Chapter 2088: Typing in the Hospital, Asking for Monthly Votes! ! ! !

The person coming was none other than Barry, the Flash.

It must be said that The Flash is well-known in Los Angeles, and the Albanian gang members in front of them immediately recognized the superstar!

There is no way around it. At this stage, superheroes are basically regarded as local business cards in various places in the United States! Superheroes mean that the city is safe and secure, and it also means that the city's heritage... After all, cities without superheroes, such as Miami and Hawaii, were directly destroyed.

Miami is fine, but Hawaii is such a military port. The entire U.S. Seventh Combined Fleet is there, but so what? The entire fleet and the entire city were simply gone...the garrison was useless. The opposite example is New York.

There are many superheroes in New York, so New York has gone through many major events and still remains standing.

The whole world is no longer safe!

The most obvious example is... At this stage, the construction of the "Skynet" system in the United States has begun!

Yes, the Americans have also started installing cameras everywhere. Moreover, the progress of this work is not as big as expected... In general impression, the United States has long regarded itself as a "human rights power" and a "democracy". The core value of its culture is freedom, and individual The right to privacy is vital to democracy and freedom in American society. Without personal privacy, it would be difficult for individuals to escape the pressure of the government and society and think independently. The right to privacy is closely related to individual creativity and independence. A society without personal privacy cannot be a free society. Americans are also well known for their emphasis on personal privacy. The "Prism Gate" incident two years ago caused an uproar in all walks of life in the United States and the international community because of the invasion of personal privacy. In the end, it won the understanding of most American people because the targets of surveillance were not their own citizens and the role it played in counter-terrorism.

In fact... counterintuitively, Americans are actually quite accepting of government intrusions on privacy!

The most famous one is the ‘Patriot Act’!

Less than two months after the "9·11" incident, the then US government signed the "Patriot Act". The introduction of this bill is considered an important measure by the US government to deal with the threat of terrorism. However, few people know that this bill actually provides unlimited surveillance powers to the government and security agencies, legalizing the surveillance and monitoring of citizens.

But in fact, the U.S. government did not start monitoring and monitoring citizens only after the passage of the Patriot Act. The FBI had been secretly conducting illegal wiretaps long before this. As time went on, this behavior became more and more rampant. Many Americans are unaware that their phone calls, emails and online activity may be subject to surveillance. Data shows that from 2001 to 2021, surveillance through the Patriot Act has affected the lives of millions of Americans. Under the aegis of this act, the U.S. government has gained almost ubiquitous surveillance powers. It is worth noting that this kind of surveillance is not limited to certain suspicious individuals, but extends to the entire society.

Ensuring national security and safeguarding personal privacy rights seem to be an irreconcilable contradiction: the former is very urgent due to the shadow of "9·11", while the liberalism embodied in the latter is the foundation of the United States; the former is always facing severe challenges The real threat and the damage could be extremely serious. The latter is one of the things Americans are most proud of and cherish. How to reconcile the contradiction between the two is a difficult problem facing the United States. In fact, after "9·11", American society has been debating endlessly about the priority between privacy rights and national security. In the era of information technology, privacy rights and national security are facing huge challenges. At that time, the United States entered the "era of fear" and almost everyone was worried about the "resurgence" of terrorism. As long as this sense of fear persists, the National Security Bureau and other security agencies seem to have the power to take all necessary measures to counter terrorism in the name of the people, even at the expense of infringing on personal privacy rights to prevent possible terrorist attacks. After Snowden disclosed the large-scale surveillance activities of the US intelligence agencies, American society began to protest on a large scale against government surveillance. The media has set off a wave of discussion, reflecting on whether the threat of terrorism faced by the United States is worth sacrificing so many privacy rights, or do these large-scale surveillance activities really contribute to national security? A poll by the Pew Research Center in the spring of 2014 showed that, 54% of the respondents disagreed with the government’s need to collect phone and network data on a large scale for counter-terrorism, and as many as 74% said they were unwilling to give up “privacy and freedom” for “security.” More and more people believe that the United States has gradually turned into the authoritarian country it most opposes, and the "Prism Gate" incident has only revealed the tip of the iceberg. The U.S. government monitors almost every word and deed of the people. The U.S. Security Service passes the information it obtains to agencies at the federal, state, and local levels, and uses this information to crack down on thieves. At the same time, these agencies will also be instructed to "launder" the information and pretend that the information was obtained through legal means to avoid being caught by defense lawyers. For example, the United States hands over the sensitive intelligence it collects to other allies such as Israel and the United Kingdom, and then these allies transfer it back to the National Security Agency for "laundering." These methods have led the United States to slide step by step into an authoritarian "police state."

