Slashdot Mirror
LA To Become First In US To Install Subway Body Scanners (apnews.com)
Los Angeles officials announced Tuesday that the city's subway will become the first mass transit system in the U.S. to install body scanners that screen passengers for weapons and explosives. "The deployment of the portable scanners, which project waves to do full-body screenings of passengers walking through a station without slowing them down, will happen in the coming months, said Alex Wiggins, who runs the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's law enforcement division," reports the Associated Press reports: The machines scan for metallic and non-metallic objects on a person's body, can detect suspicious items from 30 feet (9 meters) away and have the capability of scanning more than 2,000 passengers per hour. On Tuesday, Pekoske and other officials demonstrated the new machines, which are being purchased from Thruvision, which is headquartered in the United Kingdom. In addition to the Thruvision scanners, the agency is also planning to purchase other body scanners -- which resemble white television cameras on tripods -- that have the ability to move around and hone in on specific people and angles, Wiggins said. Signs will be posted at stations warning passengers they are subject to body scanner screening. The screening process is voluntary, Wiggins said, but customers who choose not be screened won't be able to ride on the subway.
"The screening process is voluntary, Wiggins said, but customers who choose not be screened won't be able to ride on the subway."
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Because it's "voluntary". You know, you don't HAVE to voluntarily submit to this [otherwise unlawful search and seizure].
Just don't ride the subway. Your rights are all protected. Except of course the ability to use the government provided mass transit system.
E
I guess that depends if the subway counts as a government or private entity.
If it was a government one, then wouldn't the right to free movement be a stronger argument?
If it is private, then you are shit out of luck.
Of course these days they love to blur the lines... because representing the people is the LAST thing they want to do - where is the advantage in that (to themselves, of course..)
On our 'society'.
This won't help for the guy who punched me in the face and ran, in broad daylight, at the busiest station in LA.
This won't help for the fact that even though he looked right into the camera, because I didn't write down what the exact car # it was (I still don't know where this number is supposedly posted), they couldn't pull the tape.
This won't help for the fact that the piggies suck at their job.
This won't help. But it will cost a lot of money and violate a lot of people's privacy. So good idea, eh?
A fair number of people riding the Metro take auxiliary transportation modes with them - bikes, scooter (powered and unpowered), and skateboards all which are large metal containing objects, in addition to various other cargos. Subways aren't planes - people take them to go shopping, and there is no "cargo hold" or a place to "check baggage" - people carry everything they are taking on their person. Also people are often moving pretty fast to make it from one line to the next in their commute. What happens when one of these monitors triggers? Though they do have Metro Cops, they have never had enough to have them posted routinely at every Metro entrance or transfer point. How is this really going to work?
And does the "mass casualty" standard make any sense? Two of the worst mass shootings in the U.S. history - the Luby's (24 dead) and Virginia Tech (33 dead) massacres - were done with hand guns - both of them polymer frame Glocks that have less metal than standard handgun designs.
Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
That's not the question, I don't think people want the airport experience at the airport.
When was the last time you saw anyone actually asking for representation?
Last time I checked the election was between R's and D's. Neither of which are for the little guy. Both are for big business, they just go about it in different ways so that people can use cheap excuses to say they are really different. There is a reason both parties are splintering. Both of their own recognize that they cannot get representation.
Bush a republican created this problem and Mr "we are 5 days away from fundamentally transforming America" Obama a democrat didn't change a single fucking thing... except the rhetoric.
Looks like a portable device, either an IR camera or terahertz scanner, not fixed infrastructure like airport body scanners.
So it will likely be deployed at random entrances to the system. Time for a Twitter feed with locations where the LAPD is deploying the damned things, same as feeds of drunk-driving or immigration checkpoints. Be a good citizen, watch the cops like a hawk watching a tasty piglet.
If I buy a rack of kitchen knives, I can't take it home on the subway? What about knitting needles? I sometimes carry a pen knife. Scissors? Will the play-doh for the kids look like plastic explosives?
this is utter garbage.
We Americans are at fault for this, allowing a bunch of terrorists to scare ignorant people like you into allowing this tyranny.
