Police state America invades movie theaters

image credit: ClickOrlando

The American police state has invaded our movie theaters! Movie theaters are doing their part keeping Americans in fear!

AMC Theaters has begun running a "safety" message that says: "If you happen to see any suspiciously strange characters or bad agendas, report them to our crew."

Click here to see the AMC "safety" message.

AMC's "safety" message is really DHS's "See Something Say Something" spying program that's turned our neighbors into spies!

Watch out, that kid stuffing his face with popcorn and candy is suspicious! That kid who keeps fidgeting and leaving their seat every 20 minutes might be a terrorist! This is the absurd reality of living in Police State America!

Leave it to the mass media to find a person who believes DHS's "safety" message that terrorists could
be watching movies, Lenore McHugh had this to say...

"I think it's good to make people aware because some people just go in the theater, sit down and they are not aware of what's going on around them because they're just looking forward," said McHugh.

Have we become so "terrorized" by the media that we believe it's forward-looking of DHS and movie theaters to post B.S. warnings that would make the Nazi's and the KGB jealous? By terrorized I mean the media sensationalizes the threat of terror to make a profit. Click here to read "Terrorism and the Media: A Dangerous Symbiosis."

At least one moviegoer voiced his disdain over increased security at movie theaters:

“What are you going to do? Put security guards with guns everywhere,” Steve Cooper threw out the idea but was not for it. He added, “I don’t want that.”

Back in 2014 I reported how "Movie Theaters & Doorman Are Spying On Americans. Don't forget the Motion Picture Association of America works closely with DHS, click here to read more.

AMC Theaters is not the only theater to jump on the everyone's a potential terrorist bandwagon. "Studio Movie Grill"(SMG) which is rapidly expanding across the country is doing its part to feed the flames.

Why should anyone care about SMG's expansion, after all isn't that democracy?

"With the help of our partner, Goldman Sachs, Studio Movie Grill is excited and grateful to have the opportunity to further establish our brand across the country," said Founder and CEO Brian Schultz.

"Studio Movie Grill announced it is expanding on both coasts once more with new locations announced in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Simi Valley, California as well as two new Texas theaters in North Dallas and Houston. Since its founding in 2000, Studio Movie Grill (SMG) has grown steadily from its Texas roots to what will soon be 24 locations in ten states by year's end. With the remodel and addition of 4 screens at its Plano, TX theater, 34 new screens will be in place by Q4 and 231 in total nationwide."

Goldman Sachs one of the most corrupt companies in America is helping SMG expand!

If you guessed Goldman Sachs has a close relationship with DHS give yourself a gold star. In fact former Goldman Sachs VP Chad Sweet was chief of staff at DHS and was Director of Operations for the CIA!

Steven A. Kerr, Chief Learning Officer at Goldman Sachs is on DHS's Homeland Security Advisory Council and as if that wasn't enough proof, Goldman Sachs is also a charter member of DHS's Financial Services Sector.

Back to SMG...

Brian Schultz the founder/owner and CEO of SMG, used to work as an aide to former senator Arlen Specter.

FYI, Senators Joe Lieberman and Arlen Specter introduced legislation to create the Department of Homeland Security in 2001!

Shultz is also one of the founding members of the Young Entrepreneurs Organization now known as "Entrepreneurs Organization" which has close ties to the TSA and DHS.

Dr. Lance Larson, PH.D. helped coordinate DHS and the Entrepreneurs Organization!

What does all this mean to the average moviegoer? It means DHS wants TSA like security in EVERY movie theater in America!

image credit: securityri

"Beefing up security at the nation's 5,000 theaters would be expensive, says the Los Angeles Times. Walk-through metal detectors cost about $5,000. In addition to the price of such devices, security systems require training personnel and paying their wages."

"Maintaining a strong security installation at a multiplex could cost between $250,000 and $1 million annually, says security consultant Michael Dorn. Such a system would include metal detectors, X-ray machines, workers to operate those devices and additional armed security."

"There's a difference between having a metal detector at the door and actually having effective screening," said Dorn, director of Safe Havens International. "My fear is that we may see theaters throw in metal detectors without proper utilization." Any changes that threaten to make the moviegoing experience less smooth would probably meet industry resistance.

If history is any indicator, it won't meet any "industry resistance" once DHS gives security grants that will put metal detectors in every movie theater across the country! How long before this becomes reality a year maybe two?

Senator Tony Avella has announced he's working on legislation for metal detectors at theaters, stadiums and malls!

"Avella is developing legislation that would require theater, indoor mall and stadium owners to provide enhanced security."

"Avella said he knows it will cost money, so he plans to include as part of the legislation a public/private partnership “where the state will pick up half the cost.”

'As for the potential inconvenience of metal detectors, Avella said it would be worth it if it saves just one life."

So, who are SMG security personnel? SMG has what the company calls “highly trained officers” at each theater! SMG also makes it a point to hire military vets and ex- cops:

"SMG is extremely proud to announce that all security officers assigned to any SMG present and future will be military veterans. The company specifically chose to work with G4S for its security services because of their initiative regarding the hiring of returning military veterans as part of the White House's Joining Forces campaign. G4S continues to be a destination employer for veterans and according to Civilian Jobs News is one of the best places for veterans to work."  Click here to find out more about the Joining Forces campaign.

G4S is a British-Danish private security company that operates in over 120 countries; it is the largest security company in the world. G4S is notorious for operating private prisons and providing deportation services internationally. G4S has such a close relationship with DHS one wonders if they're not just a front company posing as security professionals.

