Technology for your Car That Can Protect You from Unscrupulous Cops

Disruptive Technologies are new and emerging technologies that are designed to disrupt established legacy systems.  

This man uses technology to disrupt the ability for police to successfully cite him for bogus infractions or crimes.  

While he clearly spent a TON of money building this, not all of the technology needs to be installed at once.  Clearly, people can pick and choose which of these upgrades are most advantageous to them. 

Give it a watch, it's good stuff.  

Study Shows 55,400 People Hospitalized or Killed by US Cops in a Single Year ~by Justin Gardner

First of Its Kind Study Shows 55,400 People Hospitalized or Killed by US Cops in a Single Year

Justin Gardner July 26, 2016 0 Comments

Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/landmark-study-police-brutality-problem/#HPlYW0Gu1t06hHiM.99

image: http://thefreethoughtproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/brutality-collage.jpg

If anyone needed a reminder that America has a police brutality problem, the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile provided it. Actual numbers on violent police encounters are difficult to come by, but this dearth of data is getting more attention.

New research published in the British Medical Journal demonstrates the danger posed to citizens by the most routine police practice of a “legal stop.”

Researchers analyzed 12.3 million police interventions from 2012 and found that approximately 55,400 people were injured or killed by cops during legal stop and search incidents in one year. Of this number, about 1,000 were killed, with vast majority dying from gunshot wounds. The remaining 54,400 were hospitalized with serious injuries, mostly from blunt objects.

“On average, an estimated 1 in 291 stops/arrests resulted in hospital-treated injury or death of a suspect or bystander.”

Granted, some of these injuries or deaths were justified to protect officers or innocent people from actual violent people, but even the authors of the study conclude that these numbers reflect an “excess exposure” of people to police violence.

In an interview with Vocativ, lead author Ted Miller, of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, pointed out how many shooting deaths in the U.S. come from a police gun.

“In one in 11 cases where someone died because someone else intentionally shot them, a police officer pulled the trigger,” said Miller.

The fact that cops are responsible for almost 10 percent of firearm-related homicides in the U.S.—which already has an extraordinarily high rate of gun deaths relative to other countries—should be enough to cause a serious rethinking of policing across the country.

The new study also confirmed that minorities are targeted for stops at a far higher rate, although the likelihood of being injured or killed during that particular stop was equal for all groups.

“Blacks and Hispanics are much more likely to be arrested when the police stop them than Whites or Asians. This differential may well result from racism,” said Miller. “But once you are stopped or arrested, the likelihood that you will be killed or seriously injured during that police interaction does not depend on your race.”

Data showed “blacks were almost four times more likely than whites to be arrested or stopped by police.” This racial bias in policing has long been assumed, and research is starting to confirm this.

The death of Philando Castile demonstrated how ‘riding in a car while black’ can lead to the ultimate tragedy. Castile, who had been harassed by cops an unbelievable 52 times before, was killed for doing nothing more than reaching for his wallet—after informing the cop that he had a concealed-carry permit for the gun he possessed.

The entire incident started with Castile and his black girlfriend being pulled over for a purported broken taillight. Cops use these petty excuses to pull people over so they can escalate the situation in the hope of searching the vehicle for drugs or other “contraband,” especially when the occupants are blacks or Hispanics.

Even police chiefs are accepting these truisms and, in some cases, making changes within their departments.

Thomas Wydra, the police chief of Hamden, Connecticut, informed his officers that they should not be so concerned with “defective equipment” such as something hanging on the rearview mirror or an attachment on the license plate.

One year later, defective equipment stops dropped from 19 percent to 8 percent of all motor vehicle stops, which resulted in the number of black people being pulled over falling by 25 percent.

Here is one clear answer to the problem of police violence being confirmed through empirical studies.

Stop pulling people over for petty “violations.” Stop pulling people over as an excuse to look for drugs. Extend this to people walking, riding a bike or otherwise going about their own business.

Just leave people alone unless they are actually causing harm to another person, and maybe the extraordinary rate of cops injuring and killing people could start falling. There is a way to address police brutality if only we look at the numbers and implement the basic solutions they suggest.

Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/landmark-study-police-brutality-problem/#HPlYW0Gu1t06hHiM.99

WHEN COPS PREPARE TO SHOOT YOU AND THE WAR OF FATAL FORCE

JULY 22, 2016 DISTRACT. POLICE BRUTALITY

By Rachel Sunshine

This week has culminated, once again, in loud calls for retaliation against police brutality and excessive/lethal force across the United States. As video surfaces of police trying to shoot an Autistic 23 year old man with a toy truck- instead shooting a fully complying therapist laying down next to and trying to talk the man out of suicide- anger and calls to action against police brutality and excessive force have ripped through the online community, which is still trying to come to terms with the fatal shootings of two men and a young, unarmed teen in late June and early July. So far, there have been an estimated 643 fatal police shootings of citizens in 2016, with at least 60 fatal police shootings in the month of July alone, meaning that nearly 3 citizens have been killed every day by police across the country since the beginning of the month. In contrast, according to Operation Enduring Freedom at iCasualties.org, there have only been a total of 4 American Soldier deaths by combat in this entire year.

Some have believed the police shootings to be justified and have expressed outrage that the police have received blowback for what seems to be indiscriminate use of fatal force. Individual Officers have even gone so far as to state they are at war with the people they serve and that they are under attack, as vigilantes have targeted police in several retaliatory shootings  across the country in Dallas, Baton Rouge and Columbus,  so far, killing at least 8 police officers since the beginning of July. Facebook user, Linda Marie Jourdain asks of those that do not feel sympathy for the officers, “Why can’t People (sic) just have respect for authority. It’s sad that they don’t get enough.”

It may be because continued release of footage- a compilation of videos from the month of July too long to list- of police brutality and excessive force shows that police are, in fact the ones preemptively planning to attack the citizenry, as you can plainly see in the fatal shooting of 19 year old Fresno teenager, Dylan Noble, and in new footage surfacing this week showing activists that had been protesting at the Republican National Convention getting raided in a form of intimidation early in the morning by police and federal agents who did not have a warrant. In the shooting death of Philip Castille, recordings of the conversations between the police officer and dispatcher apparently indicate that he was pulled over for having a wide-set nose. 

In newly-released footage by the Fresno Police Department from the second officer’s body cam, police are seen to already have their guns drawn while still driving down the street, in a long moment, pointing the gun at the back of Noble’s head after turning sirens on to pull the teen’s truck over just 25 seconds before that for excessive speeding. In what I am now deeming Aggravated Panic, police already had their guns unholstered and were even dangerously driving with one hand on the wheel while simultaneously holding a loaded police-issued gun in the obviously premeditated death of unarmed Noble. Once pulled over, Noble is almost immediately shot for “not complying” with the officers that had just pointed a gun at the back of his head moments before while waiting for him to pull over. The Fresno police chief is stating that we should understand what was going through the policemen’s heads when they shot Noble two more times while he lay bleeding on the ground, as, apparently, Noble had reached for a clear plastic square that the officers have not yet shown to the public. Noble was not armed on his person, nor was there any weapon in his vehicle.

Earlier this week, police awaken Brittany Om with guns drawn in the morning in her motel room that she and other activists were staying in while protesting the Republican National Convention. In a show of pure intimidation, police even state that they will not be back if the protestors do not come back to the Convention, an obvious attempt to use their position of authority to silence those practicing their First Amendment Rights. In the video, Law enforcement was recorded, telling them, “If you don’t want to see us again, stay away from the RNC.”

In the case of Philip Castille- a man fatally shot Fourth of July weekend during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights, Minnesota- new evidence has surfaced that he was shot at point-blank range for having awide-set nose. His girlfriend and her 4-year-old daughter watched helplessly next to him in the vehicle. His girlfriend then live-streamed the aftermath directly to Facebook, where it was removed shortly after by Facebook authorities, also known as the Facebook Police.

Also this week, footage from May surfaced of a man fully complying with police after taking them on a high-speed chase through multiple states and ending in New Hampshire. As he laid down on the ground, a mob of policemen ran toward him and started pummeling him, kicking him, and beating him with their batons. It was all captured by a media helicopter, catching the beating on live footage.

These are just a few instances that have made the news over the past month. Police have been using war rhetoric against the citizenry for over three decades; The War on Drugs and the War on Poverty have turned into a War on the Poor and Middle Class.

