Accountability* or Acc**ntability? – Ricochet - Ricochet.com
Accountability* or Acc**ntability? – Ricochet - Ricochet.com |
| Accountability* or Acc**ntability? – Ricochet - Ricochet.com Posted: 21 Apr 2021 12:33 PM PDT  Sen. Rand Paul surrounded by protestors. We are supposed to have a system of government in which the lawmakers and legislators are accountable to the people: they are accountable if voters can discern whether governments or politicians are acting in their interests and sanction them appropriately, so that incumbents acting in the best interest of the citizens win reelection and those who do not lose them. But there is another element to accountability, one based not on the strict form of election cycles and instituted policies that a learned and informed constituency can independently evaluate. It is of narratives and biases and predetermined outcomes. It is of perception. It is of raw emotion. It is the mother of Demand and father of Outrage. In the aftermath of Breonna Taylor's death, Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) wrote the Justice for Breonna Taylor Act. The legislation would prohibit no-knock raids by police such as the one in which Ms. Taylor was killed., but none of that matters to the mob demanding Accountability!. In a terrifying moment for Senator Paul and his wife Kelley as they left the Republican National Convention the night of August 27, 2020, and ran afoul of 'protesters'. This Accountability was being demanded by a crowd feverishly screaming "Say her name" at the very man who has been a consistent advocate for criminal justice reform, including that specifically related to Breonna Taylor. But living the slogan life is to never have to live by the words so loosely dispensed from the foaming lips of professional agitators: Educate yourself. Accountability is looting a Brooklyn Center Dollar Tree, destroying the very place where the community works and shops. Accountability is firing Brooklyn Center City Manager Curt Boganey for the unforgivable offense of defending due process. Accountability is Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-Mi.) declaring policing as government-funded murder; inherently and intentionally racist. This extends far beyond the causes and results of the Summer of Destruction. The Accountability refrain has been used as blowtorch against debate so often it has effectively changed its purposeful meaning in much the same way as Infrastructure: something so bloated with noxious gas, any sturdy probing might release the poison on the whole damn population, suffocating us all. So we shrink from any true holding of account, or enacting punitive repercussions. For that, we either cry out to whoever is within our purview, or stand, mouths agape, as injustice and persecutions persist and even cause our own censorship because we dared confront the powerful. It extends to the Biden Administration's subservience to China's evils. The hostility towards Hong Kong's freedom advocates, the genocide of the Uighurs in Xinjiang, and the deadly deception hiding COVID has been met with the strength of a wet paper bag – even as China exerts itself on the world stage and thoroughly humiliating American representatives in March at an Alaska summit. Even when asked by kid glove-wearing CNN if China should be punished for misleading the world about COVID, Secretary of State Antony Blinken ineffectually replied (emphasis mine):  BFF's!
Strong words for the Sesame Street diplomacy of a President who dismissed the systemic rape and torture of Uighurs in China as just a "different norm". New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has gained notoriety in his brittle dance with Accountability. His much-publicized criticism of the Trump Administration's COVID response made him a pandemic hero to the lapdog media and Cuomosexual liberals across the country. In reality he oversaw, sanctioned, and lied about thousands of COVID deaths in New York nursing homes. He reaches an exceptionally deep level of depravity when it comes to New York's Orthodox Jews. Not only did he blame them for spreading COVID in New York City, he targeted their communities for lockdowns and religious gatherings. But it shouldn't come as a surprise after continuously failing to protect Jews in New York from the savage public attacks happening there for years – and seem to be increasing in frequency as the pandemic lockdowns subside. Cuomo openly called for then Supreme Court Justice Nominee Brett Kavanaugh to submit to a polygraph test, insisting that if he did not, his appointment should be pulled. He went further in blasting Republicans, "There is a disrespect for women that this administration chronically exemplifies. After the #MeToo movement, they did absolutely nothing when it came to sexual harassment. They have always diminished the charges of women – always, consistently." The media and democrats never had to apologize or admit their culpability in smearing Justice Kavanaugh, and now Governor Cuomo will likely never be held to the standard of responsibility for which they demand of others – truth be damned. In the memory-hole of the 24/7 news cycle, Accountability is weaponized as a smear campaign void of evidence. Brett Kavanaugh as a high school rape-circle kingpin, President Trump putting kids in cages, the Steele Dossier, the Russian Bounty farce, the list is too long to detail, but looks like a jailhouse lineup of the likeliest suspects, all of whom end up judged guilty just by being in the same room. It's far easier to speak in the clichéd language of Accountability than to go through the actual work of discriminating between truth and lies, solutions and slogans, and responsibility and blame. And when the people demand it of our government in defense of our freedom, we are met with an equal level of trite promises and hackneyed inanities. They gush an outpouring of regrets and hollow apologies, often followed by callous disregard of true victims. The next time you hear someone calling for Accountability, ask yourself what is really being demanded, and where is the best place to put the asterisk. Published in General |