In the United States, G4S operates privatized juvenile detention facilities. G4S works alongside Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection to detain and deport people across the U.S./Mexico border and transport ICE detainees to ICE detention facilities throughout the country.

Schultz went on to brag about his choice of using G4S: "Making a difference starts with being a good neighbor. We understand that our theater teams, vendor-partners, investors, community and guests are all inter-related. For SMG, conscious business not only benefits our guests and our communities, but also enriches the lives of our team members, vendor-partners, and investors. It's truly a win-win-win-win-win proposition for everyone and the type of purpose-work SMG takes very seriously."

What it all comes down to is DHS, sorry I mean SMG turning a profit for its vendors (G4S) while keeping the public in a CONSTANT state of fear!

It's gotten so out of control DHS is even promoting their B.S. spy program during Earth Day festivals and at our National Parks:

"If You See Something, Say Something" Campaign continues its partnership with the USPP on the National Mall this spring and summer supporting such events as Earth Day, July 4th, and the World Police & Fire Games."

Our Park Police even have an intelligence division that reports directly to DHS:

"The Intelligence/Counter-Terrorism Unit is responsible for collecting, analyzing, and disseminating all forms of domestic and foreign information and intelligence that may impact the mission of the United States Park Police. The Branch also monitors First Amendment activities to include demonstrations, protests, marches, and gatherings on National Park Service property."

"The Branch is also active in several intelligence working groups that provide networking capabilities with virtually every Federal, State, and local law enforcement agency in the region."

The next time you take a picture in a national park and a Park Ranger approaches you, its because they think taking pictures is suspicious! Last year the Park Service wanted to fine anyone taking pictures in their parks $1,000!

The future of moviegoing in America is frightening. Within the next few years we can expect to go to gov't. run movie theaters and watch only gov't. approved movies while gov't. officials (law enforcement) subject you and your family to TSA searches.

Credit card companies are forcing everyone to use "smart" credit cards in their war against cash

image credit: trusted traveler

Payment-processing giants like MasterCard and Visa insist that you and your financial data will be safer once you move to "smart" credit cards that contain a computer chip. And like it or not, credit card companies are forcing merchants to make the change.

After an Oct. 1, 2015, deadline created by major U.S. credit card issuers MasterCard, Visa, Discover and American Express, the liability for card-present fraud will shift to whichever party is the least EMV-compliant in a fraudulent transaction.

In other words credit card companies are FORCING merchants to make the change or they'll have to pay for every fraudulent purchase!

The new "smart" credit card rules are forcing banks to also hold you accountable for any fraudulent purchases! You read that right, banks can blame the customer if they feel you might have been negligent.

EMV stands for Europay, MasterCard, and Visa, which is shorthand for bank owned digital currency.

"Approximately 120 million Americans have already received an EMV chip card and that number is projected to reach nearly 600 million by the end of 2015, according to Smart Card Alliance estimates."

A Fortune magazine interview with Carolyn Balfany MasterCard's SVP of U.S. product delivery for EMV's revealed this bombshell:

The ultimate would be no card at all, right? Where I just use my phone for everything.
 
"But is every demographic, is every person, ready for that? When we think about acceptance, we wouldn’t ever want to take a step back on acceptance. We want to make sure we are adding acceptance constantly to further our war on cash Carolyn Balfany said."

Not to be outdone, Citigroup claims only criminals use cash:

Citigroup’s Chief Economist Willem Buiter claims ..."even though hard evidence is hard to come by, it is very likely that the underground economy and the criminal community are among the heaviest users of currency."

Evidence is hard to come by? In other words there is none and he's full of s***!

Chris Skinner, author of The Future of Banking and Digital Bank wants to do away with currency:

"Imagine that your payment mechanism is built into a watch that your bank gave you. The watch includes an RFID or NFC capability, biometric recognition and is supported by existing infrastructures at the merchant front-end and money transmissions process back-end. The retail consumer can therefore go into any store, wave their watch at the contactless terminal, press their finger to the pay point and they have purchased the goods. No card or cash involved."

 

"That is the vision of the future of retail payments and we are almost there today. We already have contactless payment terminals, fingerprint recognition payments, micro and mobile payments. The only logical step is to introduce non-card based (i.e. biometric-based) payment systems."

There it is in black and white, THE WAR ON CASH IS REAL and credit card companies are hard at work trying to destroy currency!

Back to EMV's; just how secure are "smart" credit cards? According to recent studies EVM "smart" cards are vulnerable to hacking.

Norton Security says that this year 70% of credit cards will be vulnerable to digital pick pocketing.

Researchers have proven "smart" cards are more vulnerable to hacking than banks want you to know:

"I would walk up to you and I might stand like this on the train, Ok and boom, I have your credit card," said David Bryan.

Bryan, a security specialist at Chicago's Trustwave, used a device in his backpack to read account numbers and expiration dates - all from cards which I think are safely tucked away in my wallet.

"They have everything in just a few seconds," Bryan said. "The card sends data back to the device, right. So that means it's wireless, so if it's wireless, it can be read through clothing."
 

"The equipment is easily found online but only works on cards with this wireless symbol or cards enabled with "Radio Frequency ID" , "Near Field Communications", "Blink" or "Paypass" technology. As you can see, the device only has to get within 6 inches of the card.

 

‘The technology is high-frequency RFID,’ Mr Bryan said.

 

‘It uses 13.56 Mhz to communicate with the card and the reader.

 

‘In this instance, I used low power Embedded Linux Computer, and an easily purchasable RFID reader.

