Category Archives: Press Room

Recent press releases issued by Media Alliance. Sometimes we’ll post newspaper, radio and broadcast interviews here as well.

Richmond Cuts Ties To ICE Data Brokers

On May 15th, the City Council of Richmond, CA voted 6-1 to enact a Sanctuary City Contracting ordinance, sponsored by Councilmembers Jovanka Beckles and Ada Recinos.

The Sanctuary City ordinance (model legislation can be found here) was developed by the 19-member Deport ICE coalition which seeks to strengthen sanctuary protections in California cities.

Continue reading Richmond Cuts Ties To ICE Data Brokers

36 Major Netroots Groups Launch StopTheFCC.net To Save Net Neutrality

On the day the FCC order ending net neutrality rules goes into effect, some of the country’s largest netroots group are launching an effort urging representatives to force a floor vote to save net neutrality

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 11, 2018
Contact: Mark Stanley, 202.681.7582, press@demandprogress.org

Today, with the FCC’s repeal of net neutrality protections set to go into effect, a coalition of major netroots groups is launching StopTheFCC.net.

StopTheFCC.net is an activism site that will drive hundreds of thousands of emails and tens of thousands of phone calls to representatives’ offices urging them to sign a discharge petition to force a floor vote on the Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to restore net neutrality. Continue reading 36 Major Netroots Groups Launch StopTheFCC.net To Save Net Neutrality

Victory Over Military Cop Convention

 

by Ann Garrison. Originally published in Black Agenda Report

“The best-selling t-shirt at the previous year’s expo: a picture of an assault weapon with the caption ‘Black Rifles Matter.’”

On March 27, the San Francisco Bay Area’s Stop Urban Shield Coalition claimed victory in its four-year battle to stop Urban Shield, a war games and weapons convention for cops held in Alameda County every year since 2007. Critical Resistance , one of the most active members of the coalition, wrote on its website:

Urban Shield represents everything our movements are fighting against — from collaborating and training with ICE, hosting the white supremacist militia the Oath Keepers, training with and sending officers to apartheid Israel, glorifying policing and militarization, exploiting tragedies and natural disasters and public health needs, and continuing to align with Alameda County Sheriff Ahern’s support of the Trump Administration — Urban Shield has no place in the Bay Area or anywhere.



I spoke to Tracy Rosenberg, Executive Director of Media Alliance and co-facilitator of Oa kland Privacy , a citizen’s coalition that works regionally to defend the right to privacy and enhance public transparency and oversight regarding the use of surveillance techniques and equipment. She has worked with the Stop Urban Shield Coalition since 2014.

Continue reading Victory Over Military Cop Convention

Surveillance cameras to be installed along I-80, Hwy 4 in East Bay

KGO-TV  December 18, 2017

Surveillance cameras will soon be installed along stretches of Interstate 80 and Highway 4 in Contra Costa County.

“We want people to know that there’s cameras on the freeways,” said Pittsburg Police Chief Brian Addington.

It’s in response to deadly freeway shootings. Addington says cameras in the cities have pushed gang violence onto the freeways where it’s harder for police to solve the crimes.

Continue reading Surveillance cameras to be installed along I-80, Hwy 4 in East Bay

Pittsburg city council votes to allow police to monitor freeway cameras in hopes of stopping shootings

KRON TV – December 28, 2017

PITTSBURG (KRON) — The Pittsburg city council unanimously voted on Monday night to allow the police department to monitor freeway cameras in hopes of stopping the shootings plaguing the roadways.

There is an average of one car shooting per week on Bay Area freeways, and most of them are in the East Bay.

Continue reading Pittsburg city council votes to allow police to monitor freeway cameras in hopes of stopping shootings

Alameda County Sheriff Hosted ICE at Urban Shield

Originally published in the East Bay Express by Caron Creighton and Susie O’Neill

Last September, officers from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) — the investigative arm of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — participated in Urban Shield, a controversial weekend-long SWAT training exercise and military equipment exposition organized and hosted by the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office.

Recently released photographs show HSI officers taking part in the counterterrorism simulations. They depict uniformed officers standing over fake gore-spattered actors and dummies, carrying off volunteers dressed as victims or combatants and approaching an unseen combatant with weapons raised.

Continue reading Alameda County Sheriff Hosted ICE at Urban Shield

Radio Diaries: 99% Invisible Podcast: Border Wall

This podcast looks at Trump’s border wall with a shout out to Oakland and Councilmember Abel Guillen’s prohibition on city business with any border wall contractor or supplier. MA Ed Tracy Rosenberg spoke in favor of the Border Wall contracting provision, which passed unanimously.

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