Those who give up essential liberty for safety do not get either liberty or safety as well as no longer deserving liberty or safety.
Or 2nd amendment right. Washington State (Where I live), permits concealed carry. You can take your concealed loaded handgun on any public transportation, (except planes, because that's federally controlled. It is legal to bring a locked gun with you in an airplane, if you're legal to have the firearm in the leaving and destination locations and you declare it. That's US wide).
The difference in CA is that they've so removed gun ownership rights.
It's an IR camera, apparently ("Terahertz waves" is a fancy term for high-frequency IR), so no. Metal objects block IR radiation or radiate differently and thus are visible.
Images of the front and back of every type of transport are kept.
Driver and passenger faces are kept as they enter a city and on the drive back after work.
All cell phone network use is detected and collected too.
Face, method transport and details on the type of in use communication.
Lots of CCTV in all city areas then fills in the gait and face. Daily movements to work and what is done while working in the city.
Domain Awareness System https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
History from the UK https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Which is why the US needs a good, hard recession, if not an economic depression. Cut off the funds to the people developing and buying this garbage. Can't beat 'em, let 'em starve.
OK, and how do they get where they need to go? For most poor people, public transportation isn't optional. We don't all have huge sums of money and time to buy a car and wait in traffic.
I don't think a reasonable person would consider this voluntary if the alternative is being restricted to going places that you can walk.
The Thruevision website says that it's a passive camera which operates in the 250 GHz range. That's infrared. No safety concerns, thankfully, and judging from the pictures no privacy concerns either. They're basically just like pictures from a visible-spectrum camera, only monochromatic and blurry. I'm not sure how this is supposed to be useful...
Does anyone know how this is supposed to work? Maybe a gun or a bomb or other large object would be colder than the rest of your body? So it would show up as a cold spot?
This is a passive camera that captures THz (IR) radiation emitted by human bodies. It doesn't produce any radiation, only captures it.
That is the idea of why its been set that way and everyone is scanned. Random stops of people who are criminals are difficult to present as "random".
The need for some type of reasonable and articulable suspicion is removed when everyone is scanned.
Scan everyone and that later legal question is stopped. Its not the police selecting any random person. Everyone gets a scan thats equal before the law.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
...now there is more material for Cory Doctorow to use for another book in the Little Brother / Homeland / Walkaway series.
Concealed carry isn't actually illegal in CA -- rural counties give out permits like candy, and they've valid throughout the state. Which is probably why they claim they won't be looking for "small" weapons: quite a few people in CA are concealed-carrying, perfectly legally.
Look for a cattle rancher or a beekeeper.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
So subways are "voluntary", as is using the public libraries. Court houses need scanners for "safety". Walmart is "a private business". Oh, and interstates are also "voluntarily", you can take an alternate route (or walk).
The US has no right to roam. Vagrancy is illegal in most places. Walking along highways and freeways is illegal. Railways too. Very, very little of the area within the US has any form of public transit.
Even the word "alternative" should remain in quotes.
OF COURSE people don't want it. The government wants it. As do the sellers of the scanners. They are more powerful than the people, so they get what they want.
We need to build a wall around the US and ban international travel for any US citizens to stop the infection from spreading.
Requiem for the American Dream
There could be glzed truffle dinuts in those bags.
Requiem for the American Dream
Newsflash, your own government is worse than the thing they're 'protecting you from.'
Requiem for the American Dream
Well, let's look at the numbers, shall we?
Percentage of households owning a car:
(1) USA: 88%
(2) Germany: 85%
(3) South Korea: 83%
(4) France: 83%
Household car ownership rates in the US and Germany are almost the same, filling out spots #1 and #2. Why can't we all be as perfect as the Germans? Oh, wait, we are!
It's not constitutional there either. Or at least it wouldn't be if the judges weren't developmentally delayed morons that couldn't grasp the consequences of any of their decisions.
Some are corrupt, some stupid, and many quietly taken aside when a key case/decision/precedent is in play for a meeting. Remember the "interview scene" from The Matrix when Agent Smith and Neo first meet?
