#The Target is the Metropolitan Police Traffic Department

[detco-hell]

[episode 972 - The Target is the Metropolitan Police Traffic Department]

[ausetkmt]

Some people describe a police dog’s bite as a deep tear through their flesh. Others are haunted by the feeling of a Vise-Grip, the dog's jaws slowly but painfully tightening around their arms or legs until the muscles go numb.

These are not the nips or snaps of a pet dog in a backyard. A police dog, trained for weeks on how to bite harder and faster and with little reservation, can inflict debilitating injuries and lasting scars. The physical damage lingers as long as the memories of a dog’s snarling teeth, its guttural growls, its head ripping back and forth upon crashing into a fleeing target, all while a police officer stands nearby shouting commands and praise in German, Dutch or Czech.

Across the nation, police dogs bite thousands of people a year. And in no major city is someone more likely to be bitten than in Indianapolis.

The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, home to one of the largest K-9 units in the country, has the highest rate of dog bites among police departments in the largest 20 U.S. cities.

Some cities saw one police dog bite over the last three years. In Indianapolis, it was once every five days.

Law enforcement officers from around the United States train with their police dogs on how to capture a suspect at Vohne Liche Kennels, in Indiana, on Sept. 23, 2020. Dogs are muzzled for the protection of the man acting as a decoy, who is not wearing typical bite gear for this training exercise.Mykal McEldowney/IndyStar

Those are just some of the findings of a yearlong investigation by IndyStar and the Invisible Institute in Chicago, along with The Marshall Project, and AL.com.

The first-of-its-kind national analysis included a review of police dog bites from 2017-19. That review found that IMPD dogs bit 243 people over those three years. That’s more bites than New York; Chicago; Philadelphia; San Antonio; Dallas; Austin; San Francisco; Fort Worth; Columbus; Seattle; and Washington, D.C.

Combined.

Police K-9 Bites per 100,000 Residents

Among police departments in the 20 largest cities, some have much higher rates of police dog bites than others. Between 2017 and 2019, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police dogs had 243 bites, or about 28 bites per 100,000 residents. But city police in Chicago, Philadelphia and San Francisco each recorded only one incident.

Source: Analysis of use of force data from police departments, population data from the Census Bureau.

Per-capita rates use the latest five-year census population estimates and are approximations. City police departments in Los Angeles, Houston and San Antonio may include serious non-bite injuries in their K-9 use of force records. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department data for bites in 2019 include numbers through January 23, 2020.

The investigation also revealed for the first time:

Nearly 60 percent of people who had been bitten in Indianapolis were suspected in only low-level and non-violent crimes or traffic infractions; bites that would appear to be out of policy in some other cities, such as Seattle and Washington, D.C.

At least 65 percent of those bitten were unarmed and did not act violently, facts that contradict IMPD’s stated reasons for using dogs so often.

More than half of the people who were bitten are Black, a disproportionately high number for a population that makes up just 28 percent of the city.

15 percent of people bitten were younger than 18. Three-fourths of the juveniles are Black.

Sometimes police dogs bite the wrong people entirely, such as police officers at a crime scene or innocent bystanders in a neighborhood.

Marshawn Wolley, a community leader who has worked alongside Indianapolis city and police leadership to reform IMPD’s policies, said he was shocked to learn about what’s happening with IMPD’s dogs.

"This is not meeting the standards of what we expect from a professional police department. They have missed the mark. Dramatically,” Wolley said. “There’s really no hiding from this. They set the standard for being the worst. This has to be addressed. This has to be addressed."

Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett declined an interview request. He answered questions by email.

"These numbers are clear evidence that we must continue to have a dialogue with our community around what they expect not just of the K-9 unit," Hogsett said via email, “but of their police department as a whole."

The high number of bites in Indianapolis is driven in part by the convergence of two factors: a comparably loose set of IMPD policies that enables K-9 officers to release their dogs on people suspected of committing low-level offenses and, critics say, an old-school policing culture that encourages officers to do just that.

When IndyStar presented its findings to IMPD Chief Randal Taylor this month, he said he was concerned about the numbers.

"You know, I would hope we wouldn't have to bite that often," Taylor said. "If there's changes we need to make, I'm always for that."

Then, in an email Oct. 7, Taylor announced his department had drafted a new policy that, he says, will eventually place restrictions on the use of police dogs. For example: Officers would no longer deploy dogs on suspects in misdemeanor cases unless they believed that person is armed, though dogs would still be justified in all felony cases.

The policy change, if enacted, would have stripped out as many as 23 bites in misdemeanor cases over the last three years—an amount larger than the total number of bites found in some major cities.

That said, it's just 10 percent of the bites in Indianapolis. Even if they were removed from IMPD's total, Indianapolis would still remain the major city where someone is most likely to be bitten by a police dog.

[katytheinspiredworkaholic]

WIP Wednesday

Untitled Fic (Correspondence) 

Summary/Story So Far: HotchReid, slow burn, AU where Reid never joined the FBI, but got roped into consulting for the LA field office while working and teaching at CalTech. Hotch gets an email from a fellow agent, and they start to work on cases together - until they start talking on a regular basis. Regular becomes frequent, frequent becomes constant. 

They have been dating for some time now, and while they had evolved from written correspondence to phone conversations, they still haven’t crossed those last few barriers. They still haven’t met. They still don’t know what they look like. But at this point it doesn’t matter, because they are already in love. They know they will meet, one day, and that's enough. But then the next step in their relationship is taken right out of their hands... once again, thanks to a case.

Official Posting Date: 04/03/2021

(Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (NSFW) (Part 5)

(Set in season 6/7, unbeta’d, first draft)

(sometimes I’m worried I’m giving too much of the good stuff away, but I’m also just too excited about it so here you go. Big milestone scene, or half of one anyway. Don’t worry about timelines yet, this takes place about halfway through the fic. It’s going to be a LONG story. This is a very, VERY rough draft just fyi)

-

The day Spencer sees Hotch the first time, is a complete accident.

He walks into the CalTech physics labs for his students, expecting to do the usual Monday rounds of checking on projects and thesis statements and arguments prepared for the Ph.D. board of directors -- and instead finds all of his doctorate students gathered around the projector screen where the news is being played twelve feet high.

“What’s going on?” 

“There was another terrorist bombing in Dallas this morning,” Kimmy Li, his direct office assistant and teacher’s aide, tells him. Sitting cross-legged on top of her desk and holding tea that looks like it’s stone cold now. “They brought in homeland security and the FBI, and it’s all over national news now.”

“That’s where you’re from, isn’t it?” he asks, gentle and wary. When she nods worriedly, he leans against her desk with her and looks to the screen where the news reporter is summarizing the attacks once more. 

Hotch is probably there. If they called in the FBI. He pulls out his phone to text him, ask him when he’s landing in Dallas, when Kimmy nudges his arm with her elbow and points to the screen. “Isn’t that your friend?”

He looks up and sure enough, there’s JJ. Her long blonde hair straight and professional, looking sharp in a dark brown pant suit and standing in front of about a dozen different outlet microphones. Her words are clear and concise, explaining a prepared press release he’s sure she wrote out in its entirety just on the flight from Quantico. Behind her is the Dallas police chief, and a few more agents all looking stern and very professional as well. He can only see an intimidating, dark-haired woman, a bald African-American man, and someone who he’s fairly certain is David Rossi. 

“Yep, that’s JJ.”

“And is that David Rossi?”

“JJ is going to be doing a lot of explaining the next time we chat on the phone,” he says with a slight smirk. He didn’t even know the man was out of retirement, nor that he was now working with his long time friend. Spencer didn’t like to pry at her about her work or her team. She’d been bounced all over the past year or two, stolen by the pentagon and the State Department, only to be snatched right back by the FBI once more. He didn’t even know anything about her team, and hadn’t bothered to ask --

If he had, he would have asked her if she worked with Hotch a long time ago. But the BAU itself had grown exponentially the past few years. They had multiple teams all over the country, now, and more than one stationed in Quantico at the FBI federal headquarters. The odds were slim to none. 

“We ask everyone here in the metropolitan area to remain vigilant, this team is very organized and we believe them to be a home-grown terrorist group. These kinds of groups blur racial and socio-economic lines. It could be anyone. We ask people to stay in their homes, avoid crowded areas, and to divert all traffic around the city instead of through it.”

“She looks good,” Kimmy smiles, a little red in her cheeks.

“She’s taken,” he stage-whispers to her. “Sorry to disappoint.”

“All the good ones are,” Kimmy mumbles, just as JJ looks to her left off screen.

“We will take questions in just a moment, but first our Unit Chief has a few words for the press and the group we are trying to find.” She steps aside, giving a small quirk of her mouth (not a smile, not after everyone that has died today) and makes room for a broad-shouldered, black haired man in a polished professional suit to take the podium. Smoothing his tie, mouth set in a thin line in his stern, authoritative face. Dark eyes, dark hair, dark lashes, the man commanded authority, and even Kimmy (who was gayer than a maypole) made a hum of appreciation. 

Spencer smirked and couldn’t help but agree. Unfortunately, he was also taken.

Then, the man begins to speak.

“My name is Supervisory Special Agent Aaron Hotchner, and I’m addressing the leader of the terrorist group that attacked the Capitol building this morning.” 

Spencer’s stomach drops to his shoes.

His mouth parts on a sharp, pained gasp. 

And his ears ring like an air raid siren, but it doesn’t drown out the deep, familiar tones of the man on the screen. 

The man who had whispered huskily into his ear two nights ago, who had wished him good morning last week when he’d just gotten back from a Florida case, who had told Spencer he loved him exactly nineteen days ago and rocked his world to his core.

Now Spencer was staring him in the face, twelve feet high, on a projector screen in front of all his students, and if he hadn’t been leaning against Kimmy’s desk he knows he would have fallen over. 

Hotch.

“We have your demands. We know what you want. And you’re not getting them.” 

There’s a collective gasp around the lab, and Spencer feels his jaw tighten because this was either a ploy that was going to try and draw the unsubs out into the open, or part of the demand to get the public against the FBI presence. Risky, either way, and he swallows hard as he listens to Hotch lay down the fucking law. Back straight, head high, unblinking and not showing an inch of emotion on his face.

And it’s so… very hot.

And he’s so… extremely handsome. 

Spencer is fucked.

He watches the whole press conference, scared to blink and miss one millisecond, soaks up every word and facial tick and nuance he knows by heart in Hotch’s voice. But now he has facial expressions, dark eyes and a strong jaw, to match to it. 

“Are you okay, Dr. Reid?” Kimmy asks him, when he finally blinks and realizes his eyes sting from staring so hard, and she looks distraught at her hometown being targeted so viciously. He should be comforting her, not the other way around.

“Y-Yeah, I’m fine, I just… I know that team. Not just JJ. Could you,” he pauses, and can’t believe the words that are about to come out of his mouth. “Would you mind finding me a copy of that press conference and emailing it to me? I have some phone calls to make this morning, but I need to watch it again.” 

Kimmy stares at him. Because Spencer never needs to rewatch or reread anything. He has an eidetic memory. 

But he doesn’t explain himself, just awaits an answer and gives her a grimace of a smile when she nods still a little stunned. “Thanks, Kimmy. Let me know if you need anything.” And with an awkward pat on her shoulder, he bee-lines straight for his office and sits behind his desk. Head in his hands. Hotch’s eyes burned into his memory. His voice and his mouth and his jaw and his…everything. 

He still has a half typed message in the text box. And he can’t even bring himself to complete it.

(tbc...)

[haibara-outfits]

Episodes 971 and 972: The Target is the Metropolitan Police Traffic Department

[exaltedgrimleal]

AI: The Somnium Files review

AI: The Somnium Files is a story about a detective from the Metropolitan Police Department named Kaname Date and his efforts on finding a newly founded serial killer.

The first victim is Shoko Nadami, found tied to a merry-go-round horse with multiple stab wounds to the front of her body and her left eye missing.

Referred to as Date, Date is joined by his AI partner, AI-Ball, “Aiba.” Aiba filling the role of a computer, a communication device, an assistant, and a prosthetic left eye, the two work together to try and find out the truth about the New Cyclops Killer.

Gameplay

The game is a point and click investigation game. The majority of the game revolves around Date going around questioning suspects and exploring his surroundings such as the crime scenes. While investigating locations does little for the story, the game keeps you interested with its interesting story and entertaining flavor text.

When not investigating, you enter a phase called Psync. Psyncing is the act of using a specialized machine where one person can enter another person’s subconscious and explore their dreams, this place called Somnium. While it’s still mostly a point and click adventure in these phases, you’re given less freedom as most things can’t be interacted with.

While in somnium, you have a hard six minute limit. While standing still, time passes quite slowly, each nanosecond prolonged to last a normal second. Otherwise, walking around will pass time normally and performing actions will drain your time with varying results. You are introduced to two things, Timies and penalties. Timies can reduce or increase the amount of time needed to perform certain actions while penalties will multiply the amount of time needed. You receive timies and penalties by performing actions themselves.

In other words, you need to balance your time and use timies appropriately. If you get a penalty, you have to decide whether it’s worth performing the action that needs to be done with a large amount of time being spent or target the penalty on a side action that will ultimately result in a smaller penalty.

ex. There are two actions, one that takes 55 seconds and one that takes 2 seconds. Your penalty is x3. You can either perform the 55 second action with a x3 multiplier, meaning it will take 165 seconds, or perform the latter, meaning it will take six seconds.

Non-spoiler review

I thought AI: The Somnium Files was a good game.

I do think the game was weighed down by the gameplay itself. While the main gameplay revolving around a point and click investigation similar to the investigation phases in a Phoenix Wright game were strong, the psync process was either boring or frustrating.

The idea behind the psync process was interesting, but most of the process revolved around dumb luck on what you chose to do during your six minute time limit. Because the somnium took place in a dream, it allowed the settings to be colourful and real life rules to be distorted, but I found this just made things either confusing or redundant.

