FBI to Put Criminals Up in Lights 315
coondoggie writes "The FBI today said it wants to install 150 digital billboards in 20 major U.S. cities in the next few weeks to show fugitive mug shots, missing people and high-priority security messages from the big bureau. The billboards will let the FBI highlight those people it is looking for the most: violent criminals, kidnap victims, missing kids, bank robbers, even terrorists, the FBI said in a release. And the billboards will be able to be updated largely in real-time — right after a crime is committed, a child is taken, or an attack is launched. Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Miami will be among those cities provided with the new billboards."
Free publicity? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Free publicity? (Score:5, Insightful)
Now, how long before someone hacks a billboard to show the President's face... that should be the question asked.
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You did not yet realize everything is about growth?
CC.
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It is quite disgusting to see, from outside, how every mention of Bush's catastrophic actions is followed by someone, you in this case, replying what you did. Disgusting and sad.
Meanwhile, a few hundred people lay in their graves because of those actions. Sigh.
Re:Or hacking opportunity (Score:2)
On the other hand, coming up to election time a "wanted for crimes against humanity" [motherearth.org] hack could go down well.
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please, no new billboards (Score:3, Funny)
Cool! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Cool! (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Cool! (Score:4, Insightful)
- Jack Thompson [wikipedia.org] can disable a primary use of computers - video games. While technically useless, these were able to make computers as powerful as they were today. Furthermore, they give access to a wider variety of games should they be in a position of not liking this one [gamespot.com].
- People such as Kevin Mitnick [wikipedia.org] get treated much more severely for computer crime than they should be. Granted, there's a lot of work for ensuring that your systems are secure once again, but some damages were inflated and inconsistently reported (i.e. damages ranging in the millions were allegedly reported to the FBI but not shareholders.)
- Various politicians can do fear mongering, such as claiming a kid interested in computers is going to be a future basement hacker that could launch nuclear missiles. Even if they can't directly act against those children, they could easily turn their peers against them with this propaganda.
- And finally, you'd have civilians driving loudspeaker vans saying things similar to "It looks like you're writing a letter". This would usually appear before elections (and IIRC, there were a few personal accounts of this still occurring in Japan.)
Since computers are now more mainstream, people can more easily recognize BS - at least that's the theory anyway. The average person won't easily believe that computers can easily explode (but remain gullible enough to believe pressing ALT-F4 activates an IRC exploit), and computer experts will more easily lock onto incorrect statements that they've seen before.
Re:Cool! (Score:4, Insightful)
And now he's just a has-been trying to cash in on his name. Oh well.
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Sorry, couldn't resist. But I'm curious if you were trying to draw a Clippy comparison to civilian loudspeaker vans. If so, I'm not sure I'm getting your point.
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Minute of hate schedule for this week:
Monday: Muslims - goulash and eggplant to be served
Tuesday: Christmas Hate suspended Cafeteria closed
Wednesday: Irish - Pizza and walking tacos to be served
Thursday: Albanians - American Burgers and Freedom fries to be served
Friday: Shao-lin Monks - ala Carte with salad bar served today.
and suggestions for the national minute of hate need to be sent to the Czar of thought.
Re:Cool! (Score:5, Insightful)
They just have to make sure they display a context label with each photo. Wouldn't want a kidnap victim to be confused for a terrorist.
Re:Cool! (Score:5, Insightful)
That's really the problem with speed and ease of use -- it's much easier to accidentally put the wrong face on a digital billboard than it is to put the wrong face on the back of a milk carton or on a poster or flier. The latter takes time and has several stages at which errors can be caught. Whether this problem is worth foregoing the advantages of it, I don't know. Probably not.
Around here (Chicago area) we've had message boards over the highways for years -- they give traffic times, alternate routes, and occasionally are used for Amber Alerts (descriptions of cars or people suspected of child abduction). So the same concept, albeit in a non-graphic form, has been used with great success for some time. They got a kid back from a bad guy just recently using this technique. But I will say that I idly worry that I (big hairy stranger-danger-lookin' guy) in our very common (Honda Accord) car with my daughter in the back will someday experience the harsh hand of the law of averages. I guess I'd still rather have to deal with straightening out that type of confusion once in my life if it means that more actual bad guys get caught.
Oh, and another problem is aesthetic -- the world will rapidly become a lit-up, post-apocalyptic place full of advertising and scrolling messages from the authorities. But that's kind of a matter of taste -- I think they amount of visual noise we live with is already numbing. Add more and it further reduces the impact of any given piece of it.
Re:Cool! (Score:4, Insightful)
Yet.
No, it's more subtle than that. Just as "terror alert" levels were used politically, so will these billboards. Make the people scared, and they'll vote for the party of perceived protection.
