Shots. Actually felt. Well its true i know the 1st. Point should your thirst for. Greetings and sal you take so you know it seems that everyone these days rather than just rolling up the sleeves and doing a little hard work or trying to fix the problems we face would rather just let technology do the dirty work for us it seems to be one of the sad truth of the 21st century you know rather than sweeping up your own mess several good do it for you tired of parallel parking your car hello auto park. Too tired to pick up the remote just to have alexa change the channel for you rather than do real detective work just let bay show Recognition Technology tell you who and who in which suspect to arrest yes that was the case recently in detroit michigan when Police Arrested 42 year old black man Robert Julian williams on a felony warrant for larceny after facial Recognition Technology fingered him was the perpetrator of shoplifting 3800 dollars worth of watches from a shy mellow store the computer said you did it so thats a wrap case closed looking down on lets go grab you know starbucks and maybe pepper pepper spray a few protesters on our way there but not so fast no no no turns out this Crime Fighting facial Recognition Technology has a pretty major fatal flaw the New York Times reports that while patient Recognition Systems have been dangerously used by police for more than 2 decades recent studies by mit and the National Institute of standards and technology or nist have found that while the Technology Works relatively well on white men the results are less accurate for other demographics in part because they lack of diversity in the images they used to develop the underlying databases and this flaw in the programming has now made poor father of 2 robber williams famous famous for potentially being the 1st u. S. Citizen arrested for a crime he did not commit because of a failed algorithm. As n. S. A. Whistleblower Edward Snowden chillingly tweeted this is the story of your future told today so lets take a dive into the todays future dangers as we start watching the hawks. You want to go whats going on in a city the streets. Are so slick see rises joyce just state and see drone strikes. Grace suggests least systemic deception is to late show but shes. So please join us. Welcome ive been watching the arc so you know i robot. Mr so look at this the 1st known case of facial Recognition Technology fingering someone for a crime did not commit whatsoever because it just couldnt read minority faces that well. From eyewitness testimony. Live and you are Digital Technology somehow discrimination still things to find its way. Its frustrating its aggravating the fact that there was a young child present when he was arrested is also extremely problematic but the thing that i look at here is that theres so many people who counted on this being the make or break technology to where you know we would have a eradicated humans actually having to decide who committed the crimes and then the find out that these this facial Recognition Software was utilized mostly by white peoples facial recognition which obviously looked entirely different than that of africanamericans so its pegging anyone who happens to be black and anybody else who happens to be black. Which is literally one of the problems that weve had over the years with the police is this is the entire point i cant get all the difference between black men and women when you know chasing down a suspect you know its just that boggles when the Detroit Police now say the from now on after this kind of amazing failure theyll only use still photos not like security video footage. Do use by their facial Recognition Software and then it will only be used in Violent Crimes which to me is kind of like ok but what if it gets it wrong going to accuse of somebody of a Violent Crime which is far worse penalty than 3800. 00 worth of shoplifting exactly i dont see how thats hopeful no because. This point if youre only going to use it in upper level crimes which i would consider buying crime because they carry a much harsher penalty and oftentimes when a Police Officer is responding to a to someone who they feel as though theyve committed a Violent Crime theyre a lot more aggressive anyway so the odds of this person being being beaten being treated in a very different way because of him being a suspect of a Violent Crime are a lot higher and if this Technology Gets it wrong. Which is more than likely will were still going to have some Serious Problems it truly is i mean yes williams case was dismissed as a fine effort but after 2 weeks the other thing a. C. L. U. Points out is that as a result of his rule arrest williams who is completely innocent of this his d. N. A. Sample is now with Law Enforcement his mug shot is with Law Enforcement but he is now no longer anonymous and even though he never actually committed a crime and thats that to me is a dangerous precedent thats why we cannot rely on technology to solve all our problems we still act because technology as great as it can be its still designed by people and people are flawed it exactly seen this with them with the algorithms adelir them that are used to decide whether or not someone is released from jail or prison these same issues are there it was supposed to be a system that was set up to be colorblind and what we see is that the inputs how the data with created are often by people who themselves are not colorblind and you have the exact same issues using these different forms of technology as you would with Human Interaction most definitely Robert Williams wrote actually put about his experience he said quote my daughters cant see me being handcuffed as you mentioned and put in the police car but they can see me use this experience to bring some good into the world that means helping make sure my daughters dont grow up in a world where their drivers license or facebook photos could be used to target track or harm them and i hope that that is a world that we all have to get together and start fighting against because that scares me of just you know innocent people being because look were innocent till Proven Guilty in this country just because someone who gets arrested doesnt mean that theyre guilty of the crime and it doesnt just because a computer says somebody did something wrong doesnt mean theyre guilty of a crime and this is just very dangerous and frightening to me absolutely have definitely agree you know there is some hope though facial Recognition Biometric Technology moratorium