you're watching our t.v. well we begin today with a look into surveillance and how it affects our daily lives we all know about domestic drones and of course we've heard of wiretaps but there is something else on the horizon when it comes to the ever expanding surveillance state facial recognition that's hardly a novel concept but it is one thing that's gaining steam it's already being implemented in d.c. l.a. las vegas and new york city and texas and possibly also in michigan hawaii and maryland there are two producer adriano said oh explains how the software works and

how you are actually helping to build the database every minute of every day whether you're out on the street working in the office or sneaking into the kitchen chances are someone's watching facial recognition technology was once something only side five flicks could dream up but now it's beginning to look a lot stranger than fiction the f.b.i. is planning on having a collection of over twelve million searchable frontal photos so here's how the process works you take a camera like this one then you take a picture like this. and then it's uploaded onto a database here's where the magic happens the picture is then cross reference with other pictures in the already existing data base pairing up you know your features like cheeks eyes what have you every facial recognition software has different

methods algorithms if you will but you get the point facebook for instance is already employing similar technology and getting a lot of flak for it if you have a facebook account chances are you've already used it without even knowing about it when you upload pictures facebook on a matic lee picks out similar looking people and cross references the pictures with others that have been uploaded to the site it's not completely accurate but arguably getting there and it's not just social media companies either the government is getting into the mix as well paying private companies to follow you around you may have heard a lot about a certain company as of late called trap wire though not much has been confirmed about the program we do know this that the quote a sophisticated predictive software used to predict terrorist attacks is already in place in cities such as los angeles new york los vegas and d.c. with

a limitless data bank with who knows what or who well there you have it it seems the days of anonymity are long gone and it's not just the camera but the databank you should also be afraid of so is a picture really worth a thousand words well as we found out today it might be worth much much more point from washington i'm a genocidal artsy. and while we're on the subject of surveillance and technology let's talk now about plans for controversial new laws regarding increased internet surveillance it's not just happening here in the united states it's also been proposed by governments of canada australia and the united kingdom in recent months government officials in these countries have made independent efforts in regards to the monitoring of internet communications some examples of what's being proposed include mandating that social network sites and online chat providers build a so-called back doors for law enforcement instituting what's known as quote deep

packet inspection technology and that would allow the monitoring of data there have been negative reactions from online privacy hawks regarding the potentially damaging implications of such laws what's more though is that telecommunications companies many you've heard of including microsoft eighteen t. sprint time warner cable arisan among others have already met with government representatives to discuss how to integrate surveillance into the already existing and still evolving technologies big topic here one that i spoke earlier with rebecca bow about she's international privacy coordinator for the electronic frontier foundation and we first talked about the standardization concerning surveillance laws i asked her why it seems that other countries seem to have a keen interest in these laws as well here's her take. and the i'm not really sure as much about you know we're not we haven't really looked into so much the sort of collaboration between countries but i do know that we heard governments saying that you know they want to be able to capture sort of all of the different online

communications that are out there and that there's so much happening there on able to capture you know our users and that is that a radical expansion of police surveillance powers really isn't the answer and that kind of the have to be protected and civil liberties have to be upheld. just last year officer for a second rebecca. but it is really interesting and we can call it a so-called coincidence just that a lot of these these countries are working back we've got you back now i want to ask you about a proposed surveillance bill in canada this is called the c thirty just talk a little bit about what this bill entailed and what the public reaction in canada was like yeah you know and this is a really unpopular design can it you know basically there you would require broad and online surveillance powers for internet service providers actually slept in store information about individuals communications records online.

about media and law canadian authorities easy access to you know people's online activity it is even for an internet service provider to hand over. any hidden without a warrant people in canada were really unhappy with this proposal and they actually mobilized and their staff and the wall has been placed on temporarily so they are still concerned that it could be servicing them that it's very interesting and of course in the u.k. as well there's been a push to require internet service providers to keep records of these of the records of internet data from a wide range of interests in a vigils and i guess we're back i mean who looks at. this information and what do they use it for yeah oh so really what we're seeing sort of happen around the world you know in the u.k. in canada you know australia is a proposal for what we call mandatory direct attention and you can use requiring

