[de Blasio] Living in a post-Bloomberg era

[DGuller]

People do things that reflect very badly on them.  Owning child porn is one of those things.  However, not all things that reflect badly on people should be punished with years in prison.  I fail to see how someone possessing my child abuse tape and wanking off to it every night threatens society to a degree that requires such drastic legal retaliation.  Distributing may or may not be a different matter.

[Sheilbh]

Years in prison and sex offender registry for life extreme.

Okay. I don't think that's extreme. I thought maybe there was some insane minimum sentencing rules.

[Syt]

I agree, though, that the public debate on this subject is extremely emotionally charged and rational debate is nearly impossible. I imagine that if you were a "full pedophile" who can only get turned on by kids, and knowing that you will never be able to live out your desires legally, it must be complete hell. It would be useful to get those people into counselling and therapy so that they learn to live with their condition without breaking any laws.

Imagine if it were suddenly completely verboten to watch any porn, and you would face public outrage and stiff prison sentences for it, and had no legal access to a sexual partner - would you be able to stay away from naked boobs (or whatever your primary object of attraction is)?

[garbon]

Imagine if it were suddenly completely verboten to watch any porn, and you would face public outrage and stiff prison sentences for it, and had no legal access to a sexual partner - would you be able to stay away from naked boobs (or whatever your primary object of attraction is)?

The history of homosexuality is just that.

At any rate, I think viewers (who are also in most cases sharers) help perpetuate the market for creating such images. There wouldn't be much utility in putting up said films/images online if there wasn't any viewership.

[Syt]

Imagine if it were suddenly completely verboten to watch any porn, and you would face public outrage and stiff prison sentences for it, and had no legal access to a sexual partner - would you be able to stay away from naked boobs (or whatever your primary object of attraction is)?

The history of homosexuality is just that.

I'm aware of that. Only in the case of homosexuals it was preventing consenting adults to do things to or with each other. In case of pedophilia one side can't legally consent.

[garbon]

Imagine if it were suddenly completely verboten to watch any porn, and you would face public outrage and stiff prison sentences for it, and had no legal access to a sexual partner - would you be able to stay away from naked boobs (or whatever your primary object of attraction is)?

The history of homosexuality is just that.

I'm aware of that. Only in the case of homosexuals it was preventing consenting adults to do things to or with each other. In case of pedophilia one side can't legally consent.

Certainly. I was just like - I'm not sure I really have to imagine a sudden part - personally.

[The Brain]

Banning "child porn" that doesn't have any actual children in it is insane.

[MadImmortalMan]

I always wondered about the whole issue of game consoles recording your living room. Isn't that going to inevitably cause them to inadvertently create child porn at some point? I mean, how many of you parents had kids who never ever appeared in the living room nude?

[derspiess]

I always wondered about the whole issue of game consoles recording your living room. Isn't that going to inevitably cause them to inadvertently create child porn at some point? I mean, how many of you parents had kids who never ever appeared in the living room nude?

  So all nudity is porn now?

[The Brain]

I always wondered about the whole issue of game consoles recording your living room. Isn't that going to inevitably cause them to inadvertently create child porn at some point? I mean, how many of you parents had kids who never ever appeared in the living room nude?

  So all nudity is porn now?

[garbon]

[Admiral Yi]

 

[garbon]

I assume a knock in the citibike program and then also Bloomberg's health initiatives.

http://nypost.com/2008/12/14/bloombergs-big-pedal-push-for-bike-lanes/

[garbon]

NYPD's Continuing Goodwill Tour

http://news.yahoo.com/nypd-under-fire-video-pregnant-woman-hitting-ground-202945949.html

NYPD under fire for video of pregnant woman hitting ground

Disturbing video of Brooklyn woman, five months pregnant, in a scuffle with police sets off another community relations crisis for the NYPD, which is battling controversy over street tactics in the outer boroughs.

New York City police officers are under investigation this week after a bystander used a smartphone to capture a particularly rough arrest of a Brooklyn woman five months pregnant.

The video shows the arrest of Sandra Amezquita, a Colombian immigrant and mother of four, who fell belly first onto the pavement as officers wrestled her to the ground and cuffed her hands behind her back. The incident occurred during an early morning melee Saturday in Sunset Park – a neighborhood sometimes called Brooklyn's "Little Latin America," since more than half its residents are Latino.

The video also shows another officer violently shoving an unidentified woman to the pavement as she stands near the arrest. Police simply issued Ms. Amezquita a summons for disorderly conduct, but the other woman, reported to be a friend, was neither arrested or accused of a crime.

The disturbing video is a blow to the New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (D), who has made a priority of improving police relations with minority communities, after more than a decade of bitter contention over NYPD street tactics, including curbing stop-and-frisk tactics.

It's also created a fresh community-relations crisis for the New York City Police Department, which this summer has endured relentless criticism from minority communities after a number of smartphone videos captured the fatal arrest of Eric Garner, a 350-pound black man who suffocated to death as police wrestled him to the ground in July.

