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from the There-are-two-eyes-in-"Rite-Aid" dept.
Reuters: Rite Aid monitored customers using facial recognition cameras
Over about eight years, the American drugstore chain Rite Aid Corp quietly added facial recognition systems to 200 stores across the United States, in one of the largest rollouts of such technology among retailers in the country, a Reuters investigation found.
In the hearts of New York and metro Los Angeles, Rite Aid deployed the technology in largely lower-income, non-white neighborhoods, according to a Reuters analysis. And for more than a year, the retailer used state-of-the-art facial recognition technology from a company with links to China and its authoritarian government.
In telephone and email exchanges with Reuters since February, Rite Aid confirmed the existence and breadth of its facial recognition program. The retailer defended the technology's use, saying it had nothing to do with race and was intended to deter theft and protect staff and customers from violence. Reuters found no evidence that Rite Aid's data was sent to China.
Last week, however, after Reuters sent its findings to the retailer, Rite Aid said it had quit using its facial recognition software. It later said all the cameras had been turned off.
It's a very long article:
Reuters pieced together how the company's initiative evolved, how the software has been used and how a recent vendor was linked to China, drawing on thousands of pages of internal documents from Rite Aid and its suppliers, as well as direct observations during store visits by Reuters journalists and interviews with more than 40 people familiar with the systems' deployment.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2020, @08:00PM (34 children)
>> They simply boil the frog from the least sensitive side.
Imagine how surprised they must have been when the darkies got all uppity last month.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2020, @08:52PM
BLM only finds a "crisis" on Presidential election years.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday July 29 2020, @09:20PM (32 children)
You need to watch more of the videos from Portland and other riot sites. The rioters are mostly self-loathing white people. The protests would have a lot more credibility if more black people were involved. When I look at the videos, and all I see are privileged white kids, the message about black lives mattering tends to get lost.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2020, @09:51PM (11 children)
"The rioters are mostly self-loathing white people."
There's strong evidence that some of the rioters are being paid to riot.
Who knows what to believe anymore.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday July 29 2020, @10:14PM (5 children)
Yes, that goes around, and around. George Soros funds a lot of demonstrations. Periodically, an international union of service workers pickets Houston businesses. Kenny, the used-to-be journalist on the street for Walton and Johnson interviewed some of those people. Mostly out of town people who were paid to attend, and bussed in from someplace. Demonstrator's money wasn't directly traceable to Soros, but the checks had business names on them that were always funded by Soros.
I've always thought it a bit strange that none of these demonstrations seem to be traced to the Koch brothers - or, now, brother, singular. They have as much money to waste as Soros does, and they have their own political agendas which could be served by "grass roots protests".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2020, @01:51PM (1 child)
Citation needed.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday July 30 2020, @02:45PM
Citations are hard to come by. Credible citations are harder yet. I did mention in another discussion that the US government are masters at money laundering. Our federal agencies move money by the truckload into projects that were never authorized by government. Billionaires are also masters at laundering money. Money moves around the world by the trainload, and none of us peons has any idea what it's used for. You're aware that the big tech companies are laundering their money in various countries without taxes, to avoid being taxed in the US, UK, EU, etc.
Soros is a billionaire, and he moves money around. And, he doesn't like the idea that you or I might track his money.
You can start anywhere you like, trying to figure out if Soros funds demonstrations. Start here, if you like - https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/jeff-reynolds/2020/06/03/yes-george-soros-sent-money-to-fund-the-riots-and-so-did-taxpayers-n487939 [pjmedia.com]
If you're afraid of rabbit holes, don't jump in.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2020, @01:57PM (2 children)
Not strange at all. Conservatives are educated, intelligent, refined, much better behaved. It's just not in their DNA to riot. Soros and his minions know this and know they can get away with funding and inciting rioting- it's expected behavior from the proletariat and lessers. It's all based on a legitimate problem of police brutality that has gone on far far too long. And now being used 100% politically- to make Trump look bad. And to do it during this horrible pandemic crisis? There aren't enough prisons to hold all of them long enough.