I also didn’t really learn anything from the psync phases. While the game pushes on the idea that you psync to find clues on the investigation, I found it was more about diving into the subject’s psyche and potentially just make more questions. While this isn’t a bad thing, I found it didn’t fit in enough with the story to be relevant. It’s hinted you can heal someone’s mental ailments with psyncing and that is proven once, but it’s also well stated that the subject does not perceive the psync in the same way that the psyncer did.

It was fun to weigh out your timies and deal with time penalties, but I found that I only had to worry about those things in three out of thirteen psync phases. Otherwise, psyncing was a mindless effort.

Also due to the multiple endings, there are of course points in the story where it branches off into a new set of actions. Ultimately the player will find themselves with two locked routes where they cannot proceed until they play more of the story. While this isn’t a problem, the fault lies in the fact that in order to unlock all the locks, you need to play part of one route, jump to another, and jump back. This leads to confusion on which events have happened in which route if you’re not reviewing the story and keeping track.

What really sells the game is the characters and story. Written by Kotaro Uchikoshi, I was expecting an interesting narrative and I wasn’t disappointed. It kept me constantly thinking and throwing me for loops. The mystery on who the New Cyclops killer is well thought out and the story only volunteers information at a need-to-know basis, leaving you in the dark when you need to be.

Spoilers below cut.

Story introduction

The story begins with Date and Aiba arriving in an abandoned theme park, Bloom Park, in the Kabasaki District on a rainy night. Date is a member of ABIS, a top secret organization in the MPD that specializes on the act of psyncing. Psyncing is the act of one person entering the dreams of another, aka Somnium. They use this to find clues in their investigation. The psyncer can only stay in somnium for six minutes, however. If they are there any longer, the psyncer’s consciousness will be lost.

With said district having been abandoned for six years due to an explosion at a chemical plant that caused the whole district to become inhabitable, people were evacuated and restoration began. Having been six years, the location is now technically safe to enter but still off limits by government laws. This means there is very little foot traffic in Kabasaki District.

An anonymous call brings the MPD to Bloom Park claiming there is a dead body on one of the theme park’s rides, the carousel. Sure enough, there is the corpse of Shoko Nadami. Date is shown to have been this woman’s acquaintance but he knows very little about her other than she is the ex wife of Renju Okiura(Date’s best friend and drinking buddy), and the mother of Mizuki Okiura. After divorcing her husband for unknown reasons to us, she takes her maiden name and becomes estranged to Mizuki.

The front of her torso has been stabbed multiple times and her left eye is missing. Due to the dried blood on her face, it alludes to her eye having been removed while she was alive and it’s whereabouts are unknown. Cause of death is blood loss. She has been bound to the merry-go-round’s horse as if put on display.

This mirrors four murders six years prior done by a serial killer known as the Cyclops Killer. The Cyclops killer killed four young women in different ways. Postmortem, their right eye was removed. Date’s boss, affectionately just known as Boss, claims these crimes cannot have been done by the same person but does not offer any other information.

We learn that Date has amnesia and does not remember anything prior to six years ago. While he finds that suspicious, Boss will not tell Date anything about the Cyclops Killer case.

With Aiba being an effective investigation tool, he uses x-ray vision and finds a figure inside the column of the merry-go-round. Busting the column open, he finds Mizuki who is holding a bloody ice pick which is revealed to be the murder weapon. Traumatized by seeing her mother in this state, Mizuki develops aphonia meaning she can no longer speak. They wrap up for the night.

That night, Date has a strange dream. With Aiba’s help, he is able to organize his thoughts and unfolds the scene. He sees a woman on the ground with blood coming from her shoulder. It’s unknown if she is alive or dead. Standing above her is a dark haired man with cold looking eyes.

Morning arrives. Date traces the anonymous reporter and finds the call was made by an Ota Matsushita. Date first goes to Ota’s home, Matsushita Diner. Only Ota’s mother, Mayumi Matsushita, is present. Mayumi claims Ota is obsessed with an internet idol, a “witch,” and is most likely where he can see her.

 He finds and approaches Ota in the Lemniscate office building, a talent agency owned by Renju. Ota is revealed to be a huge fan and friend of a budding idol and internet personality, Iris “A-Set” Sagan, also known as Tesa by fans.

Ota admits to having been with Mizuki when they found the corpse. Mizuki received a suspicious text to go to Bloom Park and when they went, they found Shoko’s corpse. Terrified, Ota runs away. He drops his cellphone in a puddle leaving it inoperable so he used a payphone and fled the scene.

We meet Iris who claims she is Mizuki’s friend due to working under Renju, Mizuki’s father. She convinces Date to bring her to the scene of the crime due to being interested. Despite not finding anything, Iris is satisfied and Date brings her home. He is introduced to Hitomi Sagan, Iris’ mother and childhood friend of Renju. Date is shocked as Hitomi looks exactly like the mystery woman in his dream. We learn Hitomi suffered from a random break in six years ago where she was shot in the shoulder, leaving her arm paralyzed.

Date returns to ABIS headquarters and is ordered to psync with Mizuki in hopes he can cure her aphonia and/or gain clues on Shoko’s murder. Futa Amanoma, known as Pewter, is a scientist that initiates the psync.

Mizuki’s somnium is Bloom Park in the midst of a violent lightning storm. While this somnium is dream like, we know it is based on reality as you cannot dream of something you do not know.

This is where the story divides between the red route and the violet route.

Red Route

In Mizuki’s somnium, Date sees a mysterious figure in the shadows watching. When the two wake up, Mizuki’s aphonia has been cured. She explains the reason why the ice pick was in her hand was because she found it in Shoko’s left eye socket and she panicked. This reveals Mizuki does not have the eye, as well as the eye was not in Shoko’s corpse when Mizuki and Ota found her. Mizuki also does not know who the figure was as it was too dark for her to see. She did however get scared by the figure and hid in the column of the merry-go-round, explaining why she was in there.

Date brings Mizuki to Bloom Park to investigate and question her. They find there was a car in the area from security footage that belonged to Renju. Hoping to find him, they go to Sunfish Pocket, a maid café that Renju owned. In the building, they find a horrifying scene: Renju’s corpse.

Renju’s corpse has a bruise around his neck and his cause of death is asphyxiation. He has been strung up on the ceiling with a large hook in his mouth attached to three beer kegs on the ground weighing him down. He is missing his left eye, and like Shoko, it was removed while he was alive.

Date gets information from his informant, Mama, and learns that both Shoko and Renju were involved with a Yakuza gang, the Kumakura gang. When he goes to investigate the Kumakura building, he finds So Sejima there, a politician. So puts out a smoke and leaves, leaving Date without any leads.

When Date runs into Ota, Ota admits he saw Iris and Renju together a few hours before Renju was found dead, leaving Iris suspicious. Iris is brought in for questioning, and backed into a corner thinking she is going to be pinned for a crime she didn’t commit, she texts Ota. Ota texts back promising he will not tell anyone about, “that thing,” putting even more suspicion on Iris. When Date is unable to get any information from her, he psyncs with her.

Story proceeds to the green route or continues on the red route.

Red Route continued 1

Iris’ somnium is an abandoned warehouse with a few old fashioned televisions. Each one shows various animals that have been killed. It ends with an unknown figure kissing So Sejima. Having learned nothing from the psync, Iris is released.

Driving Iris home, she requests that her and Date stop at Matsushita Diner and they meet Ota. Questioning Ota about, “that thing,” Date is incapacitated. Aiba is able to record Ota telling Iris he is going to get the car ready as he leaves the diner. Aiba is only able to see their feet as Date is on the ground. Mayumi supposedly threatens Iris to leave her son alone to which Iris calmly walks towards her saying nothing. Ota returns asking if anything had happened, and when Iris denies anything, they both leave. Mayumi follows them. Learning that Mayumi suffers from dementia, it is unknown if she remembers this happening.

When Date regains consciousness, he receives a call from Boss who sends him a link to a livestream. Iris can be seen on a table underneath an ice cutting machine, her left eye removed. She can be seen breathing. He quickly gets into his car and drives towards the location, the Okiura Fishery Cold Storage Warehouse.

As he is driving and watching the stream, a large figure in a polar bear costume appears on screen, starting the ice cutting machine and leaving view. The saw blade slowly lowers towards Iris’ abdomen but is turned off by Ota. Ota threatens the now unseen culprit and supposedly goes to fight him off.

Date arrives in the nick of time. He finds Ota has been stabbed who is lying on the ground in a pool of blood but is alive. While Date goes to find the culprit, he is unable to. Both Ota and Iris are rushed to the hospital and undergo surgery. 

It is learned that at Okiura Fishery Cold Storage Warehouse, there is the Matsushita van and a stolen car. Ota’s story is that he and Iris stopped at a convenience store. When he was in the store, the polar bear stole the van when Iris was inside. Ota stole a car to pursue them but couldn’t find them until hours later.

When Ota has been stabilized, Date questions him but he is unable to get any useful information. Boss has Date psync with Ota.

In Ota’s somnium, Date relive’s Ota’s memory of the warehouse, albeit a bit exaggerated as Ota deems himself a heroic figure.

Story proceeds to the green route or continues on the red route.

Red Route continued 2

Date sees the polar bear is holding a custom knife that belongs to Mayumi. He goes to question Mayumi who confesses to being the New Cyclops Killer. While Date nor Boss believes her and think she is protecting someone, they interrogate her. With her testimony being unreliable, they decide to have Date psync with Mayumi. The psync is postponed as the machine is broken, so Date continues his investigation.

He finds Mayumi had followed Ota and Iris in a taxi. When they stopped at a convenience store, Mayumi also did the same at a nearby store so they would not spot her. She saw the van driving away, so they followed again thinking Ota was in the van. The van stopped at So Sejima’s mansion and then at the Okiura Fishery Cold Storage Warehouse. When Mayumi entered the warehouse, she saw the polar bear ripping out Iris’ eye. Because Mayumi did not know Ota was left behind at the convenience store, she assumes Ota is the killer which is why she confessed, in order to protect Ota.

It’s revealed that the knife was at the scene because back in Matsushita Diner Mayumi threatened Iris with it. Iris walked up to Mayumi and took the knife from her, leaving with Ota and the knife in hand.

Knowing the van stopped at So’s mansion, he arrives there to question So only to find So’s chopped up corpse. The body had been dismembered and stuffed into a decorative vase. His left eye is missing.

Date sends CSI to the Sejima household and returns to ABIS headquarters to psync with Mayumi.

Ota End

Date does not find anything related to the case in Mayumi’s somnium but was able to regain some of Mayumi’s lost memories. Mayumi and Ota reconcile in the hospital and both apologize for possibly having doubts of each other.

Yellow Route

Date sees that Ota was able to injure the polar bear’s leg during their confrontation. He is pulled out of somnium before he is able to see Ota unmasking the polar bear. When he asks Ota if he saw the polar bear’s face, Ota claims he did not and was stabbed as he tried to look.

Date and Mizuki return to Okiura Fishery Cold Storage Warehouse to have the pool of blood Ota was lying in analyzed. They find it has two peoples’ DNA, so if they are able to find out whose blood is mixed with Ota’s, they will know the killer.

At the warehouse, they spot So Sejima who is walking away with a limp. With suspicion on the politician, Date returns to the Kumakura office and retrieves So’s cigarette butt. They use it to confirm it is So’s blood in the warehouse.

Date and Mizuki raid the Sejima household. When Mizuki is held at gunpoint, Date and Aiba initiate a plan to incapacitate So. While it works, So uses the last of his strength to shoot. Date is able to protect Mizuki but gets shot in the left eye.

Date lives as the bullet was stopped in Aiba, his prosthetic eye, but he is in a coma. Mizuki psyncs with him to attempt to pull him out of it.

Mizuki End

Mizuki and Date visit a shrine they have been to in the past. They talk about how So was held countable for the New Cyclopse Killer victims despite Date having his doubts that the mystery was completely solved.

Green Route

Iris’ somnium is an abandoned warehouse with a few old fashioned televisions. Each one shows the original Cyclops Killer victims and how they were murdered. Having learned nothing from the psync, Iris is released.

Driving Iris home, she requests that her and Date stop at Marble, a bar owned by the informant, Mama. When they arrive, Mama is not there and instead Ota is sitting at a stool. Questioning Ota about, “that thing,” Date is incapacitated. Aiba is able to record Ota telling Iris he is going to get the car ready as he leaves the diner. Aiba is only able to see their feet as Date is on the ground. Mayumi supposedly threatens Iris to leave her son alone to which Iris calmly walks towards her saying nothing. Ota returns asking if anything had happened, and when Iris denies anything, they both leave. Mayumi follows them. Learning that Mayumi suffers from dementia, it is unknown if she remembers this happening.

When Date regains consciousness, he receives a call from Boss who sends him a link to a livestream. Iris can be seen on a table underneath an ice cutting machine, her left eye removed. She can be seen breathing. He quickly gets into his car and drives towards the location, the Okiura Fishery Cold Storage Warehouse.

As he is driving and watching the stream, a large figure in a polar bear costume appears on screen, starting the ice cutting machine and leaving view. The saw blade slowly lowers towards Iris’ abdomen but is turned off by Ota. Ota threatens the now unseen culprit and supposedly goes to fight him off. Shortly after, the polar bear reappears on the screen and starts up the ice cutting machine again. Iris is cut in half by the machine and the camera is splashed with blood.

Being the first to arrive at the scene, Date finds Iris’ body in two halves. On the table she originally was strapped to, there is a polar bear cut in half as well. Taking off the mask, we see Ota who is now dead. His eyes are intact.

