The many ways the government is watching us with an emphasis on digital spying
An October letter to the Department of Justice by 52 civil rights and civil liberties organizations (including MA) cited growing evidence that the widespread and illegitimate use of facial recognition devices has disproportionate impact on youth, women, African-Americans and people of Middle eastern descent through identifiable anomalies in the algorithims used. Continue reading Facial Recognition Software: Biased as Hell
Update: The Berkeley City Council had a lengthy and contentious meeting that ended with arrests. Here is a Media Alliance op-ed and the meeting video is available here if you have six hours to kill.
Oakland law firm Siegel and Yee sent a cure and correct letter after the meeting ended in a police riot, but has yet to initiate litigation.
The upshot is that the City of Berkeley reiterated an “intention” to eventually pull out of Urban Shield, but failed to actually do so. CM Ben Bartlett says he is assembling a blue ribbon commission to address Berkeley’s participation in Urban Shield.
For the latest Power Point presentation about the police militarization exercise prepared by the Alameda County Sheriffs Office, click here.
On June 20, 2017, the Berkeley City Council will consider (for the 4th time in 2017 and the 6th time in the last two years, whether to pull out of the police militarization expo.
Join us at Longfellow Middle School at 1500 Derby Street in Berkeley to see if history will be made with the first California city getting on the record in opposition to the militarization of local law enforcement.
See below for the Stop Urban Shield Coalition’s report, and videos of Urban Shield exercises and SWAT exercises.
Oakland, CA-On Monday, April 30 2012, several prominent national and California groups filed formal Comments with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) condemning the 2011 wireless shutdown by the Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART). The shutdown happened in the wake of protests following a shooting death at the Civic Center BART station. Continue reading MA and NLG-Committee on Democratic Communications File Wireless Shutdown Comments
San Francisco- Media Alliance joined 18 other not for profit membership associations, including the CalGuns Foundation, Greenpeace, People for the American Way, the Council on islamic-American Relations and many others, as plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) against the National Security Administration (NSA) , the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Justice (DOJ). Named defendants included Attorney General Eric Holder, NSA Director Keith Alexander and National Intelligence Director James Clapper.
The lawsuit focuses on the broad telephone metadata collection program reported in the Washington Post and UK Guardian in June of 2013. The lawsuit cites the freedom of association clause in the 1st Amendment to the Constitution and NAACP vs Alabama (1958), a case which denied government unfettered access to the membership lists of the civil rights organization. The lawsuit alleges a chilling effect on the freedom of individuals to associate.
WASHINGTON, DC – On March 16, 45 civil rights, public policy and public interest organizations, including ColorOfChange, Open Technology Institute, Media Alliance, the Center for Media Justice and Public Knowledge, will deliver a letter and petition demanding that the FCC and DOJ investigate law enforcement’s largely unregulated use of military-grade cellular surveillance devices, called Stingrays. Continue reading Groups Ask FCC and DOJ to Investigate Law Enforcement’s Warrantless Use of Cellular Surveillance Devices
Santa Clara County may be the first in the nation to implement a transparency ordinance controlling the purchase and use of all spying equipment in the county. Continue reading Surveillance Equipment Transparency Ordinance May Debut in Santa Clara County
Press Release from the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
WASHINGTON –A broad coalition of civil rights, privacy, and media rights organizations released shared civil rights principles for the use of body worn cameras by law enforcement. Continue reading Civil Rights Principles for Police Body Cameras
In the early hours of the morning of June 3, Oakland’s City Council, nearing the end of a 9 hour marathon meeting, approved unanimously the nation’s first citizen-developed privacy policy. Continue reading Oakland Passes Privacy Policy At 3:00AM
