http://www.blacklistednews.com/Connecticut_residents_face_felony_charges_if_they_refuse_to_register_guns/33298/0/38/38/Y/M.html
http://www.blacklistednews.com/LAPD_Spies_on_Millions/33293/0/38/38/Y/M.html
http://www.blacklistednews.com/Obama_Gets_Heckled_About_Potential_Nuclear_War_With_Russia/33290/0/38/38/Y/M.html
Using the September 11 attacks as justification for the implementation of ongoing domestic surveillance, the U.S. government has spent billions of dollars building what they call “fusion centers,” or “information sharing centers.”
SOURCE: POLICE STATE USA
(Source: Jessica Hill / AP)
CONNECTICUT — Residents are facing a lose-lose situation: announce to the government what specific property they own, or face potentially violent repercussions from the state. Many gun owners are refusing to register their firearms in what appears to be a massive act of civil disobedience, drawing threats from the state.
IN THE NAME OF SAVING CHILDREN
In 2013, Connecticut lawmakers passed Public Law 13-3, a draconian piece of bipartisan legislation that undermines citizen privacy, constricts legal ownership, and bans a number of arbitrary items outright. As of January 1st, 2014, anyone who had failed to register their firearms and firearm magazines with the government could be charged with a Class D Felony.
Those who do not sacrifice their privacy may become criminals for life and face prison time.
The law has been characterized as one of the most restrictive in the nation. It bans over 100 firearm models outright, bans magazines that hold more than 10 rounds, bans certain bullets, and expands the definition of “assault weapon.“ It also prohibits private sales of guns without reporting to the government and creates a database of people denied their rights without due process (medical reasons).
While exempting government agents from the restrictions, it increases the penalties for anyone who breaks these onerous requirements. It also places these individuals into a “deadly weapon offender registry” for life as they suffer as lifelong felons. The state also dedicated $1 million for statewide firearms trafficking task force.
These restrictions on freedom are purportedly designed to prevent school shootings.
LIMITED COMPLIANCE?
By December 2013, citizens were lining up to register their property avoid becoming felons.
“One thing is clear,” said Mike Lawlor, an undersecretary in the state Office of Policy and Management. “If you haven’t registered it, on the following day, it is completely illegal contraband.” That date passed on January 1st, 2014.
Connecticut residents line up to register their guns. (Source: George Roelofson / WTNH)
Many people complied with the law only out of fear of the government, not because they believed anyone would be safer.
“The law I don’t think is going to stop any crimes,” Connecticut resident Rob Townsend said to WFSB in front of a line of people attempting to obey the law. “How many criminals do you think are in line right now to register their weapons?”
While the lines of people registering their property seemed impressive, they may have represented a relatively low number of compliant citizens. This leaves some wondering if a large number of people are in danger of facing harsh prison sentences if caught.
Police had received 47,916 applications for “assault weapons certificates” and 21,000 incomplete applications as of Dec. 31, Lt. Paul Vance told The Courant. But this represents a fraction of what independent sources estimate.
“No one has anything close to definitive figures, but the most conservative estimates place the number of unregistered assault weapons well above 50,000, and perhaps as high as 350,000,” the Courant reported.
Governor Malloy dismissed the estimates of 350,000 unregistered firearms as “made up” and believes his registration program is working “extremely well.”
CONSEQUENCES
“Like anything else, people who violate the law face consequences. … that’s their decision. The consequences are pretty clear,” said Lawlor, a Connecticut bureaucrat. Lawlor said that criminalizing thousands of unregistered gun owners is not a sign of failure of the law. “The goal is to have fewer of these types of weapons in circulation,” he said, according to the Courant.
And despite the pleas of gun owners to extend the deadline, the State Police swiftly made it clear that the no exceptions would be made to the deadline. Connecticut residents reported receiving this letter after turning in a late application:
A letter received by a Connecticut resident for being one day late with his registration application. (Source:The Capitalism Institute)
The New American confirmed the letter’s authenticity by contacting the source.
(Feb. 28, 2014 @ 12:10 p.m. EST): In response to concerns that the letter from the Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection quoted above might be a hoax, The New American called the department to confirm the accuracy of the letter. Lt. Vance of the Connecticut State Police confirmed that the letter is accurate in every respect and was sent out with the date of January 2, 2014.
