More NYPD Reforms: Super-Violent Plainclothes Units Disbanded, Body Cam Footage Given A 30-Day Release Mandate

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A bunch of police reform efforts are underway in New York City. NYPD officers may not have been responsible for the killing that has sparked protests around the country, but they've provided plenty of ammo for police critics and reformers over the years.With Mike Bloomberg no longer running front office interference for the PD, the department has found itself absorbing more un-deflected criticism. This criticism is finally turning to action, now that it's incredibly inconvenient for ANY city to pretend its law enforcement agencies aren't in need of an overhaul.Early last week, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea decided to dismantle the NYPD's plainclothes units. These officers didn't look like police officers. And since they didn't look like police officers, they didn't behave like police officers. Removing the uniform seemed to remove all pretense of accountability as well, resulting in the so-called (and strangely-named) "anti-crime" units being the NYPD's leader in crimes committed against citizens.

The plainclothes "anti-crime" units operated out of unmarked vehicles, and did not respond to 911 calls. Instead, they were charged with what Shea called "proactive" policing. The anti-crime teams across all 77 precincts will be disbanded."When you look at the number of anti-crime officers that operate within New York City, and when you look at a disproportionate, quite frankly, number of complaints, shootings—and they are doing exactly what was asked of them," Shea said. "I think we can do better. I think that policing in 2020 is not what it was in five, ten, twenty years ago."

The new policy obligates the NYPD to release and eventually publish online all audio and video of officers’ interactions that involve gunshots fired in public spaces, the deployment of tasers and the use of force that results in death or substantial bodily injury.“Effective immediately, the NYPD’s 24,000 body cameras now have a mandatory 30 day release policy,” he tweeted Tuesday morning.

“The SBA leadership has engaged in racist activities so many times I can’t even count it,” he said of the NYPD sergeants’ union.“I’m just sick of it, I’ve been sick of it for years,” he added. “What I’ve seen of the SBA, and too often the PBA, is efforts to divide us, to hold us back, to create all sorts of negativity, to push back progress, to undermine efforts at unity. It’s literally anti-social what these union leaders do."

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Terrible, Dangerous EARN IT Act Set To Move Forward In The Senate; Attack On Both Encryption And Free Speech Online

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The attacks never stop. After rumors last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee has officially put the EARN IT Act onto the schedule for this week, though many expect that it will get held over and marked up next week on July 2nd, which, conveniently, is a neat time to sneak through legislation when lots of people are not paying any attention (right before July 4th). In short, this means that there's a decent chance the EARN IT bill will be moving forward and could potentially pass.This would be very, very bad. I won't go back over everything in it, but the general intent of the bill is to undermine both encryption and Section 230 by trying to make Section 230 dependent on not offering encryption. That's at the highest level. Now, the bill is written in a sneaky way to let some Senators pretend it won't impact encryption, since encryption is not mentioned in the bill. However, the bill does condition 230 protections on meeting certain "best practices" that would be developed through a process mostly controlled by the Attorney General, who has made it clear his number one priority regarding the internet is to kill off real encryption. As we've discussed, the EARN IT Act creates a very dangerous moderator's dilemma that will act to suppress both free speech online and the ability to communicate securely and privately.And beyond moving forward with such a bad proposal, and trying to sneak it through during a holiday week, it's astounding that this is happening right at the very moment when more people than ever are relying on the internet to work from home -- a situation in which open speech platforms and strong encryption are more important than ever. Indeed, Senator Blumenthal, one of the sponsors of the bill who insisted it wouldn't be used to target encryption, is the same senator who got angry when he found out Zoom video calls weren't end-to-end encrypted.If he wants to support encryption and promise that EARN IT won't be used to undermine encryption, he should write that explicitly into the law.In short, the EARN IT Act would:

• Put encryption, privacy, and cybersecurity at risk at a time when we need all three things more than ever.
• Put free speech and open internet platforms at risk, at a time when people need to be able to speak out more than ever.
• Not do a damn thing to actually make anyone safer
• Create a constitutional mess, that might even make it easier for bad actors to get away with things by turning companies into state actors with regards to private info, thereby creating 4th Amendment issues regarding disclosure of information.

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