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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday September 16 2018, @10:20PM   Printer-friendly
from the Quis-custodiet-ipsos-custodes? dept.

Bay Area transit system approves new surveillance-oversight policy

On Thursday, the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Board of Directors voted to approve a new policy that requires that it be notified if the local police department wishes to acquire new surveillance equipment.

BART is one of the largest mass transit agencies in northern California, with a system that stretches from the San Francisco International Airport, through San Francisco itself, across to Oakland, north to Antioch and south to Fremont—adjacent to Silicon Valley. This new policy puts it in line with a number of other regional cities that impose community oversight on the acquisition and use of surveillance technology. It is believed to be one of the first, if not the first, such policies for a transportation agency in the nation.

[...] The new BART policy was approved just one day after the Bay Area News Group reported that BART police had been using license plate readers at the parking garage at MacArthur station in Oakland for several months beginning in January 2017. The data collected was, in turn, shared with a "fusion center" of federal law enforcement data known as the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center.

Somehow, the MacArthur license plate reader (LPR) system was installed months after the Board had voted in 2016 to delay installation of the high-speed scanners until a policy for their use could be drafted.

Related: California Senate Bill Could Thwart Automated License Plate Readers
California Senate Rejects License Plate Privacy Shield Bill
Forget Scanning License Plates; Cops Will Soon ID You Via Your Roof Rack
Los Angeles to Become the First City to Use Body Scanners in Rail Transit Systems
California Officials Admit to Using License Plate Readers to Monitor Welfare Recipients


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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by meustrus on Sunday September 16 2018, @11:30PM (4 children)

    by meustrus (4961) on Sunday September 16 2018, @11:30PM (#735769)

    The problems facing San Francisco are primarily driven by population growth, constricted expansion space, and large-scale social change instigated by the booming local technology industry.

    You could make the argument that they have failed to handle these problems effectively. But it would be completely false to imply that their situation would be better if the government had just left well enough alone. Hell, a lot of their problems are caused because they didn't do enough.

    But hey, at least they didn't do nothing. I mean, if people are going to shit in the streets, I'd rather they not share needles. There might be at least a little less Hep B and AIDS on the streets because of that "free needles policy" you seem to hate so much.

    Oh, and by the way, the new policy is about requiring civil notification of surveillance that the cops would do anyway, and were already starting to without waiting for any kind of policy at all.

    Not that I care a whole lot about San Francisco. I sure as hell don't want to live there. It's just really hard to let stupid people who didn't even RTFA try to use this policy, which according to said TFA is supported by the EFF, as a bludgeon against their political opposites.

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    If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
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  • (Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 16 2018, @11:45PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 16 2018, @11:45PM (#735776)

    The problems facing San Francisco are primarily driven by population growth,

    Why is there population growth?

    constricted expansion space

    Artificially constricted expansion space. They could issue building permits if they wanted.

    and large-scale social change instigated by the booming local technology industry.

    Homeless people shitting in the streets? That's not social change, that's malpractice.

    I mean, if people are going to shit in the streets, I'd rather they not share needles. There might be at least a little less Hep B and AIDS on the streets because of that "free needles policy" you seem to hate so much.

    What the fuck are you talking about? [sfexaminer.com]

    Not that I care a whole lot about San Francisco. I sure as hell don't want to live there.

    Sure you do, you're defending it!

    It's just really hard to let stupid people who didn't even RTFA try to use this policy, which according to said TFA is supported by the EFF, as a bludgeon against their political opposites

    Did you miss the part where I said allowing or encouraging this behavior is not liberal? Do I use strong language, yes I do! Am I making a politically divisive point - only if you think homeless people shitting at BART stations is some hitherto undiscovered bastion of "liberalism". It isn't!