When asked if door-to-door confiscation was a possibility, Connecticut State Police Lieutenant J. Paul Vance said that he had not been told to “cross that bridge” yet. He insisted that interpreting the constitution was not his responsibility and that the police would enforce “any lawful law.”
LIFE AS A GUN REGISTRANT
Those “lucky” enough to have met the registration deadline should be aware that their information now resides in the hands of police. “This would be a factor in deciding how to respond to different situations,” says Mr. Lawlor.
In other words, when the police are called to the addresses of those honest enough to register, officers may deploy a “different” level of government force. Perhaps a SWAT team.
They can also live with the comfort of knowing that if the political winds shift, their registered names will be the first the first under scrutiny if a gun confiscation order is given. History is rife with examples of gun confiscation; recently this took place in New Orleans.
Gun confiscation is an ongoing reality in many states. In New York City, police haveissued hundreds of letters ordering the surrender of shotguns and rifles that had been registered but were no longer compliant with the regulations du jour. California has its own team of full-time gun confiscation agents that go address to address seizing guns from those people the state considers “prohibited persons.”
The injustice of gun control can be abundantly seen by any observant individual. In Washington D.C., a businessman named Mark Witaschek recently suffered a violent SWAT team raid on his family because the government claimed he had “unregistered ammunition.” In New Jersey, a man named Brian Aitken had his world destroyed and parental rights destroyed when he was convicted of keeping his legally owned property in his vehicle for too long. In yet another story, a Massachusetts college student faces up to 10 years in prison for simply owning a standard rifle magazine.
These naive attempts to promote safety and security have resulted in turning large numbers of Americans into second-class citizens, unable to legally exercise their rights enumerated in the constitution. One after another, non-violent gun owners are being sent to prison, given life-long felonies, placed under burdensome restrictions, and suffer other personal hardships.
Ironically, the same government that is trusted to track, disarm, restrict, and monitor all these people is left free to violate citizens’ rights and harm people practically without recourse. What gun control zealots fail to realize is that no one is safer living under a police state.
Connecticut State Police toting rifles that other people would be arrested for owning. (Source: AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
SOURCE: CRYPTOGON
VIA: L.A. WEEKLY:
Los Angeles and Southern California police, by contrast, are expanding their use of surveillance technology such as intelligent video analytics, digital biometric identification and military-pedigree software for analyzing and predicting crime. Information on the identity and movements of millions of Southern California residents is being collected and tracked.
In fact, Los Angeles is emerging as a major laboratory for testing and scaling up new police surveillance technologies. The use of military-grade surveillance tools is migrating from places like Fallujah to neighborhoods including Watts and even low-crime areas of the San Fernando Valley, where surveillance cameras are proliferating like California poppies in spring.
The use of militarized surveillance technology appears to be spreading beyond its initial applications during the mid-2000s in high-crime areas to now target narrow, specific crimes such as auto theft. Now, LAPD and the Los Angeles County Sheriff are monitoring the whereabouts of residents whether they have committed a crime or not. The biggest surveillance net is license plate reading technology that records your car’s plate number as you pass police cruisers equipped with a rooftop camera, or as you drive past street locations where such cameras are mounted.
SOURCE: LEE ROGERS, DAILY SLAVE/BLN
Watch this video of Obama getting heckled over a potential nuclear conflict with Russia. Obama jokes it off even though the heckler asked a very serious question. The United States government spent billions of dollars financing the recent coup in Ukraine. This ulterior agenda has created all sorts of chaos. It has allowed the rise of anti-Russian and ultra nationalist groups which are rapidly expanding their political influence in Kiev. These political forces now represent a direct security threat to Russia and has greatly increased the possibility of war breaking out.
All of this has been the result of Washington's insane decision to interfere in the internal affairs of Ukraine. What's even scarier is how the crowd reacted to Obama's response. Everybody thought it was funny. It just shows that Obama's base consists of clueless and willfully ignorant fools.
Police Pushing Access to Security Cameras Inside Public Schools
Police expand push for control of private and public cameras
Adan Salazar
Infowars.com
February 28, 2014
Infowars.com
February 28, 2014
It’s not enough the Austin Police Department has surveillance cameras mounted in nearly every corner of the city. Police are now pushing to gain access to security cameras inside Austin Independent School District public schools.
