PDA

View Full Version : Trash kops in Seattle




tod evans
07-23-2015, 07:34 AM
SEATTLE’S NANNY STATE IS “DEPUTIZING TRASHMEN AS SECRET POLICE” TO SNOOP THROUGH WASTEBINS

http://www.infowars.com/seattles-nanny-state-is-deputizing-trashmen-as-secret-police-to-snoop-through-wastebins/

Once society has set its course for total control, there is no bounds it will not cross in order to achieve it.

Obviously, governments have been willing to violate rights and unleash technology to spy upon the entire population.

But did you know they were also willing to dig through your trash and messy waste to uncover offenses, impose penalties and control social behavior?

This is exactly what’s going on in Seattle, where the city is now using trash collectors to snoop in trash cans to catch residents and businesses who are in non-compliance with new requirements to compost materials that break down. Wow! Talk about sinking to new lows.

Watchdog.org issued this shocking report that stinks of tyranny:

Seattle is on the cutting edge of nanny state-ism with a new citywide ban on throwing any compostable material into the trash, no matter how gross, smelly or disgusting it might be. The city government is serious about this — so serious that they have deputized the trashmen as a sort of secret police who are being ordered to rat on residents’ trash habits to the nannies at Seattle Public Utilities.
Of course, fines will follow for Seattle residents after an “education period” where violators are issued written warnings for actions as simply as tossing an apple core.

Moreover, trash collectors are being trained to open up and peer into not just trash cans, but individual trash bags in order to spot banned items that were required to head for the compost, then report residents and commercial offenders to Seattle utility authorities.

According to training documents obtained by PLF, garbage collectors are being told to enforce the policy with ‘zero tolerance’ and are being taught to remove bags to inspect a garbage can, peer into translucent bags and open torn or untied bags.

“In short, this program calls for massive and persistent snooping on the people of Seattle,” said Hodges. “This is not just objectionable as a matter of policy, it is a flagrant assault on people’s constitutional rights.”
Of course, the composting and recycling program itself is basically a good idea in effort to reduce landfills and treat wastes that break down in ways that benefit the soil and environment; however, forcing everyone to comply with the program through not only fines, but a secret police doing very messy work is well, just a stinky business.

“While it’s laudable to encourage recycling and composting, the city is going about it in a way that trashes the privacy rights of each and every person in Seattle,” said Brian Hodges, managing attorney for PLF’s Pacific Northwest Center, based in suburban Seattle.
Lawsuits are underway in attempt to block this draconian and over-the-top nanny state behavior.

But things won’t stop there either.

Police have worked with scientific developments to test wastewater for illegal drug use, and trace it back to the specific communities and even homes from which they are flushed — all without a warrant. Natural News reported:

In a naked attempt to shred the Constitution’s privacy and due process provisions, drug warriors are pursuing a new avenue of prosecution: Testing your sewage waste to see if you’ve been naughty or nice when it comes to using a drug Uncle Sam has deemed illegal.

“The war on drugs could get a boost with a new method that analyzes sewage to track levels of illicit drug use in local communities in real time. The new study, a first-of-its-kind in the U.S., was published in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology and could help law enforcement identify new drug hot spots and monitor whether anti-drug measures are working.”
Measures like mandatory blood testing, alcohol breathalyzers, and DNA screening have been employed or suggested as well… and that’s just what they’ve come up with so far.

Again, total control knows no bounds.

Origanalist
07-23-2015, 07:42 AM
“The war on drugs could get a boost with a new method that analyzes sewage to track levels of illicit drug use in local communities in real time. The new study, a first-of-its-kind in the U.S., was published in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology and could help law enforcement identify new drug hot spots and monitor whether anti-drug measures are working.”

