authoritah – The Dave

Why you should never talk to the police

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 01:24:53 +0000

A couple of relatively informative videos that have been sitting in my queue to post for a few months, so here we go.

Two parts, watch the first one first, the second is basically just a cop agreeing with the entire first video

More pointless privacy invasions mislabeled as security

Dave — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 10:40:50 +0000

All non-Europeans would need to submit biometric data before crossing Europe’s frontiers under sweeping European Union proposals to combat illegal migration, terrorism and organized crime that are to be outlined this week.

Well isn’t that fantastic. It’s a good thing no terrorist or organized crime family would ever be able to obtain a European passport. And heck, if you can’t be bothered to purchase false identification, why bother with this at all, just skip immigration and head straight for the street.

Another homeland security success

Dave — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 04:04:16 +0000

Michael Futi, son of Tony and Luaipou Futi, only 22 days old, a naturalized American citizen, with valid paperwork, dies in custody after homeland security detains and denies medical assistance.

I don’t even know where to start with this story. The terrorists have won. Here are the facts as we know them; undisputed by Homeland Security at this time.

Baby flies to America for life saving surgery. Baby is a naturalized American citizen. Baby has valid papers. Baby’s nurse has valid papers. Neither set of paperwork is in question. Baby was detained and left in a locked room. Request for medical assistance was ignored, except for a “Stay calm, relax” response. Baby dies.

The officers have some questions about the mother’s paperwork, although it appears that everything is valid. The US Customs and Border Protection stamp of “APPROVAL” didn’t fool anyone, nor did the suggestion that the baby and nurse (both already cleared) could proceed to the hospital while the mother deals with whatever additional paperwork makes homeland security feel their job is worthwhile.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank each and every member of the TSA, Homeland Security, and their associated areas. Sure, you don’t stop bombs or guns, you deport your own citizens, sometimes you even catch people playing dress-up, and now, you kill babies, you sure do a bang-up job of security.

More Security Theatre

Dave — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 00:14:15 +0000

I’ve posted before about how airport security is more theatre then actual security.

We can now add guns to the list of things that the TSA doesn’t worry about finding.

So what do they do when their error is pointed out? Why arrest the guy who brought it to their attention, of course.

But shampoo? They’ve got that one down.

So tell me, if you discovered you were carrying a weapon after you were through security, what would you do? How about if you stumbled across something suspicious inside security? What does the TSA teach is the correct response?

Security Theatre

Dave — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 22:34:01 +0000

I get it. Airport security obviously isn’t about stopping bombs, because they don’t. Sure, they catch some toothpaste, hand lotion, shampoo, but actual liquid explosives? No.

And why would they? The equipment doesn’t work, and the staff isn’t much better

You’re not even allowed to make jokes at the airport, which is odd, since somehow I doubt terrorists have good senses of humour.

And what would happen if they did suspect some real terrorists were on a plane? As it turns out, they leave the passengers on the plane with the terrorists.

So what is the point? I’m all for security, but does the theatre really scare terrorists off? Or is it just an excuse to increase gov’t authority?

UPDATED (2008/05/04): Fixed broken URLs

Respect my authoritah

Dave — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 16:16:40 +0000

Are you required to sign a speeding ticket? Well, no. However, by refusing to sign you are risking being placed under arrest over a traffic violation. Fair enough.

So, having watched this video several times, I am a little unclear what justified ANY use of force, or why negotiations failed within 20 seconds of the man walking out of his car — Note how quickly the officer took out his taser. The guy did not attempt to bolt, nor did he attempt to attack the officer. Somebody explain to me why the suspect was tasered, why the officer could not inform him what he was being charged with, why he was not given his rights.The officer is very clear that the suspect was tasered for not obeying his authoriti, nothing at all to do with the speeding ticket.So you tell me, did he deserve it? If so, why?