PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Of course, if you’re going to set up a modern surveillance state, you have to start them young. The Times also found that the agency has a separate program that uses schoolchildren’s grades, attendance records and abuse histories to label them potential future criminals. Earlier this year, Sheriff Chris Nocco and the Pasco County school district announced they would scale back some features of the school-data program. But the letter signals a broadening of the core program. Yes, it does. When police power gets a taste of something like this, the addiction to it develops almost instantaneously. And the craving does nothing but grow more intense."
---------------------------------------------------------------------
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The sci-fi movie Minority Report includes the theme, among others of "the role of preventive government in protecting its citizenry. (Thank you Wikipedia. HL); Keep this in mind as you read the following post about an overly zealous Florida Police Force which gathers information about the people it polices in order to determine which ones need to be policed. Nowhere did I see the one word I expected to find in Charles Pierce's Esquire commentary - the word 'logarithm.' It's hard to imagine that, in a nation that already uses to determine whether individuals should be released on bail or paroled - or where logarithms are used to determine the sentence that should be imposed (who needs judge's anyway? HL) - that Pasco County isn't submitting the information it gathers into a computer which then applies an algorithm to determine who is worthy of being investigated by the police. (If not bow, the algorithm is probably on the way. That's surely bettering the eyes of Pasco's police, than having to wait until a crime has been committed. Much better than waiting to respond until an actual complaint of a crime is received - and officers having to go into the hot desert to find evidence. That said, I agree with author Pierce, whether a logarithm is being employed or not. "This isn't the kind of 'police reform' we were talking about." Not at all. Nor is the plain and simple act of gathering of information as Pasco is doing, and terrorizing the community it is supposed to serve with it.
Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
STORY: "Hey, Florida: This isn't the kind of 'police reform' we were talking about, by Charles P. Pierce, published by Esquire on July 26, 2021. (Charles P. Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.)
SUB-HEADING: "The Pasco County Sheriff is going full Minority Report."
GIST: "Having spent the weekend taking a media tutorial in ongoing threats to our freedoms—you know, like having to wear a piece of cloth on your face, or needing to get a life-saving injection, or people failing to respect the inalienable right to be a jackass on television but remain undisturbed in a bait shop—I almost missed this major breakthrough in law enforcement. From the Tampa Bay Times:
But the four-page letter from the Pasco Sheriff’s Office goes on to tell recipients they will be facing enhanced police scrutiny under the agency’s controversial intelligence program. “You may wonder why you were enrolled in this program,” the letter continues. “You were selected as a result of an evaluation of your recent criminal behavior using an unbiased, evidence-based risk assessment designed to identify prolific offenders in our community. As a result of this designation, we will go to great efforts to encourage change in your life through enhanced support and increased accountability.”
And the lawyers working on behalf of the estate of Philip K. Dick go on high alert.
Is it even necessary to point out how very many ways this could go so badly wrong? Let’s begin with the fact that we’d have to take this “unbiased, evidence-based” claptrap seriously, which I don’t. What do you suppose those “great efforts to encourage change in your life” might be? I don’t even want to guess. I do know that this isn’t what people meant a few months ago when they were talking about “police reform.” And it seems that Pasco County would be a marvelous environment for the many ways in which this could go badly wrong.
Last year, a Tampa Bay Times investigation revealed that the Sheriff’s Office creates lists of people it considers likely to break the law based on criminal histories, social networks and other unspecified intelligence. The agency sends deputies to their homes repeatedly, often without a search warrant or probable cause for an arrest. Targets and their relatives, including four who are now suing the Sheriff’s Office in federal court, described the tactics as harassment and a violation of their constitutional rights. National policing experts drew comparisons to child abuse and surveillance that could be expected under an authoritarian regime.
Of course, if you’re going to set up a modern surveillance state, you have to start them young.
The Times also found that the agency has a separate program that uses schoolchildren’s grades, attendance records and abuse histories to label them potential future criminals. Earlier this year, Sheriff Chris Nocco and the Pasco County school district announced they would scale back some features of the school-data program. But the letter signals a broadening of the core program.
Yes, it does. When police power gets a taste of something like this, the addiction to it develops almost instantaneously. And the craving does nothing but grow more intense.
The Times found being named a Sheriff’s Office target could have serious consequences. Deputies showed up at homes at all hours of the day and night, writing tickets for violations like overgrown grass and making arrests for any reason they could find. By 2020, some 1,000 people had been ensnared. About 100 were 18 years old or younger.
When people say we should teach civics to our young people again, this is not what they have in mind.".
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a37129990/pasco-county-sheriff-surveillance-program/
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
—————————————————————————————————
FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they’ve exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
