If you can, please participate in the Zoom meeting of the Castro neighborhood “Community Benefit District” (a coercively-financed group that imposes extra taxes on property owners within a specified area, supposedly to pay for improved services – see Castro Upper Market Community Benefit District | San Francisco, CA | Cause IQ for more info on the CCBD), scheduled for this Monday June 7 at 6pm.
Please urge them to reject a “gift” of a public surveillance camera network from a company with problematic government associations, that would infringe on privacy and potentially on civil liberties. See more background info below, or see also Castro mulls controversial plan to install surveillance camera network - The San Francisco Examiner.
If you can’t or don’t want to use the Zoom interface, you may also be able to dial in. You can also call the CBD and give them your input (or ask for the dial-in info for the meeting, which wasn’t included in the email forward) at (415) 500-1181.
It is not necessary that you live or work in the Castro to weigh in (this affects the public broadly), but if you do, it can’t hurt to mention that in your comments.
Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))
···
Begin forwarded message:
From: Oakland Privacy contact@oaklandprivacy.org
Date: June 3, 2021 6:55:32 PM PDT
To: sfdreamer@earthlink.net
Subject: Private Camera Networks in the Castro
Reply-To: Oakland Privacy contact@oaklandprivacy.orgView this email in your browser
The Gift of Private Camera Networks
Will the Castro Say No Thanks?On June 7 at 6:00pm, the Business Improvement District for San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood will consider whether they should reject the gift of a $695,000 networked security camera system from tech entrepreneur Chris Larsen.
Larsen’s sponsored camera networks, from vendor AVS, have been provided to a number of San Francisco neighborhoods, including Japantown and the Union Square District. The Union Square camera network was accessed last year by the San Francisco Police Department for real time monitoring of the protests after George Floyd was killed by the Minneapolis Police Department. A lawsuit has been filed by Black Lives Matter protesters.
The motion on the June 7 agenda provides for two options.
Vote to continue working with the community and researching the issues related to installing a public safety camera program in the Castro CBD footprint; OR
Vote No on moving forward with the implementation of the public safety camera program in the Castro CBD footprint, effectively ending the program.
Tech entrepreneur Larsen has been shopping his “business improvement district” model for private camera networks outside of San Francisco to other cities, including Portland and Seattle as a public safety innovation. To the best of our knowledge, the Castro Distro BID would be the first BID to reject the gift of a Larsen-funded camera network.
Several community groups including both LGBT Democratic clubs, the Harvey Milk Club and the Alice B. Toklas Club, the LGBTQ Cultural District, United to Save the Mission, and noted activist Tommi Aviolli Mecca have spoken out in opposition to the Larsen camera network.
Because this model is being shopped broadly throughout the region and beyond, the decision of the Castro BID will have an impact in the neighborhood, and more widely. We don’t have a handy-dandy email action for you (voting member emails are not available), but we want to ask if you can call in Monday night and make a brief public comment.
Castro Community Benefit District
Board of Directors Special Meeting
Monday June 7, 2021
6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
Zoom Meeting Launch Meeting - ZoomHere are some talking points from Castro community advocates:
The Castro has historically been, and has remained, a neighborhood of sanctuary for people who feel unwelcome, different, and unsafe in their communities of origin. The neighborhood’s environment of freedom of expression is integral to it.
Cameras are not the only, or even an effective, route to improving public safety. The BID should consider community-based solutions, not just mass surveillance.
The vendor, AVS, has significant national security connections and markets their products to entities like the National Security Administration (NSA). We have concerns about a vendor with ties to the security state collecting and retaining centralized video records of all activities in the neighborhood.
A networked camera system is different than individual dispersed security cameras. A centralized networked system blankets the central shopping and gathering area.
There is no reason for the BID to continue working with the community. As word spreads, there is more opposition in the community to the camera network, not less.
Not all neighborhoods are the same. What might seem acceptable in a Downtown Business District may not be acceptable for a neighborhood like the Castro, which is a cultural beacon.
Thank you for considering giving us some of your precious time on Monday night to support community groups in the Castro.
This note was sent to you by the folks at Oakland Privacy.
Oakland Privacy has been fighting for transparency in law enforcement surveillance operations since 2013.
The Oakland Privacy Advisory Commission, the first municipal citizens privacy commission in the country, was built out of Oakland’s resistance to the Domain Awareness Center.
You may also be interested in checking out the Oakland Privacy website, which has information about our other projects fighting against the surveillance state.
Thank you!
Oakland Privacy · 4799 Shattuck Avenue · Oakland, CA 94609 · USA