Researchers at a recent "blackhat conference" revealed more vulnerabilities:

“With just a mobile phone we created a POS terminal that could read a card through a wallet,” Martin Emms, lead researcher of the project said.

“All the checks are carried out on the card rather than the terminal so at the point of transaction, there is nothing to raise suspicions. By pre-setting the amount you want to transfer, you can bump your mobile against someone’s pocket or swipe your phone over a wallet left on a table and approve a transaction."

Transactions took less than a second to be approved.

“This lends itself to multiple attackers across the world collecting small transactions of perhaps €200 at a time for a central rogue merchant who could be located anywhere in the world,” Emms notes. “This previously undocumented flaw around foreign currency, combined with the lack of POS terminal authentication and the ease of skimming contactless credit cards, makes the system more vulnerable to high-value attacks.”

Click here to read the "Chip and Skim: cloning EMV cards with the pre-play attack" report.

EMV credit card terminals are also vulnerable to being hacked:

Two security researchers showed how easily criminals could take control of a shop owner's credit card terminals -- even if the shop uses the latest chip-and-PIN machines.

Those terminals are supposed to be safe, because they encrypt your PIN as you type it and don't store your credit card's data. But MWR Labs researchers found that a hacker could easily tell the machines to do the opposite.

Hacking the terminals is virtually undetectable. Turning the machine off erases all evidence that the hack ever even happened.

Keep this in mind when banks have FORCED everyone to use EMV "smart" credit cards.

Universities are using data analytics to assess students mental health and much more

image credit: Skyfactor

Currently there are 150 universities in the U.S. using "Skyfactor" which monitors and assesses a students tests scores. Schools are also assessing how "COOPERATIVE" your parents are!

"Skyfactor advertises itself as a risk management service, promising to help academics “quickly see which students need attention and resources now — before it’s too late”. Course tutors are given access to a dashboard that documents each student’s class attendances, assessment grades, participation in sports practices, and visits to the campus financial aid officer. "

A door icon placed next to each students name, is either closed or open. If the icon is "closed" it means the student isn't likely to leave the institution early, but if the icon is "open" then the school could lose thousands of dollars if he or she leaves the institution!

Skyfactor also monitors EVERY students grades, if their high grades drop, or their passion for university sports begins to wane, Skyfactor will flag these individuals in red.

David McNally, chief technology officer at Macmillan Science and Education, which owns Skyfactor, says the early warning mechanism is beneficial for all involved. “In the US more than the UK . . . losing a student is a very expensive loss to an institution because they pay high annual fees,” he says. “If you can get to a student before they drop out, you can keep them in the institution.”

McNally insists the information is “being used for the greater good, which is better education for everybody”. He insists it is not only students being tracked: the same programs that measure their performance are being used to compare how effective their tutors are and how well one school is teaching its pupils compared with another. In the future, it will be possible to compare entire local education authorities.

Andrew Campbell a computer science professor at Dartmouth University believes students could reap bigger long-term benefits if they allow their data to be shared with their student dean, professor or clinician, who could make external interventions.

Of course Professor Campbell wants to spy on students, he helped develop a smartphone app that spies on students mental health 24/7 called the StudentLife app. Click here to read his study.

“The StudentLife app is able to continuously make mental health assessment 24/7, opening the way for a new form of assessment,” says Professor Campbell, the study’s senior author. “This is a very important and exciting breakthrough.”

"Campbell admits that the study involved a “very invasive form of monitoring..."

Students are being given threat assessments across the country! Also EVERY address in America is being assigned color coded threat ratings and EVERY person travelling inside the U.S. is given a "risk assessment".

Don't be surprised when universities force EVERY student to have "The StudentLife" app installed on their cellphones.

Schools are also assessing how "COOPERATIVE" your parents are!

The Tewksbury Public Schools system in MA., inadvertently released confidential student data earlier this year along with this stunner:

"Though it did not feature student names, it included several identifying factors for special-education students with out-of-district placements, including students' grade levels, schools and Individualized Education Program information. It also included a ranking of parents based on how "cooperative" they were.

The list, which replaces student names with numbers, remains in alphabetical order. Information included the student’s current grade, the out-of-district school, the last school attended, the year the student began attending the new school, information on whether or not the decision was made by the IEP team, a legal settlement (typically kept strictly confidential), or if the student moved in from another town, and miscellaneous detail such as the involvement of the Department of Children and Families, passage of MCAS assessments, and more.

The office of Student Services also published its rating of parents according to their ‘cooperativeness with the district.’ Parents rated a ‘1’ are cooperative, ‘2’ somewhat cooperative, and those rated ‘3’ are ‘not cooperative.’

Try not to laugh as the Mass. Dept of Education spokesperson claims they don't give anyone assessments...

As to the ranking of parents for their cooperativeness with the district, Jacqueline Reis, spokesperson for the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education said, “I have not heard of ranking parents. That’s not something that we’ve advised districts to do.”

Universities worldwide are spying on students ebook reading habits:

"CourseSmart" gives university customers a window into exactly how often e-textbooks are being read.  CourseSmart can show educators which individuals have read which pages on any given day.

CourseSmart's materials operate via a cloud service, so every time users access a new page, it's tracked in the same way as web page views."

"CourseSmart was founded in 2007 by Macmillan, Cengage Learning, John Wiley & Sons, McGraw-Hill Education and Pearson with a simple goal of providing instructors a better textbook evaluation service. CourseSmart has millions of users around the world and offers access to over 90 percent of core higher education titles as e-textbooks along with the largest catalog of e-resources and digital course materials."