We now have a War of Fatal Force, where police have taken it upon themselves to be judge, jury and executioner. In a society that has developed countless non-lethal forms of weaponry such as gases and sprays, sticky foam, bean bags and rubber bullets, electroshock weapons and directed energy weapons there is no need for police to be shooting citizens to death 3 times a day, period. With only 8 police casualties this year directly attributed to the retaliation against use of lethal force against the citizenry, it’s entirely up to the officers to find a solution that could help the escalating situation resolve in a peaceful call to put down arms. As concerned citizen Eric Wilson states, “I would expect the people in positions of power to hold themselves to a higher regard than those they are serving. Having the ability to be judge, jury and executioner without accountability is where much of the anger comes from fellow citizens. Their ‘job’ is to give every person their ‘day in court.’ As the initiator of conflict, I would expect them to be experts in conflict resolution, and not further escalate already tense interactions.”  

The future for the safety of citizenry from police use of lethal force will look grim until police learn to use non-lethal force discriminately as a form of conflict resolution, and it would be no surprise to continue seeing police casualty numbers rise by as much as 75% over the coming months, as citizens finally start defending themselves in the War of Fatal Force.

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Originally posted to: http://www.distract101.com/when-cops-prepare-to-shoot-you-and-the-war-of-fatal-force/

Stopping the Police State

Article by Josie The Outlaw Wales, originally posted at: The Free Thought Project

We now live in a world where it is legal for police officers to murder not only animals, but innocent people, use the threat of force to coerce peaceful people into submission, and not only avoid punishment, but are ENCOURAGED to act this way. We live in a police state, and before we figure out how to fix it, we have to understand how this situation came to be.

It’s easy to focus our anger only on the ones actually committing the violence, but cops didn’t just wake up one day and decide to start violently oppressing people. Injustice flows from the top down. What we’re seeing today is largely the result of the politicians WANTING the people living in fear of the police, WANTING the police brutality which causes so many people to quietly obey whatever arbitrary, oppressive legislation the politicians decide to enact. So while we should definitely be condemning those who blindly follow orders, the ones giving the orders shouldn’t be let off the hook either, and most of us know this, which is why a lot of people, in an effort to fight against tyranny and government abuses, focus on the political process, on voting, campaigning and petitioning. This approach basically amounts to begging the government for freedom, which to me has two major flaws: first, it has a completely horrible track record of ever achieving freedom, and second, it pretty much tells the politicians that we accept that we can only be free if and when they tell us we’re allowed to. I don’t know about you, but I don’t need legislation to tell me exactly how free I am.

Now a lot of people ask what the alternative is, how, besides voting and petitioning can we prevent or stop tyranny? After centuries of one society after another voting themselves further into oppression, what we’re left with, our power, is resistance and disobedience. This can come in many forms – some people quietly find ways to circumvent or avoid the powers that be and their laws; some practice civil disobedience, and some forcibly resist. However, a lot of people can’t bring themselves to disobey at all, even quietly and passively, because they’ve been thoroughly convinced that, while it’s okay to ASK the politicians to change their laws, it’s never okay to disobey them, no matter how immoral and unjust. Unfortunately, a lot of the people who will never disobey a command happen to be walking around in a blue uniform with a shiny badge and false sense of authority.

Police like to pretend that their job is to “protect and serve.” It isn’t. Their job is to forcibly control the rest of us in whatever way the politicians tell them to. The politicians make up commands, call them laws, and their hired guns–“law ENFORCERS”–hurt any who disobey. Police know this, which is why you will often hear them say things like, “I don’t make the law, I only enforce it,” with the implication being that they aren’t to blame, because they’re just following orders and doing as they’re told. But that excuse was invalid when the Nazis used it, and it’s invalid today. It’s also completely cowardly to deny responsibility for your OWN actions, just because someone else told you to do something. How do you suppose the police would respond to some common thief saying,”don’t blame me for mugging this old lady; someone else told me to”? They would respond exactly how we should respond to it when they use the excuse: You are responsible for what YOU do.

