Feature Archives

UPDATE: Oakland City Council voted 6-0 to continue development of city-wide surveillance program.

The Domain Awareness Center started as a nationwide initiative to secure ports by networking sensors and cameras in and around the facilities. The Oakland DAC has ballooned into a surveillance program for the entire city. As planned, the center would integrate computer dispatch systems, gunshot detection microphones, license-plate readers, crime mapping software, stationary video cameras, private alarm detection programs, Twitter feeds, news feeds, other alerts, and eventually it could feature facial recognition. Civil liberties advocates intend to make a stand against the program at the Oakland City Council meeting on July 30.

Following the unauthorized release of information by Edward Snowden on June 7, the NSA has faced an unprecedented wave of public scrutiny. On July 23, the California Department of Corrections (CDC) "apprehended, rehabilitated and discharged" a billboard in San Francisco, one day before a U.S. House of Representatives vote that would have curtailed the NSA's surveillance inside the United States. On July 24th, the U.S. House of Representatives voted on an amendment to a military appropriations bill that would have eliminated funding for the agency’s vast phone data collection. The amendment was narrowly defeated by a margin of 205 to 217

On July 21, the Santa Cruz County Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) held a march and rally for Justice for Trayvon Martin and other citizens subjected to racial profiling, and Shoot First and Stand Your Ground laws. On Pacific Avenue, marchers sang "We Shall Not Be Moved," and later chanted, "Stop Racial Profiling." At the Town Clock, the group chanted "Justice for Trayvon," and circled up and held hands.

Following the acquittal of Trayvon Martin's killer, George Zimmerman, on July 13, hundreds took to the streets in Napa, Oakland, Sacramento, San Francsisco, San Jose, and Santa Cruz. At rallies, candle light vigils, and marches, community members have called for justice for Trayvon and an end to the racial profiling and police abuses that occur on a day-to-day basis across the country. Demonstrations for justice continue locally and nationally.

On July 3, an activist served representatives of the Santa Cruz County government with a written notice stating that the Sheriff department's policy of seizing the property of pre-trial homeless detainees violates federal code and the United States Constitution. The notice was accepted, and the activist believes that if a lawsuit is brought against the county, the authorities can not assert that they were unaware of the dangers they subject the homeless to.

Community members targeted by security guards paid by the City of Santa Cruz to patrol San Lorenzo Park say their free use of the area has been inhibited due to profiling. For years now, guards employed by First Alarm Security Services have been 'identifying,' and watching closely, individuals they perceive to be on probation or more generally, individuals they perceive to be undesirable for a variety of other reasons.

Faced with empty beds, demand concerns, and a bleak outlook, a report released by Anonymous on July 9 details why the hactivist group expects Corrections Corporation of America’s earnings to get smacked under the weight of current and future contract losses. CCA is a publicly-traded prison operator with a history of horrendous prison conditions and human rights abuses.