Devastated, Date turns to another point in the investigation. He discovers a prisoner known as #89 is linked to the case and interrogates him. #89 is said to have been the Original Cyclops Killer. #89 tells the story of a man known as Falco who worked as a detective during the day and an assassin/hitman during the night. He got involved with the Kumakura gang and became a hired gunman for them. Eventually meeting a younger Hitomi and Iris, he began romantically seeing Hitomi and Iris began calling him, “uncle.” Falco decided to get out of the dirty business of being a gunman. The Kumakura gang leader, Rohan Kumakura, agreed to let Falco go as long as Falco performed one last kill, the target being Hitomi and Iris.

Date psyncs with #89 to learn more. Upon the completion of the psync, Date receives a video of So Sejima looking dazed with his left eye missing. He is shot in the head by a mystery figure who, when showing their face in the camera, proves to be Boss.

After a firefight, Boss is detained and psynced with. Her somnium is a warehouse with several doors, each main door showing the murders that have happened in the past few days. It shows a strange occurrence where each victim was killed by another victim: Shoko was killed by Renju, Renju was killed by Iris, Iris was killed by So, and So was killed by Boss.

Date and Pewter question Boss. Boss reveals that while it is Boss’ body, it’s not Boss’ mind. The mind inside Boss’ body belongs to Saito Sejima, So’s son who was said to be soul searching far away. He explains that if you stay in somnium for more than six minutes, the minds of the participants are swapped. Saito used a psync machine to transfer into Shoko’s body. As Shoko, she lured Renju to a remote location where she switched minds with him, meaning Renju’s mind was in Shoko’s body and Saito’s mind was in Renju’s body. Saito used Renju’s body to kill Shoko and tied her to the horse of the merry-go-round. He then switched minds with Iris and used Iris’ body to kill Renju. Then he switched bodies with his father, So, and killed Iris in So’s body. Lastly, he switched minds with Boss and killed So’s body with Boss’ mind inside.

Annihilation End

Saito claims this was all revenge and wanted his original body. Date comes to the conclusion that Date’s body is actually Saito’s original body, Date’s original body unknown. Saito threatens Date to switch bodies with him with Hitomi, showing him evidence that Hitomi is attached to a bomb.

Date and Saito switch minds but Date is too late and Hitomi explores.

Violet Route

In Mizuki’s somnium, Date discovers the completely frozen corpse of Iris with multiple stab wounds to her back and her right eye missing. Date is confused as he just saw Iris earlier. He then hears an unknown ringtone.

Upon awakening, Mizuki has not been cured of her aphonia. Date calls Iris and tells her to lock her doors and not go anywhere with anyone.

With the lead of the ringtone in mind, Date returns to Bloom Park to find where it was coming from. He and Aiba find a burner phone that had been thrown in the merry-go-round horse’s mouth. They track who called the phone when Mizuki was in the park and discover it was a person named So Sejima, a big politician.

Pursuing the mysterious phone call, Date hears that there has been a big car accident that Renju was in. After getting out of surgery, Renju escaped the hospital and cannot be reached.

Date makes a few stops finding out one, Ota could not reach Iris at all, two, Hitomi is a teacher and teaches Mizuki, three, Hitomi was able to cure Mizuki’s aphonia, and four, Shoko had ties to the Yakuza gang’s Kumakura household.

Arriving at the Kumakura office, he learns that the leader, Moma Kumakura, is a big A-Set fan. Date promises to introduce Iris to Moma in exchange for information on Shoko or Renju.

Finally returning to the phone call, he finds So leaving a warehouse. Inside, Date finds a body on a table: Iris. She is exactly as Date saw her in Mizuki’s somnium.

So is brought to ABIS and interrogated. While So claims he does not know who Iris is at all and that he did not kill her, he is psynced with. In So’s somnium, we see an unknown figure stabbing Iris. It is unknown whether the unknown figure is So or someone else. He saves Iris in So’s somnium before both of them wake up.

Date gets a call from MPD about the body he found in the warehouse. The policeman questions Date on where he found the body and when Date says the table, the policeman claims there is no body in the warehouse. Date arrives to see that indeed there is no body. Confused, he rushes to the Sagan household where he finds Iris fine and well. Because Iris amuses him with the idea of a parallel world, Date believes he saved Iris.

Continuing with his investigation, he finds that a prisoner in Fuchu Prison known as #89 claims to know who the New Cyclops Killer is. They call him out for interrogation, but he escapes by incapacitating Date and holding Pewter at gunpoint. It is revealed that #89 got in a car that fled the scene, that car being drived by Renju.

Desperate to find Renju, Date gets a call from Moma claiming he has seen Renju. Moma is introduced to Iris when he gives information, but Renju is in neither location.

Date and Iris go to Marble, a bar with an informant owner, Mama. He tells Boss and Mama about his trip and Mama claims someone will be there to talk to Date about Renju. Upon arrival, Date and Iris are attacked by several gunmen trying to kidnap Iris. They are able to defend themselves and escape unscathed.

Iris claims she is being hunted by a secret society known as NAIXATLOZ, also known as NAIX. She claims to have learned about their secret involvement with the Wadget System and that is why they are targeting her.

Date psyncs with Iris to see if what she is saying is true or not.

Story proceeds to the magenta route or continues on the violet route.

Violet Route continued

Believing Iris, Date promises to be her bodyguard.

The two find out from Mama that the person that was going to speak to Date was Futa Amanoma, which we know is Pewter. Knowing he is a traitor, Date confronts him where he explains that he intentionally let #89 escape because Renju asked him to do so. Pewter also admits to having let the hitmen target Date. Pewter then uses Aiba to perform an electrical shock in Date’s head causing him to pass out and kidnaps Iris.

When Date wakes up, he enlists Ota, Mizuki, and Moma to rescue Iris. They find her location at the Okiura Cold Storage Warehouse and perform a raiding party. After rescuing Iris, they all split up in hopes they would not be pursued and caught.

Date brings Iris to an abandoned warehouse where he finds a psync machine that was supposedly stolen and its location was unknown. Before he can read into anything, Iris collapses. Aiba does a scan and notices her brain is experiencing massive failure.

Date believes that if he psyncs with Iris and saves her in somnium, he can once again save her in real life.

Iris End

Iris wakes up and thanks Date for everything he’s done. Date promises that Iris is going to be okay and will continue to live. She begins to ask him something but succumbs to her condition and dies. Date yells her name to no avail.

Magenta Route

Date decides to not believe Iris about NAIX. She gets angry and runs off leaving a note saying not to worry about her and that she would be with the person she could trust the most.

Date learns that Iris is suffering from a brain tumor that will kill her within a few months which causes her to potentially hallucinate, explaining why she is so set on her belief that NAIX is after her.

Thinking the person she can trust is Renju, Date goes to Okiura Fishery Cold Storage Warehouse and finds the frozen corpse of Iris again. Hitomi is brought to ABIS to identify Iris’ body, but she is very calm. In order to find out the truth, Date psyncs with Hitomi.

We learn that eighteen years prior, Hitomi and Renju were friends with a girl named Manaka Iwai. Manaka became pregnant with So Sejima’s child and kept the baby. When the baby was born, she asked Hitomi to take care of the child so she could confront So about it. Saito killed Manaka by stabbing her in the back several times.

Rohan Kumakura, the previous leader of the Kumakura gang, is tasked with disposing of Manaka’s body. He pulls out her right eye before they bury her. Hitomi and Renju clean her up and freeze her body so they could expose So when the time was right. From then, Hitomi raised the baby as if it were her own, naming the baby Iris.

Hitomi explains that Iris was diagnosed with a brain tumor that would kill her. There was only one cure, using nanomachine treatment that was too expensive for Hitomi to afford. She decided to blackmail So with Manaka’s body to try and get money from him to fund Iris’ treatment. She put Manaka’s body on a table in the Okiura Fishery Cold Storage Warehouse and called So to the location and threat. That means the body Date saw earlier was not Iris and instead was Manaka.

Hitomi also explains that she did not come to the cops about it earlier because she got a call from someone who said they had Iris, and if Hitomi told anyone, Iris would be killed.

Date and Hitomi track down where the culprit is and enter a warehouse. Date is electrocuted and falls unconscious and Hitomi is kidnapped. When Date wakes up, he finds himself strapped to a stolen prototype psync machine with prisoner #89 looking down at him. #89 explains he is Saito Sejima, So’s son, and that he is the Original Cyclops Killer. 

The whole story started with a detective named Hayato Yagyu, known just as Yagyu, became an assassin/hitman. He got involved with the Kumakura gang and became a hired gunman for them. Eventually meeting a younger Hitomi and Iris, he began romantically seeing Hitomi and Iris began calling him, “uncle.” Falco decided to get out of the dirty business of being a gunman. Rohan agreed to let Falco go as long as Falco performed one last kill, the target being Hitomi and Iris.

Boss and Yagyu talk and decide to have Rohan and Yagyu swap bodies. Boss explains ABIS and psyncing, as well as if you stay in somnium for more than six minutes, the psyncer and subject’s consciousnesses would swap places. This would give Yagyu’s mind in Rohan’s body the opportunity to one, tell the Kumakuras to never touch Hitomi or Iris, and two, to kill Rohan in Yagyu’s body which would dispose of Rohan and Yagyu’s body who would be known as a hitman and scandal in the MPD. After they perform the psync, Rohan in Yagyu’s body escaped ABIS headquarters and went to kill Hitomi himself. Yagyu in Rohan’s body goes to save her, but in the process, accidentally shoots her.

Rohan’s mind is arrested and he is put in prison, given the title #89. Yagyu’s mind finds out that the Original Cyclops Killer, Saito Sejima, had an accomplice: Rohan. In Rohan’s body, Yagyu tries to get a confession out of Saito. Saito immediately is suspicious of Yagyu and learns about the psyncing process. He forces Yagyu to switch bodies with him meaning Yagyu’s mind is in Saito’s body, and Saito’s mind is in Rohan’s body.

The process is halted midway, however, which caused both of their memories to be shattered. This left Yagyu as an amnesiac where Boss finds him and gives him a new identity: Kaname Date. Saito in Rohan’s body was caught and since he was acting insane due to not knowing anything, he was brought to a hospital for the criminally insane. He was in Rohan’s body for five years until he pieced together his memory and escaped the hospital.

He lured Shoko out and swapped bodies with her and pushed Shoko, now in Rohan’s body, off the roof to make it look like a suicide. He then waited a year and switched bodies with Renju only to kill Shoko’s body with Renju inside. He went to kill Iris, but Iris refused to go with him because Date told her to not go anywhere with anyone. So, he had #89 escape and swapped minds with him. This meant that Saito’s mind was in #89′s body, #89′s body being Yagyu aka Date’s original body, and Rohan’s mind was in Renju’s body. Because of the car accident, however, Rohan’s mind perished when Renju’s body died from the accident injuries.

Finally, Saito explains he wants his original body back. Due to a brain deficiency, Saito’s body only could produce oxytocin when he killed something. This made his serial killing habit pleasurable. However, in other bodies, he did not feel this pleasure and therefor wanted his body back. Date is confused as even though he is in Saito’s body, he does not receive pleasure when killing and Aiba explains that she administers oxytocin to Date’s body regularly, preventing Date from going down Saito’s path.

Saito and Date switch bodies, meaning they are both now in their original bodies. Saito threatens Date with both Iris and Hitomi’s lives. Without being able to do anything, Aiba explains that she has a solution: she can self destruct in Saito’s eye socket which would cause his skill to explode. Date and Aiba agree that this is the only thing that can be done and Aiba destroys herself.

Resolution End

With Iris, Ota, Mizuki, and Hitomi now privy to the classified information about what ABIS is and the Original Cyclops Killer, Boss is able to pull some strings from the higher ups to buy their silence. Boss funds Iris’ nanomachine treatment and she undergoes surgery to have the tumor in her brain taken care of.

Three months after the treatment, Iris is released from the hospital and her and Date travel around the town so she can thank everyone who visited her.

At ABIS headquarters, Date is put to sleep by Boss. When he wakes up, he sees Pewter to alludes to Boss having done something and it is assumed he returns to prison for unintentionally helping Saito having thought it was Renju.

Iris eventually takes Date to the harbor where she has a surprise for him. He closes his eyes only to open them and see the Aiba. Aiba, having been restored, is now back by Date’s side and the two reunite happily.

The story ends with all the characters dancing and having a good time together.

Takeaways

While I was playing, I had two predictions: one, that the person who was playing patty cake with Iris was Date, and two, that Date prior to his memory loss was the original Cyclops Killer. Both of these ended up being true in a sense, but there was still a much bigger picture I hadn’t caught onto until they were revealed which was very entertaining.

And it’s worth mentioning that there is a secret ending called Me and My Girlfriend’s Atami End. In interviews, Uchikoshi said that no choices you make in this game are wrong ones, but I’m pretty sure this ending is a wrong ending as it involves Date abandoning his investigation to run away with the receptionist of Lemniscate. I honestly thought it was a joke Date was trying to pull until the game actually gave you a Fin screen and made you save, haha.

It was also very interesting to learn that small things that happened in the game pointed to bigger narrative points about characters, like how Aiba would mention that Date’s dosage possibly increased which is later revealed to be oxytocin for Saito’s body.

As well as little things like how Date is the only character we refer to by his last name, Date and Yagyu.

It turns out that the stolen psync machine is a bit underdeveloped compared to the one in the ABIS headquarters, and one of the problems with it is the left eye must be removed in order for it to work. With the well functioning machine, nanocords are able to go around the eye and reach the brain, but with the underdeveloped ones, the eye must be removed for the cords to reach the brain. Since we learn that Rohan is the one that took the eyes of the Original Cyclops Killer victims, it makes sense that Saito didn’t need them.

I get very emotional over some of Date’s intentions, as well. While it’s not talked about in the game, it’s interesting to think that the reason why Date has such a strong paternal instinct towards Mizuki is because he had that with Iris while he was Hayato. He was awkward about it because he was never really a father as well as his built family was almost broken because of him.