act which was introduced recently in congress would ban the governments use of facial recognition and other Biometric Technology nationwide that was done by senator ed markey jeff merkley. Paul are you on approach of all to do so which i hope that gets voted in because its you know we need kind of that because lets not rely on technology anymore good things come out of the house yes. Essence magazine is a cultural staple for africanamerican women the popular black womens magazine was birthed in 1980 out of a need for journalism that spoke to black issues it elevate the concerns of people of color and filled the void for black women largely left out of Mainstream Media from its inception essence magazine was well respected largely circulated and the mentally popular edward lucas founding c. E. O. And publisher of essence started the magazine with 3 black men seeking to transform the lives of black women and change the media landscape throughout the ebbs and flows and print media essence has remained stable converting not only to Digital Media platforms but also elevating its key event the Essence Festival the annual event brings in Major Corporate sponsors like cocacola chase Bank Mcdonalds procter and gamble and others not to mention big name celebrities but on the heels of its 50th anniversary essence is under fire escaping article titled the truth about essence was published on medium dot com the group called black female anonymous lists several grievances including a toxic Work EnvironmentSexual Harassment pay iniquity and intimidation the group is calling for the immediate resignations of essence top brass including the current c. E. O. Recalling dennis black the male anonymous claims c. E. O. Denniss surface level commitment to black women is driven by greed and a botcher a sexual appetite there is no doubt the accusations of extreme Sexual HarassmentWorkplace Bullying and the firing of pregnant women in new moms have rocked essence essence has denied the claims in a 2 page statement for their part essence called for an emergency zoo meeting with the editor being concerned about the revelation going on in the middle of essence business and sponsors being visibly upset. But black female anonymous has given them 5 Business Days to respond or they will release personal testimonials on day 6 theyve additionally launched a change dot org petition calling for signatures in support of the resignation of named as an executive. Wow this is an incredible story mel as someone who obviously is not in the key demographic for things magazine in case you didnt notice. I think its important that people understand why what makes this story important what makes what. These people wrote on medium so important and why is whats happening over here since you know how does that relate to the bigger conversation that weve been having about me too and Workplace Discrimination things like that in several ways essence has been known in the black community as the epitome of black journalism as the epitome of celebration of black woman whod in the black community it came about in a time in an era where black women werent seen on the covers of magazines were barely mentioned in magazines and for the past 50 years has been the name of the game for black news im glad journalism at a time where were seeing a lot of black journalists not only be unemployed but black black magazines go out of business essence has been one that has been able to maintain its name its standing corporate donors corporate sponsors in large part due to the immense popularity of the Essence Festival which is the number one rated black festival in america but also because essence has for the past few years been able to pull in celebrities entertainers in addition to telling the stories of everyday black americans and innovators who are largely left out of the Mainstream Media and given that Cultural Impact especially for black women to think that they have them have a management staff who is now accused of being predatory and to fire a pregnant woman because she got pregnant thats some heavy heavy accusation and dangerous stuff at the end of the day. And be guilty of this what is black females anonymous like how is that how are this group tied in to like me to be. So the belief right now is that black females anonymous is a group of black women who are currently employed or have and have been employed by essence at various levels some of them at the executive levels others who have helped with the essence best and many of them have grievances with the c. E. O. Himself because of accusations of Sexual Harassment explicit Sexual Harassment where theyre talking about being threatened if they were to speak many of them being threatened with their career specifically and as were a media but those in media have the very strong they have a very strong cultural influence but also recognize that in many cases when you speak out that means the end of your career so there are women who are very serious about not necessarily having their names attached because they are afraid of what that blowback could look like especially with black media not necessarily being as big as some of the you know mainstream white media so there are so few places that you can go to after youve reached the giant which yes its considered its also have some i noticed when you were talking were going to talk about the story interesting that this is a magazine predominantly directed towards black women yet it seems to be started and stuff black men at the Top Executive level does not seem like a little bit of boy wait a minute shouldnt shouldnt be women who are speaking to women exactly and in researching this story with everything that i knew about essence and i grew up with it all around the house my mom was a huge fan of it i did not know that black men started the magazine because once you talk about essence or you see everything that essence does there isnt a outward influence of black men you just see the celebration of black women so to know that there are men in there that are not only committing these sexual abuse atrocities but are also committing atrocities as it relates to pay equity and then the hiring the firing specifically of of black women who are pregnant as well as black women who have recently delivered which you know is a federal issue when it comes to employment its frustrating to know that that type of thing is going on its interesting too because we go for our business to get more 5 businesses. Deadline before them the personal stories start