Read

User menu

Search form

Welcome to Orwell's New York City

Welcome to Orwell's New York City
Fri, 8/17/2012 - by Courtney Hodrick
This article originally appeared on Policy Mic

New York City has taken the next step towards becoming a police state. It wasn’t enough to prevent New Yorkers from drinking in parks, or to have the police remove Occupy Wall Street protesters. Now things are getting technological.

Last week, the NYPD unveiled a new computer system, called the Domain Awareness System, that will be a massive step forward for crime fighting but that has civil liberties activists up in arms. This system, developed in conjunction with Microsoft at a cost of $30-40 million, will consolidate every NYPD database and give immediate access to every one of the over 3,000 street camera in the city.

The system will also be able to identify license plate numbers and to check them against a watch list, setting off immediate alerts if a match is detected and pulling up crime records and arrest warrants instantaneously. Finally, the computer system will be able to access readings on radioactive materials in order to detect unnatural levels that could indicate terrorist activity.

NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly told the NY Daily News that, “For years, we’ve been stovepiped as far as databases are concerned. Now, everything that we have about an incident, an event, an individual comes together on that workbench.” Kelly called the Domain Awareness System “one-stop shopping for investigators.”

In addition to its crime stopping potential, the DAS also has the potential to earn money for the city. The NYPD were actually the ones to approach Microsoft about designing a new system, not the other way around, and were involved in every step of the process. Due to the NYPD’s involvement in its development, Microsoft has agreed that the NYPD will earn 30% of the profits made from selling the technology to other cities.

Predictably, an increase in surveillance technology is ruffling the feathers of civil liberties groups. New York City ACLU Associate Legal Director Chris Dunn told the NY Daily News, “We fully support the police using technology to combat crime and terrorism, but law-abiding New Yorkers should not end up in a police database every time they walk their dog.”

Dunn’s statement hits the nail on the head in my opinion. There is no way to deny that the police should be able to consolidate all of their information in one place if they’re going to effectively fight crime. The question, though, is how far technological development will go. Facial recognition software gets better all the time; it is not hard to imagine that in a few years the DAS will be constantly checking faces against its files, as it is currently doing with license plate numbers.

New Yorkers who go about their daily lives without committing any crimes shouldn’t have to worry about being constantly watched, but I think you would be hard pressed to find someone who wouldn’t.

3 WAYS TO SHOW YOUR SUPPORT

ONE-TIME DONATION

Just use the simple form below to make a single direct donation.

DONATE NOW

MONTHLY DONATION

Be a sustaining sponsor. Give a reacurring monthly donation at any level.

GET SOME MERCH!

Now you can wear your support too! From T-Shirts to tote bags.

SHOP TODAY

Sign Up

Article Tabs

What remains unknown is whether post-truth Republicans will succeed in 2024 as the Nazis did in 1933.

Based on details that have emerged about Trump’s presidential agenda, the far-right Heritage Foundation plans for the next GOP president to have all the tools necessary to demolish multicultural democracy and establish a white, Christian ethnostate that imposes a gender apartheid not unlike the Taliban’s Afghanistan.

Donald Trump, Hitler

Like Hitler, Trump has a unique command of propaganda, a captivating public presence, and he knows how to drive home narratives beneficial to him and harmful to his enemies.

Trump’s brand of hyper-nationalism combined with the intense consolidation of executive power follows the same playbook as fascistic leaders in other countries like India,Russia, Hungary, Turkey, Egypt, Italy and Argentina, among others.

The Florida governor’s humiliating loss has a dark undertone: Most Republicans, and many independents, apparently have a craving for the unchecked lawless vengeance that Trump has promised if he wins a second term.

What remains unknown is whether post-truth Republicans will succeed in 2024 as the Nazis did in 1933.

Based on details that have emerged about Trump’s presidential agenda, the far-right Heritage Foundation plans for the next GOP president to have all the tools necessary to demolish multicultural democracy and establish a white, Christian ethnostate that imposes a gender apartheid not unlike the Taliban’s Afghanistan.

Donald Trump, Hitler

Like Hitler, Trump has a unique command of propaganda, a captivating public presence, and he knows how to drive home narratives beneficial to him and harmful to his enemies.

Trump’s brand of hyper-nationalism combined with the intense consolidation of executive power follows the same playbook as fascistic leaders in other countries like India,Russia, Hungary, Turkey, Egypt, Italy and Argentina, among others.

The Florida governor’s humiliating loss has a dark undertone: Most Republicans, and many independents, apparently have a craving for the unchecked lawless vengeance that Trump has promised if he wins a second term.

Based on details that have emerged about Trump’s presidential agenda, the far-right Heritage Foundation plans for the next GOP president to have all the tools necessary to demolish multicultural democracy and establish a white, Christian ethnostate that imposes a gender apartheid not unlike the Taliban’s Afghanistan.

Posted 3 weeks 3 days ago

Trump’s brand of hyper-nationalism combined with the intense consolidation of executive power follows the same playbook as fascistic leaders in other countries like India,Russia, Hungary, Turkey, Egypt, Italy and Argentina, among others.

Posted 1 month 3 weeks ago
Donald Trump, Hitler

Like Hitler, Trump has a unique command of propaganda, a captivating public presence, and he knows how to drive home narratives beneficial to him and harmful to his enemies.

Posted 1 month 1 week ago

What remains unknown is whether post-truth Republicans will succeed in 2024 as the Nazis did in 1933.

Posted 1 week 2 days ago

Based on details that have emerged about Trump’s presidential agenda, the far-right Heritage Foundation plans for the next GOP president to have all the tools necessary to demolish multicultural democracy and establish a white, Christian ethnostate that imposes a gender apartheid not unlike the Taliban’s Afghanistan.