SF Bay Area Indymedia indymedia
Indybay About Contact Newsletter Calendar Publish Community

Santa Cruz Indymedia | Police State

Surveillance Camera Walking Tour in Downtown Santa Cruz
by ~Bradley ( bradley [at] riseup.net )
Thursday May 4th, 2006 7:57 PM
On April 30th, I attended Free Skool Santa Cruz's Surveillance Camera Walking Tour. After meeting at the Clocktower, we walked up Mission Street to get a bird's eye view of the downtown. Our class started off with about a dozen people, including professor Winston Smith. In addition to pointing out cameras, our lesson for the day was to discuss various types of surveillance and the effects it has on individuals and society.
moonzoom_4-30-06.jpg
moonzoom_4-30-06.jpg

Here's the class description as published on the SC-IMC calendar.

Free Skool Santa Cruz presents:
Surveillance Camera Walking Tour Clocktower downtown

with Winston Smith

A Sunday stroll around the downtown grid identifying contemporary methods of surveillance. We will derivé, or drift, through the evermore controlled terrain of public space with the intention of understanding camera placements and capabilities, as well as the behaviors conditioned by the idiom 'you are being watched.'

Sun Apr 30, Sun May 7 1pm

-------------

For information on Free Skool Santa Cruz, check:
http://santacruz.freeskool.org

------------

Only someone completely distrustful of all government
would be opposed to what we are doing with surveillance cameras.
-- NYC Police Commissioner Howard Safir, 27 July 1999.

the Surveillance Camera Players:
completely distrustful of all government.

New York Surveillance Camera Players
http://www.notbored.org/the-scp.html

------------

For more information on Surveillance, I highly suggest reading:

The Soft Cage: Surveillance In America - From Slave Passes To The War On Terror
http://www.akpress.org/2004/items/softcage

Big Brother is watching you 24/7
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0918/p20s02-bogn.html


Here's some audio (and a rough transcript) focused on prisons and capitalism

Lockdown America in 22 Minutes
http://historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/audiocparenti.html

mp3: http://historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/cparenti.mp3
Crossroads
by ~Bradley ( bradley [at] riseup.net ) Thursday May 4th, 2006 7:57 PM
crossroads_4-30-06.jpg
crossroads_4-30-06.jpg

Doctor, What Are You Doing To Us?
by ~Bradley ( bradley [at] riseup.net ) Thursday May 4th, 2006 7:57 PM
dr_4-30-06.jpg
dr_4-30-06.jpg

Surveillance cameras on Caffe Pergolesi's side patio
Snip Snip
by ~Bradley ( bradley [at] riseup.net ) Thursday May 4th, 2006 7:57 PM
snip-snip_4-30-06.jpg
snip-snip_4-30-06.jpg

The wires for Caffe Pergolesi's outside cameras have been snipped
Surveillance Camera Inside Caffe Pergolesi
by ~Bradley ( bradley [at] riseup.net ) Thursday May 4th, 2006 7:57 PM
pergs_4-30-06.jpg
pergs_4-30-06.jpg

Parking Garage at Cedar and Church
by ~Bradley ( bradley [at] riseup.net ) Thursday May 4th, 2006 7:57 PM
cedar-garage-camera_4-30-06.jpg
cedar-garage-camera_4-30-...

Santa Cruz City Hall
by ~Bradley ( bradley [at] riseup.net ) Thursday May 4th, 2006 7:57 PM
city-hall_4-30-06.jpg
city-hall_4-30-06.jpg

See the Camera
by ~Bradley ( bradley [at] riseup.net ) Thursday May 4th, 2006 7:57 PM
see-thru_4-30-06.jpg
see-thru_4-30-06.jpg

Reflection
by ~Bradley ( bradley [at] riseup.net ) Thursday May 4th, 2006 7:57 PM
reflection_4-30-06.jpg
reflection_4-30-06.jpg

Outside the Catalyst
by ~Bradley ( bradley [at] riseup.net ) Thursday May 4th, 2006 7:57 PM
catalyst_4-30-06.jpg
catalyst_4-30-06.jpg

Video and Audio Recording Inside the Catalyst
by ~Bradley ( bradley [at] riseup.net ) Thursday May 4th, 2006 7:57 PM
audio_4-30-06.jpg
audio_4-30-06.jpg

A Camera to Watch Us Eat Pizza and Drink
by ~Bradley ( bradley [at] riseup.net ) Thursday May 4th, 2006 7:57 PM
pizza-watching_4-30-06.jpg
pizza-watching_4-30-06.jpg

Santa Cruz Metro Center
by ~Bradley ( bradley [at] riseup.net ) Thursday May 4th, 2006 7:57 PM
metro_4-30-06.jpg
metro_4-30-06.jpg

Alley by the Santa Cruz Metro Center
by ~Bradley ( bradley [at] riseup.net ) Thursday May 4th, 2006 7:57 PM
metro-alley_4-30-06.jpg
metro-alley_4-30-06.jpg

No Films For This Cinema 9 Camera
by ~Bradley ( bradley [at] riseup.net ) Thursday May 4th, 2006 7:57 PM
no-movies_4-30-06.jpg
no-movies_4-30-06.jpg

Shoppers Will Be Watched
by ~Bradley ( bradley [at] riseup.net ) Thursday May 4th, 2006 7:57 PM
shoplifters_4-30-06.jpg
shoplifters_4-30-06.jpg

What Is This Camera On the Palomar Looking At?
by ~Bradley ( bradley [at] riseup.net ) Thursday May 4th, 2006 7:57 PM
palomar-inn_4-30-06.jpg
palomar-inn_4-30-06.jpg