"Vital Source" is the largest, most accessible digital content channel in the world. The VitalSource Bookshelf platform is the most used e-textbook delivery platform in higher education with more than 4 million users across 6,000 campuses around the world. It uses the latest technology to enhance the learning experience through e-textbooks and digital education. Content from more than 500 of the world's top academic publishers is available to VitalSource Bookshelf platform users, including those living with disabilities, on a variety of operating systems and devices.

Police can steal your money and property even though you haven't committed a crime

CNN claims cops are afraid of lit cigarettes

image credit: JDW law firm

CNN claims, if you are stopped by police while driving you should obey a cops orders even if they break the law.

"The officer doesn't know who you are" said Cedric Alexander, CNN law enforcement analyst. This is 100% B.S.!

When a cop stops a motorist what's the FIRST thing they do? They run your registration through their databases which tells the officer who the owner of the vehicle is and what your home address is and that's just for starters.

Just how much do cops really know about you? The truth is much scarier than mass-media would lead you to believe.

This month I reported how "police are giving American addresses color coded threat ratings."

Any high-priority 911 calls, defined as in-progress or life-threatening crimes, will now be filtered through a database to assess any possible threats an officer may encounter while responding.

 

"The database goes through all public information for the call’s location — from arrest records to pizza deliveries — and gives the address a rating. Green means minimal threat, yellow a possible threat and red a major threat."

"The RTCC system shows officers three pieces of data: the threat level, the criminal history of anyone living at the home and a list of known friends and family members. This list sometimes includes possible phone numbers and addresses of these associates."

Police Chief Jerry Dyer acknowledged that it was possible for a home to be given a red threat level because someone associated with it once had a violent conviction.

Once a cop has your license and registration they know more than you realize:

"They know your name and aliases; your Social Security number; where you live; when you were born; the color of your skin and eyes; any scars, tattoos, or identifying marks; your height, vision, and gender; what kind of car you drive, whether it's a stolen vehicle, and your license and plate numbers; your traffic violation history; your local, state, and federal criminal history; and your fingerprints."

 

"Local police gather this information from five main databases. A search of records from the state registration agency (called the "Department of Motor Vehicles" in most places) yields information on your car and to whom it's registered. There's another archive of driver's license records, kept in some states by the DMV and in other states by a separate licensing agency, which has facts on where you live, your driving record, and sometimes a digital copy of your license photo. Outstanding arrest warrants will show up in a third database, and a person's criminal history can be found in either the local police records or the federally operated National Crime Information Center database, which culls from local, state, and federal files."

Police are using more than TWENTY EIGHT automated "risk assessment" programs on EVERYONE driving or travelling in the US! Click here & here to find out more.

If you know your rights and exercise them, just hope that cop you just pissed off doesn't call dispatch and say they have a "hostile vehicle" which essentially brands you a terrorist!

The CNN article goes on to say, the first thing an officer is looking out for is his or her safety.

Sarah Bland "could flick the cigarette at him"  CNN legal analyst and criminal defense lawyer Paul Callan said.

Leave it to mass media to publish a B.S. story about cops being put in jeopardy because a motorist could flick a lit cigarette at them!

If an officer feels any threat whatsoever, he or she can order someone out of their vehicle, said CNN legal analyst and attorney Danny Cevallos.

The theory is that "the officer's safety outweighs the minimal intrusion," for a driver or passengers, Cevallos said.

CNN's "experts" and I use the term loosely claim, it's legal to record a traffic stop but that doesn't mean you should!

Retired detective and CNN law enforcement analyst Harry Houck said an officer should never tell a person not to record.

 

But, he and other experts said, having the right to do certain things doesn't necessarily mean you should do them.

 

"Any level-headed person who gets pulled over does what a police officer tells you and there won't be any problems," said Houck. "Whether the cop is wrong, you can hash it out in courts after it's over.

 

"Can you smoke? Yeah, you can," Houck continued. "Can he tell you to put it out? No. But why don't you just be smart and put it out?"

 

WTF? A cop can't legally order you to put out a cigarette but you should obey them because they work for the government?

 

"We know the reality of trying to play lawyer with the police," Cevallos said. "Do you want to make a stand for justice or do you want to go home? The way you show a police officer that they're wrong is not at the time of the traffic stop. It's later in court."

 

What the mass-media is saying is we know cops can and will break the law, just obey them and hope you don't get shot!

 

Houck went on to claim Sarah Bland would be alive today if she wasn't ARROGANT and just blindly followed a cops orders! Houck continues to blame Bland's "Arrogance" for everything that Officer Encinia did to her, including slamming her head first into the ground when she's already been handcuffed.

 

 

"An officer does have the choice to bring anyone out of the vehicle when he stops them for his own safety," Houck told CNN's Don Lemon on Tuesday. "The whole thing here is that she was very arrogant from the beginning, very dismissive of the officer, alright?"

 

CNN political contributor Marc Lamont Hill pointed out that Bland did not have a legal responsibility to "kiss the officer's butt."

"She has a right to be irritated," Hill said. "A lot of us get irritated when we get pulled over. This officer comes to her and says, 'Is there something wrong? You seem like you have an attitude.' He's trying to pick a fight with her."

Hill responded to Houck's claim that everyone should obey a cops orders even if they're wrong:

"I refused to legitimize police violence against people by telling them that if they behave differently, maybe they won't die," Hill insisted. "Harry said maybe you won't end up on the ground. Yes, there are strategies we can use to survive. But the fact that we live in a world where we have to deploy strategies not to be murdered or killed or assaulted by police unlawfully is absurd."

