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posted by chromas on Monday July 02 2018, @08:48PM   Printer-friendly
from the css dept.

Judge slams Tacoma for not releasing stingray records

A judge in Washington state has excoriated the Tacoma Police Department for withholding public records pertaining to its use of cell-site simulators, also known as stingrays. Back in 2016, the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington state sued the TPD on behalf of four community leaders, arguing that the department has not adequately responded to their public records requests concerning the use of stingrays, which included asking for a blank form authorizing its use.

"The [Public Records Act] establishes a positive duty to disclose public records unless they fall within specific exemptions," Judge G. Helen Whitener wrote in her Monday opinion. "This mandates that the City, upon receiving a request for documents, must first do an adequate search and then must produce the documents requested if there is not an exemption. The PRA does not require the City to analyze the reasons why the document is requested or to determine the relevance of the documents requested even if they are blank forms. The blank form taken in context of the other forms may have meaning to the requestor, and it is not for the City to analyze its relevance. To adopt the City's interpretation of the PRA would defeat the broad mandate of the PRA to allow access to public records not covered by and exemption."


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  • (Score: 2) by bobthecimmerian on Tuesday July 03 2018, @01:07PM (4 children)

    by bobthecimmerian (6834) on Tuesday July 03 2018, @01:07PM (#701873)

    And if you get appendicitis? An abscessed tooth? Lupus? Diabetes? (Many of the people that develop adult-onset diabetes get it because of bad eating habits or a sedentary lifestyle or both, but some people just have unlucky genetics and will develop the disease no matter what they do.) Some kind of infection? Then what?

    My parents lived almost their whole life in a rural part of the US. But as they got into their 60s and developed age-related ailments they had to move closer to major cities for the first time in their lives in order to get decent care. My wife's parents moved to a rural area after they retired, and they're in their late 70s and doing fine. So it can work. But they've simply been lucky, there are a host of medical problems they could develop that would require hours of travel for every medical appointment.

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by edIII on Tuesday July 03 2018, @05:27PM (3 children)

    by edIII (791) on Tuesday July 03 2018, @05:27PM (#702050)

    You mean afford medical in the future, in the USA? What are you smoking?! LOL. If I stayed up here, we would be poor as fuck, because rents keep going up faster than wages. Medical is unaffordable NOW. Anything serious happens, and BOOM, half a million in medical debt.

    You make concessions. Being 15 minutes from a major hospital is one them. I would rather be free, living like a c-suite emperor in an island paradise, than a wage slave at 75 in the USA, in debt, and still requiring help with medical coverage that mandates I be poor to receive it.

    The US can burn in hell.

    --
    Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
    • (Score: 2) by bobthecimmerian on Tuesday July 03 2018, @07:33PM (2 children)

      by bobthecimmerian (6834) on Tuesday July 03 2018, @07:33PM (#702122)

      I can understand wanting to leave, for the reasons you state. But I would try to head to Denmark, Finland, Germany, Japan, South Korea... maybe not as beautiful as South America, but your medical options are better.

      • (Score: 2) by edIII on Tuesday July 03 2018, @08:00PM (1 child)

        by edIII (791) on Tuesday July 03 2018, @08:00PM (#702142)

        Too much money. I'm not rich as fuck, so Denmark and Finland are out. Germany isn't the place I want to be right now with all the Syrian refugee crap going on there. It's moving back towards fascism. Japan is an interesting consideration, but again, not enough money to purchase land and buildings we would want. South Korea has one hell of a shitty neighbor :)

        You seem to be very concerned over medical, but the truth is, unless you're very very rich in the US, you don't get it. The poor don't get medical treatment, but just enough to get them stabilized and out the door, and back to being good production units. Or worse, back to your section 8 housing to continue sucking down benefits with no hope of ever getting better, no hope of getting off the "government tit". Believe me, I know. You get cancer? Hospice. None of this shit where they try to get you into trials, contact a friend at John Hopkins, new expensive treatments. Palliative care is all you get. The Middle Class in this country barely receive enough medical, and we are stuck in the mid 30's for which country is numero uno in health care. Poor? Might as well be on the streets in New Delhi, shitting in them.

        You left out one country though quite critical to this discussion; Cuba. Cuba has an amazing medical system for a country under a double embargo. Amazing to the extent the WHO stands up for them as a medical community we can learn from. They even have a diabetes drug that saves the feet, whereas in the US, chop chop. Watch the Michael Moore documentary at the end and you see a lady get years worth of medication for the price of one treatment in the US.

        For the price of one Ecuadorian passport, a trip, I can be in Cuba for medical tourism. The costs there are actually quite affordable. Cuba still is an option for me too as far as permanent residence. I can do good telco work there, and they would provide me with actual medical care. It's amazing how cheap it can get when there are not rich fuckers demanding their pound of flesh for everything, including breathing air in a fucking hospital room.

        In the end, I would rather live with 19th century medical, then to live in 21st century USA. If I defect to Cuba, I get the best of all worlds. Sucking down authentic Mojitos, dancing with Cuban women, and enjoying medical care comparable to the US.

        --
        Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
        • (Score: 2) by bobthecimmerian on Wednesday July 04 2018, @02:07AM

          by bobthecimmerian (6834) on Wednesday July 04 2018, @02:07AM (#702307)

          I don't want to defend the status quo for health care and health insurance costs. The situation is unforgivable. But for example my parents are in their early 60s and spent the last year and a half unemployed and on Medicaid in Pennsylvania. My mother has an autoimmune disorder that attacks lung function, and she was seen by specialists in Temple University Hospital, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, and UPenn Hospital and they even started the preparation process for lung transplants. All while on Medicaid.

            That's somewhat better than being homeless in New Delhi.