internet service providers to actually meet records of people on my next to the just their use of social networking site i email voice call them to the internet this kind of thing and in some cases they will be required to hold onto that information for years like the proposal that we just saw in australia is two years and iterate gathering attention so this means that it's basically going to see if there is that if the government feels like they want to go hand in and have a look at what you've been up to then it will be there for them to access and i want to go back to a term that we sort of introduced in the introduction to the segment and the term is deep packet inspection zz top tells a little bit about what this means and you know why people who are against these proposed surveillance laws are concerned about this you know i mean and that essentially means that you know it's the ability for. governments to sort of look within the content of meta haitians and not just sort of you know who have seen

said by you actually dealing with you know the content of those and so we talked about canada and we've talked about some of the laws in the u.k. let's talk now about what's going on here in the u.s. in terms of surveillance laws how do the laws here both that have been passed on that have been proposed to stack up against kind of what we're seeing in these other countries. yeah you know we we actually had three s. in the unit for a toddler and she built here in the u.s. but of course you know the electronic frontier foundation is famous for our case against national security and even eighteen heat for the warrantless wiretapping we've just seen kind of. dragnet on target is not there and that we're seeing in each other countries like u.k. . so what do you what do you think people should be concerned about and i know the fs has not focused so much on the role of some of these companies that we mentioned

some of these large corporations but what do you think are some of the major concerns when you have you know the rise in the comcast on the sprints you know basically that the major providers of both cell phone and cable when you have them kind of collaborating with governments what should we be wary of any you know i think this is really really the way area is a shift from sort of the you know the system where governments will listen you know people communication because they have probable cause and because they have an actual mission of wrongdoing and moving to a world in which they are listening you know everyone mediations this is ordinary people regardless of whether they're suspicious or not. you know you know and on target is your feeling that you really need to worry about. certainly a lot here to talk about and we also hear from from some of the top officials in

this country and other countries the need for this as well so certainly some mixed messages coming appreciate having you on the show or back about international privacy coordinator for the electronic frontier foundation in san francisco. well it's been about a week and a half since the violent shooting at that sikh temple in oak creek wisconsin and which six people were killed and several others injured and since that time there eventually some shows of support for the muslim community there but there has also been a dramatic surge of violent activity and harassment directed at places of worship since that time the american arab into dimmest discrimination committee is reporting that in total there have been nearly a dozen cases of attacks just in the last couple weeks this includes a mosque in joplin missouri burned to the ground an air rifle fired at the muslim education center in illinois where five hundred people were inside no one injured in that case a homemade bomb launched at a private islamic school and vandalism at various mosques around the country i want

to talk more about the implications of this with you but legal director for the american arab into the discrimination committee he's actually in dearborn michigan right now and i bet from what i understand you're in dearborn responding to an incident that took place in the mosque there that mosque one of the biggest if not the biggest in the country talk about what happened there and what's been the reaction. a lot actually the reason i'm in there is for there was an incident at the mosque that the islamic center. in those incidents involved some harassing and some threats or probably there was also an incident here and you're going at a local church which has a predominantly arab american middle eastern congregation and they did receive. some threats of there was something wasn't done to the building as well so we're starting to see the threats come to you know of places of worship that were never americans particularly and that's a very troubling very alarming. as are released in the news that we have been

stating these incidents are to be taken seriously and there is no such thing as a lawyer or essman or something that should not be taken seriously so there are definitely troubling there are definitely something it's very alarming or it's obvious why do you feel that this has been the case just at this recent surge in violent activity against muslim worship sites especially considering what happened . well i think the case could be made that these attacks have occurred in the surge is continuing to occur because of the pivotal political rhetoric and the culture of violence and hate that's been exhibited by syrian officials and it's been exhibited by those seeking political gain and that's the most troubling part we have individuals such as. congressman joe walsh from illinois who are really the even out in the community who are really perpetrating out there that you know muslim americans are not to be trusted muslims are not to be part of this very

group in their constituents are listening near followers or listening we're starting to see a direct impact in those are the incidences in the grounds that have been exhibited again over the past few weeks it's no coincidence that you know representative joe was made comments this week that muslims want to kill americans or try to kill americans every week and he has two incidences one near a district of his and one of them is district of a bomb thrown at a muslim school so that's right and really quick for our viewers who don't know we did we mention this at this incident this homemade bomb a launch at a private islamic school it happened in the eighth congressional district in illinois again the same district or congressman joe walsh is running for reelection and while seems to be not only not concerned with the violence he is more concerned about what he calls you know a different kind of dangerous threat and really quick on that i want to play a little bit about what he said there are radical islamists right here in the united states trying to kill americans destroy this country so talk about