 

"An officer can allow a lot of leeway or be incredibly harsh and all of that can be legally justified." said Charles Blow a NY Times columnist.

I think reporter Blows comment is right on target, the American police state, its judges, politicians etc., will back a cops actions even to the point of killing innocent motorists without any repercussions.
 

Problems with police sketch artists revealed

 

 

A study of composite sketches by Charlie Frowd, of the University of Stirling in Scotland, had participants study a photograph of an individual for a full minute, then describe the face for a trained police sketch artist.  How well could people then recognize the faces in these sketches?  The recognition rate was as low as 3%.

Current stats indicate that on average, hand-drawn police sketches are only about 9 percent accurate.

"Computer generated composites are only about 5 percent accurate in helping to accurately identify suspects."

When witnesses choose photos from a photo array, they often choose not the one that closest resembles the culprit, but instead pick the one that looks different from the rest — and when a picture has been chosen, that image often replaces the image in the witness’ memory.  She now remembers that face as being the face of her attacker, even though it wasn’t.  This method of scrambling digital faces poses the same problems.

Police currently use two computer generated composites called IdentiKit which has a 3% recognition rate and EvoFit which claims to have a 25% recognition rate or one in four.

For more information about identifying people click here to see the MIT study and here to see the Claremont Univ. study.

Two more great reads on the subject are:

" Building Face Composites Can Harm Lineup Identification Performance"
" An Evaluation Of U.S. Systems For Facial Composite Production"



Native Americans are being killed by police at an alarming rate

(Updated) American students are given threat assessments

Every student is given a "THREAT ASSESSMENT" by police and school administrators!

Schools and police are using V-STAG to assess a students threat level:

"The Virginia Student Threat Assessment Guidelines (V-STAG) is a school-based manualized process designed to help school administrators, mental health staff, and law enforcement officers assess and respond to threat incidents involving students in kindergarten through 12th grade and prevent student violence."

The war on terror is out of control! Watch out that kindergarten kid could be a threat!

Did you know, police are giving American addresses color coded threat ratings?  And our govt. has also assigned you a threat assessment while travelling inside the U.S.

V-STAG was developed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Secret Service, and the U.S. Department of Education.

"Although both the FBI and Secret Service reports made a compelling case for student threat assessment, schools had no experience with this approach and there were many questions concerning the practical procedures that should be followed. In response, researchers at the University of Virginia developed a set of guidelines for school administrators to use in responding to a reported student threat of violence."

The Secret Service has the audacity to call threat assessing of kindergarten students a safety concern. "The Final Report And Findings Of The Safe School Initiative."

"The Safe School Initiative" was implemented through the Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center and the Department of Education’s Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program.

Every student is being PROFILED and given a risk assessment rating, according to the Secret Services article titled "Evaluating Risk For Targeted Violence In Schools: Comparing Risk Assessment, Threat Assessment and Other Approaches."

"We then review the three assessment approaches that have been advocated and used in some jurisdictions (profiling, guided professional judgment, automated decision-making) and demonstrate why they are inappropriate and potentially harmful in preventing planned school-based attacks."

"In this article, we attempt to lay a foundation for developing an effective assessment approach to evaluate the risk of targeted violence in schools by addressing four issues. First, we delineate the contours of the problem of targeted violence by distinguishing the fear of this violence from its actual probability and by distinguishing targeted violence from other forms of aggression in youth. Second, we examine and critique three assessment approaches—profiling, guided professional judgment, and automated decision making..."

V-STAG is also designed to provide students involved in threat incidents with appropriate mental health counseling services, with parental involvement, and reduce the numbers of long-term school suspensions or expulsions and alternative school setting placements.

What's really being said is police and school administrators can put your kid(s) into mental health counseling which will follow them throughout their adult lives! Oddly there isn't any mention of the school-to-prison pipeline!

The V-STAG, threat assessment team will be used even if a student is alleged to have committed a crime and can't be identified:

"Through V-STAG, the threat assessment team aims to prevent student violence by (1) taking immediate protective action in the most serious substantive cases (i.e., instances when there is a genuine intent to cause bodily harm or when the intent of the student making the threat cannot be clearly identified and resolved)"

"Any threat that cannot be clearly identified and resolved as transient is treated as a substantive threat. Substantive threats always require protective action to prevent the threat from being carried out. The remaining four steps guide the team through more extensive assessment and response based on the seriousness of the threat. In the most serious cases, the team conducts a safety evaluation that includes both a law enforcement investigation and a mental health assessment of the student."

Many schools also use the "Student Threat Assessment Program" to look for disruptive students.

Did you know there's an Association of Threat Assessment Professionals (ATAP) who ironically, will be holding their conference at the Disneyland Hotel in California. How many troubling, disruptive, threatening kids will be in Disneyland?

In the conference brochure the LAPD's Threat Management (Assessment) Unit is listed prominently because they founded the ATAP!  If you guessed the ATAP has close ties to DHS give yourself a gold star, click here & here to read more.

"The ATAP is a diverse association comprised of professionals such as law enforcement officers, prosecutors, mental health professionals, and corporate security experts."

Is that supposed to be a joke? The people making threat assessments all stand to gain financially:

"... the increase of workplace violence incidents and terrorism has created a need to combine forces with the private sector."

There's also a "National Behavioral Intervention Team Association" (NaBITA) dedicated to giving  students threat assessments. It has more than 800 active members from colleges, universities, schools and workplaces.  If you guessed the NaBITA has close ties to DHS give yourself another gold star, click here & here to read more.

