The Federal Government Is Helping Police Nationwide Secretly Exploit Intrusive Technologies

By Matthew Harwood and Jay Stanley / TomDispatch May 20, 2016 Unfortunately, power loves the dark. Dig deeper ( 15 Min. Read )

Welcome to Cop Land

By Matthew Harwood / TomDispatch Dec 21, 2015 If you’ve been listening to various police agencies and their supporters, then you know what the future holds: Anarchy is coming -- and it’s all the fault of activists. Dig deeper ( 13 Min. Read )

The Lone-Wolf Terror Trap

By Matthew Harwood, TomDispatch Feb 5, 2015 The shadow of a new threat seems to be darkening the national security landscape: the lone-wolf terrorist. But most of what pundits and officials claim about it simply isn't true. Dig deeper ( 12 Min. Read )

Uncle Sam’s Databases of Suspicion

By Hina Shamsi and Matthew Harwood, TomDispatch Nov 7, 2014 The Chico Police Department was secretly keeping tabs on Gill as a suspected terrorist. Yet nowhere in a suspicious activity report was there a scintilla of evidence that he was engaged in any kind of criminal activity whatsoever. Nevertheless, that report was uploaded to the federal government’s domestic intelligence-sharing network. Dig deeper ( 12 Min. Read )

To Terrify and Occupy

By Matthew Harwood, TomDispatch Aug 14, 2014 Welcome to a new era of American policing, where cops increasingly see themselves as soldiers occupying enemy territory, often with the help of Uncle Sam’s armory, and where even nonviolent crimes are met with overwhelming force and brutality. Dig deeper ( 14 Min. Read )

Invasion of the Data Snatchers

By Catherine Crump and Matthew Harwood, TomDispatch Mar 27, 2014 Estimates vary, but by 2020 there could be over 30 billion devices connected to the Internet. Once dumb, they will have smartened up thanks to sensors and other technologies embedded in them and, thanks to your machines, your life will quite literally have gone online. Dig deeper ( 13 Min. Read )

Destroying the Right to Be Left Alone

By Christopher Calabrese and Matthew Harwood, TomDispatch Sep 23, 2013 While in these last months the NSA has cast a long, dark shadow over American privacy, don’t for a second imagine that it’s the only government agency systematically and often secretly intruding on our lives. A remarkable traffic jam of local, state, and federal government authorities turn out to be exploiting technology to wriggle into the most intimate crevices of our lives. Dig deeper ( 14 Min. Read )

Political Violence and Privilege

By Matthew Harwood, TomDispatch Jul 10, 2013 Right-wing extremists have committed far more acts of political violence since 1990 than American Muslims. That law enforcement across the country hasn’t felt compelled to infiltrate and watch over conservative Christian communities in the hopes of disrupting violent right-wing extremism confirms what American Muslims know in their bones: to be different is to be suspect. Dig deeper ( 11 Min. Read )