- Hollywood Executives Think Jaden and Willow Smith Are Crazy, Too
- Leaked Emails: Sony Execs Scared of "Desperately Unfunny" Interview
- Sony Left Personal Data for Millions Unprotected
The sad reality is that Eric Garner and Michael Brown's deaths are merely the tip of a huge iceberg, one in which police can bully, assault, kill and/or otherwise harass individuals who are either innocent of any wrong-doing or suspected of - at worst - minor, non-violent crimes. The system is designed to protect and serve these officers. The topic is being summarily dismissed by police union chiefs and other representatives of the establishment, because if these protests continue and real reform is actually implemented, they will lose a lot of the authority they have and be held accountable for criminal behavior - something they most definitely do not want.
Patrick Lynch, chief of the PAB or Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, blamed protesters and Mayor Bill de Blasio for the murder of two cops in Brooklyn this past Saturday. He has a history of being inflammatory and just plain crazy, so these recent comments shouldn't come as much surprise.
"There's blood on many hands," Lynch said, according to a video on the union's website. "Those that incited violence on this street under the guise of protests, that tried to tear down what New York City police officers did every day."The NYPD has also circulated an email letting officers know it is now in 'wartime'. This changes some of their policies and procedures:
"That blood on the hands starts on the steps of City Hall in the office of the mayor," he said.
Such heated rhetoric isn't unique to Lynch, said Hank Sheinkopf, a political consultant and former police officer who has worked with police unions in 25 states.
"At least two units are to respond to EVERY call, no matter the condition or severity, no matter what type of job is pending, or what the opinion of the patrol supervisor happens to be," an e-mail widely circulated among cops advised Saturday night.No arrests unless absolutely necessary? That sounds pretty good. Although, it also suggests that NYPD routinely arrests people when it is not absolutely necessary. In fact, it's positively scary when we consider that it could also mean "don't bother making arrests: just shoot suspects." One has to wonder, if two cops getting killed is enough to elicit this kind of reaction, then why not the deaths of Eric Garner, or Akai Gurley? Where's the internal outrage over their deaths? Those are only two of the most well-known cases where NYPD officers have killed people in New York City this year; they're by no means the only ones. When a black man is killed by the police, no one bats an eye; when an officer gets gunned down, everyone loses their minds.
Doubling the number of cops responding to even minor 911 calls would effectively cut in half the NYPD's patrol strength.
The memo also pointed to potential slowdowns in arrest and ticketing activity: "IN ADDITION: Absolutely NO enforcement action in the form of arrests and or summonses is to be taken unless absolutely necessary and an individual MUST be placed under arrest," the statement said.
"These are precautions that were taken in the 1970s when police officers were ambushed and executed on a regular basis," the statement added.
"We have, for the first time in a number of years, become a 'wartime' Police Department," the message concluded. "We will act accordingly. FORWARD MESSAGE IN ITS ENTIRETY TO ANY AND ALL [members of the service.]"
I'm in no way advocating violence against the police here, or trying to suggest 'they deserved it' - that's not it at all. The point I'd like to make is that everyone deserves equal consideration before their lives are summarily taken. The murder of these two officers was solely the fault of the individual who pulled the trigger. To use their deaths as a rallying call to shut down free speech and legitimate popular demand for police reform is not only revolting and dishonorable, it's the lowest form of authoritarian bullshit one can conjure.
As regards this 'North Korea movie stunt', it's looking a lot like the Korean government had nothing to do with the Sony hack after all - that allegation is based on flimsiest of evidence (that the malware and IP addresses used had been previously connected to North Korea, according to the FBI anyway. And the FBI never lies, right?)