coming out thats an interesting move thats something we have to assume but i also think its one that showcases just how serious that it this is that they are willing to go detail after detail about whats happening also but they chose to do it during the middle of essence because that is the culmination of been for essence magazine. Good good story and we will stay on it will definitely stay on it already everybody as we go to break remember that you can also start watching the hawks on demand through the brand new portable t. V. App which is available on every platform that you can possibly find the portable t. V. App so definitely download check this out coming up while weve discussed efforts to be on the police now there are calls to defund the v. A. That turns out for good laurie riley for joining us next to discuss that and we dont want to miss this day to watch. Remember the phrase to honest people can disagree this concept has essentially been the bedrock of western civilization since the enlightenment its also before agents of the american 1st Amendment Council culture is putting all this in question we now need to. Show small seemed wrong all roles just dont all. Mean you get to shape out of disdain and become agitated and gains from it because of the trail. When so many find themselves worlds apart. Choose to look for common ground. Join me every thursday on the alec simon show and ill be speaking to us from the world of politics or business im show business ill see you that. Government inefficiency is a topic that never seems to go away the more money thrown at certain agencies the worse their outcomes seem to be but we rarely hear consensus around deep on Big Government agencies actually as bad as they get the call to fund them at higher levels or melting one agency that consistently seems to make headlines is the Us Department of Veterans Affairs the v. A. Is funding levels have nearly doubled in the past decade with not much to show for it a recent article in the hill called should we defund the v. A. To explore the topic here to tell us more about her article is veterans advocate and political consultant Laurie Riley Tommy welcome henri. Thank you for having me lori you wrote a very strong piece and a nice correlation with the deep on the Police Movement what are some of the inefficiencies youve noticed in the v. A. That arent being solved by the additional funding. So one of the big things centers around Mental Health care and Suicide Prevention not spent a very important topic over the past few years unfortunately we have a lot of Service Members who when they transition to that are in status go through a lot of. Its the culture and the torsional system funding for smell health specifically has seen some of the highest increases that we havent seen a decrease in the amount of veterans who are committing suicide so i use that as a very pertinent example because as the v. A. Has started to branch out and look for other solutions theyve realized that suicide isnt just a Health Care Problem its a multifaceted problem and oftentimes there are Community Organizations on the ground who may have more access that may be able to intervene and they have seen that these Community Organizations can sometimes provide assistance outside of the Health Care Context that is very beneficial to somebody who may be struggling and may be contemplating suicide so i use that as a primary example of some of the inefficiencies again its largely been treated as a Health Care Problem up until now but we see it is much more complex than that its interesting when you look at the money because in your article you made no but in 2001 the entire Veterans Affairs budget was about 45000000000 now appeared nice long drawn out wars later the veteran Affairs Budget since that is asking for 243000000000. 00 this fiscal upcoming fiscal year 202021 thats a massive jump how does the v. A. Justify the budget increase in the wake of mounting calls from bad turns and their families of abuse neglect and other issues weve seen take place at the beach. So i think you bring up an important point by noting that weve been engaged in 2 long drawn out conflicts since 2001 and i dont want to take away from that because that is important we did see an influx of new veterans as a result of those conflicts so of course we would expect to see some increase in funding to care for their needs however with that being said and as i concluded in the article i think weve seen over and over again particularly in d. C. That money alone doesnt solve problems and unfortunately lawmakers continue. To revert to this tactic and quite frankly its lazy on their part its easier for them to say oh more funding and allocate more funding it is a lot harder for them to conduct searching oversight and determine the root of problems whats causing them and propose policy solutions that solve those problems so while we would expect to see some increase in the budget i think youre right i think 243000000000 is is quite astronomical and as i alluded to i think that we could invest some of that money perhaps in Community Organizations there are lots of them on the ground that are already doing the type of services that veterans need that extend beyond health care that extends beyond disability benefits that help with things like education employment housing these are all things that the v. A. Says that they help them with but isnt really their primary focus and that theyre not as strong at so we have these preexisting organizations in many communities that many veterans can go to and so rather than trying to recreate these programs within the federal system it seems like it would be much more efficient to use the existing framework a lot of times theres pushback that veterans needs are unique and while that is true to some extent veterans are also people that are also members of their communities and there are unique demographic factors that influence the Housing Market is very different in individual communities across the country so i dont think that we want to focus too much on the fact that veterans are different we dont want to make them. Seem like they are some sort of so very different people i mean again theyre still members of their community so just to reiterate i think that a lot of that funding could be better spent in these Community Programs and then theres also the effect that if were funding these Different Community that benefits nonveterans as well exactly exactly group point and since youre the expert here marie want to ask you about the rip. Ports of waste fraud and mismanagement but a plague to be a for decades we know that they are there they have been lifted not only in terms of the federal agency but also what were seeing at the state level and you know communities basically shouting down whats happening how can the agency overcome these hurdles are there specific examples of what you think they could do to ensure that they get their head above water. So i think thats the 1000000. 