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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 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.