Answer: People drinking coffee (etc) in SCCRC's small patio area
Keeping An Eye On the Outside From Inside the Coffee Roasting Company
by ~Bradley ( bradley [at] riseup.net ) Thursday May 4th, 2006 7:57 PM
cctv_4-30-06.jpg
cctv_4-30-06.jpg

Inside the Coffee Roasting Company
by ~Bradley ( bradley [at] riseup.net ) Thursday May 4th, 2006 7:57 PM
sccrc_4-30-06.jpg
sccrc_4-30-06.jpg

Another Camera Inside the Coffee Roasting Company
by ~Bradley ( bradley [at] riseup.net ) Thursday May 4th, 2006 7:57 PM
phone_4-30-06.jpg
phone_4-30-06.jpg


Comments  (Hide Comments)

surveillance
by kaili
Wednesday May 10th, 2006 3:11 PM
I just want to remind people that some surveillance is good. Especially in parking garages. Just last week my co-worker had her fuel line cut in her car while it was parked in the parking garage on cedar street by cafe limelight. Cutting someone's fuel line in their car can kill them. Someone was making an attempt on her life and because there was no surveillance she has no idea who or what to watch out for. Don't forget also that just two years ago there was the man who kept attempting rape on young females who were going to their cars in the parking garage on Walnut Street. I am not personally okay with all of this spying that the government is allowing, but having a visual of people trying to hurt or kill innocent people can prevent further attacks. we have to consider all the reasons for surveillance.
What is not surveillance
by Rico
Wednesday May 10th, 2006 5:15 PM
camera.giflbwmvt.gif
camera.giflbwmvt.gif

Thanks Bradley for the photos and the report. I'm sorry I missed the class.

Here are things that are commonly thought to be cameras but are not:

* The little box with the eye above floodlights. That is a motion sensor box, and while part of the security aparatus, not a camera.
* The very camera-looking things mounted above some traffic lights. They are cameras for a type, but are intended to tell the traffic signal when to change. They replace the maintenance-intensive inductive wire sensors buried in the street. While they may be able to be modified to record images, they function as traffic sensors only.
* smaller devices mounted over stop lights. These are designed to pick up the strobe flashes from emergency vehicles to turn the light green.
* not all smoked glass bubbles in stores are cameras. Sometimes they are just theft-deterents.

Places where there are always cameras that could potentionally record your movement:

* tollbooths
* auto bridges
* auto tunnels
* ATM machines

Lastly, note where the cameras are trained in retail business. Less often on the customers and more often watching the register and the employees. This is because the vast majority of loss in a retail store is the result of employee theft.

Here are some interesting articles:

How to ZAP a Camera: Using Lasers to Temporarily Neutralize Camera Sensors
http://www.naimark.net/projects/zap/howto.html

Guide to Closed Circuit Television Destruction
http://www.rtmark.com/cctv/
Ballot Referendum to Put Surveillance Cameras in Philly Neighborhoods
by Aaron Couch, Philly IMC
Friday May 19th, 2006 12:48 PM
Is 'Big Brother' coming to a street corner near you? A ballot referendum on Tuesday's primary election will decide whether video cameras can be deployed throughout the city (of Philadelphia, PA). The referendum, handing sweeping powers of surveillance to the City, is vaguely worded and has had little public dialogue.

full story here:
http://www.phillyimc.org/en/2006/05/22970.shtml
Its Sad
by Annie on the Fray
Monday May 22nd, 2006 1:03 PM
It's a Sad day when FREE Americans are held prisoner by the Powers that be. Though our right to change is constantly shoved in our face we know the Whole Truth and Nothing But and that is that we really can't change what the big wheel is grinding out such as Mom & PoPs or even change the direction it is going. So we must live like PRISONERS in our FREE
FREE Americans??
by Wutsat?
Monday May 22nd, 2006 9:19 PM
No such beast. Never has been. Only slaves, fools, and the class parasites who claw into their guts like cancer til they drop dead. They're all insane with greed, so it's not like a soul of them would know the difference. Hell, it's greed what brought 'em skittering onto these shores like rats in the first place, snapping and snarling to grab up LAND man! All they had to do was encircle some village of the only free Americans there ever were, the ones who spoke stuff like Hokan and Algonquian, beat some baby's head in with a big stick and slurp its splattered brains off the ground with bloodthirsty relish. What a bargain! Who'd turn that down? Someone who wasn't inhuman fucked up garbage you say? Well there ya go! After all, we're CIVILIZED. Yeah. Give us a good look at real freedom and we'd just be grossed out, our asses puckered up tight around that Silver Spoon. We carry our prison cells around with us everywhere, all-in-our-heads like, and we dang proud of it! Murkah tha wunnaful!
Owner
by Karl
( the [at] cruzio.com ) Friday May 26th, 2006 3:23 PM
The reason we installed cameras was to try and stop the vandelism,under aged drinking of alcohol, and damaged caused by people hanging out after the Cafe was closed. We're definitely not into violating a persons privacy but after owning a buiness and losing thousands of dollars to vandalism you start doing what ever it takes to curb people that don't have respect for other people and cause damage at the same time. If anyone has a better way to curb the vandalism, under age drinking and trespassing we would be more than happy to hear it. The cameras were the last reort.
Owner
by Karl
( theperg [at] cruzio.com ) Friday May 26th, 2006 3:25 PM
This picture is a prime example of the vandalism we are trying to curb. Great picture!
Owner
by Karl
( theperg,com ) Friday May 26th, 2006 3:28 PM
This camera actually caught someone breakiong into the cafe at 4:00 am one morning. Once they saw the camera they left without taking anything and the police have their picture on file.