These signs of human resistance inevitably face contradictions, however. Some members of the Luddite Club spoke favorably of the new youth social media ban in Australia, which is opposed by civil-liberties groups—pointing to a long-term intractable dilemma.

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Books discussed:

Rebels Against the Future: The Luddites and Their War on the Industrial Revolution — Lessons for the Computer Age by Kirkpatrick Sale, Addison-Wesley 1995

Front Lines: A Lifetime of Drawing Resistance by Susan Simensky Bietila, PM Press 2026

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Image: Wikipedia, modified by CounterVortex

Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon.

Production by Chris Rywalt

We ask listeners to support us at one of our three tiers via Patreon: Become a Basic Supporter for just $1 per weekly podcast ($5 per month), or a Special Supporter for $2 per podcast ($10 per month), or a Major Rant Enabler for $5 per podcast ($25 per month). We now have 61 paid subscribers. If you appreciate our work, please become Number 62!

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The records, ordered to be disclosed by a New York state court in 2022, show repeated use of facial recognition technology (FRT) against individuals engaged in everyday activity as well as political expression. According to the organizations, the disclosures detail how the NYPD relied on FRT to identify people flagged by police reports that labeled them “suspicious” for speaking a foreign language or wearing culturally distinctive clothing. Advocates say the documents demonstrate that racial and cultural profiling frequently served as the basis for surveillance.

The records also reveal that the NYPD spent more than $5 million on facial recognition technology between 2019 and 2020, and has continued to invest at least $100,000 annually. The department stopped tracking FRT accuracy in 2015 after finding error rates too high, yet continued to deploy the technology. In one instance, officers worked with the US Marshals Service to contract a facial recognition firm to surveil a private social media account, apparently in violation of departmental policy.

The documents further show the NYPD using facial recognition to monitor political expression. Officers reviewed social media posts using slang to reference Times Square on New Year’s Eve (“NYE in Times Square is da BOMB”), and conducted queries related to graffiti of a common protest slogan against the police force (abbreviated as “FTP”). The groups also cite a Dec. 31, 2019 report in which two men in Times Square were subjected to FRT after being reported for speaking a Middle Eastern language and not dancing.

Amnesty International and STOP are calling on New York City lawmakers to enact legislation banning government use of facial recognition, noting that two measures pushed by a “Ban the Scan” coalition already have majority sponsorship in the City Council. However, the groups urge the NYPD and the mayor to halt use of the technology immediately.

Amnesty International warned in 2022 of a pattern of NYPD surveillance disproportionately affecting Black and brown communities, and now charges that the use of FRT creates a chilling effect on free expression and peaceful assembly.

A UN panel stated this June that the use of artificial intelligence, such as FRT, must comply with international human rights standards. In the report, the UN Working Group on Business & Human Rights said that AI that cannot comply with human rights standards should be prohibited, and urged states to “establish human rights policies for AI deployment.”

From JURIST, Nov. 14. Used with permission.

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In Episode 303 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg breaks it down.

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We ask listeners to support us at one of our three tiers via Patreon: Become a Basic Supporter for just $1 per weekly podcast ($5 per month), or a Special Supporter for $2 per podcast ($10 per month), or a Major Rant Enabler for $5 per podcast ($25 per month). We now have 63 paid subscribers. If you appreciate our work, please become Number 64!

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The Code’s §9-205 generally forbids the Department of Probation from honoring civil immigration detainers by holding an inmate beyond the time they would otherwise be released. The Code’s §9-131 and §14-154 impose the same prohibitions on the Department of Corrections and the NYPD, in addition to generally prohibiting them from honoring civil immigration detainers by holding persons beyond the time they would otherwise be released.

The Code’s §10-178 bars any city agency from “subject[ing] its officers or employees to the direction and supervision of the Secretary of Homeland Security primarily in furtherance of immigration enforcement.” It also bars agencies from using city resources for immigration enforcement. NYPD Operations Order No. 4 generally prohibits police and the department from assisting civil immigration enforcement.

The Trump administration asserts that the US Constitution grants the federal government the power to make immigration laws, and requires the US president to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” The lawsuit maintains that the federal government has sole power to make and enforce immigration laws based on such provisions and US Supreme Court precedent.

The administration argues that sanctuary city laws are pre-empted by federal immigration laws under the Supremacy Clause. It also cites Supreme Court precedents to argue that the sanctuary city laws violate the Supremacy Clause and obstruct “the accomplishment and execution of the full purposes and objectives of Congress.”

The Department of Homeland Security has promulgated a regulation requiring that when it issues an immigration detainer to a law enforcement agency, the agency “shall maintain custody of the alien for a period not to exceed 48 hours, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays in order to permit assumption of custody by the Department.”

The administration emphasizes its claim that NYC’s sanctuary city laws threaten the safety of the public, federal officers, and the immigrants themselves by leaving illegal immigrants “out in the street” and making officers arrest them there rather than in a public jail. It also stress the “considerable financial impact on ICE’s operational costs [because now it] takes more time and more officers to effect arrests over the same number of aliens.”

Adams published the following press statement in response to the complaint:

Keeping New Yorkers safe also means making sure they feel safe, and we have been clear: no one should be afraid to dial 911, send their kids to school, or go to the hospital, and no New Yorker should feel forced to hide in the shadows. That’s why we support the essence of the local laws putting place by the City Council—but I have also been clear they go too far when it comes to dealing with those violent criminals on our streets and have urged the Council to reexamine them… So far, the Council has refused.

From JURIST, July 26. Used with permission.

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Photo: Wyatt Souers/Peoples Dispatch

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New York City’s mayoral race has become embroiled in the national and global dilemmas, with progressive candidate Brad Lander getting arrested by ICE and progressive frontrunner Zohran Mamdani being aggressively baited as an anti-Semite by the campaign of the overall frontrunner, disgraced former governor Andrew Cuomo. Joining Cuomo in this propaganda offensive, not surprisingly, is the pro-Israel doxxing operation Canary Mission. In the current fraught atmosphere, this is a serious matter; Mamdani has received death threats and his campaign is boosting security measures. In Episode 283 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg examines the accusations against Mamdani that have been hyped by the New York Post and even the supposedly more objective Politico, and weighs them against Mamdani’s own responses.

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