"Alt-right" are a completely different thing, and any idiot who lumps "alt-right" in with conservatives is, well, an idiot.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday July 30 2020, @02:52PM (1 child)
Let us not go too far overboard. How about we just stick to maybe "less gullible"? There is no huge divide in education, intelligence, or refinement between left leaning people, and right leaning people. I think I can give you the "better behaved" in most cases, but that isn't always true either. The left has a helluva lot of legitimate greivances in regards to right leaning conduct over the years. Who in hell dragged a man for miles behind a pickup truck, for no better reason than he was queer? Weren't no liberals involved!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2020, @04:41PM
All good points but you cite a single anomaly- that's not the norm, average, mean, whatever word the statisticians want to use. That guy was alt-right, and as I already wrote, they're not part of mainstream conservatives. For all I know they're likely Soros plants to make the conservatives look bad.
Big news about Soros-backed DAs and other operatives refusing to press charges against people who are on camera rioting and destroying property, attacking police, endangering others' lives and well-being.
I'm quite left-leaning, but will never condone violence.
USA is devolving into Civil War II.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday July 29 2020, @10:16PM (2 children)
No there is not.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday July 29 2020, @11:10PM
No? You mean that free ticket to the next protest on my mileage plus card isn't real?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2020, @02:01PM
Okay, you're only watching liberal news. But if you read or watch more neutral news you'll see rioters admitting they were paid to riot and incite.
Oh, you'll bitch about alt-right news? Okay, just go to youtube and search.
Oh, those are made up videos? Okay, keep your head in the sand.
(Score: 2) by epitaxial on Thursday July 30 2020, @01:01AM (1 child)
Where do I sign up to get paid for breaking shit and lighting fires? Do they pay in cash and do I need to fill out a 1099 form?
(Score: 2) by dry on Thursday July 30 2020, @02:46AM
It's a government job, so likely somewhere in Washington DC.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday July 29 2020, @10:43PM (18 children)
Or they could be people who are fed up with the police shooting their black neighbours.
Of course, that doesn't fit the narrative you have constructed in your head, and anyone who has a slightly different worldview to you must be an enemy, but at least you have some guns to help you feel safe.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2020, @12:02AM
Critical Theory is ultimately an ideology of self-loathing; when society has been deconstructed into (imaginary) systems of oppression, complicity is inevitable. Antifa are white supremacists with a guilt complex!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2020, @12:37AM
"constructed in your head" [youtube.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Thursday July 30 2020, @01:03AM (13 children)
I'm one who is fed up with cops shooting people with little or no reason. I'm not one who wants to tear the country down to - uhhhh - what's the goal? To punish our great-great grandparents who made America what it is?
I've said it repeatedly: Fix the problems, and move on. Elect the bad reps out of office, elect better reps, replace the bad cops, overhaul the system to weed out the authoritarian assholes who just want to beat on "bad guys".
I don't see that here, and neither do you. Night after night, the fuckwits approach the Federal building with their puny explosives, and sometimes less puny explosives, trying to break in, or set it on fire.
Have you noticed, the federal cops aren't chasing these punks back out into their neighborhoods? As bad as some of you want to paint them, they are restraining themselves to the Federal building and locale. They have been on a short leash, and the rioters keep taunting that dog on the leash.
You're right - you simply DO NOT SHOOT an unarmed man who is running away. But, you DO NOT RIOT and expect everyone to just cave in to your demands.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday July 30 2020, @01:44AM (4 children)
Cops in America shoot an awful lot more people, which is the whole point of the protests.
The goal seems to be to stop cops from shooting (mostly) black people.
What do you think the protestors are trying to do?
Night after night, people carry their banners and signs in an attempt to stop cops from shooting people, and night after night they are attacked by cops (or whoever those guys in camouflage are).
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday July 30 2020, @02:07AM (2 children)
Read more newsfeeds than just CNN.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday July 30 2020, @02:34AM (1 child)
Make your mind up. In the other thread you're arguing people should be shooting each other.
