Constructively channel your hate for the Healthcare industry.

  I kept talking about voting for Jill Stein and third parties in the last election. There's a reason for that: LIke Bernie Sanders, Jill Stein had medicare for all as part of her platform. Sure fake progressives whose names aren't worth mentioning talk about it, but they don't do anything. 

But the duopoly is not home to progressives.

That should be obvious if you are actually paying attention. The media is also part of it since how often have you heard the term "medicare for all" used on it? There's a reason Bernie Sanders was popular when he went on that Fox Townhall.

I wonder what would have been the outcome had the clown who killed Brian Thompson put his energy into supporting the Green Party? Would we have the much needed break in the duopoly control of US politics? 

Don't wish the execs dead: wish for the end of the duopoly control of US politics. Having strong third parties is the only way issues will be addressed in a serious manner



Better yet, work for for the change.

More CCTV, less crime.

Yes, this is a dig at John R. Lott because if one can show that a premise can be shot down if there may be other reasons for a trend. In this case, CCTV providing clues and evidence which lead to prosecution in crimes.

"Two hundred images, or more, have been gathered of the suspected gunman," CBS News law enforcement contributor and former NYPD Deputy Commissioner Rich Esposito told CBS News New York, "It's not easy to escape surveillance, especially in Midtown Manhattan where you have hotels, retail stores, lots of places with private cameras throughout the area."

Facial recognition software is pretty sophisticated, which this AI loathing Luddite will concede. So far, the best way to avoid being picked up by facial recognition is to avoid cameras. But that task may soon become near impossible.According to Cynthia Rudin, Gilbert, Louis, and Edward Lehrman Distinguished Professor of Computer Science; Departments of Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Statistical Science, Mathematics, and Biostatistics & Bioinformatics; Duke University:

I think you could not realistically change your face to fool state-of-the-art facial recognition. I think during the pandemic they changed the systems to rely heavily on the shape of people’s eyes, because so many people were wearing masks over their noses and mouths. I don’t honestly know how people could realistically change the shape of their eyes to fool these systems. If you wore sunglasses and then did something to your face (maybe wear a mask or crazy dramatic makeup) then it would be harder to detect your face, but that’s cheating on the question—that’s not changing your face, that’s just hiding it!

But let’s say you did something dramatic to change your face—something really, really dramatic—so that a face recognition system wouldn’t recognize you. Perhaps it would be some kind of plastic surgery. Well, then what? As soon as your face ends up on the internet with your name (think of a friend tagging you on social media or you giving a lecture that appears online), then all the facial recognition systems that look for people on the internet will be able to identify you anyway.

And now your face won’t match your driver’s license or passport, so traveling will be really difficult for you. So, honestly, why bother? In any case, I’m glad you asked this question, because it shows how futile it is to avoid other people capturing our biometrics. Asking our governments to create laws to protect us is much easier than changing our faces dramatically all the time.

So, while Brian Thompson's killer thinks he may have been clever wearing something covering his face, he left his eyes uncovered. Toss in there are now a couple of pictures of his whole face showing. LE has a pretty good idea of his movements.

My point is that LE can use surveillance technology to track criminals' movement. Get pictures of the criminal's movements. Toss in DNA for good measure and it gets harder and harder to commit the "perfect crime".

Guns are superfluous.

See:
https://gizmodo.com/how-much-do-i-need-to-change-my-face-to-avoid-facial-recognition-2000533755

Brian Thompson's killer will be caught.

I'm not a cop, but I've spent a lot of time working with them. Toss in that I have been involved with forensic technology for over forty years.

First off, there is the video surveillance which is pretty common. My house cameras are registered with the police and have been used to provide evidence in a few crimes. Not all CCTV is run by big brother. Get used to it if you go into public places, you are being watched. 

And you have no right to privacy in a public area.

As for the people who get upset about facial recognition being used to solve crimes: would they rather a rapist or murderer was running around on the streets? It's like the people who ignorantly screamed "defund the police".

No, you don't want them defunded. You want them well funded and properly trained so that they do not immediately go into violent actions. You want them trained to deescalate the situation. You want them trained so they can effectively enforce the law and keep the peace.

But the bottom line here is that police are a necessity in a civilised society: whether you like it or not. And the legal system is the place for redress. So, you hope that the justice system is transparent and accountable.

But, back to forensics.

Leopold and Loeb thought they were smarter than everyone else and decided to commit the perfect murder. They spent seven months planning everything, from the method of abduction to the disposal of the body. Unfortunately, they missed a few details. The victim, Bobby Franks, was someone they knew: a neighbour and a distant cousin of Loeb. 

Police found a pair of eyeglasses near Franks' body. Although the prescription and the frame were common, they were fitted with an unusual hinge, which was only purchased by three customers in Chicago, one of whom was Leopold. Leopold tried to say he may have lost them earlier.

The point? Criminals are arrogant and dumber than they think they are. Leopold and Loeb appeared to be whiz kids, but they were too clever for themselves. They thought they could outwit the police, but even the plods were able to break their alibis.

Brian Thompson's killer believed he could use a mask to hide his face. But he let it down later on, which was caught on camera. Toss in the amount of CCTV coverage in a city is more than just the authorities. There are non-governmental cameras which are the militia of the law enforcement community: called in to serve when needed.

But DNA will seal the case. I participate in a few medical research programs where my DNA has been collected and sequenced. One of which is Harvard's Personal Genome Project (PGP). They told me I needed to remove as much personal information as possible. This is because someone can actually create images of a person from their DNA! https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/how-researchers-are-using-dna-to-create-images-of-people-s-faces-1.4118378

In 2018, investigators in Washington State unveiled an image of a suspect created from DNA in the 30-year-old murder case of young Victoria-area couple Tanya Van Cuylenborg, 18, and Jay Cook, 20.

The police used technology called snapshot DNA phenotyping that can determine a person's eye, skin and hair color, facial features and ancestry to create mugshots of what the suspect may have looked like at 25, 45 and 65 years old.

The profile did not account for weight, facial hair or other features like scars.

As someone who has been involved in the criminal justice systems of various countries: people put a lot of trust in DNA evidence. Far more than a lost pair of glasses. And the killer is supposed to have left a significant amount of DNA traces in the food and drink containers (saliva). Add that to the image created from that DNA being matched to the photos available of him. 

He will be found and prosecuted thanks to technology.

I doubt that there will be any movement on gun control: especially since "New York has strict gun laws". Those laws can be circumvented by going to a state with lax gun laws.

Brian Thompson's killer should have placed his efforts on working for the Green Party or someone like Bernie Sanders who proposes medicare for all instead of assassinating Brian Thompson. That would have been much more productive than the killer's prison sentence will be.

The bottom line is that this was a senseless act of violence which far outweighs any of the more meaningful message that the US healthcare industry needs reform. And that reform will not come with the current political situation.

See also:https://www.discovermagazine.com/technology/just-based-on-dna-scientists-can-construct-an-image-of-your-face