Society's ChildS


Eye 1

EU watchdog: Facial recognition should be banned


Reuters
Fri, 23 Apr 2021 00:00 UTC
Student/teacher
© UnknownTeacher comforts art school student as facial recognition cameras erode privacy
Facial recognition should be banned in Europe because of its "deep and non-democratic intrusion" into people's private lives, EU privacy watchdog the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) said on Friday.

The comments come two days after the European Commission proposed draft rules that would allow facial recognition to be used to search for missing children or criminals and in cases of terrorist attacks.

The draft rules, which need to be thrashed out with EU countries and the European Parliament, are an attempt by the Commission to set global rules for artificial intelligence, a technology dominated by China and the United States. The privacy watchdog said it regretted that the Commission had not heeded its earlier call to ban facial recognition in public spaces.
"A stricter approach is necessary given that remote biometric identification, where AI may contribute to unprecedented developments, presents extremely high risks of deep and non-democratic intrusion into individuals' private lives. The EDPS will focus in particular on setting precise boundaries for those tools and systems which may present risks for the fundamental rights to data protection and privacy."
The Commission's proposals have drawn criticism from civil rights groups, concerned about loopholes that may allow authoritarian governments to abuse AI to clamp down on people's rights.
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Gold Seal

Montana governor signs religious freedom bill allowing challenges


Washington Times
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 19:43 UTC
Greg Gianforte
Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte
Montana's governor on Thursday signed a bill that codifies the right of people to challenge government regulations that interfere with their religious beliefs.

The legislation, by Republican Sen. Carl Glimm, requires the government to have a compelling reason to violate a person's constitutional right to freedom of religion and to meet its goals in the least restrictive way possible.

"Citizens should not be left defenseless when their government attempts to burden their ability to live and worship according to their faith. This law provides a sensible balancing test for courts to use when reviewing government policies that infringe upon the religious freedom rights of Montanans," the Alliance Defending Freedom said in a statement.
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Eye 1

French prosecutors open terror probe into policewoman's killing near Paris


France 24
Fri, 23 Apr 2021 16:01 UTC
france stabbing knife
© Bertrand Guay, AFPFrench police officials stand near a police station in Rambouillet, south-west of Paris, on April 23, 2021, after a woman was stabbed to death in the town.
French prosecutors have opened a terrorism investigation into the fatal stabbing of a police officer inside her police station near Paris on Friday. Her assailant was shot and killed by officers nearby.

The attack took place in the secure entrance area of a police station in Rambouillet, a wealthy commuter town 60 kilometres (40 miles) from Paris, at around 2:20pm, police sources said.

The woman, 48, an administrative employee in the station, was stabbed in the throat twice, police sources added. The attacker, a Tunisian residing in France on legitimate papers, was fatally wounded when officers opened fire on him at the station.
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Whistle

DHS whistleblower says border guards are 'burned out' from 'irresponsible' Biden policies

Emily Jacobs
New York Post
Fri, 23 Apr 2021 18:26 UTC
border guards burned out Biden
© Fox News
A Homeland Security whistleblower is offering a glimpse into how officers facing the brunt of the illegal immigration crisis are faring — saying Biden administration policies "were implemented irresponsibly" by people who are removed from the situation on the ground and "do not have any sense of realism."

In an interview with Fox News' Sara Carter on Hannity Thursday evening, the unidentified DHS official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, expressed increasing frustration at the federal government's handling of the situation.

"People are just very burned out and there's not a lot of optimism that it's going to get better anytime soon," the unnamed official, a male, told Carter.

The official went on to say that he was frustrated with President Biden's border policies.

"I think the policies were implemented irresponsibly and I think they do not have any sense of realism," the man explained.

Comment:

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Arrow Down

Indonesian navy submarine with 53 on board goes missing off coast of Bali


Sky News
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 18:25 UTC
The 43-year-old vessel was conducting a
© Indonesian NavyThe 43-year-old vessel was conducting a torpedo drill on Wednesday but failed to relay the results as expected.
Indonesia's navy is searching for a submarine with 53 people on board which has gone missing during a training exercise in waters north of the island of Bali.

The 43-year-old vessel was conducting a torpedo drill on Wednesday but failed to relay the results as expected, a navy spokesman said.

A search is under way for the German-made submarine, KRI Nanggala-402, and its crew.

Indonesia has asked authorities in Australia and Singapore for help with the hunt, the country's military chief Hadi Tjahjanto told Reuters.

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Megaphone

Best of the Web: Georgia mom slams school board for child mask mandates: 'Shame on us'

Tim Pearce
Daily Wire
Fri, 23 Apr 2021 17:49 UTC
Courtney Ann Taylor
Courtney Ann Taylor
A mother in Gwinnett County, Georgia, demanded her local school board lift its mask requirement for young children in an emotional speech at an April 15 board meeting.