And Date being such a well rounded character made it fun to play as him and explore the world around him.

Even though AI: The Somnium Files wasn’t a perfect game, it was still very entertaining. It took me about twenty two fun-filled hours to play through the whole thing. I am very excited to see what Uchikoshi comes up with next, whether that be a sequel, prequel, or a completely new project!

#MyNameIsKagami

[wecityguidecom]

Mystical city where the continents meet: Istanbul

Istanbul... The city where the continents meet... Historical, magical, impressive but also crowded, noisy and stressful for its residents... With its more than 15 million population Istanbul is the 4th largest city in the whole world and biggest one in Turkey of course. You will find detailed information in this Istanbul city guide.

Istanbul City Guide

Short History of Istanbul

Istanbul has its own unique long-standing history. So any of the Istanbul city guides must have some fragments about its own great history. The first inhabitant of Istanbul is dating back to almost 2nd millennium BC. They have settled the Asian side of the city at that time. Back in time, Istanbul got its first name around the 7th century which is Byzantium, a Greek name for a city on Bosphorus. Around the 6th century, BC Alexander the Great took the city and peace period started for almost 200 years for this unique place. Roman Empire In year 193 a Roman emperor Septimus Severus conquered the city remained under the Roman rule until the 4th century AD. The historical name of Istanbul which is Constantinople was given by the Constantine the Great around 5th century AD after the separation of Roman Empire to Western and Eastern Roman (Byzantium) and the city is called to the capital of Byzantine Empire. At that time the city was built over the 7 hills but it's another story. Constantinople's population rise up to almost half a million between 4th and 6th century. Also during that time, the great wonder has risen in Constantinople, Hagia Sophia! Constantinople have the number of sieges, riot and plunder during history...

Constantinople, as it appeared in the 13th century, here accurately depicted by Antoine Helbert. (Source: https://tr.pinterest.com/pin/114841859222847086/) Ottoman Turks Constantinople conquered by the Sultan Mehmet II in 1453 with 53 days of siege and city named to Islambol, became the capital of Ottoman Empire. During the next 200 years many mosques, baths, madrasahs and public houses built by the sultans. With the investments to the city and peace period give a change to the city to regain its population up to half a million once more. Throughout the centuries the name of the evolve to the Istanbul. During World War I the Great War city was occupied by the allied troops until the national struggle which led by the father of Turks the Mustafa Kemal Atatürk repel them. After the birth of the Republic of Turkey in 1923 capital moved to Ankara. But during time Istanbul has continued to grow and expand drastically, today its population over 15 million one of the biggest cities in the whole world and unfortunately, it continues to grow... 

How to Get to Istanbul

Istanbul geographically has various advantages. You can take a flight from more than 300 cities to Istanbul by Turkish Airline which globally recognized. If you want a more nostalgic route to reach Istanbul you can take international trains from the Balkan to reach the city. There are two airports in Istanbul which are Istanbul Airport on the European side (opened in 2019 instead of the old one: Istanbul Ataturk Airport) and Sabiha Gokcen Airport on the Asian side. Unfortunately, both of the airports don't have a metro line at that time and you have to take a bus or taxis. You can find information about how to get from airport to city in both ways. These airports almost 80 km away from each other. So we can say that both of them location two sides of Istanbul. Just be careful before taking a taxi! Try to use Uber-like apps to not deal with scams and overcharges. Istanbul Airport's web site in English Sabiha Gokcen Airport's web site in English

Public Transport in Istanbul

Istanbul has really advanced public transport system. Metros, trains, trams, buses, ferries and taxis... In Istanbul, you have to buy an Istanbul card to use public transport. You can buy it from the terminals in the airport or various selling points around the city. You can find the main website for Istanbul's public transport. İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality İETT (Buses) Metro Istanbul Şehir Hatları (Ferry Lines) Marmaray (Suburb train line) In Istanbul its quite easy to reach your target destination by using metros, trams, train ve ferries but not buses! There is huge traffic both during morning and evening rush times. So try to use rail systems most of the time to get around the city. Most populated and touristic areas have metro or trams so it won't be a problem for you to get these places. In Istanbul, rail and sea transport mostly serves between 06.00 and 00.00 but also night lines for the buses. You can use night buses to go to most of the places in Istanbul, just don't forget to check the timetables.

Top 10 Places to Visit in Istanbul

There are countless places to see in Istanbul and you will discover a new one every time you came back to this great city but we just wrote down 10 of them. 1. Hagia Sophia (Aya Sofya) This legendary landmark always gets the first place in Istanbul city guide. There is a phrase about Byzantine Emperor Justinian when he entered the Hagia Sophia in 536 AD, he cried and said that I have outdone you, Solomon! At that time Hagia Sophia is one of the greatest wonders all over the world and still is. When the Sultan Mehmet II conquered the city he converted Hagia Sophia to the mosque and construct four minarets. Hagia Sophia served as a mosque until the 24 October 1934. After this date, Hagia Sophia became of one of the most famous museums in Turkey. Ticket price for visiting the Hagia Sophia is around 60 TL for the full fare. Hagia Sophia Museum Website

Hagia Sophia Museum (Source of the image) 2. Sultan Ahmet Mosque (Blue Mosque) Blue Mosque or Sultan Ahmed Mosque is a historical wonder just in front of the Hagia Sophia. This mosque called as "blue" because of the surrounding walls of the interior. Blue Mosque was built between years 1609-1616 by the Ottoman Sultan Ahmed I. Blue Mosque is an open and active for the Muslim prayers during the days. Because of this if you go there during praying times you may need to wait 15-20 minutes to enter the inside. You will get a free scarf before entering the mosque from the staff and don't believe anyone who offers you to get in the mosque without waiting for the queue. By the way visiting the mosque is totally free.

Blue Mosque (Source of the image) 3. Topkapı Palace Palace was both homes of the Ottoman Sultans and administrative/educational centre of the empire. After the conquest of Istanbul palace was built by the Sultan Mehmed II between 1460 and 1478.  Palace actively served until the 1850s for the state affairs until it became inadequate for the protocols and other things until the sultans moved to Dolmabahçe Palace. New sections added to the palace through years by the sultans. The landmark has a total area around 700.000 square meters and its major area located in the Royal Gardens which is in Turkish, Hasbahçe. Topkapı Palace Museum Website

Topkapı Palace Museum (Source of the image) 4. Basilica Cistern Basilica Cistern is one the Istanbul's splendid historical places. This large underground cistern was built by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian between the 527 and 565 as a water reservoir. The cistern is 140 meters long and 70 meters wide like a rectangle structure and it has 336 marble columns. It has the capacity to hold around 100.000 tons of water. There are also Medusa head from the Roman time which is a great example of the great artwork. The Basilica Cistern Website

Basilica Cistern (Source of the image) 5. Galata Tower Tower has a panoramic view of Istanbul's historical peninsula as well as the surroundings.63 meters high tower was built by the Genoese colony around the 14th century for the defence of the Galata district and its located directly opposite of the ancient Constantinople. Also during the Ottoman reign, Hazerfan Ahmet Çelebi was the first Turk who overflew the Bosphorus to Üsküdar for more than a 6000 meters in distance.

Galata Tower (Source) 6. Grand Bazaar Here is one of the most-to-see places in Istanbul city guide. Grand Bazaar is the largest covered market in the world! It has various of goods buyers which make it more and more famous. Grand Bazaar's covered area is around 30.700 square meters with more than 60 streets and 4000 shops. Enormous! The bazaar was constructed by Sultan Mehmed II after the conquest and during the years it also expands by the following sultans.

Grand Bazaar (Source) 7. Prince Islands Prince Island is a combination of nine islands on the Asian side of Istanbul. You can take ferries to the islands from Kadıköy, Bostancı and few other places. There no motorized vehicle on the island except for the police, fire and health departments. Four of the islands are the biggest ones; Büyükada, Heybeliada, Burgazada and Kınalıada. "Prince" name comes from the Byzantine period when the royal family members exiled to these islands. There were also largely Jewish, Greek and Armenian on islands.  8. İstiklal Street and Taksim Square Taksim Square and İstiklal Street are two of the most famous and known places in İstanbul. Many hotel and restaurant located in these areas and liked by the tourists. There is an Independence Monument in Taksim Square which is located the entrance of the İstiklal Street. Also, I new mosque is being constructed a couple of years which is also located in the square and its quite nice one. There is a historical tramline serves between Taksim Square to Şişhane. You can find there the world 2nd oldest metro line serves from Şişhane to Karaköy which name is "Tünel" in Turkish. Metro, funicular and bus lines go through the Taksim and Şişhane which makes them very easy to reach and get around.

Taksim Square and Mosque on the background (Source) 9. Üsküdar Most of the Istanbul city guide ignores or neglects the Asian side but it has its own beauties. Üsküdar is located on the Asian side of the İstanbul and it is located the entrance to the Bosphorus. The district has a long history back in days to the Ottoman Sultan Orhan Gazi years around 1352 before the conquest of İstanbul. During the Ottoman period, Üsküdar was one the judgeship of İstanbul. People who come from the Anatolia resided in Üsküdar after it was taken by Organ Gazi. During the 17th century, there were around 70 Muslim, 11 Greek and Armenian neighbourhoods. There is also Kızkulesi (Maiden's Tower) just the shore of Üsküdar which has history long-standing history from the Byzantine.

Maiden's Tower (Source) 10. Istanbul Archaeology Museum This is one of the best museums in Istanbul. It is located at the Topkapı Palace. The museum complex has three main sections which are Museum of the Ancient Orient, the Archaeology Museum and the Tiled Pavilion. The museum gets the collections from beginning of the 19th century by the museum director, archaeologist Osman Hamdi Bey.

Entrance of the Istanbul Archaeology Museum (Source) How long the Istanbul city guide will it be never enough for a city like this... Just let yourself to discover its unique beauties... Turkey is visa-free for most of the countries. You should think to visit Istanbul and probably you won't regret this decision. Don't hesitate to leave your comment for the people who're planning to go there or already there! We will improve this Istanbul city guide together. Read the full article

[shirlleycoyle]

DHS Flew Two Surveillance Aircraft Over Breonna Taylor Protests

Two Homeland Security aircraft monitored protests in Louisville Wednesday after a grand jury failed to indict the police officers who killed Breonna Taylor, Motherboard has learned by monitoring Air Traffic Control feeds.

The airspace was crowded with many law enforcement air assets from state, local, and federal departments. DHS flew both an AS50 helicopter and a Cessna 206 spy plane, which did not show up on radar maps but were identified via air traffic control communications.

The night started out with local police helicopters. The Kentucky State Police and Louisville Police Department were soon joined by what first just appeared as blips on the flight tracking website ADSBExchange.com, at around 8 p.m. local time, as night fell. While that certainly doesn’t serve as reliable information it does signal that something else might be airborne. Air traffic control communications are another source that one can tap to determine what’s going on in the sky above and identify any aircraft not showing up on flight tracking websites.

From ATC audio:

“Omaha1 are you also a 206?”

“Omaha1 is an A-Star helicopter AS50”

“Tower, Omaha1 with ya climbing 3500.”

“Omaha2, yes sir we’re done over downtown would like to head up to the North.”

“Omaha” is a frequently used callsign for Homeland Security who prefer the Airbus Helicopter AS350 because they “are the optimal aerial surveillance platform in metropolitan areas because their vertical lift capability and maneuverability enable operations from off airport sites and in close proximity to congested airports,” a DHS fact sheet states. Motherboard cross-referenced the call signs referenced in air traffic control audio with known call signs of DHS aircraft.

The Helicopters are also equipped with night vision and infrared cameras.

The DHS Cessnas “are effective platforms for law enforcement operations within and outside of large metropolitan areas. The aircraft provide better range and endurance than helicopters, and blend more effectively with local traffic to mask the presence of air surveillance, and avoid detection by potential suspects.” They can fly high and they can fly low for a long time, and they evaded public flight tracking efforts last night for the most part.

These aerial surveillance operations are often coupled with advanced cell phone and other signals intelligence gathering, and DHS was just revealed to have targeted protesters in Portland.

Minnesotans rallied and marched in protest of the grand jury decision in the Breonna Taylor case Wednesday as well. Their protest was also circled by the Minnesota State Patrol, an agency that can often be seen circling protests in that state.

DHS Flew Two Surveillance Aircraft Over Breonna Taylor Protests syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[sociologyquotes]

The Growing Right-Wing Terror Threat

“This month, the headlines were about a Muslim man in Boston who was accused of threatening police officers with a knife. Last month, two Muslims attacked an anti-Islamic conference in Garland, Tex. The month before, a Muslim man was charged with plotting to drive a truck bomb onto a military installation in Kansas. If you keep up with the news, you know that a small but steady stream of American Muslims, radicalized by overseas extremists, are engaging in violence here in the United States.

But headlines can mislead. The main terrorist threat in the United States is not from violent Muslim extremists, but from right-wing extremists. Just ask the police.

In a survey we conducted with the Police Executive Research Forum last year of 382 law enforcement agencies, 74 percent reported anti-government extremism as one of the top three terrorist threats in their jurisdiction; 39 percent listed extremism connected with Al Qaeda or like-minded terrorist organizations. And only 3 percent identified the threat from Muslim extremists as severe, compared with 7 percent for anti-government and other forms of extremism.

The self-proclaimed Islamic State’s efforts to radicalize American Muslims, which began just after the survey ended, may have increased threat perceptions somewhat, but not by much, as we found in follow-up interviews over the past year with counterterrorism specialists at 19 law enforcement agencies. These officers, selected from urban and rural areas around the country, said that radicalization from the Middle East was a concern, but not as dangerous as radicalization among right-wing extremists.

