In the woods near Fort Bragg are dozens of small (400-500 people per) communities of heavily armed "sovereign citizens" who live a lawless lifestyle independently from the outside world. (Side note: they ironically get money from the USG because they provide militias who serve as OPFOR during Green Beret qualification course Robin Sage). This relationship has existed since at least Vietnam, and many of the leaders of these communities are Vietnam vets with combat experience themselves (younger generations get their combat experience through the Minuteman Project).
In the summer of 1997, a blacked-out helicopter attempted a landing in the front yard of one of these sovereign citizens. The sovereign citizen and his children opened fire on the helicopter with 50 cal ammunition. The helo pilot (?), realizing his error, immediately turned around and limped back to base where the helo crashed, killing all on board. There was no repercussion on the community, although for that summer we were all living on the edge thinking that the government was going to roll in with their tanks like Ruby Ridge or Waco. Nothing ever happened and it ended up being one of the most peaceful periods of my childhood with no Federal standoffs again until 2002 or so. (I was one of three kids in our community whose parents let them go to government school).
I grew up thinking this was how everybody lived.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by kurenai.tsubasa on Sunday August 07 2016, @06:42PM
Did some googling. That was a trip down memory lane and a good laugh.
I was one of three kids in our community whose parents let them go to government school
Yet another classic example of a sovereign citizen only objecting to shit when it's convenient. Did your parents pay property taxes? No? Just say the magick words! “I am an original citizen not a US citizen! I am an original citizen not a US citizen! I am an original citizen not a US citizen!” *poof* Laws I don't like no longer apply to me!
I did find a list of prosecutions of sovereign citizens [adl.org]. Here's a fun one:
North Platte, Nebraska, September 2007: Dentist and sovereign citizen Thomas Miller pleaded guilty in federal court to fraud and tax related charges related to a complicated investment scheme involving “certificates of deposit” that took in more than $2.4 million. Ironically, Miller himself was being defrauded by other con artists at the same time. During subsequent legal proceedings, Miller claimed that he was not subject to federal law because he was a member of the Little Shell Pembina Band of North America (a fictitious tribe created by sovereign citizens) and threatened to convene a grand jury to indict treasonous court officials. A psychiatrist believed Miller’s sovereign citizen arguments were indicators of a “delusional disorder” and he was ruled incompetent and the charges against him were dismissed prior to sentencing.
Also this guy must have gone on to join the IOC:
Dane County, Wisconsin, February 2008: Sovereign citizen Bryan D. Hoel was sentenced to a year in jail after being convicted for criminal slander. Hoel had filed a $600,000 bogus lien against a state revenue department investigator who was investigating a state tax case against Hoel. Hoel claimed that his name was trademarked and that the investigator “violated” the trademark by using his name without his permission. Wisconsin has the oldest bogus lien law in the country, as public officials had been repeatedly victimized in the past by members of the Posse Comitatus.
Plenty of other nutters at that link.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 07 2016, @07:54PM
My parents were not sovereign citizens. In fact, my dad worked for a local community college. We just happened to live in a sovereign community that grew up around us. Property came cheap ($1k/acre) and there was a huge lake in the middle. Easy peazy for people to move in. My parents paid taxes, were law-abiding, and nobody objected to our presence in the community. Live and let live. Our family is Montagnard and nobody cared because we minded our business and worked hard (and many of them had served with our people during the Vietnam/Lao/Cambodian wars). I had many friends in the community, none of the parents were racist. There was one way in and one way out of the community, a dirt road that was never maintained. We lived the side farthest from any paved road and it took maybe 30 minutes to get home once we left pavement. Most people had generators and solar panels, and we were better off than the rest of the area when Hurricanes Fran and Floyd came through.
Sheriffs refused to patrol our neighborhood though and the State/county left matters to the community to decide. Of course no school busing. There were many shootouts, like the television show Justified.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 07 2016, @09:44PM
I'm between emigrating and disappearing up into a community/area like that. Is it still possible to buy property near there? How (un)friendly are the locals to newcomers moving in to keep to themselves? Not interesting in causing trouble, but also not looking to waste 30k per permit improving my own land.
Any information or links you might have would be appreciated.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 07 2016, @11:21PM
I don't know anything at all about county inspectors. I didn't even know that was a thing until I graduated college and bought my first house in a metro area. I saw all sorts of shit people did to their houses when I was growing up that probably aren't kosher. Areas like Moore County, Hoke County, and Cumberland county all have different regs, so it depends. They were all trying to clean up their image and then the recession hit.
Property is still pretty cheap. Land value in the community where I grew up is still very low, about $5k/acre in some places. Mostly because of the reputation and it being very hard to access.
My community never had a problem with newcomers. Just don't be an asshole. Sorry, I do not know where you can get more information, most people that have internet are either on dial-up or satellite. Actually I take that back; I know they set up some sort of mesh wireless network the last time I visited (my parents still live there). Some guy put up a tower in his yard and pulls internet from a friend a few miles away, and splits it up among the locals. I thought it was pretty cool. Maybe that answers your question about inspectors?
A few months ago, there was a pretty big story about a Trump supporter who did an interview and had a Celtic Cross tattoo on her hand, and themes of racism, etc. Anyway, she is from the Tilley family, and they moved out of our community a few years back to start their own business in construction or something. Nice people.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Monday August 08 2016, @06:15AM
It's actually satellites. Who cares if the amateurish police footage can't resolve well enough to ID faces, the stuff we're using will ID you from your iris scans. And don't think I didn't see where you had your hand, citizen 0177545!
