Olives @olives@qoto.org

https://www.npr.org/2023/12/14/1219460589/aderrien-murry-update-shot-no-criminal-conduct-mississippi-police

"A grand jury in Mississippi determined that there was no criminal conduct on behalf of the officer who shot and wounded an 11-year-old boy in his home who had called authorities for help."

OW

I think there are questions about privacy when it comes to the "metaverse" (although, Facebook's relevance here seems to be barely existent), really VR.

I also have large concerns about possible incursions on freedom of expression, particularly sexual expression.

"Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers."

https://reason.com/2023/12/14/congress-renews-warrantless-digital-spying-program-as-part-of-886-billion-spending-bill/

"A bipartisan effort to reform or shutter the federal government's massive warrantless spying regime ended, for now, in failure on Thursday morning as Congress approved a temporary renewal of the program as part of a military funding package."

"A group of Republicans led efforts in both chambers to remove a temporary reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows federal intelligence agencies to collect communications between Americans and foreigners. Congressional authorization for Section 702 was set to expire at the end of the year, but will now continue until April."

""Extending Section 702 robs Congress of the ability to make reforms now, and likely robs Congress of the opportunity to make reforms any time in the next year," Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.) argued on the Senate floor. "That means, once again, the intelligence agencies that ignore the constraints on their power will go unaddressed and unpunished. And the warrantless surveillance of Americans, in violation of the Bill of Rights, will continue."

A bipartisan group of 34 senators supported Paul's motion to strip the Section 702 reauthorization from the final version of the NDAA."

#privacy

https://reason.com/2023/12/14/civil-rights-groups-urge-federal-appeals-court-to-strike-down-mississippis-jim-crow-era-felon-voting-ban/

"Civil rights groups are urging a federal appeals court to uphold a ruling that found Mississippi's lifetime felon disenfranchisement law, which ranks among the harshest in the nation, violates the Constitution.

In August, a panel of judges for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit blocked Mississippi's felon disenfranchisement law in a 2–1 ruling, finding that the state's lifetime voting ban for those convicted of certain crimes constituted cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment. Mississippi Republican Attorney General Lynn Fitch successfully petitioned the full 5th Circuit for an en banc rehearing."

"The drafters of Mississippi's 1890 constitution admitted that they intentionally chose a list of crimes they believed most likely to lead to the disenfranchisement of black residents, such as forgery and bigamy. Rape and murder were not added to the list, which now includes 22 offenses, until 1968.

"Its historical origins in noxious, intentional racial discrimination offend the dignity of the individual and society," the brief says. "Its mandatory nature and lack of an accessible, non-arbitrary path to reentry make it functionally irrevocable—even for minor offenses that carry short terms of imprisonment, like writing a bad check for $100—and thus grossly disproportionate.""

#CriminalJustice

Is it possible to create something duller than Facebook's #metaverse?