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THE URBAN POLICE STATE
NY TIMES - With his Mister Softee ice cream truck parked in a familiar
spot, its presence announced by a sprightly metallic jingle, Costas
Vamvakas was having a good day, the holiday business brisk despite the
drab weather. But then two men pulled up in an unmarked car from the
Department of Environmental Protection. It was Mr. Vamvakas's first
encounter with the city's noise police, a contingent that includes 45
environmental agents and thousands of regular police officers who are
enforcing a sweeping new noise code that took effect on Sunday. Mr.
Vamvakas, 24, who is part owner of a Mister Softee franchise in Queens
with 11 trucks, had failed to turn off his truck's jingle when he parked
at the curb, as is now required of all ice cream trucks. The fine is
$350. . . Barking dogs, heavy construction, garbage trucks, nightclubs,
personal stereos, poorly muffled motorcycles and loud air-conditioners
are all covered.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/06/nyregion/06noise.html?ei=
5090&en=7aabe5a2a04eb343&ex=1341374400&partner=
rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=print
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JUSTICE
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THE URBAN POLICE STATE: NYC TO GET EVEN MORE CAMERAS
CARA BUCKLEY - By the end of this year, police officials say, more than
100 cameras will have begun monitoring cars moving through Lower
Manhattan, the beginning phase of a London-style surveillance system
that would be the first in the United States. The Lower Manhattan
Security Initiative, as the plan is called, will resemble London's
so-called Ring of Steel, an extensive web of cameras and roadblocks
designed to detect, track and deter terrorists. British officials said
images captured by the cameras helped track suspects after the London
subway bombings in 2005 and the car bomb plots last month.
If the program is fully financed, it will include not only license plate
readers but also 3,000 public and private security cameras below Canal
Street, as well as a coordination center staffed by the police and
private security officers, and movable roadblocks. . .
Civil liberties advocates said they were worried about misuse of
technology that tracks the movement of thousands of cars and people.
Would this mean that every Wall Street broker, every tourist munching a
hot dog near the United States Court House and every sightseer at ground
zero would constantly be under surveillance?. . .
Already, according to a report last year by the civil liberties group,
there are nearly 4,200 public and private surveillance cameras below
14th Street, a fivefold increase since 1998, with virtually no oversight
over what becomes of the recordings. . .
For all its comprehensiveness, London's Ring of Steel, which was built
in the early 1990s to deter Irish Republican Army attacks, did not
prevent the July 7, 2005, subway bombings or the attempted car bombings
in London last month. But the British authorities said the cameras did
prove useful in retracing the paths of the suspects' cars last month,
leading to several arrests.
While having 3,000 cameras whirring at the same time means loads of
information will be captured, it also means there will be a lot of
useless data to sift through.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/09/nyregion/09ring.html?_r
=2&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
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URBAN POLICE STATE: 70-YEAR-OLD UTAH WOMAN ARRESTED, INJURED BY POLICE
FOR FAILURE TO KEEP THE LAWN UP
BBC - A 70-year-old US woman has been left bruised and bloody after an
unexpected clash with police who came to caution her for not watering
her lawn. Trouble flared when Utah pensioner Betty Perry, 70, refused to
give her name after being upbraided because her garden breached local
regulations. She says the officer hit her with handcuffs, cutting her
nose, although police insist she slipped and fell. Ms Perry said she was
"distraught" after the incident. . .
The officer had judged that Ms Perry's "sadly neglected and dying
landscape" breached an Orem city guideline and was attempting to issue a
formal caution when the 70-year-old was injured. She was treated in a
local hospital for the cut to her nose and for other bruises before
being taken to jail. But she was let go when police realised there were
"other ways" of finding out her identity without jailing her, a police
spokesman said
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6282348.stm
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WHISTLEBLOWER STRUGGLES FOR A PENSION
LYNDSEY LAYTON WASHINGTON POST - From a cramped motor home in a Montana
campground where Internet access is as spotty as the trout, Richard
Barlow wakes each morning to battle Washington. Once a top intelligence
officer at the Pentagon who helped uncover Pakistan's efforts to acquire
nuclear weapons, Barlow insisted on telling the truth, and it led to his
undoing. Richard Barlow, who was fired when he complained about false
testimony to Congress, lives in a trailer in Montana. Richard Barlow,
who was fired when he complained about false testimony to Congress,
lives in a trailer in Montana. . .
He complained in 1989 that top officials in the administration of
President George H.W. Bush -- including the deputy assistant secretary
of defense -- were misleading Congress about the Pakistani program. He
was fired and stripped of his security clearances. His intelligence
career was destroyed; his marriage collapsed.
Federal investigations found Barlow was unfairly fired, winning him
sympathy from dozens of Democratic and Republican lawmakers and public
interest groups. But for 17 years, he has fought without success to gain
a federal pension, blocked at every turn by legal and political
obstacles also faced by other federal intelligence whistle-blowers. . .
