News Round-Up: UK Creating Murder Prediction Tool, Journalist Convicted for a Meme in Germany, and Thousands of Brits Arrested for Online Postings Every Year
Every week, the editorial team of Freedom Research compiles a round-up of news that caught our eye, or what felt like under-reported aspects of news deserving more attention.
Over the past week, the following topics attracted our attention:
UK creating a ‘murder prediction tool’.
More than 30 Brits a day arrested for their postings online.
German journalist convicted for posting a meme about a politician.
UK police blocks white Brits from applying to a job position.
Majority of Germany’s unemployed have migrant background.
UK creating a ‘murder prediction tool’
The UK government is developing a ‘murder prediction’ programme which it hopes can use personal data of those known to the authorities to identify the people most likely to become killers, The Guardian reports. The existence of the project was discovered by Statewatch, an organisation that researches and analyses the situation of individual freedoms and human rights. Statewatch says data from people not convicted of any criminal offence will be used as part of the project, including personal information about self-harm and details relating to domestic abuse. The types of information processed includes names, dates of birth, gender and ethnicity, and a number that identifies people on the police national computer. The information shared by the police with the government includes various types of criminal convictions, but also listed is the age a person first appeared as a victim, including for domestic violence, and the age a person was when they first had contact with the police. Also to be shared are health markers which are expected to have significant predictive power, such as data relating to mental health, addiction, suicide and vulnerability, and self-harm, as well as disability.
Researchers are alleged to be using algorithms to analyse the information of thousands of people, including victims of crime, as they try to identify those at greatest risk of committing serious violent offences. The UK Ministry of Justice hopes the project will help boost public safety. The government says the project is, at this stage, for research only.
To many, the 2002 movie 'Minority Report' comes to mind when reading this, where murders were predicted by psychics. However, current plans likely assign their role to algorithms and AI
More than 30 Brits a day arrested for their postings online
The police in the UK are making more than 30 arrests a day over offensive posts on social media and other platforms, The Times reports.
Thousands of people are being detained and questioned for sending messages that cause “annoyance”, “inconvenience” or “anxiety” to others via the internet, telephone or mail. The acts make it illegal to cause distress by sending ‘grossly offensive’ messages or sharing content of an ‘indecent, obscene or menacing character’ on an electronic communications network.
Custody data obtained by newspaper shows that officers made 12,183 arrests in 2023 and 12,437 in 2022 under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 and section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988. The number of arrests has been increasing during the last 8 years as in 2017 it was no more than 5,502.
At the same time, however, the number of convictions and sentencings for communications offences has decreased over the past decade. According to Ministry of Justice figures, there were 1,119 sentencings under the same act in 2023, down by almost half since 2015 when 1,995 people were found guilty of the crimes. There are several reasons for arrests not resulting in sentencing, such as out-of-court resolutions. But the most common is “evidential difficulties”, specifically that the victim does not support taking further action.
German journalist convicted for posting a meme of a politician
A German right-wing journalist has been sentenced to seven months’ probation for mocking left-wing Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, The European Conservative writes.
In its verdict on Monday, April 7th, the district court in the Bavarian town of Bamberg also ordered David Bendels to apologise in writing to Faeser. The editor-in-chief of the news website Deutschland-Kurier was punished for sharing a satirical meme on his X account. The meme, which was posted by Bendels last February, shows Nancy Faeser holding up a sign with the words: “I hate freedom of expression.”
Bendels and his lawyers announced that they would appeal the verdict, which appears to be politically motivated. The editor-in-chief said he ‘will continue the just fight for freedom of the press and freedom of expression, which is indispensable for the continued existence of democracy in Germany.’
UK police blocks white Brits to apply for a job
One of the UK’s biggest police forces, West Yorkshire Police (WYP), has blocked applications from white British candidates in an attempt to boost diversity, The Telegraph writes. WYP has said the policy is to ensure that ‘diverse communities’ are represented by the officers serving them.
One whistleblower claimed black and far east Asian candidates were considered particularly under-represented and given a ‘gold’ ranking, followed by those of south-east Asian origin who were in the silver tier. ‘White others’, including candidates from Irish and eastern European backgrounds, were bronze.
The whistleblower, who was heavily involved in sifting job applications for recruits, said he raised concerns over the policy with bosses but was warned not to interfere. In a report to senior officers, seen by The Telegraph, he said: “This feeds into a general theme where the pipeline for anyone white British is strangled, whilst anyone not white British is ushered through onto the next available stage.”
On its website, WYP admits that because of a lack of ethnic minority officers, it accepts ‘applications all year round from these under-represented groups’, while white British candidates must wait until ‘our recruitment process is open’.
Majority of Germany’s unemployed have migrant background
The number of unemployed with an immigrant background is amounting to 1.5 million people in Germany, according to the Federal Employment Agency, Remix News writes. That figure amounts to 54 percent of the 2.8 million people who are unemployed in total as of September 2024.
Those without a German passport account for 39 percent of the unemployed, but make up 16 percent of the population. However, when those with a migrant background who have already been granted a German passport are factored in as well, this number jumps to 54 percent.
In terms of those who are long-term unemployed, amounting to two years of unemployment, 52 percent have a migrant background.
The fact that the police arrest people in the UK for thought crimes is far beyond annoying, inconvenient, and indecent. Won't somebody arrest them?