Secretary-General António Guterres: “Against the background of rising ethnonationalism, populism, authoritarianism and the pushback against human rights in some countries, the crisis can provide a pretext to adopt repressive measures for purposes unrelated to the pandemic.”
Posted by Bob Booten on Saturday, April 23, 2016
Vo isn't the only business owner interested in experimenting with thermal imaging cameras to surveil people's body temperatures as a tactic to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus.
NBC News found more than 10 security companies in the U.S., Europe and China that are marketing technologies as capable of picking out who in a crowd is likely to have a fever, and thus a possible coronavirus case. These companies are actively pitching to police departments, government agencies, schools, hospitals and private businesses.
John Honovich, the founder of IPVM, a trade publication that investigates and reviews security cameras, said thermal cameras are "bar-none clearly the hottest selling item in video surveillance right now, and companies are scrambling to get products all over the place."
It might be tempting for some to search for a law enforcement solution to the pandemic, especially because the disease puts all of our safety at risk, and makes us frightened of each other. In an ideal world, we’d have a team of health experts responsible for making sure people are keeping themselves and others safe. While recognizing that’s not the reality, we should always remember that police officers are not health care workers and they should not be on the front lines of solving this crisis. In some instances, they can make things worse.
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s critics let him know how they really felt about him ordering New Yorkers to snitch on each other for violating social-distancing rules — by flooding his new tip line with crank complaints including “dick pics” and people flipping the bird, The Post has learned.
Photos of extended middle fingers, the mayor dropping the Staten Island groundhog and news coverage of him going to the gym have all been texted to a special tip line that de Blasio announced Saturday, according to screenshots posted on Twitter.
This makes me proud to be a New Yorker.