The Algorithm Age

Footage appears to show Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents urinating on the grounds of a Los Angeles public school, which they described as a “deeply disturbing” incident. Members of the El Rancho Unified School District Board wrote to the Department of Homeland Security to complain about the alleged incident and accused the ICE agents of risking “exposing themselves to minors.” It follows a period of heightened tension in LA and Southern California as communities push back against ICE and the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation agenda. The school board claimed the agents urinated against a storage container beside the playground of the Ruben Salazar High School in Pico Rivera on the morning of June 17. It was also close to where students were in session. Footage shared by the school appears to confirm the claims, as one by one the agents walk toward the storage container and stand for a few moments. The DHS did not respond to questions abo...

Would you play a video game with the police? In Denmark, a special team of police officers stream online gaming to connect with young people and combat crimes such as fraud and sexual harassment. “We try to be very aware of the evolution of online crimes,” Jeppe Torup, a police sergeant at the National Special Crime Unit of the Danish Police, told Euronews Next. “It becomes a lot easier to commit crimes across language barriers and across countries and we need to be very aware of what is going on in the technosphere,” he added. They also “patrol” on popular platforms such as Discord, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, where they say they receive leads about suspicious behaviour from the communities. The team was set up in 2022 to tackle the rise in online crime in Denmark. “It was needed because we saw that a lot of the children are actually online most of the time – 99 per cent of the kids in Denmark are using social media or gaming platforms on a daily basis. So we...

Would you play a video game with the police? In Denmark, a special team of police officers stream online gaming to connect with young people and combat crimes such as fraud and sexual harassment. “We try to be very aware of the evolution of online crimes,” Jeppe Torup, a police sergeant at the National Special Crime Unit of the Danish Police, told Next. “It becomes a lot easier to commit crimes across language barriers and across countries and we need to be very aware of what is going on in the technosphere,” he added. They also “patrol” on popular platforms such as Discord, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, where they say they receive leads about suspicious behaviour from the communities. The team was set up in 2022 to tackle the rise in online crime in Denmark. “It was needed because we saw that a lot of the children are actually online most of the time – 99 per cent of the kids in Denmark are using social media or gaming platforms on a daily basis. So we have to ...

A drug-affected car thief who ran over and killed a young policeman while trying to escape arrest will spend more than a decade in prison. Reagan Ainslie Chown, 25, was convicted of manslaughter over the late-night June 8, 2023 incident that led to Constable Anthony Woods' death. He was sentenced in the Western Australian Supreme Court today to a head sentence of 15 years and six months, and a minimum term of 13 years and six months. READ MORE: ACCC's warning about 'ghost stores' luring customers online Woods' mother Natalie said her heart was "ripped" away the day her son died. "My beautiful son Anthony was so full of life, energy and ambition," she said as she read her victim impact statement to the court. "He was doing his duty and he was protecting his community and his future was taken away." Ms Woods said her family continued to suffer and "each anniversary, birthday and any moment we sha...

A close associate of a slain drug kingpin avoided being killed in a police station hit job because parking inspectors spotted an illegally parked getaway car, prosecutors claim. Andre Kallita was almost gunned down outside the Day Street police station in Sydney's CBD in an alleged December 2023 plot by associates of Bilal Haouchar's Lebanon-based crime syndicate. Bilal's younger brother Omar Haouchar, 32, has been charged over the attempted murder plot. He's been accused of using the handle 'Invisible' on the encrypted messaging app Threema to organise the plot with several others. In early 2023, a dispute arose between the Haouchar crime network and the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang over a drug debt, documents filed with the NSW Supreme Court reveal. Kallita was allegedly a member of the Comancheros and was a close associate of cocaine kingpin Alen Moridian, who himself was gunned down in a Bondi Junction car park in June 2023, the docume...

Mike Bush is under no illusion about the challenges that confront him as top cop after a leadership crisis in Australia's second-largest police force. The former New Zealand police commissioner officially took the reins of Victoria Police on Friday, ending a four-month saga among the force's top ranks. Restoring public trust in the troubled force and tackling the state's exploding crime rate are among his initial priorities. "There's too much crime," Mr Bush told reporters after a traditional Maori powhiri ceremony and an address to about 360 budding recruits at the state police academy in Glen Waverley. "There's too much youth crime. Organised crime drives so much harm in our communities. "We've got to find a way to work with others to get ahead of it." A self-described outsider, Mr Bush comes to Victoria Police after a highly publicised leadership crisis. An overwhelming no-confidence vote from officers after an ...

Victoria’s new chief police commissioner describes himself as a “good listener” and an agent for cultural change within the police force, while former New Zealand police minister Stuart Nash reckons the new appointee is a “hard bastard”. Mike Bush, who served as police commissioner in New Zealand from 2014 until 2020, will need those qualities and more when he becomes Victoria’s highest-ranking officer next month. Lured out of retirement after an approach by the Allan government, Bush will be confronted by soaring crime rates and a tobacco war, recruitment and retention problems, budgetary constraints and a slump in morale among frontline officers. The forthright New Zealander also faces intense pressure to maintain independence from the state government, which will be desperate for any positive spin on law-and-order issues in the lead-up to next year’s election. However, Bush seemed undaunted when his appointment was announced on Tuesday by Police M...

WA's corruption watchdog has launched an investigation into how a man who shot dead two women in Floreat last year was able to own the firearms he used to commit the murder. Mark Bombara was a legal firearms owner when he murdered his wife's best friend Jennifer Petelczyc and her teenage daughter Gretl in their home last year before turning the gun on himself. He had been looking for his wife and daughter. An internal police investigation found eight officers did not perform their duty in the lead-up to the shooting. In a report tabled in parliament, the Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC) said it had asked WA police to investigate whether officers had failed to properly review Bombara's suitability to hold a gun licence, but Police Commissioner Col Blanch declined a separate probe. Police proposed to instead prepare a single report on all issues related to the murders, including his firearms, which the CCC disagreed with. ...

Victoria is grappling with its highest youth crime rate since electronic records began, with new figures laying bare the surge in offending that forced the state government to strengthen bail laws. Police are making 208 arrests a day, alongside an unprecedented seizure of edged weapons, marking what is likely to be the highest figures in the force’s history. There was an 18 per cent rise in offences committed by 10- to 17-year-olds in the 12 months to March, according to the latest figures from the Crime Statistics Agency. People under 18 were charged with 25,275 offences over that period. As an Age investigation into knife crime revealed in 2023 , hospitalisations from knife-related attacks started spiking in 2019 , alongside an increase in youth offending. The latest statistics show the number of knives seized has reached record levels. The sale of machetes was banned in the aftermath of an armed gang brawl at Northland shopping cent...