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. 00 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 no turns out this Crime Fighting facial Recognition Technology has a pretty major fatal flaw the New York Times reports that while facial 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 demographic. Pics in part because they lack of diversity in the images to use to develop the underlying databases and this flaw in the programming has now made poor father of 2 Robert 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. If you want to know whats going on the city the streets you want to. Listen to what she says see the prices joyce just stay and see. Greys suggests least systemic deception is to late show but she is out with some pretty tough job as. Well corben watching the hawks i am tired of these 4 warmish or 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. Given to our 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 been 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 yeah which is literally one of the problems that weve had over the years with the police is this is the entire point they cant get all the difference between black men and women when you know chasing down a suspect you know its just the bar goes where in the Detroit Police now say the from now on after this kind of amazing failure the only news still photos not like security video footage. In due 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 that wrong going to accuse a somebody of a Violent Crime which is far worse penalty than 3800. 00 worth of shoplifting exactly i dont see how thats hopeful because if 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 often times when a Police Officer is responding to a to someone who they feel as though theyve committed a Violent Crime they are 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 they find but after 2 weeks the other in the a. C. L. U. Points out 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 an anonymous innocent 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 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 a 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 a personally of all or do so which i hope that gets voted in because its you know we need that 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 18 t. 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 as scathing article titled the truth about this was published on medium dot com the group called black female anonymous lists several grievances including a toxic Work EnvironmentSexual Harassment pay inequity 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 that you sation with extreme Sexual HarassmentWorkplace Bullying and the firing of pregnant women and new moms a rock essence essence has the night 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 this 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 eventually 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 essence 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 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 have been the name in the game for black news im black 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 into like me to things like that so the belief right now is the 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 fest 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 4 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 jordi of 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 and 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 pressuring to know that that type of thing is going on its interesting too because we go to get more fibrous and before the personal stories start coming out thats an interesting move and im going through 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 that they chose to do it during the middle of essence this that is the cold. Nation a bent for essence magazine man a 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 that check yourself coming up while weve discussed efforts to defund the police now there are calls to be fun to be a veterans advocate laurie riley topic joins us next to discuss that and we dont want to miss this day to what. We. Feel. Thats right weve entered global depression still no longer a recession to get the recession. Or depression this will last a few years. The world is driven by dreamers shaped by the one percent of those. Who dares thinks. Week here to ask. 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 being 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 be a 2 explores the topic here to tell us more about her article as veterans advocate and political consultant laurie riley topping welcome. Thank you for having me. Laurie you wrote a very strong piece in 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 are in their transition to that are in status go through a lot of. But the cult 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 of your article you made no but in 2000 when the entire Veterans Affairs budget was about 45000000000 now appear a 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 v. A. 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