The move comes as the department announces a sprawling surveillance rollout that hopes to add a myriad of cameras to city streets. Predictably, APD purports its efforts will make Austin schools safer.
Austin Independent School District’s Carruth Administration Center building. / Image: KEYE
The department already has 39 HALO (High Activity Location Observation) cameras installed throughout Austin, which surreptitiously monitor in real time Austin residents’ mundane routines. But that’s not enough.
Access to school video feeds would be a necessary component in thwarting would-be school shooters, APD Chief Art Acevedo contends. “When you look at the issue of active shooters, and they come in and try to hurt our kids.. the Austin Police Department, in a very short order, will be able to know what’s going on,” Acevedo said, reported KEYE News.
Citizens concerned the cameras will violate their privacy needn’t worry, the police chief says, because his department’s camera feeds “would never tap into private places.”
Using the HALO camera system, Austin cops surveil two potential terrorists. / Image: KEYE
Naturally, the chief’s reassurances are doing nothing to calm privacy advocates.
“Where does it end?” Jim Harrington, the Director of The Texas Civil Rights Project asked. “Are we eventually going to end up in a police state? And a police state is when people watch you all the time. It’s crazy.”
APD’s move to monitor school children is just one more way the public school system is used to condition young Americans to accept the shackles of a prison-like culture where constant surveillance is a normal part of everyday life, and where guilty until proven innocent is standard fare.
APD soon hopes to spy on schoolchildren, like they do the residents of Austin. / Image: KEYE
Alluding to renowned statesman Benjamin Franklin’s immortal quote, KEYE’s report ends essentially asking viewers if they’re yet ready to surrender privacy in exchange for security. “In the end, the question will continue to be: are you willing to accept a close watchful eye in exchange for safer streets?” asks KEYE’s Cassie Gallo.
So, do more cameras actually make anyone safer? If so, that would make the UK the safest place on earth, right? The British Security Industry Authority (BSIA) estimates there are as many as 5.9 million cameras there, or one for every 11 people.
Yet, despite blanket surveillance, the UK still has the highest homicide rate in all of Northern Europe.
Moreover, a review by the London police department regarding the effectiveness of surveillance found, “For every 1,000 cameras in London, less than one crime is solved per year.”
And furthermore, a 2005 report put out by the British government also found that surveillance cameras “produced no overall effect” on crime.
“Having a pit bull in your house may keep away burglars. That doesn’t mean you should get one for each room,” rationalizes Reason.com’s Steve Chapman. “The more cameras, and the more cops watching the feeds, the more potential for waste.”
Watch Infowars’ special report on how the surveillance state apparatus is expanding under the guise of rolling out “smart” and “energy efficient” appliances.
Michigan Township To Put Cameras ‘In Every Neighborhood’
“We are recording images that a police officer would see if he or she were standing in the same place”
Mikael ThalenInfowars.com
February 28, 2014
February 28, 2014
Officials in Ypsilanti Township, Michigan are working with police to put surveillance cameras in every single neighborhood.
After placing multiple cameras throughout the city’s West Willow neighborhood several years ago, township officials claim the program’s vast success, which is reportedly centered around one single case, warrants an expansive rollout to every last neighborhood.
When attempting to find public support for the program, WDIV used quick editing to create the desired answer from a surveillance weary resident.
“When they put the security cameras up I kind of thought crime would decrease and it kind of has in a way…” Tony Slaughter hesitantly said before being cut off mid-sentence.
Mike Radzik, the director of the Office of Community Standards, justified the program by claiming that the cameras were no different than police officers constantly standing in the neighborhood.
“We are recording images that a police officer would see if he or she were standing in the same place,” Radzik said. “They are only in public places.”
Not only has the township seemingly decided to go forward with the program without public input, residents will be required to pay a fee for the township’s venture.
“The township will invest in the infrastructure, actually put the cameras out and deploy them and there will be a special assessment on the homes in the neighborhood for the operating expense going forward, which will be a very nominal fee for this measure of public safety,” Radzik said.