I am fairly sure I can't get CNN where I live anyway.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2020, @02:09PM
It doesn't matter if it's CNN. There's no such thing as news any more. It's all one or the other sides' opinions. They're all biased, have agendas, and are going for the audience $. It's well known that it's easy to pick and choose what you present to make your point. "Present your case in the court of public opinion" 101.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2020, @02:32AM
> The goal seems to be to stop cops from shooting (mostly) black people.
Stats don't support that [lawenforcementtoday.com]
> What do you think the protestors are trying to do?
Cynically exploit the death of a black man as a bullshit excuse for communist insurrection. Communism killed 100,000,000 people last century.
> Night after night, people carry their banners and signs in an attempt to stop cops from shooting people,
Reality check! [blacklistednews.com] Nobody who has been paying attention believes outright lies. "Peaceful protests" didn't cause $500,000,000 damage in Minneapolis, umbrella man didn't look like a Hells Angel and what is happening in Portland has nothing to do with the death of George Floyd.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2020, @01:46AM (3 children)
And you simply DO NOT extrapolate minor nightly made-for-TV disturbances on one particular block to "tearing down the country" and other hyperbolic bullshit. It's just like in Lafayette Square: you take away the "police" dressed up as soldiers and most of your problems go away. Put real police out there. But before they pull out, they ought to at least do one last, violent push and let the Orange Man walk over to the courthouse to hold up a bible (or wag a hammer and sickle flag or something) for a photoshoot before claiming success and walking away.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday July 30 2020, @02:06AM (2 children)
Ohhh-Kay. Where you going to get real police from? The Mayor of Portland, like the Mayor of Baltimore before him, wants to be loved by the rioters. He pulled his police out of the area, and gave the rioters the green light to wreck the city. You want county sheriffs to take over? Probably not enough of them. State police? There may be enough of them, but Covid19 has probably been kicking their asses, like other police departments around the nation. What does that leave? Federal agents are protecting federal property. Seems right to me. Again, the feds aren't swooping in on neighborhoods miles away from their Federal building.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2020, @03:53AM (1 child)
There are more cops in a single police force than there are Trump Troopers that have been brought in. That's the problem they had in DC. Barr specifically excluded DC police from his crackdown. Other police forces in the area specifically pulled them out of the area when it became clear that it was all a political stunt. Trump/Barr flew in the 82nd Airborne for god's sake! They finally found a line that Esper and Co. wouldn't cross. That's why they ultimately had to fly in those crack troopers made up of prison riot squads and other institutions well known for their knowledge and training for deescalation and crowd control. All of the horrendous antifa terrorism magically disappeared after the photo op, even though they had larger crowds show up after that. Disappeared just like magic, almost like it was never there in the first place.. Fortunately I've been hearing that covid will magically disappear as well. Here's crossing our fingers!
Maybe they should bring tanks into Portland next. They got the snatching innocent people off the street part down, so nothing says "banana republic" like unmarked military thugs and tanks.
Don't you remember the hissy fit and tantrums you were throwing about Obama sending Feds to deal with the Bundy standoff on Federal land? Is your fealty to the party THAT strong to overcome that amount of cognitive dissonance? I know it was much different there, they being armed white people threatening to shoot police trying to stop them from breaking the law, but really, simply amazing. Have you completly shitcanned all the other "important principles" like personal character, free trade, etc. over the last several years too? Remember when it was the thing for all you guys to say stuff like "I don't agree with what you say, but I'll fight to the death to defend your right to say it"? Yeah, that was pretty funny. Good times. Good times.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday July 30 2020, @05:32AM
Bundy and company weren't destroying property, if you'll recall.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by shortscreen on Thursday July 30 2020, @02:58AM (3 children)
This is the part that makes no sense, at least on the surface. Most people are against police brutality. Most of the politicians and media pundits claim to support the protests. But if your cause already has widespread support, why do the protests need to continue? Who is preventing the local and state governments from doing their jobs and answering the people's demands, so everyone can go home?
