We Are Awake by Oscar Saunders

WE ARE

AWAKE

A COMPARISON OF PROTEST & POWER / by Oscar Saunders

P R E LU D E You hear a lot of people talking about waking up these days. And it’s true, we do need to wake up. There’s a lot going on that we are just simply not paying attention to. But there’s multiple layers to waking up. In each layer you’re presented with an opportunity to go back to sleep. Sometimes you don’t even know it. Sometimes you just do. Part of the waking up process is staying awake. Staying active and informed. Keeping resilient and inquisitive. Questioning the strength of the people. The motives of the higher powers. And the powers of those who are supposed to protect. We are aware. We are awake. “The seeds of dissent soon grow into the trees of resistance which form the wilderness of revolution, so start planting.”

- Charles Shaw

AGG RESS ION

Adam Kokesh An Introduction to Freedom

A Piece of Pawel Kuczynski Passive Protest Through Pencil & Paper

Man Made Anonymity One Size Fits All

A Brief History of The Molotov Cocktail

Distributed Denial of Service The LOIC Protest

Aggression & Progression Objects of Protest

Oppression & Persuasion Objects of Policing

“We Are The Police.” End Of Watch

L.A.P.D. Body Cams

From The Mempo To The Military

Wrongs Against Rights On Camera 2013

The US Epidemic Of Police Brutality

OPP RESS ION

Adam Kokesh is a Marine Veteran who fought in the Iraq war and is leading the fight for American human rights against tyrannical Policing and Government policies. He has a regular slot on Russia Today News & podcast.

ADAM KOKESH

An Introduction to F R E E D O M

Q “YOU, as a free, beautiful, independent human being with inalienable rights, own yourself. As a result, you can do what you want with your own body and own the product of your labour. The implication is that it is morally wrong to INITIATE force against someone else OR their property, because to do so is to violate their rights. Therefore, all human interactions should be free of force, fraud, and coercion and people should be free to exercise their rights, limited only by respect for the rights of others. When you learned “don’t hit” and “don’t steal,” it wasn’t “unless you work for the government.” When you learned thou shalt not kill, it wasn’t “unless your dear leader gives you a gun and a uniform and a one way ticket to the other side of the world.” Government is force, an opinion with a gun, and force is a poor substitute for persuasion. Governments frighten us into thinking we need them, but with knowledge, philosophy, and technology, we are empowering ourselves and each other to have the courage to move past the paradigm of statism and restrain government to only moral uses of force, at least until we replace it with the cooperative, free market solutions, that will soon render it obsolete.”

â&#x20AC;&#x153;

I like black humor, so my works reflect it. Our reality is sad and, as a consequence, my sense of humor is black.

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A Piece of

PAWEL KUCZYNSKI PASSIVE PROTEST

through PENCIL & PAPER

A short interview with the Polish satirical illustrator.

awel Kuczynsky was born in 1976 in Szczecin (Poland). Pawel graduated from the Fine Arts Academy in Poznan with specialization in graphics. Recently his work has been mainly focused on satirical illustration, questioning the dark relationship we have with political, economic and cultural issues. // Interview by Kyle A. Sorrell for Fluster Magazine.

Hi Pawel, where are you now and what’s the weather like? I’m now in my hometown Police. It’s a small city in Poland (a country in the middle of Europe, between sea and mountains, between spring and winter). Who is Pawel Kuczynski? How did you first get started as an artist? I always liked to draw. Some time ago, one of my friends told me about a cartoon competition. ..so in 2004 I started my new adventure. It was new challenge, drawing about special subjects, and for people from all of the world. ..so, I’m a competition drawer. Who or what would you say your biggest inspiration is? The reality is so twisted, crazy and absurd, that it is rather hard to compete with it.. and this reality gives me inspiration. I just try to honestly draw my observations. What medium/ materials do you use to create your art? My workshop is very simply. I use watercolour, ecoline and colour pencils on paper. How do you go about creating your art? What are your methods? I just observe reality. I put this informations in my head.. and I wait for the results. In our time it’s very easy.

How long does it normally take you to complete a work of art?