Despite a clear attempt by WDIV to portray massive public support for the incoming cameras, a quick glance at comments from residents shows quite the opposite.
“What’s next ? In our homes? Our showers? “Our minds?” Alissa Fortin said.
Although the township claims the program will cause a major dent in criminal activity, countless studies have proven that surveillance cameras do little to deter crime.
While revelations of illegal spying by local and federal governments alike continue to surface, questionable surveillance practices in public, where there is no expectation of privacy, have many wondering how far is too far.
Police in Austin, Texas are now demanding live access to surveillance cameras inside public schools, using the remote possibility of school shootings as justification.
In Modesto, California, an armored police surveillance truck was unveiled this week, which video and audio records local residents while traveling throughout the city.
The Seattle Police Department recently announced its plan to begin using a new facial recognition software program, which will analyze surveillance footage of alleged criminal activity.
While the government continues to expand its surveillance grid against the public, daily reports of citizens being violently attacked for legally filming police and elected officials fill the news feed.
White House Panelist On NSA Says NSA May Enable a “Police State”
Washington’s Blog
February 27, 2014
February 27, 2014
Richard Clarke is one of the four White House panelists on NSA spying, and the former top counter-terror czar in the Clinton and Bush administrations.
Image: Reddit Logo (Wikimedia Commons).
Clarke has previously said that mass surveillance isn’t needed to keep us safe. And see this.
As Tech Target reports:
Revelations about NSA monitoring activities over the last year show the potential for a police state mechanism, according to the former U.S. cybersecurity czar, but there is still time to avoid the dire consequences.***“[T]hey have created, with the growth of technologies, the potential for a police state.”***“Once you give up your rights, you can never get them back. Once you turn on that police state, you can never turn it off.”
Indeed, top American officials have warned for decades of a police state enabled by the NSA.
And a former top NSA official said that we’ve already got a police state. He told Washington’s Blog:
I am glad he [Clarke] also understands the threat to democracy.The only reason I recognized that in 2001 is because I worked the Soviet problem for close to 30 years … and what NSA was doing was exactly what the Soviet’s tried to do (as well as the Stasi and the Gestapo/SS).
And see this.
Whistleblower Exposes Secret Fusion Center Operations
A NORAD tactical operations center, which looks very similar to DHS fusion centers.
Using the September 11 attacks as justification for the implementation of ongoing domestic surveillance, the U.S. government has spent billions of dollars building what they call “fusion centers,” or “information sharing centers.”
Until recently, information regarding these fusion centers has been kept secret allowing them to operate with no privacy guidelines or restrictions, and the eerie silence has led the public to question their motives and legality.
Recently released audio provided exclusively to the Liberty Beat from inside a board meeting at an Austin, Texas fusion center offers a unique and rare glance inside the program’s operations. The audio provides details on the Fusion Center’s Privacy Policy, how many information requests they receive and produce, a police tactic called “wall-off,” and the effect a newly drafted piece of state legislation could have on operations that were once kept secret from even judges and prosecutors.
Cops gone wild.......
Good morning Fred,
ReplyDeleteAs I rolled the bike out of the garage yesterday it started to rain, so I rolled it back in. Soon I hope. Yes John Kerry is an ass, you might want to remind him about Vietnam and how that started to, not just Iraq. I don't like him.
The police state is moving forward at a rapid pace, most people don't care though.
On a side note gold up to 1345 or so while futures down about a percent. Could be an interesting day in the markets. No snow yet, sleet but still forecast for a few inches. Have a great day and stay safe.
Iraq being a pretext takes the cake because didn't the come up during the 2004 Election , when Kerry ran against George W Bush ? I guess folks like Kerry rally figure no one is paying attention to what they say and have memories shorter than the lifespan of a firefly !
ReplyDeletePolice state is being rolled out across the land , until it happens to a sheeple , they don't pay attention or care generally.
Gold has ben strong so far this year and having another good day ! Funny that markets are paying attention to Ukraine for one day ( let's see how long Ukraine holds the focus of traders though ) . Europe taking a bigger hit than US stocks , which makes sense - they are closer to the fighting if it comes down to that.
Still snowing lightly , not much on the ground so far ! Supposed to snow until 2pm or so , so I guess we shall see ......
Be safe and have a good day !