Incremental change is hard to object to. Slippery slope and all that.
I think the OP makes a humorous, but very valid, point. Our world more and more resembles the dystopias written about several decades ago, and pointing that out might help more people consider whether they really want to support that kind of society.
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There, fixed that for you. Of course, I am only joking. When did any government ever introduce a fairly useful technology on a limited basis only to dramatically broaden the scope over time until it was used oppressively?
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But please stop being rational. I must insist you immediately bash this by waving your hands about and mumbling vague comparisons to 1984 and/or some other book about a dystopian future. Also, if possible, rouse some rabble by me
I'll make a point to ignore these things. (Score:2)
Re:Cool! (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem is fear mongering. It immediately puts the populace in a state of mind that is submissive to the leadership. People drop into a us vs.them mindset. [issues-views.com] Criminals (or anyone accused of being a criminal) stop being thought of as real people, they simply become them. Anyone questioning the leadership must be siding with the rapists and murderers. There is already a growing divide between the common people and the government's agents (Homeland security and the police). No one feels safer when a cop is looking at them, regardless of if you have done anything wrong. The police are more and more inclined to treat citizens as "the enemy" [cnn.com] The only way that the mass population will put up with these conditions is when they believe that it is necessary because they government is protecting us for a much greater evil.
This is a game already played with the terrorists, but that's getting really expensive, and the military is stretched too thin. The government needs to bring the boogeyman home.
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Second, with the current "turn in anyone who looks suspicious" craze, and the relative lack of accountability and just plain common sense we've been seeing lately, I think you'll have a lot of problems with false leads and accusations that bear little relationship to reality.
Third, if one
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This is to be used same way as America's Most Wanted and backs of milk cartons.
Which are already tools of fear-mongering. You've just internalized the fear so much that you don't realize it. Every day for breakfast, parents wake up to a dose of fear from those milk cartons - that kid on the back of the milk carton could be THEIRS if they aren't fearful enough! Every day for breakfast, kids wake up to a dose of fear - that kid on the back of the milk carton could be THEM if they aren't fearful enough!
What they aren't told is that parental kidnapping is by far the most common form o
Cool! (Score:2, Funny)
Living in the future is so cool!
Re:Cool! (Score:4, Interesting)
Many of these criminals are low level petty thugs, thieves, and especially dopers. I've mentioned my friend Tami in my slashdot journals, here's a true (AFAIK, I have no reason to doubt her) and I think hilarious story she told me.
Tami's been in jail before, but she's not what anyone would think of as a "hardened criminal" and in fact comes from a well to do family with political connections that has (sucks to be me) pretty much given up on her.
One time she'd had some sort of run-in with the law; "failure to appear" for a speeding ticket or pot or some such nonsense and didn't even know she was wanted. She got tickets to some shindig some friend of her father's was throwing and showed up. The affair had to do with these "top twenty wanted in Sangamon County" lists.
She showed up for the free food and alcohol (Tami's no beanpole and likes to drink) and of course most of the people there were from law enforcement. There was one of the top-20 wanted posters prominently displayed, and she was on it!
"Boy, I got the hell out of there real quick!" she told me.
Living in the future is so cool!
Then this [slashdot.org] might interest you.
-mcgrew
Movie scene (Score:2)
A NEW LIFE AWAITS YOU IN THE OFF-WORLD COLONIES! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:A NEW LIFE AWAITS YOU IN THE OFF-WORLD COLONIES (Score:2)
I'm not quite sure why, but this bothers me quite a bit more than all the stories I've seen about pervasive surveillance.
Its bound to work (Score:5, Insightful)
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I don't think attention whores are going to turn criminal just to get their face on a billboard. As for those that are criminals and attention whores, they were going to act out anyways.
What If ...? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What If ...? (Score:4, Insightful)
What happens when people see minorities on wanted postings over and over?
I imagine the consequences will be about the same as those for minorities being oversampled as criminal suspects on the nightly TV news...people will unreasonably fear black and Hispanic males, and racial stereotypes will be carried forward in the national subconscious. COPS made the young black man the national face of crime; it needs no "white supremacist plot" to reinforce in the minds of people that different is bad and scary.
Re:What If ...? (Score:4, Interesting)
I don't dispute that COPS was heavily distorted, but is there any evidence that the show really had any effect on racial perception? As a result of structural historical and economic reasons, black people make up the overwhelming majority of criminals in certain urban areas.
I would imagine the perception was already there because of this.
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if you define "certain urban areas" with enough specificity, then you can demonstrate that any kind of person you want makes up the overwhelming majority of criminals.