But the problem is that the United States is indeed a real "police state"!

For a long time, the US government and its related agencies have relied on their technological advantages to conduct large-scale, indiscriminate wiretapping and stealing secrets around the world. Whether it is for its own citizens or for foreign governments, companies and individuals, the US's wiretapping operations have reached the point of being wanton and lawless, seriously violating international law and the basic norms of international relations. Facts have repeatedly proved that the United States is a "surveillance empire" that endangers the world. The Privacy and Technology Law Center of Georgetown University in the United States released a report titled "America's Dragnet: Data-Driven Deportations in the 21st Century". The report revealed that over the years, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency has carefully woven a complex and huge surveillance network, far exceeding its duties as an immigration agency.

In fact, the United States began to monitor and censor communications in and out of the United States during World War I and World War II, and its large-scale surveillance practices continued throughout the Cold War. During the American civil rights movement, many American citizens were also placed under government surveillance orders. In 1972, the Watergate incident occurred in the United States, and the abuse of power and illegal wiretapping caused a political scandal. With the development of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and other agencies, US surveillance has become institutionalized. Especially after the September 11th incident, the US government, under the pretext of "national security" and "anti-terrorism", passed legislation such as the Patriot Act, the Protect America Act, and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendment of 2008, and continued to expand the authority of security agencies. Although former US defense contractor employee Snowden and the WikiLeaks website exposed the US's abuse of surveillance to the world, the US was forced to pass a bill in 2015 to end the domestic surveillance program in the United States. However, in reality, US intelligence agencies and other departments continue to carry out extensive surveillance without authorization.

The US government has also long been rampant in the name of "national interests", conducting pervasive surveillance and network monitoring of other countries and even allies. The US has been monitoring the world for a long time. Whether it was the "Black Box Project" after World War I, the "Operation Shamrock" after World War II, or the global intelligence gathering capabilities gained through the "Echelon System" during the Cold War; whether it was the gathering of allies to form the notorious multinational surveillance organization "Five Eyes Alliance", or the hacker organization "Equation Group" that created backdoors since the 21st century to spy on and invade hundreds of targets in more than 45 countries and regions around the world... the US government has carried out large-scale, organized, and indiscriminate wiretapping and surveillance of foreign governments, companies, and personnel. In recent years, the US global surveillance scandal has been exposed again and again. In 2013, according to confidential documents disclosed by Snowden, the National Security Agency of the United States monitored the phone calls of 35 foreign leaders, and tracked and stole mobile phone activity information worldwide through technical means, collecting up to 5 billion records every day. Glenn Greenwald, a former British Guardian reporter, published a book about Snowden in 2014 titled Nowhere to Hide, which listed shocking data: the National Security Agency of the United States remotely stole 97 billion emails and 124 billion phone data in 30 days, including 500 million from Germany, 2.3 billion from Brazil, 13.5 billion from India, 70 million from France, and 60 million from Spain...

The United States is addicted to surveillance, and has never closed the "wiretapping door" even in the face of criticism from all sides. Last May, the media once again broke the news that the United States wiretapped the leaders of European allies such as Germany, France, Sweden, and Norway through the Danish intelligence department.

So in fact, Americans know exactly what kind of virtue their government is.

In the past, when people heard that the government was going to build a surveillance system, they exploded... mainly because they knew very well what kind of devil these people were.

When there is no reason, they are unscrupulous. Once they are allowed to be reasonable and legal... who knows where things will go.