The strongest suggestion that North Korea was not behind the attack comes from Marc Rogers, a world-renowned hacker and DEFCON organizer. His article outlines a few simple reasons why it could just as easily have been a disgruntled ex-employee:
"It's clear from the hard-coded paths and passwords in the malware that whoever wrote it had extensive knowledge of Sony's internal architecture and access to key passwords. While it's plausible that an attacker could have built up this knowledge over time and then used it to make the malware, Occam's razor suggests the simpler explanation of an insider. It also fits with the pure revenge tact that this started out as.The most obvious hint that North Korea wasn't the perpetrator of the attack is that it's association with The Interview only came after the media began making that assumption. The Koreans do appear to have made formal statements criticizing the movie earlier this year, which is understandable given the US government's track record of butchering leaders of foreign governments they don't like. But they also deny any involvement in the hack and have extended an olive branch by offering a joint investigation into the matter.
"Whoever did this is in it for revenge. The info and access they had could have easily been used to cash out, yet, instead, they are making every effort to burn Sony down.
"The attackers only latched onto "The Interview" after the media did - the film was never mentioned by GOP right at the start of their campaign.
"Whoever is doing this is VERY net and social media savvy. That, and the sophistication of the operation, do not match with the profile of DPRK up until now.
"Blaming North Korea is the easy way out for a number of folks, including the security vendors and Sony management who are under the microscope for this. Let's face it - most of today's so-called "cutting edge" security defenses are either so specific, or so brittle, that they really don't offer much meaningful protection against a sophisticated attacker or group of attackers. "
So what we could have here is a revenge plot against Sony from someone with an ax to grind, likely a prior employee who had access and knowledge of the internal network and could exploit any gaps in its security protocols. But then, the timing of the attack was oh so convenient to the Powers That Be: shifting the blame to North Korea allowed them to demonize an external enemy, and rally desperately-needed popular support (albeit of the most fickle kind) at a time when a massive protest movement across the US is threatening to develop into a revolution.
It's also a windfall for Sony, of course. By maintaining that the attack was associated with The Interview, their decision to pull the film from theaters basically ensured that most red-blooded 'Muricans' would feel a patriotic duty to see the movie. As such, it was no surprise to me when the film was released online Christmas eve and my Facebook feed lit up with the news. You can't buy that kind of public exposure for a movie, especially one that was described by Sony executives themselves as "desperately unfunny".
Anytime we have a major 'event' in the media, it behooves us to ask questions and to not accept the given explanation. This recent spat is just another in a long list where the official story is obviously inaccurate and clearly designed to benefit the major power players, at our expense. Meanwhile, the potential consequence of the recent assassinations of police officers is foreboding. The cops have already started making mass arrests of people they say "made online threats to kill police officers." How long before they start rounding up anyone suspected of participating in anti-police brutality protests? Or even just sympathizing with the protesters? It is "war-time", after all, so anyone caught 'aiding and abetting the enemy' can be deemed an 'enemy of the state'. Oh boy, 2015 is gonna be interesting. Welcome to burgeoning police state USA.
Reader Comments
and those servers seem to have been in Japan: [Link]
Japan
Dec. 26, 2014 - Updated 23:36 UTC-6
Police in Tokyo say they will cooperate with their foreign counterparts to investigate overseas servers suspected of being used in computer crimes.
Japanese investigators discovered the existence of such servers in at least 33 countries, apart from Japan. They include the United States, Germany, South Korea, Australia and Brazil.
They made the discovery while cracking down on illicit intermediary servers in Japan. Intermediary, or proxy servers enable internet users in one country to look like domestic users in another.
Criminals can exploit the system for cyber attacks and illegal money transfers through internet banking.
Several server management companies in Japan are accused of allowing illegal access to Chinese customers by way of their servers.
The Japanese companies were enlisting customers through Chinese agencies. Investigators say there are at least 140 such operations in China. They say some of them are advertising on servers outside Japan that their systems can be used for illegal access.
Tokyo police say they expect to share information as their investigations continue.
[Link]
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Our intel agencies setup and depend upon these units. It would be inconvenient if they get shut down.
Sounds like a good time to buy stocks in the US prison market/racket.
Joking aside, the no arrest policy with a no charge policy for police officers, a shoot and kill mentality likely will be rampant. Putin, please help, they are killing us could become a reality.