The city's medical examiner ruled the death a homicide, and a district attorney has convened a grand jury to consider charges against the officer, who contributed to Mr. Garner's death by using an apparent chokehold banned by NYPD policy.

After the Garner incident, New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton announced that his department would begin an unprecedented series of "refresher courses" for its officers – annual in-service training that would focus on de-escalating violent street encounters and train officers to treat all citizens with respect, even during arrests.

The training, Commissioner Bratton told lawmakers this month, would teach officers "how to talk to an initially uncooperative person with the goal of avoiding a physical confrontation." He also said the training would emphasize "how to physically restrain a suspect who continues to resist arrest without harm to that individual or the officer."

On Monday, the NYPD was praised for its uncharacteristic restraint during a boisterous protest on Wall Street, as over 1,000 climate protesters clogged traffic in acts of civil disobedience. Even critics said police officers used internationally recognized "best practices" to contain the political march against capitalism and climate change, which led to over 100 arrests in the city's Financial District.

But Monday's "Flood Wall Street" protest, with echoes of the Occupy movement in 2011, occurred in a highly media-visible area of Manhattan – not in the outer-borough minority neighborhoods that have bristled under the aggressive street tactics of the NYPD.

"It's appalling," said Sanford Rubenstein, Amezquita's attorney. "It's clear to me when an incident like this occurs you understand why police-community relations are at an all-time low," he told The Associated Press.

The scuffle occurred after Amezquita and her husband, Ronel Lemos, attempted to intervene as police arrested and allegedly began to beat their 17-year-old son, Jhohan Lemos, who was accused of carrying a knife and resisting arrest around 2:15 a.m. on Saturday.

The elder Mr. Lemos was also arrested and charged with assaulting a police officer during the arrest of his son. Photos show the younger Mr. Lemos with his eye swollen shut and lacerations to his cheek and forehead following his arrest.

Amezquita reportedly suffered vaginal bleeding after her arrest, and bruising to her belly and arms.

"I was afraid something happened to my baby," she told The New York Daily News on Tuesday. "I am still afraid that something is wrong," she said.

In 2013, a federal judge ruled New York's version of stop and frisk to be unconstitutional, saying it targeted minorities and violated previous limitations to stop and frisk that had kept the practice within legal bounds.

But videos such as those depicting Amezquita's rough arrest have thwarted many of the De Blasio administration's efforts, and tensions among minorities and the NYPD remain strained.

"What we see is a woman who's trying to protect her son, who is being stopped and frisked by police, and she became a victim. Slammed onto the floor," said Dennis Flores, founder of  El Grito De Sunset Park, a community social justice group organized in 2002.

"She's bleeding and she's having complications," Mr. Flores told a local news station.

The video, too, comes less than a week after another Sunset Park cop was suspended after onlookers used their smartphones to record him kicking a street vendor.

"This is the second video in a week," said New York City Councilman Carlos Menchaca to the local ABC News affiliate. "It's disgusting. This needs to stop. I spoke with the chief and the captain. We have a systemic problem with this precinct. We need to solve it now."

[garbon]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/josephbernstein/new-york-city-to-advertising-contractor-take-down-secretly-i#3xrx7bz

New York City Kills Hidden Phone Booth Devices

City Hall has asked Titan to remove the devices, which could have been used to push ads — and track phones.

New York City is forcing an outdoor advertising company to remove hundreds of devices that can be used to push advertisements to mobile phones — and can help track users' locations — hours after BuzzFeed News exposed the devices, which are hidden in pay phone booths around Manhattan.

A spokesman for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told BuzzFeed News that City Hall has asked Titan, which owns the right to sell ads in thousands of phone booth kiosk advertising displays, "to remove them from their phones."

"The beacons will be removed over the coming days," the spokesman, Phil Walzak, said.

Walzak also defended the city's relationship with Titan, which is part of a program to turn obsolete pay phone kiosks into contemporary communications hubs.

"Titan has been an important City partner in helping expand communications options for New Yorkers, from piloting free public WiFi to providing free calling on all its pay phones across the five boroughs for three weeks after Hurricane Sandy," he said. "While the beacons Titan installed in some of its phone(s) for testing purposes are incapable of receiving or collecting any personally identifiable information, we have asked Titan to remove them from their phones."

Gimbal, the company that manufactures the beacons, emphasizes that the beacons do not themselves collect any information. They are, however, a key element in a network that can, in fact, track smartphone users. In its current iteration, a Gimbal beacon requires a third-party app to trigger advertisements, and requires those apps to receive "opt-in" permission from users, who must also have Bluetooth enabled. Gimbal's privacy policy says Gimbal-powered apps may collect your current location, the time of day you passed the beacon, and details about your device.

When reached for comment, Eric Sumberg, spokesperson for New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer, told BuzzFeed News: "New Yorkers deserve to know that their private information is being protected and the Comptroller's office will be keeping a close eye on any agreement that comes before us to ensure that the process to award this contract was done with full transparency."

Representatives for Gimbal and Titan did not immediately respond to BuzzFeed News' request for comment.