Re:What If ...? (Score:4, Interesting)
I am somewhat curious as to what part of the country you live in to believe that minorities are "oversampled as criminal suspects on the nightly TV news." I take it that you've never come across the results of the FBI victim surveys?
Good god, but some people really let the rose tint fog up their glasses.
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>I'm just saying. (Don't worry, most of it is black on black, which is also why blacks are so
>much more likely to get murdered themselves. Unless that's "oversampling" too?)
The million-dollar-question is, "Why do young black men commit crimes at 10x the national average?"
The answer is obvious, and backed up by your observation that most of the crime is black on black.
I'll give you a hint: It doesn't have anythin
Sorry, but COPS only revealed a truth. (Score:2)
The problem we face here in America is that its offensive to too many people to declare a problem a problem if it identifies a minority group. Look at all the crap we are going through with illegal immigrants! People breaking the law to get here yet if we apply the label and are not part of that specific minority group you can be labled
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Don't worry, it'll never happen. It's New York. If there were, say, 100 criminals who were eligible for the billboard treatment, and 97 of them were Black or Hispanic, the politically correct NYPD billboard-masters would put the mugs of the 3 white guys up in lights.
If the billboards were being run by the same cops whose fists are wrap
Slander (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Slander (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Slander (Score:5, Interesting)
The fallout from that should be a riot.
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As long as you only know that he/she is just a potential child murderer/rapist, of course he/she should be preserved. Are you seriously saying otherwise?! Remember that you are a potential child murderer...
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What has solipsism got to do with anything? Anyhow...
Remember we are talking about a country which has been at war for years now after invading a country based on ``concrete evidence'', which was bought by essentially the whole country (and pretty much no one else outside of that country's border)
It is of course reasonable to pursue people based on evidence, but posting the picture of someone for everyone to see because ``he is a child molester'' in order to aprehend him, only maybe to find later that he
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They could do some terrible damage by showing both the suspect and his offense on these billboards. How long do you think an accused kiddie rapist would last under those conditions?
Re:Slander (Score:4, Interesting)
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The chap said he "beat the shit" out of this guy. That sounds manifestly unreasonable to me.
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So if a guy walks up to you, grabs you by the collar, pulls out a knife and says "gimme your money, bitch-boy" you're *not* gonna beat the shit out of him?
If he's got a knife and I'm unarmed, I'm going to hand him my wallet. It doesn't even matter if I'm pretty sure I can take him, knife and all, because there's nothing in my wallet that is remotely worth risking my life for. Heck, I might hand him my wallet even if I am armed, just because I'd rather give him my money than risk living having to live with the memory of shooting someone. Actually, if he's close enough to grab my collar, it doesn't matter what sort of weapon I'm carrying, he can stab me be
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If someone comes into my home, yanks open the door of my car, or lays a hand on me in the street, I will cheerfully use whatever means are immediately available to do the absolute most damage possible in the absolute shortest amount of time.
Your choice, but it's a good way to land yourself in jail. If you live in a "Castle Doctrine" state, and the guy is in your home, you'll probably be okay, legally. Some states consider your car to be an extension of your home, some don't. You'd better know the local laws. Even with "Castle Doctrine" law, you had better be careful with how much you do after the threat is ended.
On the street, however, the rules are very different. I'm pretty sure that in every state in the US, if you're not in your h
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I'm sure they'll put up corrections (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm sure of it.
Yeah.
Not Slander. (Score:2)
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While the system has its bad points, the damage won't be irreparable at all. Very few are going to remember someone else's face on a wanted poster or billboard in 6 months, even fewer will be confident enough of that memory to match it with the real person in front of them after that time.
The Running Man (Score:2)
Is it me or is the future starting to look more and more like the Running Man?
I guess the next thing we need is to make criminals get punished on TV game shows like The Price is Right, Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune. Or maybe force them to be watch those programs, that is probably worse...
No Boston? (Score:5, Funny)
Website Advertisements (Score:3, Interesting)
I think I could spot my brother in a website ad if he were posted on it.
Another good thing about this is that the wanted photos would be displayed when any store employee is surfing the internet. They would see the photo and maybe spot someone in the store at that time. Those people aren't going to remember the picture of the billboard they drove by on the way to work.
How do I know? (Score:5, Interesting)
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Oblig. BB (Score:2)
Oops, wrong country. The US is far too smart for doublethink!
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"when do these billboards start displaying the latest English Socialism?"
That doesn't even slightly make sense.
Let me be the first to... (Score:2, Insightful)
Old Topic but whatever (Score:4, Insightful)
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Seems like too few (Score:2)
Device Specs (Score:2, Interesting)
What a GREAT idea (Score:5, Insightful)
This is a really good idea!