statements like this. i mean those are. the good looks of streaming because they are those students should not be made politicians most of the first elected politicians those that are currently serving in congress need to have much more respect for the position they will need to understand it they are representing this country the are elected by the situation they are elected by the community and they need to hold this up as to the highest respect so when they are speaking in this tone when they are speaking the dialect and doing their best to promote any informal violence in this country it's not it was best for america no it was best for america so this type of this type of rhetoric is not place internationalists or has no place in politics in the in should be completely condemned by a politician alike and by the community and society alike and i promise there are going to be more attacks there's going to be more incidences throughout the next few months as long as this rhetoric continues but again there's no place for this

international discourse and there should not be coming from a politician but i should point out that you know a pattern that i've seen and you mentioned congresswoman bachmann has a she has done this congressman walsh homeland security committee committees you know in congress here in washington dealing with the safety and security of the united states people on this community that the lawmakers on this computer committee are privy to information that the general public is not and it's something that people like to throw out that well we have information that the american people you know we can't tell you the details but we have information that says that there is a you know dangerous muslim community here congo a little bit about why you see this as a pattern. is it certainly a pattern for the simple fact that they are gaining political advantage in a political gain from this that when you look at individual searches bachmann was from florida representative joe walsh there live in it's run about the counties

there are going to rival the politics of fear in a and they always need a bad guy they always need. the other is politics of fear in this culture of violence in haiti which is. helping them. move forward with their political careers and it's very unfortunate in. yeah it's interesting to even hear anyone talking about the need to crack down on white supremacists even though that was what was found that was who was found to be behind the shooting in the sikh temple real quick i have you want to switch gears yesterday a federal judge threw out a lawsuit against the f.b.i. over the spying on muslims while attending prayer in orange county california the judge said allowing the suit to go forward would risk divulging sensitive state secrets many of the people we've spoken to in orange county say they almost feel betrayed by their own government as a result what do you think is going on here. i think many of those families of

those individuals of feelings of betrayal are absolutely accurate there are many of the to community they do feel betrayed in the government this is news and law enforcement agencies are there to protect us and time after time over the past few years we've seen many examples where the contrary has happened we've seen many examples unheard of many examples of illegal surveillance we've heard of infiltration of the mosque and the use of aged provide that source so we need the facts we need the details we need to know what's going on and we had faith in the court system that these details in the sec could be provided in still down with national security so using the excuse of national security does nothing but there are ways around this security measures and there are ways to ensure that the nation is protected without losing our civil rights and losing our protections when we would have hoped that the court would have taken the order to effect we just look forward to how this is perceived and whether or not there's an appeal ah that you have said you fear there will be more attacks as you mentioned there are already

a dozen you fear there will be more. what what do you do what does your organization do and regular people do moving forward. and terms of being cautious in terms of trying to deal with this and prevent it. well i think you're the first you said it's very important it is to stay cautious that is to be aware of your surroundings make sure that the models for the place of worship does their productions reach out to local law enforcement whether it's a little sure the formosa local police department to protect the particular on friday prayer particularly where large volumes and large crowds are expected is far from our end izzy's for a number of services we can even provided you are going to ask what steps to do to ensure there is the direction we can also provide it context with the law enforcement to make sure their protection is in place in general advice where their offer general advice in general a good number of resources for the community in the incident something does happen

or something does occur we are also there to help move forward and right the plan of the situation in ensuring those that the community. are a hundred and. so that's what our role is and we go we don't have to exercise our practice but you know right now the way things are looking we do fear that there will be more attacks. legal director for the american arab anti-discrimination committee joining us from dearborn michigan thanks so much thank you. let's take a short break now but coming up one man's a sidewalk art is another activist expression and people are actually being arrested and find find it for the things they drop while sketch out the details straight ahead. and what drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions it's come to be precluded sort of deeply and maybe who can you trust no one who is human view with

a global missionary see where we had a state controlled capitalism is called sasha's when nobody dares to ask we do our t. question more. at first for. that just burns your eyes right i mean it's like a derivative of actual pepper it's a food product essentially. this is much stronger than anything it's made by a lot of little loses thousands of times we're stronger than any one of the variable ever put in your.

