[sudo-discuss] Rally this Tue. 11/19: Against Oakland's Planned Surveillance Center! 5:30pm at City Hall!

[rachel lyra hospodar]

On Nov 17, 2013 11:22 PM, "rhodey" <rhodey at anhonesteffort.org> wrote:
>
> On 11/17/2013 11:14 PM, GtwoG PublicOhOne wrote:
> >
> >
> > So the question is, how to lower the probability of getting mugged,
> > robbed, house-burgled, car-burgled, carjacked, beaten-up, raped,
> > stabbed, shot, or murdered, without jumping on the Big Data bandwagon?
>
> This is alarmist and disgusting. This kind of fear mongering is the
> easiest way to fake understanding of a complex problem and I won't waste
> a second beyond this to discuss it further.
>

I will point out a few things here:

-putting resources toward equal education and opportunities for all is the
single easiest way to reduce crime rates. It might seem less intuitive than
getting more people onto a violent police force known for racist
repression, but only if you're not thinking about the level of violence,
chaos, and murder that the police are responsible for.  Somehow the violent
cops we already have who mostly live outside the city are not helping. One
interesting thing about the city's expenditures on policing is the amount
of ballooned salaries due to overtime. Some more cops on the rolls might
fix this, actually reducing the labor cost overall, but if so then there's
no reason to need additional funding.

-Casting oneself in this absolutist fashion as the victim of crimes and
other people as the perpetrators kind of misses the point of our common
humanity and the varied circumstances that might lead someone to choose to
perform thefts or violent acts.
I am reminded of recent research I read about rats and cocaine, which
challenged paradigmatic thinking about addiction. In the past rats had
chosen cocaine over food and water, leading scientists to believe in an
addiction response that overwhelms all rational thought. It turns out that
if the rats have a big enough enclosure with enough to do (ie aren't in
ratty prison) they choose other activities over cocaine even if they are
'addicted'.
This isn't to say that I think people who commit 'crimes' are drug users,
but that perhaps all creatures respond to limited choices by doing things
that are different than they would do otherwise.

Tl;Dr anyone concerned about crime in Oakland might consider the root of
the problem, SOCIOLOGICAL FACTORS AND POVERTY, and if one wants to address
the problem ethically that would be the place to start.

Considering that the endemic poverty and lack of options in some
communities of Oakland seriously curtails the level of choice available to
people from those areas, I think it is interesting to complain about this
problem from the point of view of oneself getting robbed. Nobody should get
robbed, but the reason this happens is the endemic poverty and lack of
options. Addressing these root causes would solve everyone's problems,
instead of using police violence to cordon the problems away from the area
where the wealthy would like to recreate unmolested.

The wealthy. That's us. That's you. Maybe you don't see yourself that way
but in some contexts that is the case.

R.

> --
> -- rhodey ˙ ͜ʟ˙
>
> > -G
> >
> >
> > =====
> >
> >
> > On 13-11-17-Sun 8:21 PM, Marina Kukso wrote:
> >> Call to Action: Pack city hall & rally to stop the Domain Awareness
> >> Center in Oakland.
> >>
> >> (Please forward widely)
> >>
> >> Oakland City Council is building a surveillance center to aggregate
> >> video surveillance feeds from all over Oakland. The Domain Awareness
> >> Center <http://oaklandwiki.org/dac> (DAC), as it's called, will
> >> include a computer system that aggregates information from
> >> surveillance cameras and license plate readers across Oakland, and in
> >> the future may include facial recognition software and social media
> >> data mining.
> >>
> >> On Tuesday 11/19, City Council will be voting on a resolution that
> >> will allow them to move forward with a new contractor for the project
> >> (after the old contractor was found to violate an Oakland law that
> >> prevents the city from doing business with companies that are in the
> >> nuclear weapons industry) without issuing a new request for proposal
> >> (RFP). If the resolution fails, Oakland will have to issue a new RFP &
> >> potentially lose Dept of Homeland Security funds for the center.
> >>
> >> The NY Times
> >> <
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/14/technology/privacy-fears-as-surveillance-grows-in-cities.html?pagewanted=all
>
> >> made the DAC national news, as similar centers are being considered in
> >> other cities.
> >>
> >> There's an opportunity to halt or slow down the construction of the
> >> DAC this Tuesday evening, so please join a planned rally at 5:30
> >> and/or come to the City Council meeting itself. Meetings are open to
> >> the public & you can even sign up to speak
> >> <
http://www2.oaklandnet.com/Government/o/CityClerk/s/SpeakerCard/SpeakerCard/OAK032373
>
> >> (DAC is item #20).
> >>
> >> For more info:
> >>
> >> On the rally:
> >>
https://www.facebook.com/events/409163039209928/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming
> >> (or email actionforprogress
> >> @gmail.com <http://gmail.com>)
> >> On the DAC: http://oaklandwiki.org/DAC
> >> On twitter: #DAC || @oaklandprivacy <http://twitter.com/oaklandprivacy>
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >
> >
> >
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