A significant amount of your works seems to take place during “dusk”, or at least has lighting similar If I already have something to “dusk.” Any particular in my head (.. and it is a reason for this? good idea) I need about two days to draw. I like Carravaggio and other baroque painting. I love this theatrical What are your favourite light. It’s very helpful in themes/subjects to arranging the composition illustrate? and in storytelling in my works. I’m observer (as I said before). A number of your works I like to observe people feature rice farmers, and their relationships. usually hunched over so as to pick up or set down We all live together on this something. Any particular world, for so many years reason for this? but we keep doing the same mistakes. You are talking about Chinese workers. War, poverty, hunger, racial division, ecology, Yes, sometimes I use money… I like draw about this symbol. It’s the new these themes, because symbol of our time, when they are immortal and we think about cheap timeless as the art. workers, modern slaves etc. Would you say your art is defined by your sense of humour? If so, how so? I hope so. I want to believe, that I have sense of humour.. I like black humour, so my works reflect it. Our reality is sad and, as a consequence, my sense of humour is black.

Do you travel much? If so, what were your favourite locations? Would you want to return to any of these places? Yes, I travel a lot. It’s a part of my life. I travel to open my exhibition. I travel on the prize giving ceremony

(as a competition cartoonist, sometimes I win awards) I saw many places, it is important and also a great pleasure for me to meet interesting people. Recently I was in Tehran in Iran. It’s a strange country (with this religious authority), but young peoples are so open and are so enthusiastic, though they live in this regime. What demographic is your art made for? What age groups buy or comment on your work the most? I don’t know how it’s possible, but lately I find my works on many websites. All started a year ago. It’s amazing, that people found me and they are interested in my work. You are one of them. It’s amazing how small our world is!

The web is place of young peoples and most comments are from them.. and especially from young girls. I don’t know why. Maybe I’m too lyrical and sentimental.. Are you working at a new project? I have a plan to start working at a new project.. with my friend, who is sculptor.. but it’s still an idea. I hope to start this project this year. I would tell you, but for now it’s a secret. What are you having for dinner tonight? Nothing, after winter I’m a little bit too heavy. ..so I have to lose weight or I could destroy my beautiful bicycle. I love to ride.

Visit Pawel’s website @ www.pawelkuczynski.com

“ Ninety nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses. GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER

“

â&#x20AC;&#x153;

Remember, remember the 5th of November, the gunpowder treason and plot.

â&#x20AC;?

MANMADE A N

O Q

uy Fawkes masks, immortalized in the movie “V for Vendetta,” have become a global symbol of protest and anonymity through the Occupy Wall Street movement and the Arab Spring. “The Guy Fawkes mask has now become a common brand and a convenient placard to use in protest against tyranny — and I’m happy with people using it. It seems quite unique, an icon of popular culture being used this way,” British graphic novel artist David Lloyd, the man who created the original image of the mask for a comic strip written by Alan Moore, told BBC.

The global event, organized by the amorphous hacker group Anonymous, is sure to irk authorities as Guy Fawkes masks transform identifiable citizens into anonymous dissidents. “My feeling is the Anonymous group needed an all-

N Y M I T Y

ne size fits all.

purpose image to hide their identity and also symbolize that they stand for individualism — V for Vendetta is a story about one person against the system,” Lloyd told BBC. Canada recently passed a law that bans the wearing of masks during a riot or unlawful assembly and carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence, so it will be interesting to see what happens there. Reuters notes that these masks in Brazil are manufactured for sale to stores specializing in costumes. An interesting note is that Time Warner, one of the largest media companies in the world and parent of Warner Brothers, owns the rights to the image and is paid a licensing fee with the sale of each mask. In 2011 purported members of Anonymous told CNN that activists were ordering masks mass-produced and shipped in from Asia so that Time Warner didn’t receive the loyalties. On the 5th of November, anonymous citizens, all around the world, gathered for the Million Mask March.

Guy Fawkes masks, used by many demonstrators in protests around the world and in the recent wave of demonstrations in Brazil, are pictured at a factory assembly line in Sao Goncalo near Rio de Janeiro. // June 28, 2013.

Pictures courtesy of Ricardo Moraes / REUTERS

A Guy Fawkes m hangs on a w ask (C) a ll variou s other next to ma Brazilia n polit sks of i a facto ry in Sa cians, at o Go near R io de Ja ncalo neir June 28 o on , 2013.

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Free Sy ria joke ar n Army fight ou ers Fawkes nd with a Gu y m suburb ask in Jobar, a of Septem Damascus, ber 22, 2013.

Demon st Fawkes rators with G uy m to the P asks march ortugu ese parliam ent in L is June 27 , 2013. bon

A prote ste a Guy F r wearing awkes ma carries an Occ sk up Wall St reet pla y c a front o f the Re rd in ich buildin g durin stag g an Occup yB denou erlin protest nci bankin ng current ga indust nd financial ry prac tic Berlin Novem es in ber 12, 2011.

