Social Control

Hamburg, Germany: Tracking technology discovered on motor scooter

Posted on 2023/05/17 by darknights

In the last few days, a so-called “AirTag” from Apple was found in the seat of a scooter. The scooter is used by an anarchist from Hamburg, who has already been the subject of Surveillance and investigative measures in the past. The small, flat device of an approximate diameter of 3 centimeters and a height of less than 1 centimeter, was placed through a slit in the seat cushion, which was apparently made with a cutter knife or similar. The assumption is that an investigative agency or the Verfassungsschutz (german interior secret service) is responsible for the placement. Apple originally marketed the AirTags for the purpose of tagging items such as a bunch of keys, wallet or similar in the immediate vicinity of one’s of one’s smartphone. It works via Bluetooth and has an immediate maximum range of about 100 meters outdoors. It only becomes a tool for tracking the movements of another person via the “Where is? app. When this function is activated, the “lost” AirTag pairs with other iPhones or iPads (with activated Bluetooth function) in the vicinity and passes the location via the “Where is?” network to the Apple device paired with the tracker. Apple device paired with the tracker – and with inflationary use of Apple products and Bluetooth headphones, these small devices then record a potentially fairly complete movement profile, especially in urban areas. The batteries of the AirTags have a lifespan of about one year. According to Apple, the trackers emit a (quiet) beep in “Where is?” mode at regular intervals – which is sufficiently muffled by the upholstery of the scooter seat, for example. It should also be possible, by means of the “Where is?” app in iPhones and the “Airguard” app for Android to identify “lost” AirTags. There are some articles about these possibilities on the IT platform golem.de, which we recommend reading. The serial number of the AirTag theoretically allows to identify the device that was originally paired with it – but it is difficult to get hold of the data over which the Apple group has control. AirTags currently cost around 40 euros each – making them by far the cheapest way for investigators to use such devices for surveillance. A certain failure rate, gaps in the surveillance or a limited usability of the data in criminal proceedings, we estimate that these are insignificant reasons for the authorities not to use the devices. So: check your cars, scooters, bikes and so on. Continue reading “Hamburg, Germany: Tracking technology discovered on motor scooter” →

Italy: Updates on the Genoa trial of Gianluca and Evelin

Posted on 2023/04/28 by darknights

Updates on the Genoa trial of Gianluca and Evelin

UPDATES on the GENOA TRIAL of GIANLUCA and EVELIN.

The undoubted crisis that the capitalist mode of production is going through today manifests itself in an economy that bases its wealth on war, on the robbery and plundering of the commodity-rich global south, and in the sharpening of the class struggle.

While it is true that capitalism continually seeks “alternative” solutions that will ensure its continuation, often succeeding in finding them and thus creating new pockets of profit for the market, it is also true that the resource crisis and especially today’s climate crisis will not grant alternatives to this parasitic presence for long.
The commodity crisis affects not only the production of secondary consumer goods in the technology, war and digital industries, but also primary resources such as water. This leads not only to a change in geopolitical arrangements, but also to internal conflicts between exploited and exploiters as the example of reservoirs in France or mining in Germany highlights. Objectively, even in Italy, beyond the obvious shortcomings of radical opposition initiatives, the “hunt for ore” or residual gas supplies are accentuating the extractive machine of ruthless multinationals that destroy territories to increase their profits, with the favor of state concessions.

But the crisis of production is a possible prospect today, which is why states are organizing in an attempt to assert their interests and prevent radical struggles and forms of internal guerrilla warfare.

Against this backdrop the authoritarian turn underway in Italy and elsewhere takes shape, which on the one hand is evident in the adoption of economic and “social” policies aimed at ever greater class exploitation, and on the other in the tightening of repression against political crimes.

In the last period the authoritarian turn taken by the state has clearly and heavily characterized the exclusively political reading of social events and struggles by entering even the judicial spheres. It has strongly conditioned the use of repression with the application of punitive instruments that remain an objective problem for political prisoners, such as 41 bis, hostility and crimes arbitrarily reinterpreted, reformulated and used in a vindictive way as massacre and associative crimes. Continue reading “Italy: Updates on the Genoa trial of Gianluca and Evelin” →

Chile: In the face of the removal of the Noticias de la guerra social website

Posted on 2023/04/15 by darknights

In 2014, we started this counter-information project dedicated to disseminating and documenting the various attacks on the domain, some of them claimed and others anonymous, maintaining a simple format that kept alive only in and with the very pulse of the conflict.