Threat assessments are also being given to college students, they're just using a different name calling them 'Campus Safety Teams.'

"While the prevention of campus violence may have been the catalyst for improving coordination and communication across campus departments with the creation of Campus Teams.” 

"The creation of Campus Teams that identify and monitor students whose behaviors may be troubling is an opportunity to engage them sooner rather than later, so that they can receive needed referrals or other appropriate assistance and treatment."

To find out more about 'Campus Teams' read "Balancing Safety On Campus: A Guide For Campus Safety Teams." Some colleges like Youngstown State University have created a "Student Threat Assessment Team (STAT). "

The NaBITA has created a "Threat Assessment Tool" with NINE levels of Aggression.

The 'MILD' levels allege students might be emotionally troubled if the school considers his or her debating harmful!

Doesn't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy knowing a team of school administrators and police are profiling every student!

In general, the mission and purpose of 'Campus Teams' encompasses:

• Gathering information about students of concern. This may specifically focus on threats with the
potential to become violent (as is the case with threat assessment teams) or a broader range of behaviors. As noted below, this may also expand to include behaviors by others on or off campus, besides students.

• Assessing the information about each case in a systematic way to determine the most effective
response for that particular person and situation.

• Defining the plan/response to address the needs of both the student and the safety of the community. The plan should consider specifics about who, when, where, and how the response will occur.

• Implementing the response in a way that de-escalates a potential crisis, reduces or removes threats, and attends to the needs of the individual who is demonstrating disturbed and/or disturbing behavior. Note that for many campus teams, the actual implementation of a response may be carried out by other individuals or departments; the team itself often acts in an advisory and coordinating role.

• Monitoring the disposition of the case to gauge whether any additional follow-up is needed, whether the response was effective, and what lessons may be learned for future cases, especially in terms of implications for school policies and procedures.

The dual purpose of housing these functions under one team’s purview is:

• to prevent any particular instance of disturbed or disturbing behavior from falling through the
organizational cracks; and

• to connect disparate (and therefore seemingly innocuous or less troubling) pieces of information that may indicate a more serious or acute problem, in the hope of preventing a dangerous or critical outcome or event.

Colleges nationwide are using 'Campus Teams' to give their students sexual threat assessments, there is a "Legal Compliance and Sexual Violence Prevention Training" being held in Boston this July 27, 28th.

"This training will address the critical intersection between compliance with federal laws to address sexual and intimate partner violence, and the role that threat assessment can play in effectively addressing these issues."

Colleges are also using, "The Structured Interview For Violence Risk Assessment (SIVRA-35)" by Brian Van Brunt, Ed.D.,

Our government has been using rare on campus shootings as a justification for schools and colleges to give students risk assessments.

"After the tragedies at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University, there was a natural inclination to form Campus Teams with a specific focus on threat assessment and management."

"Campus Teams can facilitate the flow, processing, and synthesis of safety related information, which in turn helps decision-makers identify foreseeable risks and construct and implement reasonable responses."

Updated 7/30/15:

The Arizona Education department has spent $36 million to create a new student assessment program called AzEDS.

AzEDS collects data relevant to allocating about $6 billion in funding for school districts and charters, including attendance, special services and transportation records. In 2017, the department hopes to launch the second phase of the system, which would also track student demographics.

"This is state-of-the-art technology that hasn’t been seen before in the education realm,” Charles Tack, a department spokesman said.

"The Arizona Education Data Standards, AzEDS, is the family of standards for exchanging data with the Arizona Department of Education. AzEDS – Assessment is the component of the standard for exchanging assessment data."

"This document defines a common standardized data elements and format when exchanging student assessment data."

Our government want us to believe that EVERY student is a potential threat and we need threat assessments to stop them.

The fact is student homicides are RARE:

With nearly 106,000 public and private schools in the U.S., there were shootings at only 0.009% of schools since December 2012. According to the National Center for Education Statistics’ 2013 “Indicators of School Crime and Safety” report, from the 1992-93 school year until the 2010-11 school year, there were between 11 and 34 homicides of youths ages 5-18 at schools each year (including attacks with weapons other than firearms), with an average of about 23 homicides per year.

Compare that to NCES’s enrollment statistics, about 0.000044% of public and private K-12 students were killed at school per year between 1992-93 and 2010-11. That’s about one out of every 2,273,000 students per year. By contrast, the odds of being hit by lightning in a given year is one out of 700,000 according to National Geographic. For more information read the "Youth Violence Fact Sheet"

To find out more about how the Secret Service and the FBI are using threat assessments, read the following articles:

"Threat Assessment: An Approach to Prevent Targeted Violence".
"Threat Assessment: Defining an Approach for Evaluating Risk of Targeted Violence"
Threat Assessment In Schools: A Guide To Managing Threating Situations And To Creating Safe School Climate"

Having air fresheners in your car and not answering a cops "basic questions" is suspicious

"On March 9, 2011, Kingsville Police Department Officer Mike Tamez was patrolling Highway 77 southbound when he detected a Chevy Tahoe speeding. Tamez pulled alongside the Tahoe and saw three people—two adults and a child. He also noticed air fresheners hanging throughout the car, several rosaries on the rearview mirror, and four bumper stickers showing support for D.A.R.E. and law enforcement. Tamez turned on his patrol lights and pulled over the Tahoe for speeding two miles over the limit."

imge credit: Amazon

The judges appear to be aggravated they have to decide on another Fourth Amendment case:

"This is yet another case. We must decide whether reasonable suspicion of criminal activity justified the defendant’s continued detention after the purpose of the initial traffic stop ended."