We have gone off the deep end. Stick a fork in it.

tod evans
07-23-2015, 07:44 AM
http://plnami.blob.core.windows.net/media/2014/02/Groover-toilet.jpg

SovereignMN
07-23-2015, 10:49 AM
Well America, it was a nice run.

paleocon1
07-23-2015, 04:01 PM
I can't cry too many tears for the sorts who infest Seattle. Let then destroy themselves.

phill4paul
07-23-2015, 04:05 PM
http://michigandistilled.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/burnbarrel.jpg

http://www.trimblecrafts.com/images/peedeck.jpg

euphemia
07-23-2015, 04:49 PM
Nashville automated their trash and recyclable pickups. One guy stays in the truck and operates the mechanism that empties the cans. It would be hard to snoop through something like that and read texts at the same time.

JK/SEA
07-24-2015, 09:41 AM
i was born in Seattle. Seattle is nice if you're looking at it from space.

surf
07-24-2015, 12:07 PM
Seattle has always been known as a "green city," and recycling here is done at a very high rate.... folks do it, primarily, to feel better about themselves rather than to avoid fines, but this is soooo typical.

edit: they are apparently stopping the program (but the Seattle Times site is toast so I can't link the article)

Suzanimal
07-29-2015, 07:59 AM
...

Municipalities across the United States are implementing intrusive methods of monitoring the stuff people throw away as part of a push to increase efficiency and conformity to recycling rules. But the end result is that some garbage trucks now have the ability to record the contents of your trash cans on video to inspect each object.

“This kind of automated garbage monitoring raises very serious privacy concerns,” the American Civil Liberties Union warned in a press release on Friday. “While encouraging residents to recycle is commendable, any program involving the government’s systematic monitoring of citizens crosses a line. The contents of your trash can be surprisingly revealing.”

Residents in several Wisconsin cities are already subject to the new video monitoring practice. In Seattle, where garbage men can visually inspect garbage and levy fines on bad recyclers, residents are suing the city for violating their privacy.

There are also digital methods of tracking people’s garbage. In some cities, trash cans are monitored with RFID devices (Radio-Frequency Identification); the chips are attached to the bins, so that computers inside trash trucks can determine and record their movements. In Charlotte, N. C., collectors monitor the chips to “track and manage cart inventory,” and determine who is actually putting their recycling bin out on the curb. Dayton, Ohio, has been tracking trash can locations since 2010, and residents who recycle are eligible for a cash prize. In Cleveland, if the chip shows a recyclable cart hasn’t been brought to the curb in weeks, a trash supervisor can sort through the trash and impose a $100 fine if the regular trash has more than 10 percent recyclable material — although no fines have yet been levvied.

Police have used trash to gather evidence on suspects for years. In a 2010 issue of Police Chief, a trade magazine for law enforcement, one article urges officers to use trash cans that are “moved from a house and to the street for disposal” as “fair game for anyone — even the police — to take it away for inspection.” The authors of the article suggest that people very often leave behind incriminating evidence in their trash unsuspectingly, and have no reasonable expectation of privacy once the trash hits the curb.

If law enforcement officers could access the garbage truck cameras, they would not even have to visit the property and seize the trash.

According to Sonia Roubini, who researched the trash surveillance programs for the ACLU by compiling news articles about the programs, most cities contract with large companies to acquire bins, garbage trucks, and sometimes the cameras or RFID chips. She said she was surprised at how few reports about the programs expressed any sort of concern for privacy. “Most of the reporting that I found on RFID usage in trash collection were either praising programs for their innovative approach to encouraging recycling, or very briefly alluding to the potential privacy implications,” she wrote in an email.

According to a study ordered by a European Commission in 2012, the “barriers” to using RFID chips include the “need for a regulatory framework regarding security and privacy issues.” The authors cautioned that people might even stop using legitimate waste services because of privacy concerns, or an unwillingness to pay fines.

But in the U.S., it’s full steam ahead on trash surveillance. “It’s very crazy,” says Roubini. “Also not entirely surprising given the prevalence of surveillance technologies. Nothing is safe, not even our trash.”


https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/07/28/garbage-cans-watching/