Where is the justice? When does Karma cause enough imbalance to trigger a reset of the system? We are at the crossroad and the pendulum will swing. Where do you think you might end up? (Being honest with yourself) Oh yeah, this only works on honest people!
This 'blame the North Koreans' waffle is probably just a forerunner to blaming ISIS for something similar - or who ever you want to set up to attack.
There is no need to call the loss of Sony employee data "pretty funny". Sure the movie is obviously in poor taste, but you put yourself in the same league by exploiting the hardships of others seemingly to elevate your own stature. You are young. You will learn.
It is pretty funny... a corporation, that has pretty much psychopathic values as most big corporations do, got hacked and exposed. Some of the messages showed how contradictory show business is.
Brent's not here to be rich or famous.
So, forgive me, but where is Brent exploiting hardships?
I don't like how you bring up age and implied wisdom either. It feels like you are using it to sound like you have a point about Brent, which isn't there at all.
[Link]
Veterans Today contains a high percentage of writers or were either booted off or left popular 'organized crime' websites in disgust.
Almost everything computerized is included in the vast network and web of organized crime. Almost everything media-oriented is 'controlled misspeak' (and therefore organized crime, deception) so to speak.
I am hoping Veterans Today and Sott are actually on the side of good, and not parading 'controlled misspeak'.
Again, a good way to tell is by the number of dissidents, or the amount of 'dissent and disagreement disseminated' on a particular site.
Dissent (disagreement, difference of opinion) is vital, although that too can be 'controlled' or made to appear other than what it is.
ned, out
How can you judge something based on something that can be faked so easily, like dissent? Ever look at the comments on major media?
Disagreement is fine, but what you write half the time isn't even pertinent to the article at hand. So let me ask you something, is it normal to write off the wall, off topic, even borderline trolling commentary on an article without a proper reasoning to debate the article?
If so, you might be better off on the Alex Jones site or some other site where you can say anything, even if it is off topic, as long as it doesn't address the truth, LOL.
I'm really dumbfounded by your paranoia about sott. Maybe you think you have some "holy" duty to expose websites according to your judgement of what dissent is. It's also funny when you take what an author writes, that SOTT didn't write, as SOTT's personal opinion. But then, that would mean that SOTT has a super controlled agenda, contradicting your own paranoia of sott being manipulative or whatever you think.
You can tell a lot about someone from the way that they talk to others. When they talk with fancy wordplay or riddles, it shows a lack of empathy or true understanding. Remember, the god(s) of the Bible and other major religions spoke in riddles to the "lay people".
It shows how you see the readers of sott to be like. But in reality, those readers who are still making up their mind would rather be told in normal language what you are trying to say, than to have to guess at your "holiness", LOL.
you can't make this shit up... the rag from the UK, Daily Mail, now has security anal-ysts saying that the Sony "hack" has Russian fingerprints, not the DPRK... I almost fell off my chair laughing so hard
Great article, Brent! Some great dot connecting. The whole idea that North Korea was behind the Sony hack was absurd from the get-go, but it's great to see someone looking deeper into the issue. Well done!
now that we have a bigger story in the latest plane crash, this story of a govt sponsored comic assassin film is no longer needed.
[Link] [According to Politico, FBI agents investigating the Sony Pictures hack were briefed Monday by a security firm that says its research points to laid-off Sony staff, not North Korea, as the perpetrator.]
Most crime in an inside job. The official story doesn't hold water, especially in light of the smash Box Office hit that sees Sony raking in a pile of money. Meanwhile, Sony's customers take a bath. The problem: the story lacks a 'stranger than fiction' flavor. Way too convenient.
If N. Korea really did do it, the news would be 24 hour coverage of the latest threats emanating from Pyongyang, complete with an incident of 'missile test-fire chicken' or a coulple of artillery barrages, etc. Nothing of the sort is happening.
So if there is spreading skepticism, it's because the story is too good to be true.