Barlow, 52, and his supporters want funding added to the defense
authorization bill to be debated by the Senate when it returns from
recess next week. The mechanism Barlow hopes to use -- a private relief
bill that benefits a specific individual -- is increasingly rare and, in
his case, still faces hurdles.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/06/
AR2007070602127.html?referrer=email
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
THE URBAN POLICE STATE
NY TIMES - With his Mister Softee ice cream truck parked in a familiar
spot, its presence announced by a sprightly metallic jingle, Costas
Vamvakas was having a good day, the holiday business brisk despite the
drab weather. But then two men pulled up in an unmarked car from the
Department of Environmental Protection. It was Mr. Vamvakas's first
encounter with the city's noise police, a contingent that includes 45
environmental agents and thousands of regular police officers who are
enforcing a sweeping new noise code that took effect on Sunday. Mr.
Vamvakas, 24, who is part owner of a Mister Softee franchise in Queens
with 11 trucks, had failed to turn off his truck's jingle when he parked
at the curb, as is now required of all ice cream trucks. The fine is
$350. . . Barking dogs, heavy construction, garbage trucks, nightclubs,
personal stereos, poorly muffled motorcycles and loud air-conditioners
are all covered.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/06/nyregion/06noise.html?ei=
5090&en=7aabe5a2a04eb343&ex=1341374400&partner=
rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=print
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
JUSTICE
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
THE URBAN POLICE STATE: NYC TO GET EVEN MORE CAMERAS
CARA BUCKLEY - By the end of this year, police officials say, more than
100 cameras will have begun monitoring cars moving through Lower
Manhattan, the beginning phase of a London-style surveillance system
that would be the first in the United States. The Lower Manhattan
Security Initiative, as the plan is called, will resemble London's
so-called Ring of Steel, an extensive web of cameras and roadblocks
designed to detect, track and deter terrorists. British officials said
images captured by the cameras helped track suspects after the London
subway bombings in 2005 and the car bomb plots last month.
If the program is fully financed, it will include not only license plate
readers but also 3,000 public and private security cameras below Canal
Street, as well as a coordination center staffed by the police and
private security officers, and movable roadblocks. . .
Civil liberties advocates said they were worried about misuse of
technology that tracks the movement of thousands of cars and people.
Would this mean that every Wall Street broker, every tourist munching a
hot dog near the United States Court House and every sightseer at ground
zero would constantly be under surveillance?. . .
Already, according to a report last year by the civil liberties group,
there are nearly 4,200 public and private surveillance cameras below
14th Street, a fivefold increase since 1998, with virtually no oversight
over what becomes of the recordings. . .
For all its comprehensiveness, London's Ring of Steel, which was built
in the early 1990s to deter Irish Republican Army attacks, did not
prevent the July 7, 2005, subway bombings or the attempted car bombings
in London last month. But the British authorities said the cameras did
prove useful in retracing the paths of the suspects' cars last month,
leading to several arrests.
While having 3,000 cameras whirring at the same time means loads of
information will be captured, it also means there will be a lot of
useless data to sift through.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/09/nyregion/09ring.html?_r
=2&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
URBAN POLICE STATE: 70-YEAR-OLD UTAH WOMAN ARRESTED, INJURED BY POLICE
FOR FAILURE TO KEEP THE LAWN UP
BBC - A 70-year-old US woman has been left bruised and bloody after an
unexpected clash with police who came to caution her for not watering
her lawn. Trouble flared when Utah pensioner Betty Perry, 70, refused to
give her name after being upbraided because her garden breached local
regulations. She says the officer hit her with handcuffs, cutting her
nose, although police insist she slipped and fell. Ms Perry said she was
"distraught" after the incident. . .
The officer had judged that Ms Perry's "sadly neglected and dying
landscape" breached an Orem city guideline and was attempting to issue a
formal caution when the 70-year-old was injured. She was treated in a
local hospital for the cut to her nose and for other bruises before
being taken to jail. But she was let go when police realised there were
"other ways" of finding out her identity without jailing her, a police
spokesman said
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6282348.stm
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
WHISTLEBLOWER STRUGGLES FOR A PENSION
LYNDSEY LAYTON WASHINGTON POST - From a cramped motor home in a Montana
campground where Internet access is as spotty as the trout, Richard
Barlow wakes each morning to battle Washington. Once a top intelligence
officer at the Pentagon who helped uncover Pakistan's efforts to acquire
nuclear weapons, Barlow insisted on telling the truth, and it led to his
undoing. Richard Barlow, who was fired when he complained about false
testimony to Congress, lives in a trailer in Montana. Richard Barlow,
who was fired when he complained about false testimony to Congress,
lives in a trailer in Montana. . .
He complained in 1989 that top officials in the administration of
President George H.W. Bush -- including the deputy assistant secretary
of defense -- were misleading Congress about the Pakistani program. He
was fired and stripped of his security clearances. His intelligence
career was destroyed; his marriage collapsed.
Federal investigations found Barlow was unfairly fired, winning him
sympathy from dozens of Democratic and Republican lawmakers and public
interest groups. But for 17 years, he has fought without success to gain
a federal pension, blocked at every turn by legal and political
obstacles also faced by other federal intelligence whistle-blowers. . .
Barlow, 52, and his supporters want funding added to the defense
authorization bill to be debated by the Senate when it returns from
recess next week. The mechanism Barlow hopes to use -- a private relief
bill that benefits a specific individual -- is increasingly rare and, in
his case, still faces hurdles.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/06/
AR2007070602127.html?referrer=email
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