#UK #Border Force is a #military command reflecting increase of hyper-militarisation in #policing, according to new report

Emergence of #paramilitary/political policing across #Europe, at borders, during #civil #unrest & public #protest

It cites the Home Office's request & support for creation of new #clandestine Channel threat commander as evidence of the Channel becoming #HyperMilitarised

What they have begun at the border does not end at the border

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/may/25/uk-border-force-military-institute-of-race-relations-report

An Garda Síochána has been told to release all records they hold about providing incorrect figures to the Department of Justice on policing strength.

Last year, An Garda made a formal apology to the then-Justice Minister Helen McEntee after providing data that appeared to show a sudden jump in the number of gardaí stationed in her constituency.

Latest Right to Know case:

https://www.thestory.ie/2025/05/21/an-garda-told-to-release-records-on-the-provision-of-incorrect-police-manpower-data-they-supplied-to-the-department-of-justice/

Great story from @therealnews on how one major pillar of the authoritarianism we find ourself in the midst of is policing in "blue" cities. Going 85% fascist police state is a bipartisan project, and it's a lot easier to advance towards 100% when the "opposition" helped you get 85% of the way there

https://therealnews.com/a-hopkins-professor-says-americas-descent-into-authoritarianism-may-have-started-with-policing-in-blue-cities-if-thats-true-were-in-big-trouble

“Met Police bans JEWISH anti-genocide protesters from vast area of London”

by Skwawkbox @skwawkbox @UKLabour
@palestine
@israel

“After weeks of police violence and trying to drum up opposition from residents, Met turns huge area of N London into no-go area for Jewish humanitarians”

https://skwawkbox.org/2025/05/07/met-police-bans-jewish-anti-genocide-protesters-from-vast-area-of-london/

UK police failed to tackle the risk social media poses to public order.

A review published on Wednesday found that the UK's police forces are largely under-resourced and ill-equipped to effectively respond to the risk posed by online content.

Public disorder in the UK was fuelled by a string of online fake claims which emerged after three young girls were murdered at a dance class in the town of Southport in July 2024.

https://mediafaro.org/article/20250507-uk-police-failed-to-tackle-the-risk-social-media-poses-to-public-order?mf_channel=mastodon&action=forward

Bought a movie ticket at a reduced price for the unemployed! A new documentary about "dialogue policemen", specially trained officers who work with security at protests and counterprotests.

https://zita.se/dialogpolisen

Outlook not so good

Police tech doesn’t predict crime. It predicts policing.

Based on biased data, it brings more of the same – racist policing and poverty punishment.

Read our latest blog on why crime 'predicting' police tech must be BANNED

#SafetyNotSurveillance

https://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/why-predictive-policing-must-be-banned/

Cryptowars Update: "Ghost Participant" Encryption Backdoors & More

#cryptowars #encryption #e2ee #backdoors #communication #security #infosec #cybersecurity #policing #Europe #Florida

https://tube.tchncs.de/w/t75E7TnaBRzeaVnLtNtMs4

D'oh! Not a good idea to do that in the middle of #Southend anyway, even less so when there's a fat copper in hi vis *immediately behind you* (even in a plain car the #Roads #Policing Unit #officers have to wear uniform to prove they are actual old bill and not some random walt who bought blue lights off Ebay). I guess he doesn't look in the rear mirror much..

The lad also failed a #drugs test so is likely to get a 1 year #driving ban

This ‘College Protester’ Isn’t Real. It’s an AI-Powered Undercover Bot for Cops https://www.byteseu.com/929791/ #404Media #AI #Algorithms #ArtificialIntelligence #Crime #police #Policing #Privacy

If we in the #USA manage to get our country back from the current #dictatorship, and we still think government is a good idea (I'm not trying to resolve the question of #anarchism right now), we need to recognize first of all that we can't go back to the prior status quo. Certain core aspects of that system got us into this mess, and will require fundamental change.

(1) Our #voting system needs overhaul. The right to vote needs to be recognized explicitly as a RIGHT, not a privilege for each state to regulate largely as it pleases. In particular, no criminal conviction should ever be able to impair the right to vote; racist abuse of the criminal law has been used to accomplish widespread disenfranchisement of minorities. Also, we need to recognize that winner-take-all voting systems are utterly incompatible with genuine democracy. If you ever have to ask whether you can afford to vote for who you really want, as opposed to voting for the lesser evil, you do not live in a democracy. Something like proportional representation, ranked-choice voting, or instant-runoff voting is not a luxury; some such system is a minimum requirement for authentic democracy.

(2) To hell with "#SeparationOfPowers". Any protection it supposedly offered us has been purely illusory. Indeed, it was never intended to safeguard the people. It was designed by an elite who deeply distrusted the people, in order to safeguard their wealth and power FROM the people. A legislature answerable to the people is the best safeguard for their rights that any government can hope to offer. Autonomy for the judicial and executive functions of government, as separate "branches" outside the control of the legislature, has brought nothing good. Throughout most of its history, an autonomous Supreme Court has consistently defended the most depraved policies of private power against legislative efforts to control them; and now it has aided and abetted the autonomous Presidency in fulfilling its inherent tendency to degenerate into a #dictatorship. Put the courts and all executive functions under full legislative control, to be granted only such limited and conditional autonomy as the legislature sees fit to offer them.

(3) We will need to overhaul our understanding of what the right of #FreeSpeech consists in. I do not like the unclear slogan "money is not speech"; but the right of INDIVIDUALS to speak freely is what must be safeguarded, and if that is to be accomplished, we cannot allow private capital to monopolize control over the media of communication, much less recognize an inviolable right for private capital to buy such control. Also, we may need to place severe restrictions — as #Germany has done — on organized promotion of certain ideas that involve a systematic attempt to suppress the very existence, let alone the free expression, of others. A #fascist march has more in common with a brandished weapon than with a discussion of fascist ideas in, say, a university classroom or a private home.

These changes (1)–(3) will not, of course, be sufficient by themselves. I have not addressed issues as fundamental as who will own the means of #production, whether people should be guaranteed an unconditional #BasicIncome (#UBI), or how (and whether) #policing should be done. But (1)–(3) will still be needed, no matter how a host of other basic questions are to be resolved.

The UK's murder prediction AI will create a dangerous, criminalising loop.

This tech repackages flawed police data as neutral. Then replicates itself.

The existing over-policing of racialised, low income and migrant communities will be hardwired into police operations.

We need #SafetyNotSurveillance

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/apr/08/uk-creating-prediction-tool-to-identify-people-most-likely-to-kill