Now, some people make a distinction between police violence that is legal and police violence that is illegal. If you ask me, that distinction is meaningless. If you violently assault someone who hasn’t threatened or harmed anyone else, that is immoral, regardless of whether the politicians wrote a law telling you to do that or not. Legislation does not determine what is right or wrong. If you use force only to defend against aggressors, that is perfectly legitimate and noble. But if you initiate violence, attacking someone else who wasn’t threatening or harming anyone, then you are the bad guy, whether you have a badge or not and whether some “law” told you to or not. So when it comes to police abuse, I don’t care whether it’s politician-approved violence or “illegal” violence. Either way it’s wrong, and it’s up to ALL OF US to stop it.

But how do we do that?

Police are human beings, and whenever we can, we should begin by appealing to their reason and morality, by trying to persuade them to do the right thing, including disobeying immoral orders. However, such appeals only work on people who still have the ability to reason and to judge right from wrong. Unfortunately, a whole lot of people in “law enforcement” don’t fit that description. I don’t know what those shiny badges they wear are made of, but sometimes it definitely seems like wearing a badge causes a type of brain damage, making a person incapable of judging right from wrong, incapable of thinking for himself, and giving him a twisted, backwards
view of reality.

Of course, not every cop is the same, and they shouldn’t all be treated the same. When we approach someone in uniform or they approach us, we don’t have to start by being defensive and angry. If they can be calm, polite, considerate and rational, we should also be calm, polite, considerate and rational. I’ll be the first to admit, that’s not always how I’ve approached police. I consider their job to be inherently immoral, and I’ve done my share of screaming at them, which I now view as less than effective in most cases.

While not every cop is the same, and some are less violent than others, I would think of a GOOD cop as one who would stop a BAD cop when he sees him doing something wrong…and that rarely – if ever -happens. This is not to say that all cops are inherently evil, but as a whole they very much seem to think and act like any other street gang. In the event that a police officer with a conscience tries to stop or speaks out against violence or injustice perpetrated by his fellow officers, he is said to have “broken the blue code,” and will usually be condemned, ostracized, threatened and intimidated. If he isn’t terminated outright for doing the right thing, he will usually be bullied into resigning. In other words, the system as it now stands, instead of weeding out the bad cops, weeds out the good ones.

This reinforcing of bad behavior comes not just from other individual officers, but from police unions, and the official policies of entire police departments. For example, the Dallas police department just issued a policy allowing cops involved in shootings–as shooters or witnesses–to say nothing about what happened for 72 hours, giving them time to review any available video or other evidence before saying anything. The purpose of this policy seems pretty clear: to make it so that cops don’t get caught blatantly lying, in reports and under oath about such incidents, as has occurred over and over again in the past. Obviously, the agenda here is not to get to the truth and expose the truth, but to cover it up.

When the truth can’t be covered up, police departments will still usually make excuses for misconduct. Rarely does an officer face any retribution, even for committing violent, criminal acts. Often they even get REWARDED. When you hear that an officer has been suspended with pay, what that actually means is that he was given a paid vacation for his actions. If that doesn’t reinforce bad behavior, I don’t know what does. The average cop knows that, nine times out of ten, whatever he does he will receive unconditional support from his peers and superiors. The resulting “us versus them” mentality among cops has been getting worse and worse in recent years, to the point now where many police departments are essentially telling the public, “we not only view police abuse as acceptable, we encourage it.” Then they wonder why so many people now hate cops.

So whenever dealing with the police, make sure you know what consequences to expect. Dealing with police can be like dealing with wild animals: sometimes you might want to talk softly and move slowly just out of self-preservation. If you go in yelling, with arms waving, you may very well get viciously attacked. Then again, the creature known as “law enforcer” can be very unpredictable, and even if unprovoked, might decide to tase you, cage you, or kill you. This is more true now than ever, with the police state growing as it has been, and the politician’s hired guns becoming more and more hostile and violent.

But there’s an important distinction to be made here. On the one hand, we should remain calm and polite, unless THEY make things confrontational and violent. On the other hand, it would be a huge mistake to act as if their misconduct is okay with us. Often, remaining civil is a good idea, whether it’s because you’re trying to win them over with logic and compassion, or just because you’re trying to avoid being assaulted. But we should never talk or act as if we think those shiny badges give them special authority and extra rights.