An officer from a large metropolitan area said that “militias, neo-Nazis and sovereign citizens” are the biggest threat we face in regard to extremism. One officer explained that he ranked the right-wing threat higher because “it is an emerging threat that we don’t have as good of a grip on, even with our intelligence unit, as we do with the Al Shabab/Al Qaeda issue, which we have been dealing with for some time.” An officer on the West Coast explained that the “sovereign citizen” anti-government threat has “really taken off,” whereas terrorism by American Muslim is something “we just haven’t experienced yet.”

Last year, for example, a man who identified with the sovereign citizen movement — which claims not to recognize the authority of federal or local government — attacked a courthouse in Forsyth County, Ga., firing an assault rifle at police officers and trying to cover his approach with tear gas and smoke grenades. The suspect was killed by the police, who returned fire. In Nevada, anti-government militants reportedly walked up to and shot two police officers at a restaurant, then placed a “Don’t tread on me” flag on their bodies. An anti-government extremist in Pennsylvania was arrested on suspicion of shooting two state troopers, killing one of them, before leading authorities on a 48-day manhunt. A right-wing militant in Texas declared a “revolution” and was arrested on suspicion of attempting to rob an armored car in order to buy weapons and explosives and attack law enforcement. These individuals on the fringes of right-wing politics increasingly worry law enforcement officials.

Law enforcement agencies around the country are training their officers to recognize signs of anti-government extremism and to exercise caution during routine traffic stops, criminal investigations and other interactions with potential extremists. “The threat is real,” says the handout from one training program sponsored by the Department of Justice. Since 2000, the handout notes, 25 law enforcement officers have been killed by right-wing extremists, who share a “fear that government will confiscate firearms” and a “belief in the approaching collapse of government and the economy.”

Despite public anxiety about extremists inspired by Al Qaeda and the Islamic State, the number of violent plots by such individuals has remained very low. Since 9/11, an average of nine American Muslims per year have been involved in an average of six terrorism-related plots against targets in the United States. Most were disrupted, but the 20 plots that were carried out accounted for 50 fatalities over the past 13 and a half years.

In contrast, right-wing extremists averaged 337 attacks per year in the decade after 9/11, causing a total of 254 fatalities, according to a study by Arie Perliger, a professor at the United States Military Academy’s Combating Terrorism Center. The toll has increased since the study was released in 2012.

Other data sets, using different definitions of political violence, tell comparable stories. The Global Terrorism Database maintained by the Start Center at the University of Maryland includes 65 attacks in the United States associated with right-wing ideologies and 24 by Muslim extremists since 9/11. The International Security Program at the New America Foundation identifies 39 fatalities from “non-jihadist” homegrown extremists and 26 fatalities from “jihadist” extremists.

 Meanwhile, terrorism of all forms has accounted for a tiny proportion of violence in America. There have been more than 215,000 murders in the United States since 9/11. For every person killed by Muslim extremists, there have been 4,300 homicides from other threats.

Public debates on terrorism focus intensely on Muslims. But this focus does not square with the low number of plots in the United States by Muslims, and it does a disservice to a minority group that suffers from increasingly hostile public opinion. As state and local police agencies remind us, right-wing, anti-government extremism is the leading source of ideological violence in America.”

---from the article The Growing Right-Wing Terror Threat by Charles Kurzman and David Shanzner

[newstfionline]

Friday, June 11, 2021

Solar eclipse thrills world's northern tier (AP) The top of the world got a sunrise special Thursday—a “ring of fire” solar eclipse. This so-called annular eclipse began at the Canadian province of Ontario, then swept across Greenland, the North Pole and finally Siberia, as the moon passed directly in front of the sun. An annular eclipse occurs when a new moon is around its farthest point from us and appearing smaller, and so it doesn’t completely blot out the sun when it’s dead center. The upper portions of North America, Europe and Asia enjoyed a partial eclipse, at least where the skies were clear. At those locations, the moon appeared to take a bite out of the sun. It was the first eclipse of the sun visible from North America since August 2017, when a dramatic total solar eclipse crisscrossed the U.S. The next one is coming up in 2024. A total lunar eclipse graced the skies two weeks ago.

Canada takes cautious first step toward lifting border restrictions (Reuters) Canada on Wednesday took a cautious first step toward easing COVID-19 border restrictions, saying it was prepared to relax quarantine protocols for fully vaccinated citizens returning home starting in early July. Canada’s air and land borders have allowed for only essential travel since March of last year, and Canadians coming home are currently required to quarantine for 14 days. If they arrive by air, they also must stay in a designated hotel until they receive a negative COVID-19 test. “The first step ... is to allow fully vaccinated individuals currently permitted to enter Canada to do so without the requirement to stay in government-authorized accommodation,” Health Minister Patty Hajdu told reporters on Wednesday. The easing of restrictions will hinge on COVID-19 case numbers and vaccinations, she said.

Another jump in prices tightens the squeeze on US consumers (AP) American consumers absorbed another surge in prices in May—a 0.6% increase over April and 5% over the past year, the biggest 12-month inflation spike since 2008. The May rise in consumer prices that the Labor Department reported Thursday reflected a range of goods and services now in growing demand as people increasingly shop, travel, dine out and attend entertainment events in a rapidly reopening economy. The increased consumer appetite is bumping up against a shortage of components, from lumber and steel to chemicals and semiconductors, that supply such key products as autos and computer equipment, all of which has forced up prices. And as consumers increasingly venture away from home, demand has spread from manufactured goods to services—airline fares, for example, along with restaurant meals and hotel prices—raising inflation in those areas, too.

US deaths from heart disease and diabetes climbed amid COVID (AP) The U.S. saw remarkable increases in the death rates for heart disease, diabetes and some other common killers in 2020, and experts believe a big reason may be that many people with dangerous symptoms made the lethal mistake of staying away from the hospital for fear of catching the coronavirus. The death rates—posted online this week by federal health authorities—add to the growing body of evidence that the number of lives lost directly or indirectly to the coronavirus in the U.S. is far greater than the officially reported COVID-19 death toll of nearly 600,000 in 2020-21. For months now, researchers have known that 2020 was the deadliest year in U.S. history, primarily because of COVID-19. But the data released this week showed the biggest increases in the death rates for heart disease and diabetes in at least 20 years.

After a Year of Protests, Portland Is Ready to Move On. But Where? (NYT) Defund the police? City leaders in Portland tried it—and then defunded the alternative. Portland, the Oregon city of bridges, bike lanes and left-leaning idealists—beloved, abhorred and caricatured in just about equal measure—is wrestling mightily with the question of what it means to make a city safe. Violent crime, especially homicide, has spiked in most urban areas during the pandemic, and many police departments are facing new scrutiny about training and bias since the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis a year ago. But here in the nation’s 25th-largest metropolitan area, with about 2.5 million people, there is an additional factor that ripples through every public policy choice. A hardened core of street activists, many of them professing opposition to authority in general, has dug in and shows no signs of going away. (Portland’s mayor, Ted Wheeler, has asked people to stop calling them protesters, but rather what they call themselves: anarchists.) Their numbers are now down to perhaps 25 to 75 on any given night. But they have shown themselves at times to be violent—one was charged with attempted murder after a Molotov cocktail was thrown at the police—destructive of property and highly adaptable, using social media tools and other strategies to divert the police from the targets they select.

Texas becoming a green energy powerhouse (Bloomberg) Forthcoming wind, solar and battery storage projects in the state of Texas are worth an estimated $20 to $25 billion, with the Lone Star State—typically the home turf for oil and gas—emerging as a powerhouse for green energy. Right now, 15 gigawatts of clean power are under construction or in advance development, which is on par with the entire electrical capacity of Finland in 2019. Last year, Texas installed 3.3 gigawatts of utility-scale solar and 3.5 gigawatts of wind, and this year they’re projected to install twice that amount of solar and 4.2 gigawatts of new wind.

Peru’s election (Foreign Policy) Socialist schoolteacher Pedro Castillo appears to have won Peru’s hotly contested presidential election, maintaining a 0.4 percent lead over Keiko Fujimori with 99.8 percent of votes counted. Speaking late on Tuesday night, Castillo implored his supporters to “not react to provocation” after Fujimori baselessly made claims of election fraud. Castillo said he had spoken with business leaders following his apparent victory, a group who had roundly backed Fujimori in the election. “We will form a government that is respectful of democracy, and of the current constitution. We will build a government of financial and economic stability,” Castillo said.

EU lawmakers OK virus pass, boosting summer travel hopes (AP) European Union lawmakers on Wednesday endorsed a new travel certificate that will allow people to move between European countries without having to quarantine or undergo extra coronavirus tests, paving the way for the pass to start in time for summer. The widely awaited certificate is aimed at saving Europe’s travel industry and prime tourist sites from another disastrous vacation season. Key travel destinations like Greece have led the drive to have the certificate, which will have both paper and digital forms, rapidly introduced. Several EU countries have already begun using the system, including Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece and Poland. Right now, traveling in the EU’s 27 nations is a trial for tourists and airlines alike. Countries have various COVID-19 traffic-light systems, where those in green are considered safe and those in red to be avoided. But each nation is applying different rules and standards, making travel confusing for all.

Russian court outlaws opposition leader Navalny’s groups (AP) A Moscow court on Wednesday night outlawed the organizations founded by Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny by labeling them extremist, the latest move in a campaign by authorities to silence dissent and bar Kremlin critics from running for parliament in September. The Moscow City Court’s ruling, effective immediately, prevents people associated with Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption and his sprawling network of regional offices across Russia from seeking public office. Many of Navalny’s allies had hoped to run for parliamentary seats in the Sept. 19 election. The extremism label also carries lengthy prison terms for activists who have worked with the organizations, anyone who donated to them, and even those who simply shared the groups’ materials.

Building collapse kills 11 after monsoon flooding in Mumbai (AP) A dilapidated building collapsed following heavy rains in the western Indian city of Mumbai, killing at least 11 people and injuring seven others, police said Thursday. Heavy monsoon rains during the day Wednesday had flooded several parts of the city that is India’s financial and entertainment capital. Mumbai recorded 222 millimeters (8 inches) of rain in 12 hours Wednesday. Tidal waves that reached up to 4. 6 meters (13 feet) prevented the rainfall from being drained, and roads, rail tracks and neighborhoods were left waterlogged.

Young voter anger over housing, jobs threatens Moon’s legacy in South Korea (Reuters) Outside class hours, Kim Kyung-wook delivers meals on foot to apartment blocks near his university in eastern Seoul, while constantly checking his phone to trade stocks, cryptocurrency and used Nike sneakers. That probably won’t help him land a well-paid job when he graduates later this year, but Kim says such side hustles are a “smarter thing to do” in the face of increasingly bleak job opportunities and an expanding income gap under President Moon Jae-In. Kim is one face of a lost generation that many see emerging as the key voting bloc that could swing next year’s presidential election. Already, he and voters like him helped the main opposition party triumph in April by-elections for mayor of Seoul. The pandemic-induced downturn has fallen especially hard on those in their 20s and 30s. South Korea now has the highest proportion of 25-34 year olds with tertiary degrees among OECD countries. Despite being the most highly educated generation in the country’s history, nearly one in every four Koreans in the 15-29 age group was effectively jobless as of May, far higher than the 13.5% for the rest of the working population.

As Iran prepares to vote, its battered economy a major worry (AP) Almost six years ago, Iranians poured into the streets to celebrate Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers. They saw it as a chance for the Islamic Republic to re-enter the world economy and create opportunities like purchasing airplanes and selling its oil on the international market. Today, that dream has faded into a daily grinding nightmare of high inflation, an ever-weakening national currency and high unemployment worsened by the coronavirus pandemic. The West considers Iran’s nuclear program and Mideast tensions as the most important issues facing Tehran, but those living in the Islamic Republic repeatedly point to the economy as the major issue facing it ahead of its June 18 presidential election. “One day they said the nuclear deal was accepted, everyone was happy, the dollar rate went down over one day,” said Mohammad Molaei, a 50-year-old commodities trader. “Then things start to happen. Missiles are fired. The nuclear deal is bust. One tears it apart, the other burns it. Only the people lose.” Perhaps nothing illustrates the crisis gripping Iran’s economy as well as the battering of its currency, the rial. In July 2015 amid those raucous nuclear deal celebrations, $1 bought some 32,000 rials. Today, $1 buys 238,000 rials.

Arrests targeting Palestinians in East Jerusalem and across Israel (Washington Post) When Israeli police detained Muna al-Kurd and issued a summons for her twin brother, Muhammad, their millions of followers on social media raised an alarm. The 23-year-olds are at the center of efforts to stop Israeli settlers from evicting tens of Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood—clashes over which played a role in sparking the 11-day conflict between Israel and Hamas last month. After less than a day in custody, the two were released Sunday without any charges filed. The sister and brother said the arrests were efforts to silence their activism. They were far from alone. In recent weeks, a campaign of detentions has swept up Palestinians in East Jerusalem and Arab citizens all over Israel, amid an ongoing surge in Palestinian activism and on the heels of the worst communal violence in years. Israeli police have arrested more than 2,100 people and issued 380 indictments against 184 people as part of a campaign that began in May. More than 91 percent of those arrested have been Arab, the Haaretz newspaper reported, citing police sources. Israel’s Arab citizens, many of whom identify as Palestinian, make up about 20 percent of the country’s 9 million citizens. The campaign has added to the grievances of many Arab Israelis, who accuse police of escalating violence against them and resorting to undue force and frequent arrests—while deprioritizing violence by Jewish Israelis.

[wecityguidecom]

Mystical city where the continents meet: Istanbul

Istanbul... The city where the continents meet... Historical, magical, impressive but also crowded, noisy and stressful for its residents... With its more than 15 million population Istanbul is the 4th largest city in the whole world and biggest one in Turkey of course. You will find detailed information in this Istanbul city guide.