00 question or i guess the 243000000000. 00 question because of the case may be you know the v. A. Is such an interesting example because its been plagued with scandal since it was created during the Harding Administration and in the very 1st director of the v. A. Was caught in a contracting schedule and served time in prison for it so this culture of waste fraud and abuse has unfortunately been around just as long as the v. A. Itself and one thing that i say often is that you cant legislate culture and we see over and over again that Congress Seeks legislative solutions to cultural problems and i think they need to have a better working relationship with those who work at the agency as well as veterans themselves because its going to take a lot more of a deep dive and a lot more hard work to get to the bottom of these cultural issues than just issuing a report or allocating more funding like weve seen so i wish i had a more precise answer for you in terms of here are the things that we need to do however i think that its just going to be unfortunately a long process and as weve been discussing i think that investing in Community Programs that aid veterans outside of the v. A. Itself that partner with the v. A. That is one step in the right direction but i think there are certainly other solutions and i think part of that is relying on people outside of the beltway who are on the ground who are providing these services and getting their perspective as well one of the challenges with me is budget is that they have a very large centralized Management Structure at their Central Office in washington d. C. And one of the things that comes up often is. Do they really need to be have so many high level political appointee used in their Central Office can they have some sort of a restructuring where again youre hearing from more folks on the ground more folks in communities and you know those 2 points tied together but i think that something that could be beneficial to the agency as a whole as well you mentioned you know sending money to Community Based spending which then not only helps the veterans but also helps that community you know you mentioned i think one of the biggest problems in washington is that too far and too often its throw money at it you know im talking earlier in the shoulder you talking earlier in the show about you know everyone just kind of well throw technology at it well draw money at it why do you think the in washington specifically its so easy for people just to fall in that trap of just shovel more money shovel more money is it just because it looks good on a reelection bid each year. I think that thats absolutely the primary reason particularly on the house side because its the house thats doing the budget related matters when youre running for reelection every 2 years its a lot you dont have a lot of down time and so you need to have specific accomplishments that you can point to to your constituents to say here all of the things that i did and having a piece of legislation with your name on it or that you voted for cosign thats something thats tangible that translates well to constituents so while youre doing oversight there may not be a direct tangible outcome in the same way that a signed piece of legislation provides you so again i think that thats really the primary reason is that people want tangible things that they can run on for reelection and weve seen reelection is the top priority of many congressmen they all start out saying that thats not going to be how they operate but very quickly they acclimate to the system and its all about fundraising getting reelected and so its very easy to fall into this trap its a lot harder to do the work to really find those policy solutions that weve been discussing very truly really topping thank you so much for come on educating our audience is always always a pleasure. Thanks for having me. Hard today we on the show with a look at these shocking dare i say rather humbling power and scope of Mother Nature in recent years months and days of giving us an incredible record breaking a ray of giant scale beats of nature in brazil for example Mother Nature cooked up a record breaking in heightening bowl back on march 4th of this year when the World Meteorological organization recorded a bolt that lasted a little over 16 seconds long to understand the magnitude of that record breaking lightning bolt remember that your typical lightning bolt lasts just point 2 seconds 16 seconds point to say thats a serious lightning bolt one that i hope to never see him. All right everybody that is our show for the day remember everyone in this world were not told that we love them up so i tell you all i love you i am tyrol them to and im a nice a cop keep on watching all those hawks out there and have a great day and night it. Was a pandemic no certainly no borders and just lying to nationalities. So much. We dont look like seem to be just sick. People. Judging. Commentary classes please listen to. We can do better we should be. Everyone is contributing to each of our own way but we also know that this crisis will not go on forever the challenges create the response has been masked so many good people are helping us. It makes us feel very proud that we are in it together. The minute the news in my. Time about what it was it was a bit. More about. What when and when the side of the. Scene that im going to fit in but im before. Him by. The. Economic fury in asia as the u. S. Provokes hong kong as that special trade status and hits of china with new sanctions while be. The perfect murder of a young female soldier in texas triggers a wave of sexual abuse claims by other personnel as u. S. Commanders are accused of not doing enough to stamp out the problem. And a state police chief in germany resigns over claims that officers cultivated within the tory neo nazi network. But your headlines this hour from all those stories of course you can head to our website r t v dot com or you tube channel now its time for other great programming right here on our to enter