    • (Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Monday September 17 2018, @12:45AM (2 children)

      by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Monday September 17 2018, @12:45AM (#735792) Homepage Journal

      It’s amazing, I can’t even believe it. I’ve been so lucky in terms of that whole world, it is a dangerous world out there. Vaginas are potential landmines. There’s some real danger there. They call it VD. It's really a disgrace. Totally disgusting. You don’t know until you’re tested. But I'll tell you, I'm not good for medical. In other words, if you cut your finger and there’s blood pouring out, I’m gone. It’s like Vietnam, sort of. It is my personal Vietnam. I feel like a great and very brave solider. You know, if you’re young, and in this era, and if you have any guilt about not having gone to Vietnam, we have our own Vietnam -- it’s called the dating game. Dating is like being in Vietnam. You’re the equivalent of a soldier going over to Vietnam. Scarey!

      • (Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Monday September 17 2018, @01:42AM (1 child)

        by Pslytely Psycho (1218) on Monday September 17 2018, @01:42AM (#735818)

        I bet you're a gas at parties.

        I can just visualize a guy in a black fat suit, gigantic red tie and an orange tabby cat secured to his head while dancing with a lamp and singing Pink Floyd's Money.....

        --
        Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
        • (Score: 3, Interesting) by realDonaldTrump on Monday September 17 2018, @04:24AM

          by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Monday September 17 2018, @04:24AM (#735848) Homepage Journal

          I'll tell you a story that's very interesting for me. When I was young there was a man named William Levitt. Anybody ever hear of Levittown? Started on Long Island. And now you have Levittowns, you have some in different states.

          And he was a very successful man, became unbelievable -- he was a home builder, became an unbelievable success, and got more and more successful. And he'd build homes, and at night he'd go to these major sites with teams of people, and he'd scour the sites for nails, and sawdust and small pieces of wood, and they cleaned the site, so when the workers came in the next morning, the sites would be spotless and clean, and he did it properly. And he did this for 20 years, and then he was offered a lot of money for his company, and he sold his company, for a tremendous amount of money, at the time especially. This is a long time ago. Sold his company for a tremendous amount of money.

          And he went out and bought a big yacht, and he had a very interesting life. I won't go any more than that, I'm not going to tell you what he did. Should I tell you? Should I tell you? Let me tell you, I told the Boy Scouts. They're Boy Scouts, but they know life. They know life. I look at them. Who would think this is the Boy Scouts, right?

          So he had a very, very interesting life, and the company that bought his company was a big conglomerate, and they didn't know anything about building homes, and they didn't know anything about picking up the nails and the sawdust and selling it, and the scraps of wood. This was a big conglomerate based in New York City.

          And after about a 10-year period, there were losing a lot with it. It didn't mean anything to them. And they couldn't sell it. So they called William Levitt up, and they said, would you like to buy back your company, and he said, yes, I would. He so badly wanted it. He got bored with this life of yachts, and sailing, and all of the things he did in the south of France and other places. You won't get bored, right? You know, truthfully, you're workers. You'll get bored too, believe me. Of course having a few good years like that isn't so bad.

          But what happened is he bought back his company, and he bought back a lot of empty land, and he worked hard at getting zoning, and he worked hard on starting to develop, and in the end he failed, and he failed badly, lost all of his money. He went personally bankrupt, and he was now much older. And I saw him at a cocktail party. And it was very sad because the hottest people in New York were at this party. It was the party of Steve Ross -- Steve Ross, who was one of the great people. He came up and discovered, really founded Time Warner, and he was a great guy. He had a lot of successful people at the party.

          And I was doing well, so I got invited to the party. I was very young. Very handsome. And very successful. And I go in, but I'm in the real estate business, and I see a hundred people, some of whom I recognize, and they're big in the entertainment business. And I see sitting in the corner was a little old man who was all by himself. Nobody was talking to him. I immediately recognized that that man was the once great William Levitt, of Levittown, and I immediately went over. I wanted to talk to him more than the Hollywood, show business, communications people. This was 1994. Two weeks before he died (RIP!!).

          So I went over and talked to him, and I said, "Mr. Levitt, I'm Donald Trump." He said, "I know." I said, "Mr. Levitt, how are you doing?" He goes, "Not well, not well at all." And I knew that. But he said, "Not well at all." And he explained what was happening and how bad it's been and how hard it's been. And I said, "What exactly happened? Why did this happen to you? You're one of the greats ever in our industry. Why did this happen to you?"