| European Commission Proposes Taking Away the Cops' Big Boy Surveillance Machine - Gizmodo Posted: 21 Apr 2021 12:40 PM PDT  The EU is giving the U.S. a run for its money with privacy regulation, and now they've upped the ante with a dynamo of a proposal: banishing AI systems that violate "fundamental rights," with a special place in hell for law enforcement using real-time biometric identification. The end of that sentence is more of a personal interpretation, but the gist is that it's time to end the free-for-all. Advertisement The sweeping list of protected freedoms in the proposal includes the right to human dignity, respect for privacy, non-discrimination, gender equality, freedom of expression (infringed by the "chilling effect" of surveillance), freedom of assembly, right to an effective remedy and to a fair trial, the rights of defense and the presumption of innocence, fair and just working conditions, consumer protections, the rights of the child, the integration of persons with disabilities, and environmental protection in that health and safety are impacted. The proposed regulation is over 100 pages long, so here's a summary of the bans. BANNED:
In other words, law enforcement would have to hand over their spy toys for inspection and cut out the kind of abuse that's now rampant in the United States. Cops have abused face recognition software to make will-nilly suspect identifications. Baltimore PD was caught using face recognition to scan Freddie Gray protesters and pick them off for outstanding warrants. Predictive policing algorithms intensify targeting in Black communities and perpetuate the cycle of disproportionate arrests. Predicted recidivism algorithms have likely lengthened prison sentences. When we get mere glimpses of secretive technology, the scope is always more terrifying than imagined. G/O Media may get a commission Consumer uses, too, have wildly violated civil rights. Algorithms that assess mortgage eligibility have levied higher interest rates on Black and Latinx communities and limited healthcare access. Such tools would all likely fall under the European Commission's broad definition of an "AI system" which covers machine learning, "knowledge representation," statistical "approaches" and search methods, among other applications. Generally, the software can use a "given set of human-defined objectives, generate outputs such as content, predictions, recommendations, or decisions influencing the environments they interact with." Advertisement The European Commission also proposes strict regulations on AI systems that it deems "high-risk." (The commission notes that overall this represents a very small proportion of systems in use.) "High-risk" uses include:
Providers for all of the above would have to regularly monitor their technology and report back to the European Commission. Developers are expected to create a risk management system, in order to regularly eliminate and mitigate risk. Dealers are expected to provide information and training to users, taking into account the end-user's level of technical knowledge (read, cops). They would be expected to keep records of who used the technology and how, including input data (ie, cops would have to admit they used Woody Harrelson's photo to make a suspect ID). They'd also need to Inform authorities when they're aware of a risk. Advertisement Government officials would still be fine to use biometric identification in a way that it doesn't necessarily cause harm, Vestager added in the speech. The commission considers fingerprint or face scans by border controls or customs agents to be harmless. While some have complained that this will stifle innovation, the commission has added protections for that too. It would encourage member states to set up "regulatory sandboxes," supervised by a member state or European Data Protection Supervisor. That sounds like a crackdown, but it's more like an optional incubator for start-ups that get priority access. Advertisement And the European Commission reminds us that the "vast majority" of AI systems don't fall under the above risk categories—think AI systems that don't drive human interaction or involve identification. They aim to encourage things like smart sensors and algorithms that help farmers maximize food production and sustainability at cost savings. So, no to barbaric policing and yes to sustaining life on Earth. Great, let's go right ahead and copy-paste this. Advertisement  |
| You are subscribed to email updates from "polygraph definition" - Google News. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |
Comments
Post a Comment