Reps. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., and Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., sent a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on Friday morning, demanding answers about how the tech giant’s facial recognition technology is being used by law enforcement agencies around the country.
The letter, provided to The Intercept ahead of its public release, lists a total of 12 requests for information regarding Amazon’s facial recognition service, branded as “Rekognition,” including the names of any law enforcement or government agencies that use the system and data on how the service could enable, or itself engage in, discrimination, including racial and gender bias.
“The disproportionally high arrest rates for members of the black community make the use of facial recognition technology by law enforcement problematic,” the letter reads, “because it could serve to reinforce this trend.”
You can read the rest @
https://theintercept.com/2018/05/25/amazon-surveillance-facial-recognition-congress/
That's it? They're concerned about bias and discrimination?
What about the facts that a police state is being constructed, that ALL our civil rights are being ignored, and that the worst fascist government in history is taking over our once great republic?
There is little which GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon) have done which I admire or even consider to be tolerable any more. Rein them in, or shut them down and seize their assets.
The best vehicle for accomplishing this is the RICO statute:
It is unlawful for anyone employed by or associated with any enterprise engaged in, or the activities of which affect, interstate or foreign commerce, to conduct or participate, directly or indirectly, in the conduct of such enterprise's affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity or collection of unlawful debt. 18 U.S.C.A. § 1962(c) (West 1984). The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO) was passed by Congress with the declared purpose of seeking to eradicate organized crime in the United States. Russello v. United States, 464 U.S. 16, 26-27, 104 S. Ct. 296, 302-303, 78 L. Ed. 2d 17 (1983); United States v. Turkette, 452 U.S. 576, 589, 101 S. Ct. 2524, 2532, 69 L. Ed. 2d 246 (1981). A violation of Section 1962(c), requires (1) conduct (2) of an enterprise (3) through a pattern (4) of racketeering activity. Sedima, S.P.R.L. v. Imrex Co., 473 U.S. 479, 496, 105 S. Ct. 3275, 3285, 87 L. Ed. 2d 346 (1985).
A more expansive view holds that in order to be found guilty of violating the RICO statute, the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt: (1) that an enterprise existed; (2) that the enterprise affected interstate commerce; (3) that the defendant was associated with or employed by the enterprise; (4) that the defendant engaged in a pattern of racketeering activity; and (5) that the defendant conducted or participated in the conduct of the enterprise through that pattern of racketeering activity through the commission of at least two acts of racketeering activity as set forth in the indictment. United States v. Phillips, 664 F. 2d 971, 1011 (5th Cir. Unit B Dec. 1981), cert. denied, 457 U.S. 1136, 102 S. Ct. 1265, 73 L. Ed. 2d 1354 (1982).
Source - https://www.justice.gov/usam/criminal-resource-manual-109-rico-charges
What is "racketeering activity"?
RICO defines “racketeering activity” as a long list of state and federal crimes. The federal crimes include bribery, various fraud offenses, gambling offenses, money laundering, a number of financial and economic crimes, obstructing justice or a criminal investigation, murder for hire, and sexual exploitation of children. The state crimes include murder, kidnapping, gambling, arson, robbery, bribery, extortion, dealing in obscene matter, and drug crimes.
Source - https://www.cga.ct.gov/2006/rpt/2006-R-0484.htm
Are you telling me there is not even one federal prosecutor who can't find a way to go after GAFA using this statute? That's DAMN hard to believe, and it suggests that corporate-government collusion is at the heart of the matter.
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