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The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the Chicago Police Department is fighting a lawsuit to force them to reveal how they use Stingray cell tower-emulating devices:
Since 2005, the department has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on cell-site simulators manufactured by the Harris Corp. in Melbourne, Florida, records show. The devices — with names like StingRay and KingFish — capture cellphone signals.
Cops can use the technology, originally developed for the military, to locate cellphones. Police agencies in other states have revealed in court that StingRays and similar devices have been used to locate suspects, fugitives and victims in criminal investigations.
But privacy activists across the country have begun to question whether law enforcement agencies have used the devices to track people involved in demonstrations in violation of their constitutional rights. They also have concerns the technology scoops up the phone data of innocent citizens and police targets alike.
The Chicago Police Department has also been running a CIA-style black site, according to a recent report by the Guardian.
When the federal government began imprisoning people at Guantanamo in violation of the Constitution, some argued it was the only place, and that there were exceptional, extenuating circumstances. When the network of CIA black sites around the world and its practice of "extraordinary rendition," known to normal people as, "kidnapping," were revealed, some argued it was only for terrorists and other bad guys. When the NSA's mass violations of the Constitution were revealed by the Snowden leaks, some argued that it was for our own protection. Each time, they were justified as defense against the "Other."
Is this Chicago case a harbinger of things to come, that those tools and practices developed to violate the rights of the "Other" elsewhere, are now being applied to "Us", here?
(Score: 1) by Ox0000 on Wednesday March 25 2015, @01:01PM
You mean places like Denmark, Sweden, Norway, The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, ...
Shall I go on?
Face it, we've lost our #1 spot... (Except for being #1 in the developed world in illiteracy, belief in 'Angels', religiosity, arrogance, dislike-by-others, teen pregnancy, STDs... shall I go on as well?)
Instead of blindly saying "we're number one" and thumping your chest ignoring the facts and being dismissive about anyone who tells us the truth, we should take it upon ourselves to try to regain the #1 spot in things that aren't on the list of things we are #1 in right now...
Dumb-ass!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2015, @06:04PM
We may or may not have lost our #1 spot in various places, but the vast majority of the dipshits here who to love to shit on anything US-related never own up to where they live, because the majority of their complaints apply equally to whatever shithole they live in. For instance, as we all know on this site, the NSA is entirely evil and everyone who works there (and even thinks of working there) is morally corrupt (call this the Soylent Axiom of Moral Righteousness). This is, of course, because the NSA spies, and we know that no other country in the world spies. The majority of the comments are from people who are shocked, SHOCKED! that the NSA spies on other countries, because surely THEIR country would never stoop so low as to do something so underhanded.
This isn't about chest-thumping as you seem to think it is, or your apparent feelings of inadequacy I suppose, but it is about simple honesty from the shithead talking regulars here who are as predictable and intellectually honest as any talking head on any cable pundit show.