Short History of Istanbul

Istanbul has its own unique long-standing history. So any of the Istanbul city guides must have some fragments about its own great history. The first inhabitant of Istanbul is dating back to almost 2nd millennium BC. They have settled the Asian side of the city at that time. Back in time, Istanbul got its first name around the 7th century which is Byzantium, a Greek name for a city on Bosphorus. Around the 6th century, BC Alexander the Great took the city and peace period started for almost 200 years for this unique place.

Roman Empire

In year 193 a Roman emperor Septimus Severus conquered the city remained under the Roman rule until the 4th century AD. The historical name of Istanbul which is Constantinople was given by the Constantine the Great around 5th century AD after the separation of Roman Empire to Western and Eastern Roman (Byzantium) and the city is called to the capital of Byzantine Empire. At that time the city was built over the 7 hills but it's another story. Constantinople's population rise up to almost half a million between 4th and 6th century. Also during that time, the great wonder has risen in Constantinople, Hagia Sophia! Constantinople have the number of sieges, riot and plunder during history...

Constantinople, as it appeared in the 13th century, here accurately depicted by Antoine Helbert. (Source: https://tr.pinterest.com/pin/114841859222847086/)

Ottoman Turks

Constantinople conquered by the Sultan Mehmet II in 1453 with 53 days of siege and city named to Islambol, became the capital of Ottoman Empire. During the next 200 years many mosques, baths, madrasahs and public houses built by the sultans. With the investments to the city and peace period give a change to the city to regain its population up to half a million once more. Throughout the centuries the name of the evolve to the Istanbul. During World War I the Great War city was occupied by the allied troops until the national struggle which led by the father of Turks the Mustafa Kemal Atatürk repel them. After the birth of the Republic of Turkey in 1923 capital moved to Ankara. But during time Istanbul has continued to grow and expand drastically, today its population over 15 million one of the biggest cities in the whole world and unfortunately, it continues to grow... 

How to Get to Istanbul

Istanbul geographically has various advantages. You can take a flight from more than 300 cities to Istanbul by Turkish Airline which globally recognized. If you want a more nostalgic route to reach Istanbul you can take international trains from the Balkan to reach the city. There are two airports in Istanbul which are Istanbul Airport on the European side (opened in 2019 instead of the old one: Istanbul Ataturk Airport) and Sabiha Gokcen Airport on the Asian side. Unfortunately, both of the airports don't have a metro line at that time and you have to take a bus or taxis. You can find information about how to get from airport to city in both ways. These airports almost 80 km away from each other. So we can say that both of them location two sides of Istanbul. Just be careful before taking a taxi! Try to use Uber-like apps to not deal with scams and overcharges. Istanbul Airport's web site in English Sabiha Gokcen Airport's web site in English

Public Transport in Istanbul

Istanbul has really advanced public transport system. Metros, trains, trams, buses, ferries and taxis... In Istanbul, you have to buy an Istanbul card to use public transport. You can buy it from the terminals in the airport or various selling points around the city. You can find the main website for Istanbul's public transport. İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality İETT (Buses) Metro Istanbul Şehir Hatları (Ferry Lines) Marmaray (Suburb train line) In Istanbul its quite easy to reach your target destination by using metros, trams, train ve ferries but not buses! There is huge traffic both during morning and evening rush times. So try to use rail systems most of the time to get around the city. Most populated and touristic areas have metro or trams so it won't be a problem for you to get these places. In Istanbul, rail and sea transport mostly serves between 06.00 and 00.00 but also night lines for the buses. You can use night buses to go to most of the places in Istanbul, just don't forget to check the timetables.

Top 10 Places to Visit in Istanbul

There are countless places to see in Istanbul and you will discover a new one every time you came back to this great city but we just wrote down 10 of them.

1. Hagia Sophia (Aya Sofya)

This legendary landmark always gets the first place in Istanbul city guide. There is a phrase about Byzantine Emperor Justinian when he entered the Hagia Sophia in 536 AD, he cried and said that I have outdone you, Solomon! At that time Hagia Sophia is one of the greatest wonders all over the world and still is. When the Sultan Mehmet II conquered the city he converted Hagia Sophia to the mosque and construct four minarets. Hagia Sophia served as a mosque until the 24 October 1934. After this date, Hagia Sophia became of one of the most famous museums in Turkey. Ticket price for visiting the Hagia Sophia is around 60 TL for the full fare. Hagia Sophia Museum Website

Hagia Sophia Museum (Source of the image)

2. Sultan Ahmet Mosque (Blue Mosque)

Blue Mosque or Sultan Ahmed Mosque is a historical wonder just in front of the Hagia Sophia. This mosque called as "blue" because of the surrounding walls of the interior. Blue Mosque was built between years 1609-1616 by the Ottoman Sultan Ahmed I. Blue Mosque is an open and active for the Muslim prayers during the days. Because of this if you go there during praying times you may need to wait 15-20 minutes to enter the inside. You will get a free scarf before entering the mosque from the staff and don't believe anyone who offers you to get in the mosque without waiting for the queue. By the way visiting the mosque is totally free.

Blue Mosque (Source of the image)

3. Topkapı Palace

Palace was both homes of the Ottoman Sultans and administrative/educational centre of the empire. After the conquest of Istanbul palace was built by the Sultan Mehmed II between 1460 and 1478.  Palace actively served until the 1850s for the state affairs until it became inadequate for the protocols and other things until the sultans moved to Dolmabahçe Palace. New sections added to the palace through years by the sultans. The landmark has a total area around 700.000 square meters and its major area located in the Royal Gardens which is in Turkish, Hasbahçe. Topkapı Palace Museum Website

Topkapı Palace Museum (Source of the image)

4. Basilica Cistern

Basilica Cistern is one the Istanbul's splendid historical places. This large underground cistern was built by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian between the 527 and 565 as a water reservoir. The cistern is 140 meters long and 70 meters wide like a rectangle structure and it has 336 marble columns. It has the capacity to hold around 100.000 tons of water. There are also Medusa head from the Roman time which is a great example of the great artwork. The Basilica Cistern Website

Basilica Cistern (Source of the image)

5. Galata Tower

Tower has a panoramic view of Istanbul's historical peninsula as well as the surroundings.63 meters high tower was built by the Genoese colony around the 14th century for the defence of the Galata district and its located directly opposite of the ancient Constantinople. Also during the Ottoman reign, Hazerfan Ahmet Çelebi was the first Turk who overflew the Bosphorus to Üsküdar for more than a 6000 meters in distance.

Galata Tower (Source)

6. Grand Bazaar

Here is one of the most-to-see places in Istanbul city guide. Grand Bazaar is the largest covered market in the world! It has various of goods buyers which make it more and more famous. Grand Bazaar's covered area is around 30.700 square meters with more than 60 streets and 4000 shops. Enormous! The bazaar was constructed by Sultan Mehmed II after the conquest and during the years it also expands by the following sultans.

Grand Bazaar (Source)

7. Prince Islands

Prince Island is a combination of nine islands on the Asian side of Istanbul. You can take ferries to the islands from Kadıköy, Bostancı and few other places. There no motorized vehicle on the island except for the police, fire and health departments. Four of the islands are the biggest ones; Büyükada, Heybeliada, Burgazada and Kınalıada. "Prince" name comes from the Byzantine period when the royal family members exiled to these islands. There were also largely Jewish, Greek and Armenian on islands. 

8. İstiklal Street and Taksim Square

Taksim Square and İstiklal Street are two of the most famous and known places in İstanbul. Many hotel and restaurant located in these areas and liked by the tourists. There is an Independence Monument in Taksim Square which is located the entrance of the İstiklal Street. Also, I new mosque is being constructed a couple of years which is also located in the square and its quite nice one. There is a historical tramline serves between Taksim Square to Şişhane. You can find there the world 2nd oldest metro line serves from Şişhane to Karaköy which name is "Tünel" in Turkish. Metro, funicular and bus lines go through the Taksim and Şişhane which makes them very easy to reach and get around.

Taksim Square and Mosque on the background (Source)

9. Üsküdar

Most of the Istanbul city guide ignores or neglects the Asian side but it has its own beauties. Üsküdar is located on the Asian side of the İstanbul and it is located the entrance to the Bosphorus. The district has a long history back in days to the Ottoman Sultan Orhan Gazi years around 1352 before the conquest of İstanbul. During the Ottoman period, Üsküdar was one the judgeship of İstanbul. People who come from the Anatolia resided in Üsküdar after it was taken by Organ Gazi. During the 17th century, there were around 70 Muslim, 11 Greek and Armenian neighbourhoods. There is also Kızkulesi (Maiden's Tower) just the shore of Üsküdar which has history long-standing history from the Byzantine.

Maiden's Tower (Source)

10. Istanbul Archaeology Museum

This is one of the best museums in Istanbul. It is located at the Topkapı Palace. The museum complex has three main sections which are Museum of the Ancient Orient, the Archaeology Museum and the Tiled Pavilion. The museum gets the collections from beginning of the 19th century by the museum director, archaeologist Osman Hamdi Bey.

Entrance of the Istanbul Archaeology Museum (Source) How long the Istanbul city guide will it be never enough for a city like this... Just let yourself to discover its unique beauties... Turkey is visa-free for most of the countries. You should think to visit Istanbul and probably you won't regret this decision. Don't hesitate to leave your comment for the people who're planning to go there or already there! We will improve this Istanbul city guide together. Read the full article

[phgq]

San Juan Mayor Zamora, MMDA Chair Abalos to inspect city's bike lanes, road clearing compliance

#PHinfo: San Juan Mayor Zamora, MMDA Chair Abalos to inspect city's bike lanes, road clearing compliance

San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora inspecting the flow of traffic along Ortigas Avenue where the modified bike lanes and dedicated motorcycle lanes are set up. The city government installed bollards to guide traffic toward lanes dedicated to bikers and motorcycle riders. (PIA NCR file)

CALOOCAN CITY, Feb. 26 (PIA) -- San Juan Mayor Francis Zamora is set bike around some key areas this morning with Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairperson Benhur Abalos to inspect the city's compliance with the Department of the Interior and Local Government’s road clearing operations.

They will be accompanied by the Philippine National Police (PNP) bike patrollers who patrol alleys and smaller roads that PNP vehicles can’t access.

The inspection will start at San Juan City Hall, then city plaza along N. Domingo, Ortigas Ave., the Greehhills Shopping Center loop, and will end at Club Filipino.

Last year, San Juan City got a 100 percent compliance score from the road clearing drive of the DILG that aims to ease the heavy traffic plaguing Metro Manila.

“San Juan City is in the heart of Metro Manila. Our streets are being used by people in going about their businesses in the capital. A 100 percent compliance is our target but our main goal is to alleviate the sufferings of our kababayans plying the streets of the Metro,” Mayor Zamora said.

The inspection was scheduled days before it was announced that San Juan City was picked to be visited by the DILG compliance team on Friday afternoon of the same day.

It is two-pronged since Mayor Zamora and Chairman Abalos will also be checking the bike lanes previously installed to see if there are obstructions and if road users still comply with the city ordinance.

Mayor Zamora hopes that this will help him assess how to further improve the bike lanes in the city and improve the city’s status of being one of the most bike-friendly cities in Metro Manila.

Last year, San Juan City was given the Gold Award by the Mobility Awards for the city government’s efforts in promoting biking to the constituents and installing infrastructure to protect the bikers.

“As someone who bikes around the city myself, I know the importance of protecting cyclists from fast-moving cars and trucks that is why we put up these bikes lanes.

Biking is also a cleaner and healthier alternative in the crawling traffic of Metro Manila,” the mayor explained.

Aside from the bike lanes, the city has passed a bicycle ordinance that focuses on bike safety protocols and has put up the first solar-powered bike pit stop with PNB-Allianz along Pinaglabanan Street, near the city hall.

Yellow street lights were also replaced with bright white LED lights to aid bikers and residents who ride around the city at night. Mayor Zamora is committed to making the commute around San Juan safe and traffic-light for all riders. (PIA NCR)

***

References:

* Philippine Information Agency. "San Juan Mayor Zamora, MMDA Chair Abalos to inspect city's bike lanes, road clearing compliance." Philippine Information Agency. https://pia.gov.ph/news/articles/1067930 (accessed February 26, 2021 at 01:26AM UTC+08).

* Philippine Infornation Agency. "San Juan Mayor Zamora, MMDA Chair Abalos to inspect city's bike lanes, road clearing compliance." Archive Today. https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://pia.gov.ph/news/articles/1067930 (archived).