Officer Tamez ordered Nehmi Pena-Gonzalez, the driver, to step out of the vehicle after noticing her key chain had a St. Jude medal. Remember this is all because of air fresheners, bumper stickers a religious keychain and rosaries!

FYI, It’s now legal for police to pull you over for an air freshener in Wisconsin.

She told the officer in Spanish that she was driving home to the city of Mission with her husband and daughter. Officer Tamez noted that this was an "inconsistent" answer, since her insurance card said she lived in Palmview, which is a suburb of Mission. She was also unclear about whether she spent one day or two in Houston.

Numerous attorneys have told motorists to never answer ANY questions at a traffic stop, give them your license and registration, remain SILENT and request an attorney:

 

Click here & here to see two more great videos about never talking to police.

To reassure the driver and passenger the cop lies and says he'll let them go with a warning if they answer a few questions and let him search the vehicle!

Officer Tamez said he would let her go with a warning, but then he decided to question her husband, Ruben Pena-Gonzalez, who was a passenger and agreed to let officer Tamez search their vehicle.

Peña-Gonzalez moved to suppress the evidence, arguing that reasonable suspicion did not exist to extend the stop after Officer Tamez decided to issue a warning to Mrs. Peña. The district court denied that motion after an evidentiary hearing, but noted that it was a “close call.” The court decided that the air fresheners provided "reasonable suspicion" that the family was involved in crime.

Do we need anymore more proof our justice system sides with the government and completely IGNORES our Bill of Rights? If a cop can pull you over for going 2 miles over the speed limit as a pretext. What's to stop them from detaining anyone that the government declares 'suspicious' due to anti-government Tweets or social media comments?

When a cop pulls over a motorist our government has already given the cop your personal "Risk Assessment".

"The Automated Targeting System (ATS) compares traveler, cargo, and conveyance information against law enforcement, intelligence, and other enforcement data using risk-based targeting scenarios and assessments." 

"Each of these sub-systems or modules supports the CBP officer in determining whether or not a particular individual or cargo is higher risk than other individuals or cargo. The final module looks across the different areas to find common concerns and risks. Each sub-system uses slightly different data to conduct its risk assessment."

Police state America knows your address, friends etc., and assigns you a threat rating! Is this the Free America you want?

When a cop calls your registration into dispatch the police department checks their Real Time Crime Center (RTCC) database and gives the officer your color-coded "Threat Rating"

"The database goes through all public information for the call’s location — from arrest records to pizza deliveries — and gives the address a rating. Green means minimal threat, yellow a possible threat and red a major threat."

"The RTCC system shows officers three pieces of data: the threat level, the criminal history of anyone living at the home and a list of known friends and family members. This list sometimes includes possible phone numbers and addresses of these associates."

Back to the Appeals Court ruling:

Peña-Gonzalez moved to suppress the evidence, arguing that reasonable suspicion did not exist to extend the stop after Officer Tamez decided to issue a warning to Mrs. Peña. The district court denied that motion after an evidentiary hearing, but noted that it was a “close call.”

"We do have concerns that classifying pro-law enforcement and anti-drug stickers or certain religious imagery as indicators of criminal activity risks putting drivers in a classic 'heads I win, tails you lose' position," the appellate panel wrote in its per curiam decision. "But we need not decide whether these items alone, or in combination with one another, amount to reasonable suspicion because we find the more suspicious evidence to be the array of air fresheners and inconsistencies in the driver's responses to the officer's basic questions. We have long recognized that the presence of air fresheners, let alone four of them placed throughout an SUV, suggests a desire to mask the odor of contraband."

This ruling says if a cop asks you "BASIC QUESTIONS" and finds your answers to be suspicious that's grounds for your car to be searched! If this isn't the very definition of a POLICE STATE then I don't know what is?

Our nations prosecutors want more jails and are against sentencing reform!

“The federal criminal justice system is not broken,” Steve Cook, the association's president, said at a lightly attended event in the nation's capital. “What a huge mistake it would be,” he said, to change sentencing laws.

Rather than focus on reducing sentences, Cook said, the government should consider building more prison facilities. “Do I think it would be a good investment to build more [prisons]? Yeah, no question about it!” Cook said.

Government statistics compiled by Families Against Mandatory Minimums show only 142 of 20,757 drug cases in fiscal year 2014 – less than 1% – featured violence or threats of violence from drug offenders. The group also says only 16% of federal drug convictions that year involved a weapon.

So why would prosecutors want more jails? It's job security for them, judges, clerks, cops the entire corrupt justice system!

FYI, the U.S. has the highest number of prisoners in the world, close to 2 million! What's wrong with America?

America's militarized campus police can shoot, mace and beat citizens!

image credit: KRON news

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), there are currently 861 PRIVATE campus law enforcement agencies.

About 95% of 4-year schools with 2,500 or more students operate their own PRIVATE campus law enforcement agency!

Laws governing campus police required officers to be sworn and to pass minimum training requirements before they were given full arrest powers. The BJS says approximately 75% of the campuses were using armed officers!

  

"Most sworn campus police officers were authorized to use a sidearm (94%), chemical or pepper spray (94%), and a baton (93%)."

 

"A majority of the campuses with sworn police officers also used nonsworn security officers."

 

Think about what the BJS is saying. Private campus cops are given powers to arrest, shoot, mace, beat American citizens!

After becoming a "campus police officer" many of these nonsworn/minimally trained cops will be hired by police departments across the country.

