Stilgherrian » policing

Links for 15 September 2008 through 19 September 2008

del.icio.us — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 03:43:03 +0000

Stilgherrian’s links for 15 September 2008 through 19 September 2008, wrapped in a nice green ribbon and love:

Mobile Broadband Downloads | Telstra Business: These are the drivers for the Sierra Wireless HSUPA card that Telstra’s NextG network have “seeded” me with. It didn’t hurt a bit.
Bangkok governor 2008 vote | Bangkok Post: Mugshots of the 16 candidates for Governor of Bangkok, with the election to be held on 5 October 2008.
Falling between the cracks | MISaustralia.com: Simon Sharwood’s fine article explaining how small businesses don’t get the IT products and services they need because the bigger players see them as being too small to worry about.
NSW Police Present an Award | Fickr: When the crowd at the Marrickville Contemporary Art Prize overflowed into the street, this officer took the stage as if she were accepting an award and made the whole thing fun. It was an excellent example of community policing and she deserves to be congratulated. The video of this event was part of Stilgherrian Live episode 26.

5 Random Semi-Related Posts

Links for 10 August 2008

del.icio.us — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 13:15:20 +0000

Here are the web links I’ve found for 10 August 2008, posted automatically with cheese and onions.

Newspapers that Twitter: July numbers | graphic designr: Statistics on how (American) newspapers are using Twitter.
Why You Should Never Talk to the Police | Schneier on Security: Links to a 30-minute video presentation by Professor James Duane of the Regent University School of Law explaining why — in a criminal matter — you should never, ever, ever talk to the police. It doesn’t matter if you’re guilty or innocent, it isn’t possible for anything you say to help you. Also links to a video of Virginia Beach Police Department Officer George Bruch, who basically says that Duane is right.
Over 400 forms used by the National Security Agency | The Memory Hole: Obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, blank copies of (supposedly) most of the forms used by the US National Security Agency.
George Orwell Diaries | The Orwell Prize: George Orwell started his diaries in August 1938. They’re now being published as a blog, each entry posted exactly 70 years after it was originally written.
Everything That Happens Will Happen Today | David Byrne & Brian Eno: Byrne & Eno’s first musical collaboration in 30 years. On single available free now, album available for free streaming or buy-to-download or physically on 18 August. A world tour follows.

5 Random Semi-Related Posts

Found Art: The Suspect’s Property

Stilgherrian — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 11:31:30 +0000

A new semi-regular feature, Gentle Readers. Found Art. Objects which I’ve stumbled across in the street.

Today, a Returned Property Docket from the NSW Police Service. It records in detail (and fairly poor typing) exactly what was being carried by S– when he was detained at the Newtown police station, and which was subsequently returned at 2.24am on a Saturday morning.

A life, in summary.

Don’t worry, S–, I’ve shredded the original. Though if you were concerned about your privacy you wouldn’t have thrown it into the street.

5 Random Semi-Related Posts

Is this police provocation?

Stilgherrian — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 09:49:20 +0000

Here’s a fascinating video from Canada, which seems to show police provocateurs trying to turn a peaceful demonstration violent.

This was shot on Monday afternoon at protests in Montebello, Quebec. It shows the tail end of a confrontation between Dave Coles (president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada) and three masked men who were trying to throw rocks into the police line.

In the commentary, there’s evidence to support the provocateur theory.

When accused of being police, the masked men just look confused rather than denying it.
Standard police procedure is that once a suspect is cuffed, a mask would be removed so everyone can see their face and reliably witness subsequent events. At least one “protester” stays masked all the way to the police vans.
The takedown seems remarkably relaxed, given that these guys pushed into a line of riot police.
At 2.45, immediately after they start arresting the “protesters”, the police cameraman shuts his camera off.
One of the three is wearing a t-shirt for Radio X — a right-wing Quebecois shock-jock channel. No lefty unionist would be caught dead in one of those, you’d think.

And this photo (left) of the takedown is interesting. Note that the “protester” is wearing boots with exactly the same tread pattern as the riot police.

There’s more on this story at the Toronto Star. Thank BoingBoing for the pointer.

It’d be interesting to ask NSW police whether they’ve ever used provocateurs in this way — particularly with APEC in Sydney very soon.

5 Random Semi-Related Posts

Reclaiming Fascism: perspective please, people!

Stilgherrian — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 12:34:18 +0000

No, this isn’t an apologia for Nazis, far from it. It’s a plea to reserve “fascist” for situations which actually warrant the term.

There may (may the gods forbid!) come a time when we need to label a government fascist and be taken seriously. So please, don’t devalue it by calling every little disruption of personal choice “fascist”. It’s a very poor media strategy.

This post was triggered by Sydney Indymedia. Slogan: “Don’t hate the media, be the media.” On Thursday they wrote about the NSW Ombudsman’s Review of the Police Powers (Drug Detection Dogs) Act 2001. Interesting stuff, especially the high false positive rate.

“No drugs were located in almost three-quarters of searches,” says the Ombudsman. So over two years, roughly 7,500 people were searched — usually in public — and names taken when no crime was committed.

That concerns me. When nine police and an expensive-to-train “sniffer” dog cruise King Street, Newtown, as they did yesterday, the vast majority of their time is being wasted. Most of the people turning out pockets and receiving the tut-tut glares of passers-by are innocent citizens going about their business. The meme that the streets are rife with drug dealers is reinforced — falsely.

I don’t blame those nine police. They don’t choose their assignments, and I suspect most of them would rather be chasing down crims. Or having a burger in the patrol car, depending on their adrenalin-junkie level.

Sydney Indymedia had to “stick it to the man”, though, and illustrated their report with a completely unrelated, vicious-looking police dog. Somehow they missed the point that the target of their anger should be the politicians who implement hypocritical laws against (some) drugs, not the hard-working boys and girls in blue.

But then that’d run counter to their image of the police as representatives of the fascist police state.

Sydney Indymedia throws around the f-word fairly freely, as well as “police state“. Earlier in the year — and I wish I could find the reference! — they actually said that protesters being moved away from the doors of Parliament House, Canberra, “just goes to show the kind of police state we’re living in.”

Sure. Whatever you say.

However this week’s Pinochet Medal for an Inappropriate Reference to Fascism comes from Dan Russell, debriefing users of a design tool at the end of a project.

She told me that my software, my baby, the thing I’d been working on for the past 2 years was “the most white male fascist tool I’ve ever had the misfortune to use.”

And what did she mean by this?

Our design tool “forced the user to do things in a particular order”… she did things in a different way, and the tool was forcing her to go along a different path.

Get a grip. That’s about as fascist as a ticket inspector asking you to take your feet off the train seats.

Let’s actually remind ourselves what fascism is about. Let’s read the Wikipedia entry on fascism. Let’s look at some photographs of Belsen.

If you’re critical of policing strategies, or of the path Australia is taking under the Howard government, then by all means criticise. But if you start by calling everything fascist, then it’s easy for your opponents to dismiss your arguments as hyperbole — and you lose.