Anti-go ve protest rnment ers dem o in Ank ara Jun nstrate e 4, 201 3.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE

MOLOTOV COCKTAIL

Finland’s Secret Weapon: The Liquor Bottle

or approximately 70 years it was the great equalizer of urban warfare. Until the adoption of diesel engines in main battle tanks, the humble Molotov cocktail was the poor man’s anti-tank missile.

It was cheaply and quickly made, relatively lightweight and easily concealed. It was the one plentiful weapon that enabled poorly armed insurgents, or rag-tag partisans, to stand their ground against an attacker with armoured vehicles. The lowly petrol bomb’s shining moment in history came in October, 1956, when the people of Hungary rose up against the communists. It was the Molotov cocktail that enabled them to briefly seize control of central Budapest. The most powerful image from that rebellion was that of a Freedom Fighter hurling his gasoline bomb at a hulking 32-ton Stalin tank. By the time the Hungarian Uprising was crushed by the Red Army, the street-fighters of Budapest had destroyed an estimated 400 Soviet tanks, three-quarters of that number with Molotov cocktails or similar variants of improvised explosive devices. In the world’s most chronically troubled regions the Molotov cocktail remains a part of insurgent’s arsenals today. Although its usefulness against contemporary tanks has greatly diminished, it retains its power as a symbol of defiance. There is some debate over the exact date and location of the first battle in which one side or the other deployed large numbers of petrol bombs. But historians generally agree that the first formal deployment of

the Molotov cocktail by an organized army occurred during the Spanish Civil War in September, 1936. Francisco Franco’s Fascist army was slowly tightening a noose around Madrid. One of the vital points on its expanding perimeter was the ancient city of Toledo, some 30 miles southwest of downtown Madrid and near one of the major highways linking the capitol to the Mediterranean ports where the Loyalists received the bulk of their foreign arms shipments, including the first significant shipment of modern tanks and mechanized artillery sent to them by Josef Stalin. Both Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini were gearing-up to send even bigger shipments to Franco, but conspicuously absent were up-todate anti-tank weapons. Such cannon were urgently needed as a defense against the large formations of T-26 and T-28 tanks the Loyalists were massing just east and north of Toledo. Madrid’s defenders planned to take advantage of this temporary superiority to break the siege by means of the largest, most ambitious offensive operation undertaken by either side. The eastward approaches to Toledo offered good terrain for tanks, so that was the sector they planned to hit first and hardest. The arrival of those Soviet tanks was hardly a secret, and Franco’s soldiers, few of whom had ever seen an armoured vehicle, much less faced one

in battle, were decidedly nervous about the prospect. Not long before the Loyalist artillery opened-up with its pre-attack barrage, however, Franco’s most exposed infantry units were bolstered by the arrival of truck-loads of “bottle-bombs” accompanied by crudely mimeographed user manuals and cursory instruction by a hastily organized training cadre. When the offensive began, the Loyalist tankers , enthusiastic amateurs that they were, displayed such reckless aggression that their armoured wedges frequently advanced far beyond contact with the infantry assigned to protect them from close-range assault. The tactical situation was close-to-ideal for the use of hand-thrown petrol bombs. Once Franco’s soldiers saw the T-28s bursting into flames, they quickly regained the initiative and began to go tank-hunting with a vengeance. The effectiveness of the new device was so dramatic that it may have been the deciding factor in repelling the entire Loyalist counter-attack. This was the first, and the last, time during Spanish conflict that Molotov cocktails were used in prolific numbers. Not long after the battle for Toledo, Franco started deploying his own armoured formations, and both sides pitted tank-against-tank whenever possible.

(Left) A column of Soviet tanks, post-cocktail party. (Right) Molotov’s are still used today against armoured vehicles.

