More Surveillance Is Rarely The Answer

Archive

Mar 2

While the U.S. saw Tyre’s final moments at the overly-violent hands and feet of Memphis’s former anti-violence unit, I saw something else.

I saw the vantage point.

*Here’s looking at you, and you and you | Created by Jay W. Austin & DALL•E*

They beat the shit out him and slumped him up against a squad car. A visual metaphor for how the culture of policing treats its Black brothers.

He fell over, over and over.

They sat him back up each time then left him. That’s recidivsm.

What might become the most important visual evidence of the entire situation was viewed through the eyes of SkyCop, a surveillance system that is spreading throughout the U.S.

*The header image on SkyCop’s site on February 9, 2023*

SkyCop is a Memphis-based company that offers a “finely targeted system identifies disturbances, helps track perpetrators and identifies crime hot spots efficiently so law enforcement can intervene. Our audio and video surveillance systems employ superior technology for gunshot identification, thermal imaging and license plate recognition.”

But in this case, it caught policing.

Be cautious of more surveillance.

This shit picking up your license plate as you drive safely, your face as you add things to your compost, and do absolutely nothing to address the main drivers of criminality: poverty, inequity, and mental health.

Aye, I’m Jay. You’re on my personal site where I post things I make about interrupting mass incarceration, protecting migration, environmental justice & sustainability, language, communications, storytelling, creativity, and tech.

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