[eyeam4anarchy-blog]

This video contains the entire "Justice & Power to Thrive March!" from start to finish. As you can easily see, this protest was completely peaceful until the LVMPD began antagonizing and then attacking the protesters. Once their initial attempts to provoke those involved failed, the cops blocked the street entirely at Russell Rd. on the south end of the Las Vegas Strip (at about 1hr40m into the video). At that point, they began to randomly arrest members of the march. In particular (and for obvious reasons), they were targeting neutral Legal Observers from the National Lawyers Guild and Photographers or Videographers who were documenting the march. In addition, they also arrested several tourists who weren't even actually part of the protest in their zeal. The protesters then began walking to the west of the Las Vegas Strip, which was the only direction that wasn't blocked by the police. Shortly after the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department had riot cops and two SWAT teams driving armored military vehicles (with what appeared to be 50 cals atop them) begin approaching from that direction. Now that they had forced protesters to a location out of sight of the Strip, they began to fire teargas, rubber bullets, and pepper ball rounds at the crowd without any provocation, whatsoever. During the next half hour or so, the cops continued forcing the protesters one direction, then randomly ordering them to turn and go the opposite direction while shooting at them. Then that game would be repeated numerous times, since both directions were blocked by cops decked out in military gear. In the process, several protesters that were injured had to be physically carried. There also continued to be seemingly random, targeted arrests without any visible justification. Not at any time throughout the march or even during the cops' unprovoked attacks were any of the protesters armed or physically aggressive toward the police. Every single act of violence that was committed that night was committed by the LVMPD. Nor was any property damaged at all by anyone except the police. This came during a protest prompted by acts of police brutality against the people Metro (unironically) claims to serve. What's more, the only people that blocked traffic that night were the heavily armed stormtroopers that were deployed into the streets to repress and assault a peaceful protest. Overall, it was a pretty obvious and telling display of the true nature of police in general and Las Vegas police in particular. As well as just how ridiculous it would be to think they might actually be willing to change their violent and downright murderous tendencies. Note: Due to some technical issues I had, about seven minutes of footage from the livestream by the YouTube channel "Prince Vegeta News Network" was used to fill a gap in my own video. That video in its entirety can be found here: https://youtu.be/C26fiJiw-Nk - https://ift.tt/1mZZxO9

[7newx1]

The group of Russian hackers allegedly behind one of the worst cyber bank frauds of the last decade was unmasked on Thursday, with its leader indicted in America and the full scale of purported crimes revealed in remarkable detail. The Moscow-based unit was identified as Evil Corp and dubbed “the world’s most harmful cyber crime group” as British and American officials revealed the results of an investigation into the group and its activities that has lasted a decade. Maksim Yakubets, 32, was accused of being the group’s leader and was indicted over two separate hacking schemes. A $5 million reward was announced by the US State Department for any information that leads to his arrest. Customers of nearly 300 organisations in 43 different countries have been targeted by the group, with financial losses in UK alone assessed to be worth hundreds of millions of pounds. Evil Corp was accused of ruthlessly exploiting online vulnerabilities, tricking people into clicking on internet links that would install viruses, scanning for bank account details and then creating wires transfers to “money mules” working with the hackers.   Masim Yakubets, who led the cyber crime group and now has a $5m bounty on his head   Victims ranged from small businesses and schools to individuals saving for retirement and even religious groups, including some Franciscan sisters in America who lost tens of thousands of dollars.  The US Treasury announced sanctions against 17 individuals linked to Evil Corps, including Yakubets, the baby-faced Russian alleged to have hidden behind the moniker ‘Aqua’ online whose image is now on “wanted by the FBI” posters. Seven entities were also sanctioned.  Yakubets was accused by the US Treasury of working with the Russian spying agency FSB in 2017, including "acquiring confidential documents through cyber-enabled means" for the Russian state. He was also said to have been trying to get a license to work on classified material with the FSB last year. The claim raises questions about whether the Kremlin is turning a blind eye to notorious computers hackers in its capital, or even leaning on their expertise to support Russia’s nefarious online activities.   The hackers stole millions of dollars, officials say Credit: Samuel Corum /Getty   The group’s willingness to boast about the proceeds of their alleged criminality online, acting like “extravagant millionaires” according to one senior UK investigator, was said to have helped result in their unmasking. Videos released by the UK’s National Crime Agency [NCA] featured alleged members of Evil Corp showing off their sports cars and holding up traffic in Moscow as pulled doughnuts in the middle of the street. Other videos purported to show the hackers petting the group’s lion cub and mucking about on segways.  According to UK officials, Yakubets has a customized Lamborghini supercar with a personalised number plate that translates to ‘Thief’ and spent a quarter of a million pounds on his wedding. The announcements were the work of a pain-staking investigation from officials at America’s Justice Department, FBI, State Department and Treasury  as well as Britons at the NCA and Metropolitan Police. Evil Corp group member Dmitriy Smirnov standing on his Nissan GTR and a Camera Chevrolet, according to the UK's National Crime Agency Credit: SOURCE: NCA As well as Yakubets a second alleged Russian hacker, the 38-year-old Igor Turashev, was indicted for his role in one of the computer hacking schemes. Both men are believed to be residing in Russia, meaning they could escape arrest and a trial should they never leave the country. However US officials insisted it was still worth pursuing them, with one senior FBI official saying: “We have a very long memory and we will never give up.” The two US indictments involved two different types of malware, with the alleged crimes likened to “a cyber-enabled bank robbery” by one US official. A photograph from the wedding of Maksim Yakubets in 2017, according to the UK's National Crime Agency Credit: Source: NCA The US administration announcement accused Yakubets of being behind “two of the worst computer hacking and bank fraud schemes of the past decade”. Lynne Owens, the NCA director general, said of Evil Corp: “We are unlikely to ever know the full cost, but the impact on the UK alone is assessed to run into the hundreds of millions.” The response of Yakubets and Turashev to the charges is not known, nor is the response of the other individuals sanctioned by the US Treasury for their links to Evil Corp. One US official said the Russian government had responded to a request for mutual legal assistance which was “helpful” in the investigation, but only “to a point”. The Victims The list of victims from Evil Crop’s alleged criminality is exhaustive, with scores of different businesses and groups losing out thanks to its cyber-hacking schemes. Everything from a genetics lab in California and a public high school in Pennsylvania to a bank in Nebraska and a dairy company in Ohio were targeted according to court documents. There was even a group of Franciscan sisters near the outskirts of Chicago who were left $24,141 out of pocket after one member opened an email which appeared to be from her bank. Audi R8 belonging to an Evil Corp group member, according to the UK's National Crime Agency Credit:  SOURCE: NCA And that is America alone. Some 300 companies in 43 different countries were said to have been targeted by the Russian hackers, with thousands of victims. Even that, one senior UK official said, was a “low estimate”. Victims in Britain were not been named on Thursday, but it is understood almost every significant UK financial institution has been targeted at one stage. Some may be reluctant to report hacks for fear of what would happen to their stock value.  One US official said that ever dollar stolen amounted to a dollar less for retirement, or a dollar less for the high school sports team, or for business innovation. "This is why we go to the ends of the world to investigate and prosecute cyber criminals," the official added.  How they did it Evil Corps hackers would relentlessly pray on online vulnerabilities through sophisticated schemes that would morph once detected, according to UK and US officials.  ‘Phishing’ emails were sent to thousands of people, sometimes pretending to be genuine messages from banks, in the hope someone would accidentally click the website link included. Once that happened, malware would be installed which would then search the compromised computer systems for bank account details and passwords that could be exploited.  Wire transfers would then be setup from the victim's bank account to people dubbed “money mules” who were working with the hackers and would distribute the stolen funds. Evil Corp group member Andrey Plotnitskiy standing in front of a Porsche, according to the UK's National Crime Agency Credit: SOURCE: NCA The Evil Corps hackers allegedly made little attempt to hide their ill-gotten gains, spending it on luxury sports cars which they would screech round Moscow. Asked how people could protect themselves from the group’s members – who remain at large – one US official gave some advice.  He suggested changing passwords to make them hard to predict and using two-factor authentication for logging into electronic devises. The official also warned people against clicking on links which they are not certain are authenticate, saying: “Before you click, think hard.”

[courtneytincher]

Africa’s Cities Are About to Boom – and Maybe Explode

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Africa is rural. Or that’s what senior Western officials envision when they talk about the continent. America’s top diplomat for the region, Tibor Nagy, recently said that Africa is “by and large an agricultural society.” He isn’t alone: Germany’s recent Marshall Plan with Africa insists that “rural areas will determine Africa’s future.”This is wrong. Dangerously wrong.Africa is increasingly urbanized, and its future will be shaped not in sleepy remote spaces but in the dense vibrant clusters of Lagos, Addis Ababa and Kinshasa. Big cities are becoming the engine of the continent, with huge implications for future energy needs, security, governance and public services – as well as rising risks if urban growth is poorly managed.According to the World Bank, urbanization is the single most important transformation the African continent will undergo this century. Sub-Saharan Africa is already 40 percent urban, while tens of millions of people are flooding into cities every year. By 2050, it’s estimated that the continent will host at least nine “megacities” of more than 10 million people and more than two dozen in excess of 5 million, about the size of metropolitan Washington. Many are far off the current radar: Antananarivo in Madagascar; Guinea’s capital of Conakry; and N'Djamena, Chad.Cities, of course, have for millennia been the locus of economic activity, wealth creation and especially jobs. By one detailed measure, Africa’s consumer class is already more than 300 million and heavily concentrated in a handful of large metropolitan areas such as Cairo, Johannesburg, Kinshasa, Lagos and Luanda. The African Development Bank estimates that up to 12 million young Africans finish school and join the job market each year. The most attractive, well-paid and high-productivity jobs - in finance, information technology, creative arts, data processing and even manufacturing – will nearly all be in densely populated clusters.But, of course, urbanization has serious downsides. On average, 60 percent of Africa’s city dwellers live in slums, and they suffer disproportionately from communicable and non-communicable diseases. AIDS prevalence is generally higher for urban populations than rural peers; and obesity is rising.Africa’s path to joining the global economy rests on the success or failure of its cities, not on its rural communities. Despite breathless press – such as a New York Times article on efforts to “make farming sexy” - agriculture provides poor employment prospects, especially for the young and educated. Similarly, a wave of new donor efforts to electrify Africa are mostly focused on delivering small solar home systems in rural areas. These can provide a few lights for poor remote households, but they are inadequate for the needs of city lifestyles and useless for industry and commerce where jobs are created. Given all this, it’s shocking that Western efforts to aid the continent continue to be focused on an outdated rural paradigm; they must reorient toward the cities.According to the United States Agency for International Development’s foreign aid dashboard, Washington spends more than twice as much on rural areas than urban areas in sub-Saharan Africa. Out of the 16 compacts made by the Millennium Challenge Corporation that don’t directly address energy, only Zambia’s program is focused on urban challenges rather than rural poverty, agriculture, health services and the like. Among individual donors, only the U.K.’s Department for International Development is committing significant resources to programming and research targeted at municipalities.Meanwhile, U.S. security forces are fixated on ungoverned spaces in the Sahel or Somalia, while some of the most devastating terrorist attacks have occurred in cities, including in Bamako in 2017 and Nairobi in 2013. This is only going to get worse as extremist groups base operations in urban areas to tap into financial networks, get access to airports and other ways to transit international borders and waterways, and exploit a rich set of soft targets such as hotels, shopping centers and diplomatic facilities. How can the U.S. and its allies change their approaches to face the challenge Africa’s burgeoning urban areas will pose? Here are four good ways to start:First, U.S. policy and investments should be shifted heavily toward major urban clusters, rather than to countries as a whole. USAID could program more funds to tackle urban development, while the Millennium Challenge’s city program in Zambia could be replicated with subnational compacts across the continent. The new U.S. Development Finance Corporation, launched by the Trump administration, will have even more tools at its disposal to support investments in urban infrastructure, technology and services. It could even organize a Smart City initiative to accelerate partnerships between African cities and U.S. technology companies on security, traffic, water and power services, and more.Second, the U.S. could boost diplomatic engagement with municipal leaders. U.S. embassies can develop closer ties to the region’s governors and mayors, while senior U.S. policymakers could welcome high-performing municipal leaders to Washington and visit African city halls during foreign trips. In February 2019, the Mayor of Paris hosted her counterparts from Cape Town and Durban, South Africa, and other international cities led by women to discuss climate-change challenges.Third, Power Africa, a multiagency U.S. government electrification initiative launched in 2013, needs to make large-scale power for big cities a priority. All successful urban areas are energy-intensive, while the cost and reliability of energy is a top constraint to job creation. Much of Power Africa’s attention has been on “last mile” rural connections. Indeed, it’s important to get electricity to communities that have never had it, and energy-intensive agriculture will be needed to boost food production to feed all the new city dwellers. But in too many places, rural electrification has come at the expense of tackling high costs and low reliability for industrial and commercial energy consumers – they are the anchors for any modern power system and will be the lifeblood of the rising megacities. Finally, the U.S. has to increase the money and training it provides to African police forces, not just militaries. According to the Security Assistance Monitor, police received less than 2% percent of U.S. funding for sub-Saharan security services. Of the five sub-Saharan African countries in the Security Governance Initiative, a joint endeavor launched by the Barack Obama administration to increase counterterrorism capacity, only Kenya has a policing component. Far more funding should be redirected from the military to police, as well as to enhanced police participation in U.N. missions. There's also utility in producing more city-level analysis of security trends (one of us, Judd, previously worked in the intelligence community, although his opinions here are strictly his own).American and other Western aid for African economic growth and security isn’t simply a giveaway to poor nations – it can create new markets for companies and be a vital component of national security in the age of global terrorism. Yet U.S. policies are badly misaligned with Africa’s future. Washington must shed outdated notions that Africa is composed of farming villages and empty deserts, and follow the data showing the continent is becoming younger, more dynamic, more energy-intensive, and undeniably urban.  To contact the authors of this story: Judd Devermont at JDevermont@csis.orgTodd Moss at Todd@energyforgrowth.orgTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Tobin Harshaw at tharshaw@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Judd Devermont is the director of the Africa program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and an adviser to African investment platforms.Todd Moss is executive director of the Energy for Growth Hub. He is also a fellow at the Center for Global Development, Rice University’s Baker Institute and the Colorado School of Mines.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Africa is rural. Or that’s what senior Western officials envision when they talk about the continent. America’s top diplomat for the region, Tibor Nagy, recently said that Africa is “by and large an agricultural society.” He isn’t alone: Germany’s recent Marshall Plan with Africa insists that “rural areas will determine Africa’s future.”This is wrong. Dangerously wrong.Africa is increasingly urbanized, and its future will be shaped not in sleepy remote spaces but in the dense vibrant clusters of Lagos, Addis Ababa and Kinshasa. Big cities are becoming the engine of the continent, with huge implications for future energy needs, security, governance and public services – as well as rising risks if urban growth is poorly managed.According to the World Bank, urbanization is the single most important transformation the African continent will undergo this century. Sub-Saharan Africa is already 40 percent urban, while tens of millions of people are flooding into cities every year. By 2050, it’s estimated that the continent will host at least nine “megacities” of more than 10 million people and more than two dozen in excess of 5 million, about the size of metropolitan Washington. Many are far off the current radar: Antananarivo in Madagascar; Guinea’s capital of Conakry; and N'Djamena, Chad.Cities, of course, have for millennia been the locus of economic activity, wealth creation and especially jobs. By one detailed measure, Africa’s consumer class is already more than 300 million and heavily concentrated in a handful of large metropolitan areas such as Cairo, Johannesburg, Kinshasa, Lagos and Luanda. The African Development Bank estimates that up to 12 million young Africans finish school and join the job market each year. The most attractive, well-paid and high-productivity jobs - in finance, information technology, creative arts, data processing and even manufacturing – will nearly all be in densely populated clusters.But, of course, urbanization has serious downsides. On average, 60 percent of Africa’s city dwellers live in slums, and they suffer disproportionately from communicable and non-communicable diseases. AIDS prevalence is generally higher for urban populations than rural peers; and obesity is rising.Africa’s path to joining the global economy rests on the success or failure of its cities, not on its rural communities. Despite breathless press – such as a New York Times article on efforts to “make farming sexy” - agriculture provides poor employment prospects, especially for the young and educated. Similarly, a wave of new donor efforts to electrify Africa are mostly focused on delivering small solar home systems in rural areas. These can provide a few lights for poor remote households, but they are inadequate for the needs of city lifestyles and useless for industry and commerce where jobs are created. Given all this, it’s shocking that Western efforts to aid the continent continue to be focused on an outdated rural paradigm; they must reorient toward the cities.According to the United States Agency for International Development’s foreign aid dashboard, Washington spends more than twice as much on rural areas than urban areas in sub-Saharan Africa. Out of the 16 compacts made by the Millennium Challenge Corporation that don’t directly address energy, only Zambia’s program is focused on urban challenges rather than rural poverty, agriculture, health services and the like. Among individual donors, only the U.K.’s Department for International Development is committing significant resources to programming and research targeted at municipalities.Meanwhile, U.S. security forces are fixated on ungoverned spaces in the Sahel or Somalia, while some of the most devastating terrorist attacks have occurred in cities, including in Bamako in 2017 and Nairobi in 2013. This is only going to get worse as extremist groups base operations in urban areas to tap into financial networks, get access to airports and other ways to transit international borders and waterways, and exploit a rich set of soft targets such as hotels, shopping centers and diplomatic facilities. How can the U.S. and its allies change their approaches to face the challenge Africa’s burgeoning urban areas will pose? Here are four good ways to start:First, U.S. policy and investments should be shifted heavily toward major urban clusters, rather than to countries as a whole. USAID could program more funds to tackle urban development, while the Millennium Challenge’s city program in Zambia could be replicated with subnational compacts across the continent. The new U.S. Development Finance Corporation, launched by the Trump administration, will have even more tools at its disposal to support investments in urban infrastructure, technology and services. It could even organize a Smart City initiative to accelerate partnerships between African cities and U.S. technology companies on security, traffic, water and power services, and more.Second, the U.S. could boost diplomatic engagement with municipal leaders. U.S. embassies can develop closer ties to the region’s governors and mayors, while senior U.S. policymakers could welcome high-performing municipal leaders to Washington and visit African city halls during foreign trips. In February 2019, the Mayor of Paris hosted her counterparts from Cape Town and Durban, South Africa, and other international cities led by women to discuss climate-change challenges.Third, Power Africa, a multiagency U.S. government electrification initiative launched in 2013, needs to make large-scale power for big cities a priority. All successful urban areas are energy-intensive, while the cost and reliability of energy is a top constraint to job creation. Much of Power Africa’s attention has been on “last mile” rural connections. Indeed, it’s important to get electricity to communities that have never had it, and energy-intensive agriculture will be needed to boost food production to feed all the new city dwellers. But in too many places, rural electrification has come at the expense of tackling high costs and low reliability for industrial and commercial energy consumers – they are the anchors for any modern power system and will be the lifeblood of the rising megacities. Finally, the U.S. has to increase the money and training it provides to African police forces, not just militaries. According to the Security Assistance Monitor, police received less than 2% percent of U.S. funding for sub-Saharan security services. Of the five sub-Saharan African countries in the Security Governance Initiative, a joint endeavor launched by the Barack Obama administration to increase counterterrorism capacity, only Kenya has a policing component. Far more funding should be redirected from the military to police, as well as to enhanced police participation in U.N. missions. There's also utility in producing more city-level analysis of security trends (one of us, Judd, previously worked in the intelligence community, although his opinions here are strictly his own).American and other Western aid for African economic growth and security isn’t simply a giveaway to poor nations – it can create new markets for companies and be a vital component of national security in the age of global terrorism. Yet U.S. policies are badly misaligned with Africa’s future. Washington must shed outdated notions that Africa is composed of farming villages and empty deserts, and follow the data showing the continent is becoming younger, more dynamic, more energy-intensive, and undeniably urban.  To contact the authors of this story: Judd Devermont at JDevermont@csis.orgTodd Moss at Todd@energyforgrowth.orgTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Tobin Harshaw at tharshaw@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Judd Devermont is the director of the Africa program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and an adviser to African investment platforms.Todd Moss is executive director of the Energy for Growth Hub. He is also a fellow at the Center for Global Development, Rice University’s Baker Institute and the Colorado School of Mines.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