Protests are disruptive, and it doesn't matter whether it's just a few infiltrators causing the real mayhem because the fact is, if there was no protest there wouldn't be anything to infiltrate. The longer this goes on, the more opinions will shift in the other direction, and we'll be back to square one with nothing accomplished.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2020, @04:07AM (1 child)
There is no organization. No BLM leader to call things off. No mystical "antifa" leader urging these things to continue. If you ramp up the jackboot thug thing, you'll ramp up the resistance to it, which is exactly what Trump wants to do. Great "law and order" stuff. Let's send "troops" into Chicago, Minneapolis, Baltimore, and all those other "democrat" cities.
Because they've got a whole propaganda network, they don't even bother making up excuses about what they're doing. Trump explicitly says what he's doing: he's sending Federal forces into cities and states, against the will of the Governors and Mayors (making it illegal, and certainly against the ideals about "federalism" that the R's used to say they held so dear), and he's explicitly said he's only sending them to cities run by democrats. Fox News doesn't say anything about the reasons (and the Trump administration don't have any coherent reasons for them, because there isn't lot of protests going on in some of those cities so they have to find SOME excuse to send them in), they generate conflict then get lots of good close-shot footage (wide angle would only show the it isn't widespread) to claim that the America-hating anarchist socialist democrats are trying to burn down the country and only Mr. Law and Order can fix things.
And if they can't do a good enough job to instigate good footage, they've always got the right wing folk dressed in BLM shirts to get it going.
(Score: 2) by shortscreen on Thursday July 30 2020, @07:27AM
That's exactly why I'm saying that the opposition should pass police reforms, adjust budgets, and encourage the whole thing to wind down. Otherwise it looks like protestors are just fodder for Trump's pandering to his base, and outrage juice for the Dem base. Another bipartisan cock fight, where Americans get to be the cocks.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Booga1 on Thursday July 30 2020, @07:34AM
The very same people that the protests are about are the same people literally cracking down on the protestors, that's why things keep escalating. However, the people holding back reform are the cops that don't want to change anything about how they do their jobs and the politicians who don't want to appear "soft on crime."
Short answer: police unions.
When it comes to The police unions and "fraternal orders" around the country are crying foul! They don't want their power reduced. They don't want to be held accountable for when they step out of line. They have contracts that forbid firing of officers until all misconduct investigations and their appeals are complete. That's why you see cops getting desk duty for even the most egregious and provable offenses.
The police unions that are resisting reforms are trotting out the same old excuses:
That's just s small sample of what police unions have as objections to reforms. Don't forget they also get to investigate most misconduct claims against their very own officers. On top of that, there are often special protections in their contracts that no other government employees(or suspects) receive. Cops are often given 48 hours after an incident to "calm and collect themselves" before they are interviewed. They are also sometimes allowed to see all evidence against them before they make a statement. The list goes on and on...
(Score: 1, Troll) by Arik on Thursday July 30 2020, @09:57AM
One of the most problematic aspects is the constant racialisation. People should be fed up with police committing crimes; regardless of the color of the victims. The reality is that criminal police target those they do not believe will be able to retaliate effectively, and that means poor people. Poor people of all colors.
Those who insist on racialising the issue, those who insist that only lives of a certain color matter, are not being progressive; but regressive. It seems like it would be embarrassing to them; if they had any self-awareness. When Rose City and the Proudboys were rumbling, it was hilarious to count the colors on each side, because Rose City, presenting themselves as the champions of the oppressed black and brown people, were virtually all lilly-white peeking out from behind their masks. Their opponents were much more diverse.
These are primarily affluent white kids who have been brainwashed by neo-marxist professors at school and just do whatever they're told out of a sense of racialised original sin courtesy of those same professors. So "self-loathing white kids" seems fairly accurate.
That said, the actions of the feds here are reprehensible too. The ACLU got a restraining order and the feds are completely ignoring it. We'll see if the court will enforce its order soon.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2020, @06:56PM
lmao! what a fucking idiot. they are brainwashed against their own race, so they see Whitey's injustice everywhere and are trying to prove what good people they are by defending "the poor helpless blacks" (who are just like everyone else), but who need these brainwashed brats' help somehow.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2020, @03:01AM
Not their fault, the message will be lost with you no matter what lives were about.