Vyachislav Molotov, Stalin’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, did not see his name attached to the petrol bomb until December, 1939, during the early battles of the Winter War. Molotov asserted during interviews on Radio Moscow, that the Soviet planes in the skies over Finland were dropping humanitarian supplies rather than bombs and the Red Army was attempting to liberate the Finnish people. The Finnish soldiers’ response to the lies was one of sardonic black humour: Soviet bombs were thereafter referred to as “Molotov’s Picnic Baskets”, and what more appropriate way to greet those masses of “liberating” tanks than with a Molotov cocktail? That’s how the legend goes, anyway. As an explosive the Molotov cocktail is small potatoes. But, it wasn’t the explosion that destroyed a targeted tank. What caused the real, historical Molotov cocktail to be such a giant-slayer was its near-perfect match with the tank’s own built-in Achilles heel. Most contemporary main battle tanks run on diesel fuel, which is too viscose and has too high a kindling point to set on fire easily but tanks of the World War II era ran on petrol engines. And, since it was highly desirable for the crews to be able to refuel their tanks as quickly as possible, many vehicles were designed with fuel tanks high in the chassis and easily accessible, via hinged fuelling ports cut into the side armour panels or into the steel grille covering the engine itself. This common design compromise permitted rapid refuelling under stressful conditions but, it also meant that a redhot shell fragment, or a tracer round fired at such close range that it was still glowing when it struck, could easily touch-off the whole fuel supply, with highly unpleasant consequences for the crewmen inside. Like fighter pilots, who also rode into battle strapped to a large quantity of

high-octane fuel, tank crews simply learned how to not think about certain possibilities that came with their jobs. Ironically, the same ventilation system that made it possible for a Molotov cocktail to penetrate the turret also protected the crew from another quieter but more insidious danger: the possibility of being asphyxiated by that silent, invisible assassin, carbon monoxide. Most tank engines were installed behind and under the turret-ring which meant that the toxic exhaust fumes tended to drift into the turret unless diverted away by mechanical means. Without a reliable exhaust/air-circulation system to expel the toxic fumes and bring in fresh air from outside, the turret would also turn into a steel coffin after about an hour. Most of the exhaust fumes were carried away by a simple metal duct, not unlike the exhaust pipe on the family auto, but some amount of carbon monoxide inevitably seeped upwards and penetrated the turret, and the simplest, most efficient way of neutralizing that danger was to draw fresh air inside by means of a simple intake valve or a portal of some kind, augmented by small induction fans. That was a World War II tank’s Achilles heel; that portal or chamber where the outside air interfaced with the stale, noxious air inside the crew’s compartment; that was the bull’s eye that every tank-hunting team aimed for with their petrol bombs. If a sufficient amount of flaming gasoline got sucked into the turret, there was a good chance it would ignite one or more rounds of ready ammo, which was usually stored in a rack near the main gun’s breech. When that happened, the result was gruesome. It was not the Molotov cocktail itself that caused the destruction of so many tanks, but rather the secondary effects caused when its flames surged into the turret. Hitting the targeted vehicle anywhere else

would not produce decisive results, but it could blind the crew with smoke and damage their eyes with fumes. A certain percentage of Finnish cocktails contained tar, which would produce black, reeking smoke and make it impossible for the tank’s machine-gunner to draw a bead on the attackers. In the tense period of diplomatic wrangling that preceded the outbreak of the Winter War, the Finnish government had clung to the illusion that its proclaimed policy of official neutrality would be enough to deter Soviet aggression. Its delegates told Stalin that Finland would resist the annexation, by force, of any Finnish territory, no matter which nation launched an aggressive action, the obvious reference here was to Hitler’s Germany. But Stalin didn’t believe the Finns. Finland had welcomed German army units into the nation once before, at the turning point in the Civil War of 1918. What was to prevent it from doing so again? And even if the Finns’ assertion of neutrality were sincere, Molotov questioned how long and how effective the Finnish resistance would be against the German armed forces. He reiterated that Finland would not be allowed to stay neutral. By the late summer 1939, the Soviets had put their cards on the table. Finland’s government finally woke up to the fact that its army was in no condition to fight. Funds were allocated for the modernization of the armed forces, a process which, in most countries, required at least 18 months to be effective. Finland had just 18 weeks. Given the advanced state of mechanization in the Red Army, the Finn’s most glaring weakness was their lack of anti-tank weapons. Even with Stalin openly threatening annexation by force, the Finnish government engaged in protracted