Without worrying too much, we decided to use the most popular service at the time, “wordpress,” since the websites hosted in other “alternative” servers (noblogs, espiv, altervista, lahaine, entodaspartes, etc.) were not considered to be “alternative”. [altervista does not qualify as an “alternative” server, since it is part of the Mondadori group, ed.]) were often removed, either due to repressive attacks or simply due to the termination of their respective projects.

In October-November 2022 https://noticiasdelaguerrasocial.wordpress.com/ was removed from the web, losing that valuable archive and tool for communication and information among antagonists. Far from appealing to “freedom of expression” or complaining about the servers’ own “privacy policies,” we merely noted the fragility of Internet-based projects. Fragility that we knew a priori, but we decided to bet on informal communication and the diffusion of living and latent conflict.

Questions remain in the air: what are the characteristics of our media? How solid are they? What is their degree of autonomy? Do we have our own infrastructure of communication and counter-information? How dependent or susceptible are we? We need to draw some collective lessons from the Italian state’s repressive attack on communication tools such as Radioazione, Culmine or “Vetriolo.” Continue reading “Chile: In the face of the removal of the Noticias de la guerra social website” →

Italy: Zac was transferred from Secondigliano prison to Terni prison + account coordinates to send contributions in support of comrade

Posted on 2023/04/04 by darknights

Zac was transferred to Terni and is in a cell with Juan.

To write to him:

Marco Marino
C. C. of Terni
Campore road 32
05100 Terni

To send solidarity contributions in support of the comrade:

(CORRECT DATA FOR BANKING are those that follow below and not those previously mentioned).

For those who would like to send solidarity contributions for Zac, anarchist prisoner detained in Terni for the repressive operation on Naples and Pozzuoli on March 28, 2023, we invite you to send money by bank transfer:

IBAN: IT07V360810518299544199741
BIC/SWIFT Code: PPAYITR1XXX
Payee: Luca d’Esposito
Description: ricarica

[Received by e-mail and posted at https://lanemesi.noblogs.org/post/2023/04/04/operazione-repressiva-del-28-marzo-zac-e-stato-trasferito-dal-carcere-di-secondigliano-a-quello-di-terni/]

Napoli + Pozzuoli, Italy: Raids on houses of comrades in connection to a 270 bis investigation into attacks in solidarity with revolutionary prisoner Dimitris Koufontinas

Posted on 2023/04/01 - 2023/04/01 by darknights

On March 28, two houses, one in Napoli and one in Pozzuoli, were raided and four comrades were taken to the police station, in connection with a 270 bis investigation (anti-terrorist association), which was officialized in May 2022 following several house-searches.

Although the investigation is still ongoing, one comrade was placed under preventive arrest, accused of an arson attack against the Greek consulate in 2021. The prosecution contextualizes this attack within the campaign in solidarity with revolutionary Greek prisoner Dimitris Koufontinas, who at the time was on hunger strike.

The comrade has now been taken to the Secondigliano prison and is placed in the AS2 section (high security unit), while the three other comrades were released. According to the case’s files, the timing of the arrest was influenced by the relentless solidarity actions with Alfredo Cospito, an anarchist prisoner currently on hunger strike against the 41 bis regime and life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

This operation is part of a witch hunt that wants to frame anarchists as a public enemy to be eliminated. In the context of the countless actions in solidarity with Alfredo in Italy and abroad, we clearly see this repressive blow as part of the state’s attempt is to stifle every and any spark of rebellion.

When faced with repression, our solidarity will never stop.

Assembly against prisons and repression

To write to Zac:

Marco Marino

c.c. di secondigliano

via Roma verso Scampia 350

80144 Napoli (Na)

Italy

For those who wish to support to Zac, anarchist prisoner locked up in Secondigliano following the repressive operation in Napoli and Pozzuoli on March 28, 2023, contributions can be sent here:

Luca D’Esposito

IBAN IT07V3608105138299544199741

BIC PPAYITR1XXX

Italy: “Brenner” trial appeal sentence

Posted on 2023/04/01 by darknights

“Brenner” trial appeal sentence

On March 17, the appeal verdict in the trial for the May 2016 anti-borders demonstration at the Brenner Pass was handed down at the Bolzano court.

While there was a general lowering of the sentences (from 150 to 123 years total, with 8 acquittals due to the statute of limitations of the crime), the balance is still heavy (keep in mind that the trial was in abbreviated form). 28 female comrades and comrades received sentences above 2 years, while 5 comrades took more than 4 years (the highest sentence was 5 years and 1 month in prison) for conspiracy to commit aggravated resistance, private violence, injury, etc. The charge of devastation and looting did not hold up, as it did in the first instance.