Courtney Ann Taylor appeared to nearly cry while speaking to the board. Her voice cracked several times and her passion brought applause and cheers from some of the assembled guests.

Comment: On Thursday, more than 30 Republican lawmakers sent a letter to the CDC asking them to modify their requirement that kids over 2 years old wear face masks, saying "the CDC's mandate that children as young as 2-years-old must wear facemasks is among the most stringent face mask age requirements in the world."

Listen to the woman in the video above and realize that this is not about health at all. It's about forcing people to do what they're told. And most adults just follow along, like the above school board. Courtney Ann Taylor is a lone voice of courage and heart in the wilderness of sterile blind obedience and cowardice.

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Take 2

Texans would rather have a celeb grenade like McConaughey as gov than the same old politics - and that's alright, alright, alright

Zachary Leeman
RT
Mon, 19 Apr 2021 20:37 UTC
McConaughey
© John Gutierrez-USA TODAY Sports
A new poll shows that actor Matthew McConaughey, who has mentioned a potential jump into politics, has far more support in his state to run for governor than the currently-elected Republican.

In a poll released Sunday by The Dallas Morning News and University of Texas at Tyler, 45% of registered Texan voters wouldn't mind the guy most well known for saying, "alright, alright, alright" as their next governor.

Republican Governor Greg Abbott, on the other hand, received only 33% support in the poll. Broken down by party lines, it becomes clearer that McConaughey's popularity on the screen - also likely recent interviews touching on cultural subjects like political correctness - outshines any 'experience' Abbott or others bring to the job.

Among Republicans, 56% said they would support a McConaughey run to lead the Lone Star state, while just 30% threw their weight behind Abbott.
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Bad Guys

Panicked Arizona Dems file last-minute lawsuit seeking to block 2020 election audit


ZeroHedge
Fri, 23 Apr 2021 16:59 UTC
Maricopa County Election Department
© Olivier Touron/AFP via Getty ImagesA poll worker sorts ballots inside the Maricopa County Election Department in Phoenix, Arizona, on Nov. 5, 2020.
The Arizona Democratic Party filed a lawsuit on Thursday seeking to stop the state's Senate from carrying out an audit of the 2020 election results in Maricopa County.

The complaint (pdf), filed in Maricopa County Superior Court, comes just before the audit is set to begin on Friday. In preparation, 2.1 million ballots, as well as voting equipment that includes 385 tabulators, were delivered to the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, the site of the planned audit.

An emergency court hearing has been scheduled for the case, CV2021-006646, at 11 a.m. on Friday.

The Arizona Democratic Party and Steve Gallardo, the sole Democrat on the five-member Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, argue in the lawsuit that the planned audit is in violation of "various statutory and Election Procedures Manual provisions." They allege that the planned audit lacks various safeguards and requirements are lacking to perform a secure and reliable audit, and as such, the planned audit "undermines the integrity and security" of the state's elections and voter information.

Comment: Sooooo, what are they hiding that is so horrendous the Arizona Election Board is willing to face arrest over it?

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Star of David

Dozens hurt, arrested in Old City clash as extremist Jews chant 'Death to Arabs'


Times of Israel
Fri, 23 Apr 2021 16:07 UTC
extremist settlers jerusalem riots
Extremist Jewish settlers march towards Damascus Gate in East Jerusalem.
Arab counter-protesters also skirmish with police trying to keep groups apart; 105 Palestinians, 20 officers injured as cops use water cannons, stun grenades against rock throwers

Dozens of people were injured when violent clashes erupted at the Damascus Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem late Thursday as Palestinian protesters confronted a group of some 300 extreme-right Jewish activists who marched to the scene chanting "Death to Arabs." Police, trying to keep the groups apart, also clashed with the Palestinians, who threw rocks at the officers.

Officers used riot dispersal means including stun grenades, tear gas and water cannons to break up the Arab protestors, the sounds from the explosions rolling across the center of the capital. ​ At least 105 Palestinians were injured, including 22 who were hospitalized, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.

Comment: Times of Israel is knows its audience, so while giving the appearance of factual, unbiased reporting, a careful reading will show the text is still slanted against the Palestinians. Other views, which are more forthright in their position:

From Palestinian Chronicle:
Violent clashes broke out between extremist Jewish settlers and Palestinians after some 300 extremist Jewish settlers marched towards Damascus Gate outside the Old City of Jerusalem, shouting "Death to the Arabs" and "Arabs get out" late on Thursday.
Bentzi Gopstein rabbi extremist Lehava Israel
© Flash90/Yonatan SindelBentzi Gopstein, head of the Israeli extremist Lehava organization
The settler march was organized and led by Lehava, a Jewish supremacist anti-miscegenation group whose members physically assault Palestinians suspected of dating Jewish women and whose leader, Bentzi Gopstein, also expressed support for burning down churches.