July 25, 2019 at 11:00PM via IFTTT

[rolandfontana]

The Body-Cam Dilemma: Should Cops Ever Push the ‘Off’ Button?

Police officers should be required to keep their body cameras running during nearly all interactions with the public—including even “consensual” encounters, recommends an article in Columbia University’s Journal of Race & Law.

Limiting officers’ discretion about when to turn the cameras off is crucial to satisfying community concerns about implicit racial bias in law enforcement, wrote Julian R. Murphy, a Postgraduate Public Interest fellow at Columbia Law School.

Murphy’s paper is the latest contribution to an intense debate among police, community activists and civil liberties advocates about whether there should be any limits to how police use body cameras.

The only exceptions to mandatory use, Murphy argued, should be meetings with confidential informants or victims of offenses, during strip-searches, or when officers are in places of worship. Police should also be required to inform any individuals they stop that the interaction is being recorded.

Murphy made his recommendations based on a study of body-camera policy in 10 of the country’s largest metropolitan police forces. While eight of the departments he reviewed already consider recording mandatory to varying degrees, he singled out the New York Police Department and the Washington, DC., Metropolitan Police Department as outliers.

Both agencies give officers broad discretion to limit recording to significant enforcement events or searches of person or property.

The other police agencies studied were in Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, Baltimore, and Miami-Dade.

Bodycams are now widespread in police departments around the U.S., in what has been called a “body camera revolution” in policing in the years since the 2014 shooting of  Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and subsequent protests over police use-of-force against civilians, in particular against African Americans.

Most body-worn camera policies now require the recording of enforcement activities such as use of force, traffic stops, and arrests; but often some of the most corrosive or charged interactions occur during police questioning of individuals where no apparent offense has occurred, Murphy wrote.

But Murphy cited a 2016 study which found that giving officers discretion over when to activate their cameras “correlated with significantly higher incidents of officer use of force.”

Stricter policies mandating their use in most police-civilian interactions “will allow police departments to more readily identify officers acting on implicit racial biases,” Murphy wrote. “Such officers could then be disciplined and/or subjected to remedial training. […]

“Similarly, if supervisors reviewing body-worn camera footage detect a department-wide trend suggesting widely shared implicit racial biases, they could implement mandatory de-biasing training for the entire department.”

Murphy said that body-worn cameras alone are no guarantee against racial profiling or bias in police work:

We may not always know whether a racially skewed policing phenomenon—such as stop-and-frisk—is the product of deliberate or implicit racial bias; so, we need to be prepared to respond to both possibilities. Thus, any body-worn camera policy that hopes to reduce the incidence of racially motivated policing must be calibrated to change both deliberate and implicit racial bias.

In his review of policies adopted by the major-city police forces, the author found that there was a general reluctance to record consensual interactions among the police departments. Only four out of ten require such recording.

But, citing research trials which showed that officers wearing cameras behaved better, and resorted to force less often, because of their awareness that they were being “watched,” Murphy said a requirement to keep the cameras running could act as a deterrent against police misconduct.

Skeptics of more stringent recording requirements often argue that police departments lack the personnel and funding to continuously review hours of footage from the cameras. In turn, they argue that more targeted recording requirements are more cost-effective, while also capturing the bulk of situations that often lead to high-conflict escalations, including the use of force.

Murphy noted that 94 percent of 254 police departments in the 2016 study he cited earlier already use body-worn camera footage to train officers and assist in administrative reviews. That suggested, he wrote, a greater willingness to tackle the extensive camera footage involved.

Instead of taking on an entirely new and costly endeavor, reviewing each interaction would mean just expanding the review processes already in place, according to the author.

In other words, it is a question of recalibrating department spending and hiring priorities.

Meanwhile, groups as varied as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Police Foundation have voiced concerns about the potential risks of unlimited recording. The ACLU has said that although unrestrained recording could amount to a vast increase in police surveillance, the use of body cameras can improve police transparency and accountability.

Police, for their part, complain that unlimited recording could undermine police efficiency. In an essay posted on the Police Foundation website, Burlington, Vt., Chief Brandon Del Pozo warned that any policy which prevents an officer from ever turning off the camera is “deeply flawed.”

Among the risks, he said, was that automatic recordings would “capture confidential conversations with people who want to tell the police where the criminals are on their block…[or] police discussing the lawful but sensitive tactics they use to investigate criminals and apprehend them.”

Responding to such concerns, Murphy said his model was not intended to resolve every technical problem or ethical dilemma involved in creating a sound camera activation policy; but it was aimed at establishing a reasonable standard to satisfy community concerns about implicit bias.

“Though body-worn cameras may go some way to curbing racial bias in policing, they are almost certainly not the panacea that some people initially hoped they would be,” Murphy wrote.

“In order to best reduce racial bias in policing, what is needed is change in recruiting, organizational culture, training, and accountability mechanisms. This will take time.

“In the meantime, body-worn cameras can complement the broader change strategy.”

The paper can be downloaded here.

Roman Gressier is a contributing writer to The Crime Report and a news intern.

The Body-Cam Dilemma: Should Cops Ever Push the ‘Off’ Button? syndicated from https://immigrationattorneyto.wordpress.com/

[gyrlversion]

Police catch four motorists speeding every minute…

Police catch four motorists speeding every minute… but one force records 160 TIMES more incidents over one year than another!

Avon and Somerset police saw the most speeding motorists in 2017/18 

Its neighbour Wiltshire, on the other hand, saw the fewest in the same 12 months

As many as 2.3million speeding offences were caught in England and Wales

Speeding contributed to 220 deaths on Britain’s roads in 2017 

Research was done by Dr Adam Snow from Liverpool John Moores University 

By Daily Mail Reporter

Published: 20:58 EDT, 31 March 2019 | Updated: 21:04 EDT, 31 March 2019

Four motorists are caught breaking the speed limit on Britain’s roads every minute, according to an analysis of Home Office data.

Avon and Somerset police saw the most drivers going too fast in 2017/18, at 200,000. This was almost 160 times the number caught by neighbouring force Wiltshire, at just 1,191.

As many as 2.3 million speeding offences were detected across England and Wales in 2017/18, up four per cent on the previous 12 months.

Avon and Somerset recorded the most speeding offences in 2017/18 while its neighbour Wiltshire saw the fewest

As many as 2.3million speeding offences were detected across England and Wales in the same 12-month period

Forces have been ranked in research by Dr Adam Snow, lecturer in criminal law at Liverpool John Moores University, for the RAC Foundation. 

Others in the top five for catching drivers breaking the speed limit were West Yorkshire, Metropolitan Police, Thames Valley and Greater Manchester.

Meanwhile Durham, Derbyshire, Cleveland and Kent caught the fewest speeding motorists.

In 44 per cent of cases, the offender was sent on a speed awareness course, while 34 per cent attracted fixed penalty notices.

Some 11 per cent of offences were cancelled and 10 per cent resulted in court action.

In 11 per cent of cases offences were cancelled, while 44 per cent resulted in a speed awareness course and 34 per cent led to fixed penalty notices

Department for Transport figures show that 220 people were killed on Britain’s roads in 2017 in which a vehicle breaking the speed limit was a contributory factor

RAC Foundation director Steve Gooding said factors such as geographical area, road type and traffic volume explain some of the difference in figures recorded by forces, but ‘a lot of it will come down to the local policing priorities’.

He went on: ‘It is the job of police and crime commissioners, and chief constables, to target resources appropriately, recognising the issues of greatest local concern.

‘Changes and variations in the numbers of offences detected will reflect not just driver behaviour but also the extent of enforcement activity in any one year.

‘Drivers tempted to flout the law should recognise that any targeted crackdown on speeding to curtail risky behaviour could swiftly be repeated if those reckless attitudes start to re-emerge.’

Department for Transport (DfT) figures show that 220 people were killed and a further 1,493 were seriously injured in crashes on Britain’s roads in 2017 in which a vehicle exceeding the speed limit was a contributory factor.

It emerged last week that new cars sold in the UK from 2022 are set to have devices fitted which stop them breaking the speed limit.

The DfT said new EU rules that have been provisionally agreed would apply to the UK despite Brexit.

WHICH AREAS HAD THE MOST SPEEDING OFFENCES IN 2017/18?…

1. Avon and Somerset – 199,337

2. West Yorkshire – 174,796 

3. Metropolitan Police (including City of London) – 139,318

4. Thames Valley – 131,401

5. Greater Manchester – 101,421

…AND WHICH HAD THE FEWEST? 

1. Wiltshire – 1,191

2. Durham – 8,802

3. Derbyshire – 10,480

4. Cleveland – 11,308

5. Kent – 18,878

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