• TerrorismTeaching Anti-Terrorism: How France and England Use Schools to Counter Radicalization

    By Jonathan James

    The murder of the schoolteacher Samuel Paty, beheaded by 18-year-old Abdoullakh Abouyedovich Anzorov in October 2020 after Paty had shown caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad during a civic education lesson, has understandably caused shock and fear among teachers in France. Many teachers were already struggling to manage classroom discussions on sensitive topics such as the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo’s publication of the controversial caricatures. Some now fear for their personal safety.

  • SurveillanceEFF Urges Federal Appeals Court to Rehear Case Involving Unconstitutional Baltimore Aerial Surveillance Program

    By Nathaniel Sobel

    In May, the Baltimore Police Department launched its Aerial Investigation Research (AIR) Pilot Program. For six months, three surveillance aircrafts operated by a private company called Persistent Surveillance Systems flew over Baltimore—covering about 90 percent of the city—for 12 hours every day. The planes produced images that even at a resolution of “one pixel per person” allowed the police to track individual’s movements over multi-day periods, especially when combined with the police’s networks of more than 800 ground-based surveillance cameras and automated license plate readers.

  • Mass shootingsMass Shootings in the U.S. Have Risen Sharply in 2020 – Why?

    By Craig Jackson

    Despite the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic using sporadic stay-at-home orders and lockdowns, as of 26 November 2020 there have been 578 mass shootings so far this year. According to data provided by the Gun Violence Archive, which records mass shooting deaths, this is already significantly above the 417 mass shootings recorded in the whole of 2019.

  • PolicingDispelling the “Bad Apple” Excuse for Racialized Policing

    In the first study of its kind, University of Miami researchers find that police exhibit significantly higher levels of anti-Black biases than the general public. Culled from one of the largest, public data sets of hidden biases, those statistics seem to confirm that biases among police are widespread, a finding the researcher hope will lay the bad apple explanation to rest and prompt police departments to focus on eradicating the imbedded biases that workers everywhere bring to their jobs.

  • Nuclear weaponsFlight Tests to Show B61-12 Will Work on Air Force’s Newest Fighter Jet

    A mock B61-12’s strike in the dusty Nevada desert successfully completed the first in a series of flight tests with the U.S. Air Force’s newest fighter jet, demonstrating the bomb’s first release from an internal bomb bay at greater than the speed of sound. The flight test of the B61-12 with the F-35A Lightning II this summer was the first ever at Sandia National Laboratories’ Tonopah Test Range featuring the fighter jet.

  • TerrorismMore than 100 “High-Risk” Islamists at Large in Germany: Security Service

    More than 120 Islamists in Germany pose a “high risk,” according to Germany’s federal police, with 115 more posing a potentially high risk. There is a growing debate in Germany about monitoring extremists, and about streamlining deportation policies for extremists about to be released from jail.

  • CrimeDemolishing Abandoned Houses Does Not Reduce Nearby Crime

    Cities across the country have sought ways to improve neighborhood safety and in recent years have pointed to demolishing abandoned housing as a way to achieve the goal. While millions of dollars have been spent on the efforts, a recent study found a program demolishing more than 500 abandoned residential properties in Kansas City, Missouri, did not significantly reduce nearby violent or property crime.

  • Law enforcementBanning Chokeholds

    George Floyd’s murder was egregious but not unique. Many police agencies hold the position that they don’t train officers to use chokeholds, but they are continuously used by officers to regain compliance. Abrief just released by the Center for Justice Research (CJR) at Texas Southern University offers comprehensive recommendations for key stakeholders, at all levels, to consider in the advancement of police reform in their respective jurisdictions.

  • ExtremismFBI Releases 2019 Hate Crime Statistics

    The FBI has today (Monday) released Hate Crime Statistics, 2019, show that, in 2019, there were 7,314 criminal incidents and 8,559 related offenses as being motivated by bias toward race, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender, and gender identity.

  • Domestic terrorismMichigan Terrorists Planned to Kill All State Legislators, Blow Up Capitol Building

    The Michigan terrorists who plotted to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer and attack the Michigan State legislature building, planned for no one to emerge alive from the building, according to the Michigan Attorney General’s Office.The plotters planned to carry food and supplies with them as they stormed the Capitol building, and barricade themselves inside. Their plan then called for the legislators to face televised “trials,” in which they would be charged with “tyranny,” and then executed. Fox and his fellow plotters believed they would be able to hold on for about a week, during which all the legislators and their staff would be executed and their executions televised.

  • Food securityNuclear War could Take a Big Bite Out of the World's Seafood

    A new study reveals the damage that a nuclear war might take on wild-caught seafood around the world, from salmon and tuna to the shrimp in shrimp cocktails. The aftermath of such a conflict could put a major strain on global food security, an international team of scientists reports. The group estimates that a nuclear war might cut the amount of seafood that fishing boats are capable of bringing in worldwide by as much as 30 percent.

  • Knife attacksNew Body Armor Offers Better Knife Protection

    The number of knife attacks in Britain has increased over the past few years, while police officers and correctional personnel must contend with an increasing threat from makeshift weapons, such as shanks and spikes. PPSS Group the other day announced a replacement for their polycarbonate-based stab resistant body armor. According to company CEO Robert Kaiser, the new body armor is lighter, thinner, more effective, and more functional.

  • First respondersCloud-Based Framework Improves Efficiency in Disaster-Area Management

    Researchers have, for the first time, designed a cloud-based autonomous system framework utilizing the standard messaging protocol for the internet-of-things (IoT). This framework is robust to network-denied environments by utilizing each vehicle, along with a clustering algorithm, to maximize the network coverage area. Also for the first time, researchers have implemented a cloud-based, highly efficient control system to aid first responders in disaster-area management.

  • TerrorismWhy the U.K.’s Terrorism Threat Level Has Been Raised and What Happens Now

    By Alasdair Booth

    Most parts of the UK are now living in a state of some form of lockdown. Meanwhile, however, more police are out on the streets. This is because in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Austria and France, the UK’s terrorism threat level has been raised to “severe.”

  • Domestic terrorismFBI: Boogaloo Extremists Acquired 3D-Printed Machine Gun Parts

    Depending on their configuration, 3D-printed guns contain no metal parts, and thus can be smuggled into metal detectors-protected venues. In a criminal complaint filed against a West Virginia men selling 3D-printed gun components, the FBI says his customers included multiple members of the Boogaloo movement, a heavily armed extremist anti-government group.