Hi James,

I hope this finds you well. I trust that the copy of Volume 2 reached you? 

The Maskland post from Portland was really interesting and I believe that you are right on the money with:

"It is a simple and functional step to go the Feudal route and transfer the authority for social control to those entities who actually enforce it—to privatize and localize."

Here in the UK, at least two years ago, small supermarkets were secretly trialling facial recognition systems for "staff safety". 

Like yourself, I have retail management experience and know that surveillance only deters the least worrisome trouble elements that enter the business - prosecution and business insurance are the main factors. If you are staff, the videoing of your stabbing for say refusing a refund will be, just that, a video record.

It transpires that, naturally, this system was equipped with an information sharing option for entities outside the business....

JR

There is an article here:

 

Cooperating With Who?! Answers Needed as UK Retailer Southern Co-Op Tests Facewatch - Privacy International

Southern Co-Op has reportedly "completed a successful trial using Facewatch" Assurances regarding data protection, privacy and other fundamental rights concerns needed

privacyinternational.org

From the text: "Facewatch describes itself as a “cloud-based facial recognition security system [which] safeguards businesses against crime.” Premises using the system are alerted when Subjects of Interest (SOI) enter their premises through the use of facial recognition cameras.

In October 2020, Privacy International urged authorities in the UK to investigate evidence that Facewatch is offering to transform its crime alerting system into another surveillance network for UK police forces by offering them the ability to "plug-in" to the system. We are still awaiting responses.

We are concerned that such a deployment at Southern Co-Op stores - even at trial level - could mean that, in order to purchase essential goods, people might be in effect left with no choice but to submit themselves to facial recognition scans."

This is, as you say in your article, a smart way for the state to roll out this tech without being seen to directly do it. Then when enough businesses use it for "safety" it will be an established grid and therefore difficult to object to making you perhaps a "person of interest" in the new, safer landscape.

At time of writing, here most people are mask free in retail businesses except single shopping older females and pensioner age men that I see. It is summer, I have no doubt that masks will be back for cold and flu season and the YouGotGrain fatigue has really set in.

If anyone is wondering how the recognition systems work with masks - I've heard several people happy to wear masks for "anonymity" - here's an article for a firm glowingly describing how their product gets around that:

…

Jeth, thanks for this excellent news.

A very much liked the book, Self-Defense Volume 2, read it one day by poolside in G-String New Jersey, and posted the review for some time in the autumn, I think.

In Baltimore retail food we had a strict protocol:

Our store detective was a para-law enforcement officer, who had arrest powers if the subject was in possession of unpurchased goods. Physical contact had to be minimal with a focus on being diplomatic with the subject until the real cops got there. Then the subject would be treated like a dangerous criminal rather than someone who had made a mistake and was being helped onto the straight and narrow road to redemption.

The store detective was essentially accepted as a filing agent at the City Court, and would count the value of the merchandise attempted to be stolen and add a $50 fine. The judge almost always honored this price tag and enforced it as a ruling.

With this, we were still besieged and outnumbered by feral forces, so we focused on harassing the thieves and sending them to less vigilant retailers. I can see such systems as you describe being used not only to cross private and civic lines, but for private gang stalking and blackmailing activities. It is not a stretch to take a frustrated cop that can no longer handcuff negroes, put him in private security, and then arm him with the intelligence gathering ability to run a kind of dox-protection racket.

Mask activity in high summer in Maryland, has been older women, blacks and upper middle class families, entire pods of terrorized nuclear ghost families masked up against the fear storm. I was at a wedding on a windy sun soaked beach where people were masked up, and 60 feet upwind, in fear of the devil’s own breath.

Overall, I think that the baseline fear engendered by masking, will make predation by criminals and control of the individual by private and public systems, more effective.

The mask is now a permanent vestment of the anarcho-tyranny social control model.