debates and leisurely, routine field tests to decide what type of anti-tank cannon to adopt. Finally, the decision was made to purchase the sleek, manoeuvrable 37 mm. Bofors A/T cannon from Sweden (the very weapon Mannerheim had advised the Finns to buy, in large numbers, six months earlier), but by the time the contracts were signed, it was obvious that a Soviet attack was imminent. Railway bottlenecks complicated delivery; many of the first batch of Bofors guns arrived without sights or maintenance kits, and the Swedish training manuals had to be translated immediately. Most of the first gun crews trained on wooden mock-ups and did not even see a real, operational gun until just before they saw their first real Soviet tanks. By November 31, when the first bombs rained down on Helsinki, there were only two Bofors guns per regiment. In those locations where the Finns enjoyed Bofors-gun support, the Swedish cannon immediately proved its worth. At ranges of 500 meters or less, its shells could penetrate the armour of any enemy tank. But there simply weren’t enough of them to go around. Relatively few Finnish soldiers even saw a Bofors gun, much less enjoyed the support of one. It would be hard to exaggerate the psychological effect of those Soviet tanks on soldiers in the path of an entire armoured battalion. Mortar shells bounced off their turrets; hand grenades barely scratched the paint; anti-tank mines were in critically short supply and positioning them in front of a moving vehicle was an action that required nearsuicidal courage and exquisite timing. Mannerheim’s headquarters was deluged with pleas for more Bofors guns, more field artillery and more satchel charges. All of those things were in desperately short supply, and when headquarters did reply to the frontline units’ pleas, the message was the same, hour after hour: You have your order! Stay in your trenches

and repel the Red infantry! New anti-tank weapons are on their way to you now! And while the radio crackled with panic and terror, truck after supply truck was pulling into the clearings near a distribution site in the small town of Rajamaki, where an anonymous bureaucratic-looking building had suddenly become the most vital strategic target in Finland. If the Soviet bomber pilots had it marked on their maps, it was identified as the State Central Liquor Factory (its peacetime designation) and not the Center for AntiTank Research and Development, which was its new unofficial title. When the diplomatic talks showed signs of collapsing in mid-October, Mannerheim had ordered the formation a contingency planning board, comprising some of the army’s best experts in the field of tank and anti-tank technology. As Chairman of this ad-hoc panel, he appointed Capt. Eero Kuitinnen, an ordnance specialist commanding a company of elite Border Guard Pioneers. Kuittinen’s soldiers spent a lot of time focusing on a range of tactical options that might be effective if they were called upon to block the advance of a Soviet mechanized column in the forest north of Lake Ladoga, but what if the invader tried different combinations of units, from multiple directions? Nothing could be taken for granted. Despite the recent purges, Stalin’s Red Army had shown itself to be progressive in terms of weapons and support techniques. Working with minimal funds and under enormous pressures of time and circumstance, Kuittinen and his Pioneers wrote the manual as they went along, working under the code name Pioneer Technical and Feasibility Study Number One. For a weapon with exactly one moving part -the fuse- the new massproduction anti-tank missile proved to be far from simple. by William Trotter

A Greek Policeman is hit with a Molotov cocktail during the Athens riots, in front of parliament. // February 23, 2011

DISTRIBUTED

DENIAL

ofTheSERVICE LOIC* Protest

* LOIC, stands for Low Orbit Ion Cannon, present in many sci-fi games, television shows and films.

ow Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC, pictured above) was originally developed by Praetox Technologies as an open-source network stress testing tool. It allowed developers to subject their servers to heavy network traffic loads for diagnostic purposes, but it has since been modified in the public domain through various updates and been widely used by Anonymous as a DDoS tool (Distributed Denial of Service).

LOIC (which runs on both Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X) is a flooding tool used to generate a massive amount of network traffic in order to utilize network or application resources. Such a high rate of traffic results in performance degradation and potentially a loss of service. A user armed with LOIC can perform a denial-of-service (DoS) attack on a target site by flooding its server with illegitimate TCP, UDP, or HTTP packets. On its own, one computer running LOIC cannot generate enough TCP, UDP, or HTTP requests at once to overwhelm the average web server. It takes thousands of computers all targeting a single server to have any real impact. The IRC-based “Hive Mind” mode enables a LOIC user to connect his or her copy of LOIC to an IRC channel in order to receive a target and other attack parameters via an IRC topic message. Using many copies of LOIC running in Hive Mind mode across many computers, a third party such as the “hacktivist” group Anonymous can take control of each copy of LOIC simultaneously. With thousands of copies of LOIC attacking a single target, the effect on network performance can be much more significant than that of a “normal” coordinated LOIC attack. Hive Mind mode effectively lets anyone with a computer participate in a distributed denial-of-service attack, as LOIC requires very little computer literacy to operate. LOIC has been used in several well-known attacks against large organizations including but not limited to Anonymous’ Project Chanology, Operation Payback, and OpSony. Over 30,000 downloads of LOIC were recorded between the 8th and 10th of December 2010