Do you remember that huge binder of data Smith dropped on the desk, opened, and began to tell Neo all about the minute details of his life like the "neighbor lady" he takes the trash out for? Thanks to the US TLAs there are virtual 'binders' on everyone including judges and their family, friends, and associates. They might note that his kid/grandkid/spouse/loved-one/etc might be dabbling in something technically illegal and it would be tragic if police received an 'anonymous tip'. "Now wouldn't it, your Honor? I know you'll do the right thing. For your family's sake."
That's one of the great dangers of having an intelligence agency with data on everyone...it makes them the de facto leaders, not those elected by the people to lead, as those in charge of the intelligence agencies have the ability to destroy anyone (and/or their loved ones) they wish at any time for whatever reason they like.
Always treat government like fire. History teaches us that you are more likely by far to be unjustly killed or imprisoned at the hands of your own government than from the actions of any foreign nation or terrorist group, foreign or domestic.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
Wow. They have completely got you. Like totally. The government has seized control of your mind and ravaged your critical thinking.
They are literally taking your freedom away right before your eyes and yet you are still taking the bait and blaming the scapegoat.
Only crack the nuts that crack. You don't put the ones that don't crack in the sack.
So all those people who claim that air travel is not a necessity and that you should forgo long-distance travel for pleasure or work or family to stick it to the TSA, (and therefore implicitly blaming people who do fly for 'supporting' this regime), what now? What when it is your local only-viable transport system that's installed it? When does the myth of the effective boycot get exposed, and we have to admit that there is a problem that can't be fixed by the 'market', and actually have to fix with legislation?
We have become the Soviet Union.
When I was a kid we had a saying, used when people disagreed with each other: "do what you want, it's a free country."
Nowadays if someone says "it's a free country", people just wince and laugh nervously.
The terrorists won. And keep winning more & more with each new form of automated tyranny.
The human body does not emit terahertz waves in any detectable amount. And terahertz waves are NOT IR. That's like saying microwave ovens are FM radios.
On the one hand you take life too seriously, and on the other, you do not take playful existence seriously enough. Seth
Most Americans couldn't care less about Europe because Europe is of little importance to them or the world. The people who still comment are emigres like myself, and we don't do it because we care about the future of Europe, but because we don't want more bad ideas to spill over from Europe to the US.
People drive in the US because it's fast, cheap, simple, and convenient. Why people drive less in Germany is no great mystery: on average, Germans are poorer and the government deliberate makes it expensive to drive. And the German government subsidizes the kind of transportation that the intellectual and political elite in Germany prefers, which is why public transit is excellent near political power centers and universities.
Fuck this! It's out of control. These fuckers need to be removed from society. Fastt! They are a danger to democracy. They are the problem.
Do.... people in Germany really care about how NewYorkers and Midwesterners get to work?
People drive in the US because it's fast, cheap, simple, and convenient.
People also use public transportation because it's... faster, cheaper, simpler, and more convenient. ...In big cities like NY.
Dear god, just PARKING in NY you have to pay out the ass. You're rich or dumb to own a car in a big city. And... I imagine the same is true for backwater Barvaria. Do they have subway systems through-out German farmland?
Europe has a better rail system. Many European cities have better mass transit. America has decent mass transit in the bigger cities. Atlanta and LA traffic can go fuck themselves. In a lot of not-major-cities, if you're poor, you take the bus and walk the last 5 blocks. I hear Europe's buses aren't quite as low-class.
the [german] government deliberate makes it expensive to drive. And the German government subsidizes the kind of transportation that the intellectual and political elite in Germany prefers, which is why public transit is excellent near political power centers and universities.
Right, and in the USA we subsidize the oil&gas corporations to the tune of $4.6 Billion/year because they have our economy by the balls. (And they would even if we did make our cities more mass-transity and make passenger-rail more viable, we're just more spread out. Cars and trucks are simply more viable here, fundamentally). Hence, average gas prices here are US$2.81/gal while it's US$5.57/gal in Frankfurt. For a fungible resource that gets shipped globally, there's obviously market-fuckery going on. But you don't see anyone in power, conservatives or libertarians (pft, as if libertarians got into power) alike ever crying about letting the free market decide. So the cost of road upkeep is socialized in the USA, while gas tax pays for the roads in Germany.