          And he said, "Donald, I lost my momentum. I lost my momentum." A word you never hear when you're talking about success when some of these guys that never made ten cents, they're on television giving you things about how you're going to be successful, and the only thing they ever did was a book and a tape. But I tell you -- I'll tell you, it was very sad, and I never forgot that moment.

          And I thought about it, and it's exactly true. He lost his momentum, meaning he took this period of time off, long, years, and then when he got back, he didn't have that same momentum.

          In life, I always tell this to people, you have to know whether or not you continue to have the momentum. And if you don't have it, that's OK. Because you're going to go on, and you're going to learn and you're going to do things that are great. But you have to know about the word "momentum."

          But the big thing, never quit, never give up; do something you love. When you do something you love as a Scout, I see that you love it. But when you do something that you love, you'll never fail. What you're going to do is give it a shot again and again and again. You're ultimately going to be successful.

          And remember this, you're not working. Because when you're doing something that you love, like I do -- of course I love my business, but this is a little bit different. President, very special job. Very special. Who thought this was going to happen? We're, you know, having a good time. We're doing a good job.

          Doing a good job. But when you do something that you love, remember this, it's not work. So you'll work 24/7. You're going to work all the time. And at the end of the year you're not really working. You don't think of it as work. When you're not doing something that you like or when you're forced into do something that you really don't like, that's called work, and it's hard work, and tedious work.

          So as much as you can do something that you love, work hard and never ever give up, and you're going to be tremendously successful, tremendously successful.

          Now, with that, I have to tell you our economy is doing great. Our stock market has picked up TREMENDOUSLY since the election. Our stocks are setting a lot, a lot of records. November 8th -- do we remember that day? Was that a beautiful day? What a day! Do you remember that famous night on television, November 8th where they said, these dishonest people, where they said, there is no path to victory for Donald Trump. They forgot about the forgotten people.

          By the way, they're not forgetting about the forgotten people anymore. They're going crazy trying to figure it out, but I told them, far too late; it's far too late.

          But you remember that incredible night with the maps, and the Republicans are red and the Democrats are blue, and that map was so red it was unbelievable. And they didn't know what to say.

          And you know, we have a tremendous disadvantage in the Electoral College. Popular vote is much easier. We have -- because New York, California, Illinois, you have to practically run the East Coast. And we did. We won Florida. We won South Carolina. We won North Carolina. We won Pennsylvania.

          We won and won. So when they said, there is no way to victory; there is no way to 270. You know I went to Maine four times because it's one vote, and we won. We won. One vote. I went there because I kept hearing we're at 269. But then Wisconsin came in. Many, many years. Michigan came in. So -- and we worked hard there. You know, my opponent didn't work hard there, because she was told she was going to win Michigan, and I said, well, wait a minute. The car industry is moving to Mexico. Why is she going to move -- she's there. Why are they allowing it to move? And by the way, do you see those car industry -- do you see what's happening? They're coming back to Michigan. They're coming back to Ohio. They're starting to peel back in.

          And we go to Wisconsin, now, Wisconsin hadn't been won in many, many years by a Republican. But we go to Wisconsin, and we had tremendous crowds. And I'd leave these massive crowds, I'd say, why are we going to lose this state? The polls, that's also fake news. They're fake polls. But the polls are saying -- but we won Wisconsin.

          So I have to tell you, what we did, in all fairness, is an unbelievable tribute to you and all of the other millions and millions of people that came out and voted for make America great again. And I'll tell you what, we are indeed making America great again. What's going on is incredible. We had the best jobs report in 16 years. The stock market on a daily basis is hitting an all-time high. Consumer Sentiment hit its highest level in 17 years this year. Sentiment fell 11% in 2015, an Obama year, and rose 16% since the Election. Best economic numbers in decades. We're going to be bringing back very soon trillions of dollars from companies that can't get their money back into this country, and that money is going to be used to help rebuild America. We're doing things that nobody ever thought was possible, and we've just started. It's just the beginning, believe me. ALWAYS MAINTAIN YOUR MOMENTUM!!!!