Another significant element is that the judge denied all and sundry who applied for it access to the so-called Cartabia reform. Although the sentencing date had been formally postponed to allow defendants and defendants to make use of the new law, the request to access it was denied under the pretext of the criminal records and “social dangerousness” of defendants and defendants. But there is an even more emblematic fact: the main argument for the rejection of “substitute sentences” has been the defendants’ failure to abjure their conduct. The increasingly overtly rewarding nature of sentencing applies not only to the supervisory judiciary, but also to ordinary courts. What makes the difference on the type of sentence is not so much the offense itself, but whether or not the defendant “repents.”

For more than 30 defendants and defendants, therefore, prison doors may open in the future.

This ruling only prolongs the structural violence of state racism, that set of laws, neocolonial practices, administrative detention and police devices that produce massacres, mass deaths and a humanity forced into conditions of semi-slavery. From the harvesting in the fields to the many sectors of the “informal economy,” from the blackmail of the residence permit – which weighs on logistics, construction, catering, “care work”… – to the fat black rental market, the terror exercised by the borders is as strategic as it is unmentionable part of capitalist exploitation.

123 years in prison for a motorcade blatantly tells us that we are at war, that the margins of permissible dissent are shrinking, and that non-negotiated conflict is a desertion from the frontline to be punished in an exemplary fashion.

The anti-immigrant wall at the Brenner Pass-which the Austrian police had called a mere “technical solution” …-was not built. Perhaps also thanks to those who fought with generosity and courage that May 7, 2016.

Solidarity with the convicted comrades and comrades.

[Taken from https://ilrovescio.info/2023/03/19/sentenza-dappello-del-processo-brennero/]

Via: La Nemesi

USA: No Cop City Anywhere: Governor Unveils Cop City NJ Plans

Posted on 2023/04/01 by darknights

We begin by quoting the recent press release from the governor’s office:

“The Governor’s budget continues to support initiatives that keep communities safe, including supporting law enforcement personnel and community-led prevention programs. As part of the Governor’s efforts to reduce violent crime in the State, the budget makes significant investments in the Division of Criminal Justice to staff new units and expand existing units with a focus on reducing gun violence, auto thefts, and exploitation, such as human trafficking and labor cases.

The budget also makes significant investments to strengthen the ranks of the New Jersey State Police, allocating $120 million to begin building a new training center for the next generation of New Jersey State Police and proposing an additional $5 million for the 166th State Trooper recruit class.

In an effort to ensure that the State’s first responders and law enforcement professionals receive the training and equipment necessary to protect and serve the State’s nine million residents, the Governor has proposed doubling the successful Firefighters Grant Program, bringing the total to $20 million.

The Governor is also recommending over $8 million in increased State funds for the first-in-the-nation statewide expansion of the Alternative Responses to Reduce Instances of Violence and Escalation – the ARRIVE Together program – which pairs police officers and State Troopers with mental health professionals when responding to a person who is experiencing a mental health crisis.”

It is our firm belief that what is to be done here is obvious.

The U.S. white power establishment wants to build cop city everywhere.

You are encouraged to heed the call and example from the Welaunee Forest: give them hell, everywhere.

Your courage, creativity, and connections will determine just how badly the U.S. empire will regret their choice to double down on policing the planet after 2020.

No Cop City Anywhere!
Fuck The Police!
Burn Down The Amerikan Plantation!

-some anarchists

Originally posted on Jersey Counter-Info

France: Statement + communiques concerning comrade S., who is in life-threatening condition following the Saint-Soline protest

Posted on 2023/04/01 - 2023/04/01 by darknights

Statement concerning S., comrade who is in a life-threatening condition following the Sainte-Soline protest

On Saturday the 25th of March at Sainte-Soline, our comrade S. was hit in the head by an explosive grenade during the protest against the giant retention basins. Despite his critical condition, the prefecture deliberately prevented the emergency services from intervening at first, and from transporting him to a special care unit in a second phase. He is currently in a neurosurgical intensive care. He is still in a critical condition.

The massive outbreak of violence that the protesters have gone through led to hundreds of wounded, and many of them suffered serious physical injuries, as we can read in the various reports available. The 30 000 protesters came with the aim to block the construction site of the Sainte-Soline giant retention basin, which is a water-appropriation project defended by a minority for the benefit of a capitalist model that has nothing more to defend other than death. The violence of the armed wing of the democratic State illustrates it vividly.