when Anonymous organized attacks on the websites of companies and organizations that opposed Wikileaks. Since LOIC was utilized by a vast number of attackers in conjunction with a few advanced users employing their large botnets to launch additional DDoS attacks, many of the targeted sites suffered outages. While LOIC is simple and effective, it does not make any attempt to spoof its users’ IP addresses, and most volunteers running LOIC are unaware of this lack of anonymity. If any form of non-anonymous attack is not routed through an anonymizer such as Tor, I2P, or some form of proxy server, the attacker’s IP address can be logged by his or her target. An ISP can then use a list of logged attacking IP addresses to identify the individuals participating in an attack, allowing for the proper law enforcement actions to be taken against them. Several countries including the United States have taken legal actions against LOIC attackers based on the IP information. On January 27, 2011, five people were arrested in the UK in connection with the Operation Payback attacks, while in June 2011 another three LOIC users were arrested in Spain for their involvement in other attacks. On June 14 2011, Turkish police arrested 32 individuals who allegedly attacked government websites in protest against the introduction of state level web filtering; these individuals are thought to be members of Anonymous that used the LOIC tool as a means of protest. As a result of various arrests, LOIC’s popularity began to decline towards the end of 2011.

SSION & AG G R GRE E S RO S I O &P N

ION & PROG S S E RES GR G SIO &A N N O & SI

ON SI

ROGRESSION P & N &A O I S GG S E RE R G S AG

& P

N SIO ES GR RO

& AGGRESSION

&P R O G R E S

SIO

N & OP

PRE S S I O N

P E R

S U A

UA S I O N & O P P R

ERS

E S S

O N & PE R

ES PR

N& R S UA S I O PE & N IO RE

SSI E R PP

“

THE I’M

POLICE.

And I’m here to arrest you. You’ve

broken the

LAW.NOT I DID

write the law.

I WILL

But

ENFORCE IT.

No matter how you plead,

cajole,

BEG or

ATTEMPTsympathies, to stir my

NOTHING YOU DO

WILL STOP ME

from placing you in a steel cage with grey bars.

I WILL

If you run away, CHASE YOU. If you fight me, FIGHT BACK. If you shoot at me, SHOOT BACK.

LAW , I’M A

I am unable to walk away.

CONSEQUENCE.

I AM THE UNPAID BILL. I am FATE with a badge and a gun.

HEART

Behind my badge is a

like yours.

And

bleed. think. love.

YES,

I can be

killed. ONE

And although I’m but

MAN,

I have thousands of brothers and sisters who are the same as me. They will lay down their lives for me. WE stand watch

A thin blue line.

PROTECTING the prey from the predators. The from the

GOOD WE ARE THE BAD.

“

TOGETHER.

AND I THEM.

POLICE.

- Jake Gyllenhaal, End Of Watch

LAPD B O DY CAMS The new Police Body Cameraâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s look a little something like this, and will be set to record 24/7.

ne of the largest law enforcement departments in the United States wants to give BODY-WORN CAMERAS to all of its officers, but the spectre of constant surveillance is raising privacy issues for both police and the suspects caught on video.

Led by newly installed President of the Los Angeles Police Commission Steve Soboroff, the Los Angeles Police Department is ramping up a campaign to raise private funds for the new technology. Soboroff already has secured about $500,000 from Hollywood figures like media executive Casey Wasserman and DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, which gets him halfway toward his goal to give cameras to 1,500 LAPD officers, reports the Associated Press. Soboroff hopes to have cameras for all on-shift officers within a year, reports the LA Daily News. A pilot study conducted on the 66-officer police department in nearby Rialto, Calif., found that complaints against police officers dropped 88 percent and use of force by an officer dropped by almost 60 percent after instituting bodyworn cameras, according to The New York Times. The LAPD, which employs about 10,000 officers, paid out $24,154,957 in settlements related to civil rights violations or traffic accidents in 2011, which means there is a financial incentive -- besides the potential reduction of police brutality or false abuse allegations -- for the cameras to work. But the effort to reduce abuse could bring up a host of potential privacy violations. Peter Bibring, a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, points out that the introduction of body-worn cameras needs to come with strong policies that severely restrict access to the footage and protect the privacy of people caught on camera. “Police officers often interact with people who are in vulnerable states, or not at their best,” said Bibring in an interview with The Huffington Post. “The fact that video is being taken for accountability purposes does not mean it should end up on the evening news.” As an example, Bibring brought up the dash-cam video taken of movie star Reese Witherspoon’s drunken arrest in Atlanta. While it was filmed on the street where Witherspoon had no expectation of privacy, Bibring pointed out that the video was “very embarrassing,” and ended up leaking from the police department. “[These videos] shouldn’t be accessible to anyone else in the department,” said Bibring. “Not only should they not be shared with the evening news, they shouldn’t be emailed around the office.”