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Sunday August 07 2016, @04:52PM
So why is the ACLU all fired up and filing FOIA requests? What is supposed to be the issue here? When a city is on the edge of widespread civil disorder, isn't law enforcement supposed to be taking measures to prepare? What is the misdeed being investigated?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday August 07 2016, @09:53PM
In case you're serious: remember that riot is the language of the oppressed. Humanity, like water, can't be compressed very much before things explode or move large objects (see: hydraulics). Sometimes, people bring riots on themselves. I can only hope that, in a fit of poetic irony, your ticket to Hell is punched at a protest.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Monday August 08 2016, @05:05AM
Yea, and when they riot and start burning and looting I really want the police to just shoot em. When a protest turns into a chimpout I really don't give a fuck how many of em die. Bring back the good old days when we would just shoot looters on sight.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday August 08 2016, @04:11PM
Wow...see, J-Mo, as harsh and insulting as I am toward you, nothing I could ever possibly say or do could damn you more thoroughly than your own hand.
Let's count your sins: Hard, unthinking authoritarianism. Not one but TWO badly-concealed racist dogwhistles ("chimp-out" and "looters"). The "good ol' days" fallacy of ahistorical ignorance. Complete disregard for context, i.e., what caused the riots in the first place. And the list goes on, and on, and on...
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Monday August 08 2016, @05:22PM
Have you seen the video of any of the recent protests/riots? If calling those antics a chimpout is racist then reality is racist. And when a 'protest' involves cleaning out liquor stores, cell phone stores and the obligatory shots of 'protesters' carrying off TV sets, then the word 'looter' is more appropriate than 'protester.' Again your objection seems to be with reality. You seem capable of doublethinking it away. I see the world as it is, not as I want it to be, as some political philosophy says it 'should be', etc. A is always A in my world.
Complete disregard for context, i.e., what caused the riots in the first place.
That is correct. I. DO. NOT. CARE.
Protest all you want, but when it turns to rioting and looting you lose the right to claim any moral high ground, you are a criminal and need to be stopped by any means required.
There is a place for violent revolution but it is an all or nothing thing. The American Founders, for example, did it right. Once you declare revolution on the existing order you have to be willing to go all in and accept the result. What do you think they meant when they pledged 'their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor?' It means if you resort to violence and lose you hang and go into the history books as traitors. These idiots want to have it both ways, to be able use limited violence and not suffer any consequence, and that just ain't happening. BLM ain't going to have a successful revolution so the sooner they hang as traitors the better for everybody. Or they figure that out and knock off the riots. Either solution works equally well for me.
Oh, and btw, the Founders didn't rob, loot and pillage civilians.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday August 08 2016, @06:04PM
Oh, don't get me wrong, I didn't say I supported their actions; just pointing out that when you set the conditions for riots etc don't be surprised when you get them. And quit propagating the memes that cause them; in a small way, these are partly on your head.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 07 2016, @11:59PM
They were fired up about what the FBI might be doing using fake companies to schedule a bunch of flights over the protests.
And also: "there should be protections against mass surveillance of people engaged in First Amendment-protected protests and gatherings. At a time when the Movement for Black Lives is urgently mobilizing across the country, community members and activists shouldn’t have to worry that the government eyes in the sky will be capturing images of everything they do during a protest."
The video feeds sometime follow individual people and cars around. They easily get people in fenced off backyards, places most people expect to be private. Better and/or lower sensors can see through walls, do facial IDs, and read car plates. Mass surveillance like that is supposed to be illegal, but it's performed anyway.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 08 2016, @05:25PM
Mass surveillance like that is supposed to be illegal, but it's performed anyway.
Citation needed for the first half.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by linkdude64 on Monday August 08 2016, @02:43AM
Knowing your enemy is important - that includes knowing his tools and the way he uses them.
Police may not be your enemy today, but they may be tomorrow, as they enforce the laws that your Trusted Politicians pass for your own Safety.
(Score: 2, Disagree) by jmorris on Monday August 08 2016, @05:03AM
The police isn't my enemy. Politicians, particularly Progressive ones, are.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday August 08 2016, @06:09PM
And they will be right up until the police do unto you. Then you'll have a change of what-passes-for-a-heart reeeeeeeeal quick. I guaran-goddamn-tee it. Unless, of course, what your "friends" do to you ends up punching your ticket to Hell.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Monday August 08 2016, @06:40PM
Getting into a fight with the police is a pointless exercise of K vs K violence. My enemy is the r-selected 'rabbits' in power. On the other hand, the rabbits love the idea of getting cops killed, especially in a fight with other enemies. That is a no-lose scenario for them. They don't even mind too much if some of their own low level troops get killed off in a fight with cops because, again, it is pretty much all upside for those in power.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday August 08 2016, @07:08PM
....aaaaaaaaand there goes the point, sailing over your head at a leisurely Mach 1.6 as usual. I am beginning to think there is something actually physically wrong with your cerebral wiring; you seem not to be capable of understanding why something is a problem unless and until it happens to you. Also, this is a gross mis-application of the concept of K/r selection dynamic, on a level with the term "social Darwinism."
I really wish being wrong were painful. Sure, I might get a headache now and then but you'd be rolling on the ground in agony as your blood boiled in your skin...
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Tuesday August 09 2016, @12:29AM
You clearly fail to see that already the police are enforcing unconstitutional laws that have been passed by those progressive politicians.
The enemy of your enemy may not be your friend, but the obedient servant of your enemy is certainly your enemy.