In the sequence initiated by the movement against the pension reform, the police mutilates and tries to assassinate to prevent the uprising, to defend the bourgeoisie and its world. Nothing will dampen our determination to put an end to their reign. On Tuesday March the 28th and on the following days, let’s strengthen the strikes and the blockades, let’s take the streets, for S. and all the wounded and the imprisoned of our movements.

Long live the revolution.
Comrades of S.

PS: If you have any information concerning the circumstances of the injuries inflicted to S., contact us at: s.informations@proton.me

We wish that this statement can be spread as massively as possible.

“In response to the window of possibility that the movement against the pension reform has opened, the police are mutilating people and even trying to assassinate people in order to prevent an uprising, to defend the bourgeoisie and its world.
Nothing will weaken our determination to put an end to their reign.”

Communiqué No. 1 from comrades of S.

“On Saturday, March 26, in Sainte-Soline, our comrade S. was hit in the head by an explosive grenade during the demonstration against the basins [a project of large water reservoirs for industrial farm irrigation]. In spite of his critical condition, the prefecture first intentionally prevented emergency services from intervening, then prevented them from transporting him to an appropriate care unit a second time. He is currently in neurosurgical intensive care. At this time, his life hangs by a thread.

The outburst of violence that the demonstrators suffered inflicted hundreds of injuries, including several serious physical injuries, as announced in the various reports available. The 30,000 demonstrators had come with the objective of blocking the construction of the mega-basins of Sainte-Soline, a project of water monopolization carried out by a small number of people for the benefit of a capitalist model that has nothing left to defend but death. The violence of the armed arm of the democratic state is the most striking expression of this. Continue reading “France: Statement + communiques concerning comrade S., who is in life-threatening condition following the Saint-Soline protest” →

France: Legalization of algorithmic processing of video surveillance images

Posted on 2023/03/25 by darknights

Article 7 of the bill “relating to the Olympic and Paralympic Games and various other provisions”, an article authorizing experimentation with the processing by algorithms of images captured by cameras or drones, was adopted on Thursday by the National Assembly after lengthy discussions. This project, which includes experimentation with so-called “intelligent” video surveillance (i.e., automatically reporting “suspicious” individuals or behavior thanks to their program) had already been adopted by the Senate.

“The Minister of the Interior justified this experimentation with algorithmic video surveillance by saying that “exceptional situations require exceptional means”, referring to the 2024 Summer Olympics. The implementation of this technique will not, however, concern only the Games: it will apply to “sporting, recreational or cultural events” in general, which “by their scale or circumstances, are particularly exposed to risks of acts of terrorism or serious attacks on the safety of people.

Source: Secours Rouge

UK: London’s secretive “smart stations” roll-out

Posted on 2023/03/25 by darknights

The digital slave-system of the Fourth Industrial Repression is being imposed on us by stealth.

Various aspects of the sinister technology have gradually crept in over the years under the excuse of fighting crime or terrorism or, more recently, of combating the spread of a so-called pandemic.

As we saw in our recent article on “15 Minute Cities”, we are now being told that it is all about urban planning and making life generally more pleasant for everyone by reducing traffic congestion and pollution.

Anyone who sees through this greenwashing attempt is dismissed as a paranoid fool or as a dangerous conspiracy theorist spreading fear and disinformation.

And yet the whole premise of this official spin is blown out of the water by the fact that smart infrastructure (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) is being rolled out in contexts that have nothing to do with private vehicle use.

We have got hold of a very interesting document from Transport for London on the current testing of smart surveillance at Willesden Green tube station, which is due to continue until March 31, 2023.

If this project were really about “providing the best possible service” to passengers on the British capital’s underground railway network, as claimed, then you would think that it would be loudly and proudly announced and discussed, with information widely available in a democratic public consultation.

But the fact that the document, entitled “Smart Station Proof Concept”, is marked “restricted” for internal TfL use reveals the secrecy being deployed to sneak through this new stage of the incremental theft of our freedom.

In the public interest, we have decided to publicise its contents.

The “exciting” project for the Jubilee Line station combines existing CCTV cameras with “visual analytics technology” to provide 24-hour real-time monitoring, via a “Smart Stations Dashboard”.

As well as counting everyone entering and leaving the station, the smart spies will be issuing “notifications” for a range of “triggers” including not just gate-jumping or smoking, but also “loitering” or a “person sat on a bench (Excessive Time)”, which turns out to be anything more than ten minutes! Continue reading “UK: London’s secretive “smart stations” roll-out” →