emphasized similar concerns about officers’ privacy: “Balancing everyone’s right to privacy with technology that could, in effect, capture every moment of every day, will be our emphasis as we consider and negotiate work rules,” said a LAPPL statement released Monday. “Among other issues, recording a very personal moment or a deeply visceral reaction to a violent or tragic crime scene may serve no purpose other than to satisfy morbid curiosity and embarrass someone.”

“I would like to see

THE ENTIRE

COUNTRY move in that direction.”

The LAPPL also emphasized that video or images alone are not “complete investigations,” and shouldn’t be used to encourage a “gotcha” mentality within the department. When contacted Wednesday by HuffPost, the LAPD had no comment on the privacy issues related to body cameras. But some police watchdogs believe that donning the uniform means officers should expect extra public scrutiny at all times. Diop Kamau, the founder of an independent police oversight body called PoliceAbuse.com, was a police officer in Hawthorne, Calif., and has strong opinions about the privacy police officers should expect when they sign up for the job.

“What [police] do in public when they’re in their uniform is something that they should be comfortable with letting people view at a later date,” said Kamau to HuffPost. “It’s about openness and accountability.” Kamau also pointed out that because of the widespread use of smartphones, the public is already routinely surveilling the police, whether or not officers realize it. “I think that if any [department] needed cameras, it’s the The Los Angeles Police Protective LAPD,” he continued. “I would like to see League, a union for LAPD officers, the entire country move in that direction.”

Police departments in Iowa, Texas, North Carolina and Arizona, to name a few, have experimented with body-worn cameras. The question of public access to footage obtained by police is a murky one. Michael Donaldson, a partner at Beverly Hills law firm Donaldson & Callif specializing in fair use and privacy issues, said he believes body-camera footage is part of the public domain because it probably can’t be copyrighted by a police department and it is a public record created by a public employee. But whether the public should have access to the footage is a different question entirely, he said, and gets at possibly the most important legal issue surrounding the body-camera footage. “The privacy issues are paramount,” said Donaldson to HuffPost. “For instance, if the cops were to break down your door, you’d have a legitimate expectation of privacy in your home. Therefore, that footage would invade your privacy if it were shown outside of strictly, tightly controlled police usage.” “What’s new about the technology?” added Donaldson. “It’s a small, hidden camera. The [privacy] law is the same.” Still, he conceded that without a video from an officer’s lapel camera to examine, the issues were all hypothetical and have yet to be tested in court. Bibring has been vocal about the specific protections needed if body cameras go mainstream. He recommended that video be uploaded securely and that sharing the footage with other departments or agencies be limited. He also suggested a log-in system for the video database, so that officers would have to identify themselves and outline their reasons for accessing past footage. Bibring warned against what he called “ubiquitous surveillance” -- like officers scanning videos to note who attended a protest. “People should be aware that they’re being recorded, and there’s a question of whether they’re properly public records,” said Bibring. “They shouldn’t be publicized with the identity of the individual, but certainly the person being recorded should have access to it.” The LAPD is still in the process of outfitting patrol cars with dashboard cameras, a reform instituted after the 1991 beating of Rodney King by LA officers. So far, a quarter of the department’s 1,200 patrol cars have been equipped, notes the AP. by Anna Almendrala for The Huffington Post

“ Soldiers can sometimes make decisions that are smarter than the orders they’ve been given. Orson Scott Card

“

FROM THE

* MEMPO T O T H E

MILITARY

* Mempo, is the term for various types of facial armour worn by the samurai class and their retainers in feudal Japan.

The Taiwan Special Forces masks mirror something straight out of a game.

edieval Japanese armor featured a The United States has also used the ballistic number of masks and face guards, mask for small teams in Iraq & Afghanistan,

each of which had a different name and style. To a certain extent, all Japanese armored masks were designed for two purposes: first, to protect the wearer’s face in combat and, second, to terrify or intimidate the viewer. The mempo-style mask covered the wearer’s face from nose to chin, and often featured a scowling mouth and a moustache (with or without a beard, and frequently made from real hair or bristles).

