On Tuesday February 5th Mayor Ginther, backed by the Uncle Fester meets Lee Ermey like polished head and dark sunken eyes of Deputy Police Chief Bash, announced the roll out of the ShotSpotter voice surveillance system in the Hilltop, which is targeted pilot neighborhood for a program that is budgeted to cover the entire City.
On Wednesday February 6th the Vice media machine, through their Motherboard tech news website, released a bombshell report after months of leaks, interviews and documents. The basics were that over 200 different bounty hunters were accessing supposedly 911-only real-time location data on phones of people they were hunting for about $1000 a pop.
A Washington Post Journalist, a dismemberment murder, multiple audio and visual devices in a consulate, a wiretap into the journalist's watch, now lead to a mainstream press narrative that ends with “Who actually cares?” The authoritarian regime of Turkey, equiped with the best placed devices could not or more likely did not intervene to save the life of Jamal Khashoggi. The recordings have been seen by people from multiple intelligence agencies in multiple countries.
Republican conspiracy fetishists love to talk about a deep state family without talking about all the corporate cousins. If someone were to discuss the deep state with any level of rigor they would come away with the impression of an interlocking network that includes a vast seas of corporate power within it's globe. When the military industrial complex is mentioned, the focus of overlap examination is on the revolving door between the floors at the top. What is left out when this is considered are the connections between various entities in the banking intelligence complex.
Saturday night in Portland, the fascist group Patriot Prayer, along with the usual Proud Boy hangers on and other associated groups held a rally demanding the removal of Mayor Wheeler for failing to suppress anti-police brutality protestors. They came dressed in T-shirts covered in slogans proclaiming violence and even public executions as well as the standard khakis and yellow on black polo shirts. The group then marched with police escort to a vigil being held protesting the death of Patrick Kimmons on September 30th, and immediately attacked to prevent a flag from being burned.
Terry Albury was one of the most experienced black FBI agents in the country. He is now a federal prisoner awaiting a 4 to 5 year sentence for violating the Espionage Act. He plead guilty after being caught exposing racist infiltration and surveillance tactics by the 90% white FBI against Muslim and other minority communities in Minneapolis where he worked.
Two weeks ago, musician and filmmaker Boots Riley dropped a rather hard critique of Spike Lee's Black Klansman. I've hesitated to get involved in an online controversy between two black filmmakers. I'm white and I don't make films. As a jump further into disclaimer world, I've met and talked Boots Riley on multiple occasions in 2011 during Occupy Oakland. I found him to be very nice and exceedingly well educated when it comes to left history. If there were a leftist version of trivial pursuit, I would have many pie slices. Boots Riley wrote the cards.
Predictive Policing is not a fact based system. It is a system of taking selected events, putting those through biased filters and allocating resources. It is faith based policing and one of the commandments in the stone tablets is racism. When the vast resources of the nation's largest police executive association, the “best minds” of the recent Obama administration, the capital of silicon valley and the blessing of the CIA are added, thought crime avenue intersects racism street and sewer main is is spouting.
The weekend of August 11th-12th was billed as a second round for the so-called Alt-Right movement. It was to be a reprise of their tiki-torch adorned murderous rampage in Charlottesville with an added taking back of DC after the ever memed Richard Spencer face punch. Like many sequels, the script was cut to bits in the editing room and the actors could not be motivated out of their trailers.
I've lived in Berkeley. I know the complicated tapestry of policing in the North Oakland Berkeley area. I've seen them maliciously wound friends. I've buried a friend and roommate they killed. The racism runs deep and blue there. Context is needed to view the events of August 5th in Berkeley because no social space is neutral and nothing happens in a vacuum.