Homeland Security

National Park Service Proposed Limit on White House Protests

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New proposed rules from the National Park Service would make it substantially harder to hold rallies, demonstrations or protests in Washington and specifically on the streets and sidewalks surrounding the White House.

Among the changes suggested are a prohibition on 80% of the public area outside the White House, including Lafayette Park, a traditional site for protests for more than a hundred and fifty years. The NPS also proposes charging event organizers for the costs of monitoring and interfering with their protests, including charging  enhanced fees for barricades and surveillance and changing the permitting process to not require an answer until as little as 40 days beforehand, making it very difficult to organize large nationwide protests.

The comment period closes on Monday October 15th at 11:59PM EST, so there is still time to make your voice heard here.

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Immigration and ICE

Oakland Police Commission Rejects Closing of ICE Raid Untruthfulness Complaint

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On October 11, the Oakland Police Commission voted 5-1 to reject CPRA investigator Anthony Finnell’s investigation report and closing of the complaint filed in November of 2017 by Oakland Privacy Advisory Commission chair Brian Hofer and several co-complainants of untruthfulness by Oakland Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick in statements made about the August 2017 West Oakland ICE raid. East Bay Express: Oakland Review Agency Exonerates Police Chief Over False Statements Regarding ICE Raid.

The raid by Homeland Security Investigations on a home on 27th Street in West Oakland,which followed the termination of an OPD/ICE cooperation agreement, led to several charged hearings in Oakland and an eventual change in policy to avoid all cooperation with immigration enforcement and all divisions of ICE. Originally claimed to be a human trafficking operation, the raid was later revealed by diligent investigative work by Indybay reporter Dave ID, privacy chair Hofer and others, to have resulted in no criminal charges of any kind and the attempted deportation of a young undocumented Guatemalan man. 

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Internet of Things

How Smart Is The Smart City?

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Listen to a City Council meeting and you’ll never know what you’ll hear. Like on Tuesday September 25th, when we found out Berkeley was signing a franchise agreement for IKE Smart City kiosks.

After listening to the presentation, we had some questions.And we got some answers. And we followed up.

Pinhole cameras gone. Security cameras gone. People counters will now anonymize data.

That said, it was not enjoyable hearing the kiosk rep say that people counting data should be used by the city to see how many people are at protests. Wrong answer.

Oakland Privacy member Tracy Rosenberg wrote about that moment in the context of protests against the Trump regime.

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Uncategorized

Protecting Civil Rights Award

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Oakland Privacy is honored to receive a Protecting Civil Rights award from the San Francisco Bay chapter of the Council on Islamic-American Relations (CAIR).

The award ceremony will be held at CAIR-Bay Area’s 24th Annual Banquet on October 27th at the Santa Clara Convention Center. Tickets are $55 and include a full meal.

Please come, especially if you have been a part of Oakland Privacy’s journey.

Tickets here. 

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Immigration and ICE

Berkeley Set To Adopt Sanctuary Contracting Law

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On October 16th, Berkeley’s City Council can approve the nation’s second Sanctuary Contracting Ordinance.

In May of 2018, Richmond became the first city in the country to prevent municipal contracts with companies that sell data to ICE. Now it is Berkeley’s turn as we try to build a region-wide resistance that will change the business decisions of companies. Using public money to subsidize the high-tech hunting of immigrants is a choice and we can make another, better choice here in Northern California. Sanctuary is not just a slogan.

More at www.deportice.org

East Bay Express:  Opinion: Will Berkeley Make It’s Sanctuary Status Real?

Facebook Event: Deport ICE – Berkeley Sanctuary City Contracting Law

Body Worn Cameras, Public Records

Two Key Law Enforcement Transparency Bills Become Law in 2019

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In a rebuke to the state’s powerful law enforcement unions, California’s governor signed into law on September 30 two bills that will substantially increase law enforcement transparency.

The first, Assembly Bill 748, authored by SF rep Phil Ting, will mandate the eventual disclosure of police body camera videos when firearms are discharged or use of force results in death or great bodily injury. The bill premiminarily makes footage of critical incidents available after 45 days, with the ability for law enforcement to delay for as long as a year, but no longer.

The second, Senate Bill 1421, authored by East Bay rep Nancy Skinner, makes investigative and disciplinary records available as public records for incidents of firearms discharge, use of force resulting in death or critical injury, sexual assault or falsifying evidence. The bill preliminarily makes the records available after 60 days, with the ability of law enforcement to delay for as long as 18 months.

Both bills were strongly opposed by the Sheriff and Police Officers lobbying associations.