It’s been a long time since a fighter has had the opportunity to wear such a ferocious statement into battle, yet in October 2013, the Taiwan military ran a parade for it’s forces and showcased their latest development for Special Forces protective face-wear. The result, is something really quite terrifying. (See image right) Forget Halloween, these might possibly be the scariest costumes you’ll see in a lifetime.Taiwanese Special Forces, Riot Police and a select few other military units recently received updated bulletproof armour that includes a ballistic face mask that serves to protect operators from lethal headshots and to reduce fighting effectiveness of opposing forces, seemingly by causing them to immediately curl into the foetal position and cry for their mothers.

as well as during the drug war of the 1980s. A handful of these guys approaching is likely enough to disconcert even the most hardened cartel enforcer, but an entire platoon marching in lockstep is so terrifying we assume the weapons they’re carrying are just for show.

Each ballistic mask is apparently rated to block close-range shots from a .44 magnum – which, if our extensive video game experience is any indication, is a hell of a weapon. It should be noted, however, that the mask distributes the impact of a bullet over a relatively small surface area, meaning a headshot, while not lethal to the mask wearer, is sure to ruin his day and probably his dating prospects for a very long time. Other than the obvious added protection and intimidation factor of the masks, there is one other possible explanation for the Taiwanese government issuing them: they don’t want us to realize that they’ve actually just introduced a horrifying army of supersoldier Boba Fett clones. The masks closely resemble that of the video game ‘Army of Two’ (See image top) in which the player fights as an elite duo both equipped with bulletproof masks. The resemblance of which is uncanny, and worrying.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Government is force, an opinion with a gun, and force is a poor substitute for persuasion.â&#x20AC;? - Adam Kokesh

WRONGS AGAINST

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2013

(Above) A military policeman from the special unit Chope fires a tear gas gun late on June 19, 2013 to disperse protesters during clashes in the center of Niteroi, 10 km from Rio de Janeiro. Protesters battled police late on June 19, even after Brazilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s two biggest cities rolled back the transit fare hikes that triggered two weeks of nationwide protests. (Below) A riot police officer throws a tear gas canister at students during a demonstration against the government to demand changes in the public state education system in Valparaiso city, Chile, on June 26, 2013. (Left) A student is knocked off a fence by a jet of water sprayed by riot police, during a protest against the government to demand changes in the public state education system, in Santiago, Chile, on June 26.

A dem onstrat or is shot by rub bullets b er as riot p o charge l after cl ice a s hes erupte d durin g a prote st again s t corrup tion an d p Rio de rice hikes in Janeiro , Brazil . -Christ ophe S imon / Getty / AFP Images

Michae lK and Joh naapen who m n Becker, a years a rried seven go in T oronto Canad , a , r e ac news t hat the t to the Sup Court s truck d reme Defens o e of Ma wn the rriage A ct (DOMA ). -Jim Lo Scalzo / EPA / Landov

An ant i-g protest overnment er giv to a Th es a rose the De ai soldier at fense M during inistry a rally in Bangko k. -AP Ph oto Wanich /Wason akorn, File

A topless man kicks a activ Ukrain ist of the ian movem feminist ent Fem as she raises h en er fist to p Islamis rotest agains t ts in Great M front of the osque of Pari s -Fred D ufour / AFP / Getty I mages

A Bahr ain protest i anti-govern er me flames is engulfed in nt aft riot po er a shot fire d lice hit the gas by bomb ol in his h and th ine was pr a t eparin g to thr he ow. -Hasan Jamali / AP

Riot po lic rights a e guard gay ct been b ivists who ha ve ea protest ten by anti-ga ers dur y ing an author ize in St.Pe d gay rights r a tersbu rg, Rus lly sia. -Dmitr yL AP Pho ovetsky, File / to

A Turki sh uses te riot policem an ar gas a gainst a wom an protest as people agains tt destru ction o he f tre park br ought a es in a bout b a pede y stri in Taks an project, im central Square in Istanbu l. -Osma n Orsa l/ Reuter s

A coup le runs n police gathere ear riot d at the Garrin Mane cha Brasilia Stadium in , Brazil ,o before the int n Sept. 7 ern friendl y socce ational rm betwee n Brazi atch l and Austra lia. -Uesle iM Reuter arcelino / s

â&#x20AC;&#x153; It would be ugly to watch people poking sticks at a caged rat. It is uglier still to watch rats poking sticks at a caged person. JEAN HARRIS

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