The clashes spread to other parts of the occupied city of Jerusalem, including the Sheikh Jarrah, Musrara, the French Hill colonial settlement, al-Tur and Wadi al-Joz, and lasted until the early morning hours of Friday.


Meanwhile, dozens of Jewish settlers took to Highway 1, the main highway which separates West and East Jerusalem, intercepting vehicles to identify Jerusalemite Palestinians and assault them, as Israeli police did nothing to stop them.


In the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, a group of settlers attacked a Palestinian woman driving her vehicle with stones, injuring her in the head.

They also vandalized dozens of other vehicles belonging to the neighborhood residents and others displayed at a local motor show at al-Mutran Street, hurling stones at them and slashing their tires.

In Wadi al-Joz, Palestinians confronted police and settlers who stormed the neighborhood and torched the vehicle of a settler who barged his way into the neighborhood.

Similar violent clashes erupted in the al-Tur neighborhood, where a number of its residents sustained injuries and others set a settler bus that entered the neighborhood on fire.


The past ten days have seen night-time clashes between police and worshippers in the East Jerusalem, with tensions mounting over the police decision to ban people from sitting on the stairs outside Bab al-Amoud, also known as Damascus Gate, under the guise of implementing the coronavirus restrictions, and its decision to disconnect the power supply to the call to prayer at the mosque compound.

For many Palestinians in Jerusalem and across the occupied Palestinian territory, Ramadan is directly connected to the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound houses both the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosque and is considered the third holiest site in Islam.

Al-Aqsa is located in East Jerusalem, a part of the internationally recognized Palestinian territories that have been occupied by the Israeli military since 1967.
Middle East Monitor:
Hundreds of far-right and anti-Palestinian activists took to the streets in Jerusalem's Old City on Thursday chanting "Death to Arabs" as they protested through the city centre.

The march, led by Lehava, a far-right Israeli group, was organised as a call to "restore Jewish dignity" in Jerusalem.

It came after a week of increased violent assaults against Palestinian citizens of Israel in the Old City.

Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the uptick in anti-Palestinian violence began after a video was posted to TikTok of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man being slapped - seemingly at random - on Jerusalem's light rail train.

Two 17-year-old Palestinians were subsequently arrested in relation to the incident.


On Thursday, Palestinian counter-protesters gathered at Jerusalem's Damascus Gate, the main passage used by Palestinians to enter the Old City's castle walls.

Israeli security forces attempted to block the anti-Palestinian march from reaching the counter-protesters, but Haaretz reported that eventually forces started shooting tear gas at the Palestinian activists, trying to disperse the crowd while utilising horse-mounted officers to push back far-right Israeli activists.

The newspaper reported that in a group chat organised by the far-right group La Familia, a user posted: "Burning Arabs today, Molotov cocktails are already in the trunk...the way I see it, an Arab dies today."


In a video posted to Twitter, Israeli youth were filmed throwing pipes and other hard objects into the homes of Palestinian residents of the Old City.

Earlier on Thursday, a Jewish man maced a Palestinian woman in the face and a man driving in a car bearing an Israeli flag fired off a few rounds from a firearm near the Israeli Ministry of Justice.

The "Death to Arabs" slogan being used at the march is a staple at protests organised by Lehava, which is best known for its use of intimidation, harassment and violence to stop Israelis and Palestinians from dating or even being friends or coworkers.

While Palestinians make up around 20 percent of the Israeli population, with both communities living in close proximity in cities like Jerusalem, animosity runs high.

In February, a comprehensive study conducted at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem showed that 66 percent of the ultra-Orthodox, 42 percent of religious Israelis, and 24 percent of secularists "hate Arabs". The term "Arab" is commonly used in Israel as a way to challenge the existence of Palestinians and historic Palestine.

The same study showed that 49 percent of religious Israelis and 23 percent of secular citizens supported stripping the right to vote from Palestinians inside Israel.
Some are not in the least embarrassed to state the end-goal:




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Red Flag

'I didn't want to go through the rioting': Juror in Chauvin trial makes stunning admission over 'guilty' verdict

Kyle Becker
Becker News
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 00:01 UTC
Lisa Christensen juror Chauvin
On Tuesday, a jury found Derek Chauvin guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in a case that had sparked nationwide riots: The death of George Floyd.

During the course of the trial, Judge Peter Cahill mentioned that the court case was getting dangerously close to mistrial. A new interview with an alternate juror named Lisa Christensen, who lives in Brooklyn Center, provides new insight into the courtroom dynamics.

"I just had a fascinating sit-down interview with one of the alternate jurors in the Derek Chauvin trial," Kare 11 reporter Lou Raguse said Thursday on Twitter.

Comment: Guilty or not, it cannot be said that Chauvin had anything approaching a fair trial. The leftists really need a lesson in how their actions can be harmful to their own cause.

See also:

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