I think it will be useful for:
I can't wait until these images can be broadcast directly into the skies above our houses. I have long thought that we don't mistrust and/or hate our fellow citizens enough in the USA. I was worried that we might drop our murder rates and/or school shootings to the levels of other countries, but it looks like we are well on our way to whipping our citizenry to new heights of paranoia and aggressiveness.
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No responsibility? You think the FBI is just going to randomly pick somebody, get a picture and biographical details about them and flash it up on a billboard? If you're on this thing it's because you're a material witness to a crime or a suspect likely with enough evidence that they're going to arrest you when they find
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No responsibility? You think the FBI is just going to randomly pick somebody, get a picture and biographical details about them and flash it up on a billboard? If you're on this thing it's because you're a material witness to a crime or a suspect likely with enough evidence that they're going to arrest you when they find you. They're not going to use this for petty things if for no other reason than to avoid making the public stop caring what the billboards say. In fact I would be willing to bet substantial sums of money that the people they featured will be fugitives believed to be in the area--people who were either already convicted or who have warrants out for their arrest to begin with.
While I know different groups of people are involved, you surely give the government which embarked itself in a war under false pretenses and with absolutely no responsability so far, a lot of credit!
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The person's reputation is "smeared" when the government starts looking for them. Claims of slander or libel are laughable. Government posts picture of person. "We want this person". Person sues. Government says "We truly did want this person", shows warrant - case dismissed.
Private citizens with a warrant for
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You call that dystopic? (Score:5, Funny)
But this is the 21st century - we can implant chips in people's brains now! We can contract out the manufacture of wireless control collars to the lowest bidder!
The government deiberately squelches these technologies to pander to the minority of religious nuts who have disproportional influence over our government.
That's why I support Ron Paul and the transumanist dystopian party - deregulation and the ability to sell advertizers direct access to our subconscious will enable us to achieve the economic benefits of a nihilistic hellscape.
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He's just a candidate for people afraid to change to democrat.
The number one way to send a message that you are unhappy with the way this administration has been behaving is to vote democrat.
An overwhelming victory for democrats will send a message to both parties telling them were not happy with this kind of crap, and it punishes the party that has been doing it.
If republicans win, then they will "Stay the course"
Worry not, citizen! (Score:2)
Now the real question: (Score:2)
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Oh, wait!...
No billboards, please (Score:2)
I'm of mixed feelings on this. On the one hand, I'm all for ways to help spread information and help make things safer. OTOH, I'm fortunate to now be living in one of 4 states in the USA which ban billboards [mainetoday.com]. (The four states are: Maine, Vermont, Alaska, and Hawaii.)
It was hard to fathom just how "noisy" every place else was until I experienced it first hand. I've lived and traveled in other places where billboards were seemingly everywhere. (e.g. NYC, Boston, San Jose) A trip down any major road, esp
More spam to ignore (Score:2)
The post office called... (Score:2)
They want their bulletin board back.
Future target of sweet, sweet hax (Score:4, Funny)
Nobody would think of (Score:2)
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Or goatse rush hour traffic. ROFL! Here's an eye full for all of you stuck out in traffic this am.
Absolutely Sickening (Score:2, Insightful)
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Also, I've shit things more subtle than your "enemies of the state" implication. Seriously, almost any government power
Can't... (Score:4, Insightful)
Oh I'm sorry, apparently asking "why" somehow rationalizes their actions, just like why we can't talk about the reasons WHY terrorists want to kill us.
The question "why" is so dangerous to people in this country for one single reason: religion. Yeah, mod me down offtopic or troll, or something else... but you know it is true. When people seriously start asking "why" about everything around them they will inevitably realize that religion is a joke. I guess people have too much pride to be able to look at their past selves and laugh at their stupid beliefs. Yes I just called your beliefs stupid, now ask yourself "why does he say that" instead of accusing me of persecuting you.
Yes, more fear! (Score:2)
Seriosuly, this is a very bad idea and a public disturbance. Hiwever has had this idea is both stupid and has a hugely inflated ego.
Big Brother, Fahrenheit 451, and Minority Report (Score:3, Insightful)
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Becuase we know "We're all the same", right? Which is why Africans have put a man on the moon, and Mexico is a wonderful, prosperous country...
It does not take huge analytical powers nor a remarkable amount of historical information to see that the fact that Africa is as it is and that Mexico is as it is, is---while probably not directly caused by---very connected to the way what you call ``WHITE Americans'' are, along with what you'd probably call ``WHITE Europeans''...
Of course, why would analitical reasoning or historical information get in the way of your ALL CAPS words?