June slayings in D.C. fell to 10, half the amount from May
In May, the District had 20 homicide victims, a rate about 25 percent higher than the monthly average for 2024.
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Gizmodo
an hour ago
- Gizmodo
‘We Live in a Surveillance State': Reddit Users Explode Over Reports of ICE's New Face and Fingerprint Scanning App
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is reportedly using a new tool called Mobile Fortify, a smartphone-based facial recognition and fingerprint scanning app that allows agents to identify people in real time using only a phone camera. The tool taps into the same biometric system used by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at ports of entry. But ICE is now using it inside the U.S., in field operations across the country. According to internal ICE emails reviewed by 404 Media, the app is being deployed by Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), the branch of ICE tasked with arresting and deporting undocumented immigrants. The app, reportedly called 'Mobile Fortify,' gives federal agents the power to use their phones to identify people in the field via facial recognition, a development that many online see as a horrifying leap forward for the surveillance state. The 404 Media report has ignited outrage on Reddit, where users are voicing deep concern about how far this technology could go and what it says about the direction of American governance. 'Surveillance state in full effect,' one user posted bluntly. 'The next step is to label anyone who opposes them a terrorist or criminal, strip you of any rights and probably use unconstitutional surveillance to find any dirt on you,' warned another. Others drew a straight line between mass surveillance and the erosion of civil liberties. 'We live in a surveillance state and anyone who believes otherwise reads too much Fox News,' said one user. 'Everyone mask up like it's COVID! We have already witnessed an attempted arrest and then release,' another user added. Some users offered practical resistance strategies—or at least suggestions for anonymity. 'I wonder if facial ID blocking glasses, like Reflectacles, would work on this. Apparently they block iPhone facial recognition,' said one commenter. 'Definitely wear a mask (preferably ones that hide your whole head, i.e. UV Blocking Balaclava), wear sunglasses and bring an umbrella. Also bring a flashlight, headlamp, flashlight with strobing capabilities,' wrote another. A few users expressed bitter disillusionment with the political divide over surveillance. 'Mass surveillance was something right-wingers always said they would fight against. Now that it's happening they aren't doing shit,' one user said. 'They are doing shit… they are doing the mass surveillance,' another replied, 'which is entirely made of shit.' 'They always figured that when authoritarianism came to the U.S., it would be left-wing. But since it's right-wing, they are fine with it,' added another. The most chilling posts reflected the loss of faith in institutional leadership altogether. 'Creepy. I remember noticing this at the airport a few years ago and how it felt Orwellian. I was right.' 'Wondering how long into the police state our remaining leaders will allow the country to slip before everything burns down,' wrote one user. 'We have been wholly betrayed by everyone who vowed to serve the public besides educators and emergency service workers. I have learned nothing this year that leads me to believe anyone of means gives enough fucks to stop any of this.' The growing backlash taps into long-standing fears that technologies built for border enforcement or national security are now being turned inward, aimed not just at suspects but potentially at anyone. Civil liberties groups have warned for years that biometric surveillance tools, especially those powered by AI and facial recognition, lack proper oversight and accountability and risk targeting marginalized communities. Gizmodo has reached out to ICE for comment on whether Mobile Fortify is currently in use and how the agency justifies deploying such tools in domestic operations. So far, no comment. For now, Reddit is sounding the alarm.
News24
an hour ago
- News24
Man gunned down in his driveway in Durban
A 33-year-old man was shot dead while leaving his home in Avoca Road in Greenwood Park, Durban, on Thursday morning. 'Preliminary reports indicate that the victim was in his vehicle when he was ambushed by two suspects travelling in a white vehicle. They shot him multiple times before fleeing,' KwaZulu-Natal police spokesperson, Constable Thenjiswa Ngcobo, said. Private security company, KwaZulu-Natal VIP, dispatched emergency medical officials to the scene after community members raised the alarm. Company representative Glen Naidoo said first responders found the victim, believed to be an Indian male, critically wounded in his vehicle. Naidoo said it was reported that the attackers pulled up in a white Toyota Etios. 'An African male suspect reportedly exited the Etios and opened fire on the driver before fleeing the scene in an unknown direction,' he added. Despite extensive life-saving efforts, the man died.
Fox News
an hour ago
- Fox News
ACLU sues to block ICE raids in Southern California, alleging constitutional violations
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of California has filed a class-action lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) demanding an immediate halt to what it describes as unlawful immigration raids across the Los Angeles area targeting migrants with "brown skin." The non-profit accuses Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of carrying out unconstitutional raids and then keeping migrants in inhumane conditions without beds and deprived of food and legal counsel. Homeland Security has denied all the claims in the lawsuit, saying that any accusations of racial profiling are "disgusting and categorically false." ICE has carried out sweeping raids since June 6, arresting around 1,500 immigrants, including Latino day laborers, car wash workers, farmworkers and vendors – all in a bid to meet certain arrest quotas, the habeas petition states. "The raids in this district follow a common, systematic pattern. Individuals with brown skin are approached or pulled aside by unidentified federal agents, suddenly and with a show of force and made to answer questions about who they are and where they are from," the lawsuit reads. "If they hesitate, attempt to leave, or do not answer the questions to the satisfaction of the agents, they are detained, sometimes tackled, handcuffed, and/or taken into custody. In these interactions, agents typically have no prior information about the individual and no warrant of any kind." The lawsuit accuses the federal government of keeping detainees at an overcrowded holding facility, referred to as "B-18," inside windowless rooms that are extremely cramped. "In these dungeon-like facilities, conditions are deplorable and unconstitutional," the lawsuit reads. As well as seeking to block the raids, the suit demands that ICE refrain from using the B-18 center, as it is supposed to be a short-term ICE processing site, and that the federal government be held legally accountable for systemic racial profiling and due process violations. The defendants include Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, Attorney General Pam Bondi and multiple regional ICE, CBP, and FBI officials operating in Los Angeles. The lawsuit was filed by a coalition of individual immigrants and immigrant advocacy organizations, led by the ACLU and the non-profit Public Counsel as well as other legal partners. Los Angeles has become a battleground in resisting President Donald Trump's election promise of carrying out the largest deportation raids in U.S. history. Protests in the City of Angels last month descended into riots as masked agitators burned driverless cars, damaged other property and threw rocks at moving law enforcement vehicles. The lawsuit comes as an estimated 150 to 200 anti-ICE protesters shut down the Sixth Street Bridge in Los Angeles on Tuesday afternoon. The bridge links downtown Los Angeles and Boyle Heights early. The protesters carried signs with messages reading: "Sick of ICE!" and "Eviction moratorium now!" while others chanted "ICE out of L.A." "This bridge has been the entry to Boyle Heights to kidnap community members and take them who knows where," organizer Christian Alcaraz told Fox 11. The protest was one of several rallies in the county on Tuesday as part of a day of action against immigration raids. In Koreatown, another rally was held. Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin refuted the claims made in the lawsuit. "Any claims that individuals have been 'targeted' by law enforcement because of their skin color are disgusting and categorically false," she told Fox 11 via a statement on Wednesday, adding that the lawsuit's claims were "garbage." She also denied the claims about poor conditions at ICE facilities. "Any claim that there are subprime conditions at ICE detention centers are false," McLaughlin said. "In fact, ICE has higher detention standards than most US prisons that hold actual US citizens. All detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with lawyers and their family members."