But now it is different.

The main reason is that they have lost their sense of security.

In the past, Americans were always confident that they were the best in the world, and everything in the world was defined by the United States. If he says you are democratic, you are; if he says you are not democratic, you are not, and you are not at all!

When he says you have weapons of mass destruction... you better really have them!

But what about now? They don't feel safe. In the United States, a city was razed to the ground overnight!

Although this kind of disaster is useless even if you install full surveillance. But Americans surprisingly agreed. They don't need surveillance, but a sense of security.

And superheroes are undoubtedly the group of people who can bring the most sense of security to the people at this stage!

So many American media will report those superheroes positively... Of course, some people are beginning to worry about who will supervise those superheroes. After all, they have super-legal treatment themselves, and they are still supported by the people. In the long run, will superheroes replace the government?

The government is also secretly accumulating strength for this. For example, Team X was born under this circumstance!

In short, superheroes are now very influential.

People like the Albanian gangs who work in the industry naturally pay more attention to superheroes.

You have to know that after coming to the United States, this gang gave up their best business... that is, robbing banks!

How much do these people like to rob... They even carried out robbery at their own capital airport!

On April 9, 2019, four armed robbers cut through the barbed wire, drove into the Mother Teresa International Airport in the country's capital, and robbed 10 million euros from an Austrian Airlines passenger plane that was about to fly to Vienna. The robbers had a gunfight with security personnel, one robber was shot dead, and the other three fled. The police found bullets and grenades from the robbers who were shot dead, and then pursued the three fugitives with the support of helicopters. Four suspects have been arrested so far, and more than 40 people have been taken back to the police station for investigation. An international airport in the capital of a European country can be so easily broken through by armed robbers, and killed on the apron, and exchanged fire with security personnel transporting money, and finally robbed 10 million euros and fled! Is this a movie? No, this is a real robbery in Albania! What's even more speechless is that according to local media reports, this is not the first time that robbers have rushed to the passenger plane of the international airport to rob money! In the past three years, the airport has seen at least two similar cash robberies. In February 2017, 3.2 million euros were robbed, and police later found that part of the cash was buried in a pressure cooker. In June 2016, 50,000 euros were robbed. There were at least two robberies in 2015.

As for other countries... they are even more unscrupulous.

But after coming to the United States, this traditional art was abandoned... although it is actually easier to rob a bank here.

In the United States, hundreds of bank robberies occur every year. Many banks do not even install bulletproof glass, and some do not even have glass, only a simple counter where you can communicate with bank employees face to face. What is even more surprising is that banks require employees not to resist when they are robbed. After all, the money can be compensated by the insurance company, but the safety of people is the most important. Interestingly, American robbers usually do not use real guns when robbing. They may use daily items such as toy pistols, lighters, bananas or ear spoons as robbery tools. They know that in the United States, as long as you write "robbery" on the deposit slip and attach a threatening word, the bank staff will very politely ask if you need a plastic bag, and then put the money in it and give it to you. Banks do not want their employees to be harmed, so they are required to cooperate with the robbers. Why don't American robbers bring real guns to rob? The reason is that in the United States, if you use weapons or hurt others when robbing a bank, the legal punishment will be very different. In fact, it is not easy to rob a bank in the United States because the cash in the bank is very limited. There is a robber who has become an Internet celebrity. He has robbed hundreds of banks and only robbed a total of 3 million US dollars. There is too little cash in the bank, especially in some small cities.

Once, an Asian American farmer tried to withdraw 3,000 US dollars in cash from a bank in a small city in the United States, but the bank told him that there was not enough cash and he needed to make an appointment one day in advance. He was very surprised at the time because the bank did not even have glass, just a simple counter. The next day, when the farmer returned to the bank to withdraw money, he saw an armored car parked at the door and two security guards wearing bulletproof vests, who provided escort services for his $3,000.

This is related to the special situation of the US banking industry.

But in order not to conflict with superheroes, the Albanian gangs gave up this traditional business!

This time the problem is really serious, it may be chronic renal failure... Damn, this thing is life-threatening!