Who Is Watching The Watchers? Police+Cameras+School+Work=Rage

Those who would give up ESSENTIAL LIBERTY to purchase a little TEMPORARY SAFETY, deserve neither LIBERTY nor SAFETY. –ben franklin

Whew!

What a fucken day.

The East End Association here in Rochester, in an overwhelming vote for, with 2 opposed, decided to install a corridor of security cameras down East Ave. in downtown. If you've worked with me at Abundance or even bothered to talk to me, then you know of my disgust with security cameras. My source says that the association—made up of something like 50 members—had about 12 to 14 members present for the vote and didn't seem to care about quorum and further is generally inept at thinking critically.

Abundance "Cooperative" Food Market on Marshall Street installed indoor and outdoor security cameras in November 2007 after an armed robbery of the store in October 2007. The installation of these cameras came at the expense of democracy—where workers and managers were told by the interim general manager that a store wide meeting regarding security and safety would transpire to allow people to get out frustrations and potentially arrive at solutions to prevent robberies in the future. Unfortunately that meeting never took place and a practically unilateral decision was made between the interim general manager and the board of directors to install the cameras. As a shareholder of Abundance, I was never informed of this decision. It was only because I was a worker at the time that I knew anything about it. According to our interim general manager, the will of the board was the expressed will of the membership. That's funny; but whatever.

Well, today I started the slow and painful (yet fun and exciting) healing process of those decisions surrounding the surveillance cameras in Abundance. I did a bit of theatrics for the camera. That's right—playful antics. I made signs and flashed them before the hideous eye that spies on workers—another breach of manager/worker trust. My signs read: "Hello! [smiley face]" "Who's" "Watching" "The" "Watchers" "?" "Bye! [smiley face]" It was fun, but it also reminded me how much I hated those actions and betrayals.

This is great too! A former police officer, James Sheppard, is now the City School District's director of safety and security! Brilliant! And what does Mr. Sheppard suggest for East High?

"A summer training academy for sentries, a mobile security unit that can be dispatched to schools and a more data-dependent method of assigning district security personnel," the D&C reported.

It sounds like the prison conditions in Rochester City Schools are going to be elevated to new heights! And why not? When you have a former police officer working as the safety and security director in an environment of Zero Tolerance of course the name of the game is to criminalize, punish, and stifle any kind of action outside of law and order!

But that's funny because it corresponds to the actions of Abundance's board and interim general manager. What am I talking about? Read for yourself:

Q: How effective are cameras?
A: Conclusions around the effectiveness of security
cameras are mixed. Any news story you pick up about a
crime that has occurred might say that the cameras
helped in the apprehension of a criminal, or that they
were no help at all. I believe each circumstance to be
different. Both the police and Ernie [Abundance's
security specialist] unequivocally stated that
they are of huge benefit. And I know that
if we were to experience another armed robbery at the
store, I would be negligent if again we had no way
whatsoever of helping to identify the criminal other
than a living witness at the store.
 
It just seems so stupid to me. If you ask the police and security industry people if cameras are effective and if you should have them of COURSE they are going to tell you cameras are necessary and potentially successful! It's an industry of FEAR. They need fear to fuel edgy, stressed out, uncritical types to lay down the cash so they can go home and feed themselves and their families! Duh.

Oh, oh! April 25 marked the day that a judge—not a jury—acquitted 3 of 5 officers "of all counts" in the 50-bullet-murder of unarmed Sean Bell in NYC! Speaking of NYC, April 26th marked the day Operation TORCH was implemented: sub-machine-gun-toting cops with bomb-sniffing dogs in the subways!

What am I getting at (?)—another friend of mine told me that a coworker of his was writing a letter to the editor of the D&C demanding police surveillance cameras be installed in the City of Rochester immediately. Fucking Christ people. The City and the cops already have those plans. Just sit back, relax, take your soma, and sooner or later they'll be there and you won't have to worry your pretty little heads!

What am I getting at? I'm pissed off. I'm angry at the cops. I'm angry that it takes so much struggle to get people to realize that these things are NOT in their best interests and that these kinds of policies simply perpetuate a culture of fear, violence, and distrust. These actions don't build solidarity and they don't build community. They are further marginalizing people and dividing potential allies. I'm also saying that all these events are connected and I could find other examples. What's happening here is similar to every other city in the US. Read your history and your radical news outlets.

"The only limit to the oppression of government is the power with which the people show themselves capable of opposing it. Conflict may be open or latent; but it always exists since the government does not pay attention to discontent and popular resistance except when it is faced with the danger of insurrection.

"When the people meekly submit to the law, or their protests are feeble and confined to words, the government studies its own interests and ignores the needs of the people; when the protests are lively, insistent, threatening, the government, depending on whether it is more or less understanding, gives way or resorts to repression. But one always comes back to insurrection, for if the government does give way, then the people gain confidence in themselves and make ever increasing demands, until such time as the incompatibility between freedom and authority becomes clear and the violent struggle is engaged."
—Errico Malatesta, 1920

The silver-lining? Well, there's got to be a little lining, right? In the City today, there's a great call to action commentary from Ian Downey for the Do-It-Yourself music scene here in Rochester. It seems like the bees are a buzzin' and people are getting agitated. This is a good thing. Also in the City this week is a small note about the NYCLU filing a brief against the youth curfew in Rochester. I had a look at that law a few weeks ago and the exemptions were startling. Check out exception E below:

E. The minor was in the public place for the specific purpose of exercising fundamental rights such as freedom of speech or religion or the right of assembly protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution or Article I of the Constitution of the State of New York, as opposed to generalized social association with others;

It's pretty amazing. Someone, somewhere, saw that this law was unconstitutional and made a provision to allow people to express themselves via the 1st Amendment of our Constitution. That's pretty silver. You wouldn't know it though. The TV and the papers—cough, cough, choke—Democrat and Chronicle—hack, hack, cough, choke—utilized fear to promote this campaign without really even questioning the legality of this ordinance. I remember story after story telling us that the curfew was going to save us from crime and youth violence—like police spy cameras are going to do as well. But there were no splashy stories about the exceptions or the constitutionality or even the ability of teens to assert their rights—let alone adults.

WHO IS WATCHING THE WATCHERS?

Don't agonize, organize!