It's gotten so bad that even library security guards are acting like police and searching for suspicious people.

Years ago non-sworn officers were either deputized by local police agencies or weren’t given arrest powers. But that's changed over recent years. According to BJS, most sworn campus police officers had arrest (86%) and patrol (81%) jurisdictions that extended beyond campus boundaries.

Many of these new powers are established through “mutual aid agreements” with state and local police forces – which have increased considerably over the past decade, often with encouragement from the Department of Justice. Others have been created by amendments to existing statutes.

Ohio man’s family demands answers after a white campus cop killed a black motorist during a traffic stop!

" UC Police Chief Jason Goodrich said the traffic stop was initiated on campus, but Sam Dubose did not stop his vehicle until they were off campus. A mutual-aid agreement between the city and the university departments allows University of Cincinnati police officers and a host of other law enforcement agencies to work outside of their jurisdiction."

“The public needs to pay attention to what the legislative branch is doing in our states, especially when it comes to police powers that impact our children, colleges, and universities,” attorney Jamie P. Hopkins says.

Campus police in Massachusetts are empowered as “special state police officers,” a category that includes police employed by hospitals and railroads. As of June,2015 there were 1,500 special state police officers in Massachusetts.

"Twenty-one private colleges in Greater Boston have campus police forces. Harvard has 77 sworn officers, followed by Boston University with 67 (plus an additional 29 officers for its medical campus), and MIT with 59 officers. Wheelock College, which has fewer than 1,000 undergraduates, employs a single sworn officer."

Last week in Nashville, where more than 500 law enforcement officials representing 239 institutions gathered for the annual conference of the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators (IACLEA). This year’s conference — which lists the scandal-ridden global security monolith G4S as one of its corporate sponsors — included presentations on counter-terrorism strategy, sex crimes investigation, tips for handling an active shooter, and, perhaps most telling, strategies for policing student behavior off-campus.

This should serve as a warning to everyone in Massachusetts, G4S was involved in providing security for the London 2012 Olympics!

Ed Miliband the UK's labor party leader called on Parliament to re-think "outsourcing of policing" to private companies like G4S.

At the event, Protecting Communities, Fighting Crime Together, Miliband said that although public-private partnerships were "an important part of modern policing", large-scale outsourcing and the privatization of police forces has to be stopped.

"Clear lines" had to be drawn about what policing services private companies should provide, with neighbourhood patrols and criminal investigations the sole responsibility of the police, he said.

If you guessed G4S works closely with DHS give yourself a gold star; click here, here & here to find out more. DHS even makes it a point to be at every IACLEA conference.

Numerous DHS, NSA, TSA officials are working on campuses across America!

Just how bad is GS4? In 2011 community members burst into G4S's Tucson offices and declared  their opposition to the company’s profiteering at the expense of immigrant communities across the nation and throughout the world.

Incensed by G4S’ role in promoting the criminalization of immigrants and the expansion of the private prison industry, the protestors entered the G4S office complex, delivered a letter to company representatives and unfurled a banner reading “G4S: Prison profiteering destroys communities."

Militarizing campus police blurs the lines between public and private authority and poses a threat to due process.

It’s difficult to say just how much campus police agencies are expanding their reach, because journalists and civil liberties advocates who try to dig into the issue have been stymied by a culture of secrecy and state laws that protect private entities from public scrutiny. In some cases, these police agencies are “public” enough to be empowered to make arrests, conduct searches and use lethal force but are “private” enough to be exempt from public records laws.

Treating university police like real cops is having serious repercussions.

DHS is responsible for creating a private American police force and even referred to campus police as "Heroes Among Us."

image credit: Harvard Crimson

 

The dangers of having 861 private campus police departments should alarm EVERYONE!

 

In 2014 Indianapolis Police Chief Rick Hite admitted police are a paramilitary organization:

 

“We have historically been a paramilitary organization"Hite said.

 

Colleges at DHS's behest are using license plate readers to spy on EVERYONE on campus and there's nothing you can do about it!

 

Colleges are also allowed to hold PRIVATE rape tribunals that determine if a student is guilty or if the victim asked to be raped.

 

DHS has even allowed railroad companies to create their own PRIVATE police departments.

 

Federal authorities have ceded oversight of railroad police to the states but few states, if any, keep data of complaints against railroad police.

 

People who say they have been mistreated by the railroad police have little recourse except to complain to the railroads, but because the railroads are private companies, they can operate largely in 'SECRET'.

America has almost ONE MILLION police officers, this doesn't include private police or security guards, which is larger than the 1.5 MILLION by most estimates. Private security guards have outnumbered police officers since the 1980s. The more than 1 million contract security officers, and guards work directly for U.S. corporations.

That means there's over 2.5 MILLION POLICE in the US with no signs of stopping!

 

Click here to read how security guards are being trained & hired by DHS. And click here to find out how security guards are growing under DHS.

Click here to read about the Rand Corporation & DHS's national police recruitment program.

Private police (security guards) are mercenaries for the American police state.

Retired General Wesley Clark wants disloyal Americans jailed

 

Many government officials seem to still be under the impression that every day is another September 11th.

The FBI has set up an entire cottage industry based on little more than entrapment. Maybe these people being "radicalized" are just too hard to find. Maybe that's why the FBI has to do 90% of the "radicalization" on its own before swooping in to save the nation from daydreamers and shit-talkers who have the misfortune of being "befriended" by its undercover agents.

Does anyone foresee an end to the War on Terror in their lifetime?