In most cases, if they are doing something immoral, we can peacefully point out to them that they are the bad guys, that we don’t view their actions as legitimate; that we don’t view them as protectors, but as aggressors. It may be uncomfortable, even scary to do this, but it is important that we make it uncomfortable for them to mindlessly follow orders. Don’t try to win them over by pretending that what they do is legitimate or just, or by condoning or making excuses for their actions. Our end goal is peaceful coexistence, an end of violent aggression, but if you’re so eager to get along that you will excuse and tolerate oppression, you aren’t helping peace or justice, you’re just reinforcing the idea in THEIR minds that they’re supposed to treat you that way.

There are a lot of practical suggestions about things to do or not do whenever you come face to face with someone with a badge. Most of you know most of these already, but it can be difficult to keep them in mind when you’re under duress or being physically assaulted. Things like: don’t ever consent to questioning or searches, always record the actions of the police, get their badge numbers and names, call attention to what they are doing to try to get as many witnesses as possible–and witnesses with cameras are obviously especially valuable.

But then there is the more uncomfortable question. When things get really bad, if those wearing badges are brutally assaulting someone, or are about to kill someone, when do you stop talking, and actually intervene? And yes, I mean by force if necessary; I mean doing whatever it takes to stop the aggressors with badges from harming innocent people. When do you put down the camera, and break out the fists? Or the guns? I know it’s an uncomfortable topic, and I don’t presume to tell anyone else what their answer should be, or where they should draw that line. But think of it this way: if a group of people–uniformed or not–were in the process of beating you to death, while a couple dozen others were watching, what would YOU want the spectators to do for YOU? Whatever it is, do that. The bottom line is, unless the police know we HAVE such a line, they will assume they can get away with absolutely anything, including outright murder.

When watching yet another example of police brutality, whether on YouTube or right in front of your face, it’s easy to think of THAT as the problem. In reality, each individual case of police abuse is merely a symptom of a larger problem. Whatever injustice happens in front of you, or happens to be caught on tape, know that thousands of cops are doing worse and getting away with it. Yes, sometimes we have to treat the symptom, especially if someone’s life depends upon it. But treating the symptoms won’t fix the problem until we identify and defeat the underlying disease, which is authoritarianism.

When it comes to the symptoms, there are many ways to create deterrence, whether it’s by appealing to a cop’s conscience, or shaming him, or even scaring him away. Sometimes mere words can accomplish it; sometimes injustice can only be stopped by using opposite and equal force to stop the aggression of the agents of the state. But the ultimate solution is to end the mentality and philosophy which makes those symptoms happen in the first place.

The idea that legislation, and badges and uniforms, actually grant special authority and special rights to certain people, making it okay for them to forcibly control, extort, assault and cage others who have harmed no one, that is the lie that has to go. And right now, not only do those in law enforcement believe that lie, but most of their victims, and most of the general public, believe that lie as well. Until we can destroy that lie, and help people to realize that we each own ourselves and that no one has the right to rule another, expect the symptoms to keep getting worse. As long as the people think we NEED to be dominated and controlled by government, we will be. But when the people finally figure out that society should be free, with no masters and no slaves, that is what we will have.

A quick message to the people who wear the badges. You’ve probably noticed that more and more people distrust, fear, and hate the police. Have you ever asked yourself why that is? Has the whole world turned into malicious criminals, who just can’t stand you dishing out righteous justice? Or are YOU doing things which are giving more and more people good reason to resent and despise you? If someone was talking about having to forcibly defend themselves against ME, I would at least wonder if I was doing something to deserve that. Do you hear people talking about forcibly resisting plumbers, or mechanics? I don’t. Why is that? If you’re only here to protect people, and to perform a service, why do you suppose more and more people are arming themselves – mentally and physically – for a possible violent confrontation with you?

You CAN choose not to do something that makes so many people hate you. Good people won’t need to forcibly resist you if you choose not to inflict injustice on them in the first place. And saying it’s your “job” doesn’t make it okay, and won’t make your victims or their families any more happy about it. The fastest, most peaceful way for oppression to end is for agents of the state to refuse to commit it. If you don’t want people to call you a fascist, don’t BE a fascist.

Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/josie-the-outlaw-wales-people-call-fascist-fascist/#FT8t1dQGzgfAuiET.99