well police in cities throughout the united states are cracking down on of all things chalk art work in july the los angeles police department violently retaliated against the occupy movement in the city when it handed out chalk during an art walk a vent the reasoning behind the chalk was previous arrest for talking public space however not all uses of chalk will catch the police's i occupy l.a. sends out a press release that states that the l.a.p.d. has failed to make talking arrests that other non occupy events that includes an event the mayor in which the mayor handed out boxes of yellow chalk to be used on the sidewalks driveways and any quote blank canvases including the streets of

sunset boulevard in traffic at night for a fundraiser that was for lance armstrong's our campaign called hope rides again sponsored by nike but despite the dozens of arrests there has yet to be a charge why won't most likely because chunking is not illegal the ninth circuit court of appeals wrote that no reasonable person could think that writing with chalk could damage a sidewalk i was back in one thousand nine hundred five as the blog fire dog lake pointed out still in last month's los angeles event seventeen people were arrested and caused quite a bit of chaos in the last thursday occupiers across the country pushed back when occupy l.a. declared aug ninth chalky pi the world day police got the memo and responded with arrests in other cities like austin texas well let's go now to a los angeles based chalky artist alex shaffer for more. hey there alex talk about the events you've attended what has been their purpose. well the you know i

really didn't witness what with on the show our walks things were really kind of turned into a. you know a little mini riot scene and i know people that were there that saw it it was it's a weird situation you know branding everybody there to be occupy i think it's a little little misleading people that i trust to know when that bird there. can convince me that the people that threw the bottle at the cops that really got everything cool crazy was someone from a bar so it's kind of a branding problem that occupy i think is is in some respects facing you know you can just have any idiot just scream occupy and throw a bottle and you know so they kind of lose the message suddenly it just turns into a crowd control situation what are you hearing in terms of you know even just to pay for cation that you know the police are giving for arresting people who are

talking ok well like for instance my situation. and i was moved to motivated to do what i did after what i saw happen at our walk. and i i went in front of a chase bank on a monday at lunch and we're showing your video right now of you right outside of chase yeah and so i you know have shock and i brought a camera crew a couple guys out and a mike on the outside we were being very forward from here about it and on the public sidewalk i rode in shock. you know croaks crying chaos the chase bank logo and i just persevered till the police came you know they kind of went through the chain of command first it was the building security and i said no and then it was the assistant bank manager and i said no then they called the private security purple shirts and i said no or they well they didn't even speak with me. in fact i

tried to engage them in a conversation at one point and they you know they have that mirrored sunglasses and no words and then finally the police came and i was calmly arrested and that was the point you know it was like a little surgical strike of protest and it was done right in front of the place that everybody should be protest so what were you charged with. vandalism that was arrestable offense now were you using a spray spray paint so i was using sidewalk jocks like you can see right here in the background and you know right here so alex if you were a child or drying you know hopscotch on the street would you have also been arrested i really doubt it i mean granted there's probably not going to be a mom who's going to let their kid drop a hopscotch game on the corner a six figure roa they're probably going to be doing in pershing square or if you know something like that. but it is so elective i mean it's you know i got

a quote on my blog right now that says it's from fuller it's attributed to voltaire and it says if you want to know who controls you figure out who you can't criticise in a sense and so i think the closer than americans get to the truth and to the root of our problems the more sketched out people get well are you suggesting there's a direct connection between you know the los angeles police department and you know big banks like chase. well i think you know it's big banks like chase that are hiring this. are. they're not are but they are a a private security force they drive around in segues and they have you know intercoms and. they are paid for by the look the businesses there. and it's sort of a strange situation i mean i think that when the purple shirts call the cops then

the cops feel like they have to respond how do you how do you respond to people who ask you you know why anybody is talking on the sidewalk why not you know use it on paper in your own home what do you what do you say to people well because it's a protest you know the thing about protest is you want people to know what you're thinking. and the thing about shot to being that i find so ideal is that it can happen continuously all the time i mean anybody walking from work to subway for lunch could could just be passing wells fargo and go oh you know it's screw these guys and just it could be spontaneous in ten u.s. it's not like it's a big. whoop de doo up to a certain you know may or something and then everyone has a big thing i want to see it happening everywhere i'd like to see every bank waking up every morning having to spray on for

a sweep up for maybe people the night before who just express their feelings on the pavement you know my son is losing their home. you know my pension funds is near zero. they got to realize and it's sort of more people can engage in this even people who are too shy to protest you know yeah absolutely it certainly seems like a peaceful way to protest and one again when you use chalk it's not permanent it's temporary and can be washed. will be interesting to see the does seem to be a form of protest that is sticking around for a while appreciate having you on the show artist alex shaffer in los angeles california well that's going to do it for us here for now but for more on the stories we covered go to you tube dot com slash r t america and also check our website r t dot com slash.