Protest and Cameras – BLM
Sometime ago, Rumbo wrote several articles in regards to the surveillance cameras that were popping up in and around the City of Lawrence.
Rumbo decided to revisit this topic due to the nature of the recent Black Lives Matter protest that occurred in the City of Lawrence. Additionally, we are also revisiting the cameras of Lawrence due to the fact that the City Councilors of Boston are also currently revisiting banning the use facial recognition and Rumbo wanted to see how the cameras are used for that purpose.
For Boston the ban would prevent any city agency from using face surveillance software and ensure that people are not subject to unregulated, mass surveillance in public spaces. But do people of Lawrence know how it affects them? The last time we wrote about this topic we provided several examples. But we have a couple new examples of how the cameras are being used.
In Lawrence, and other cities, (such as at protests like the ones that have shaken Boston and other cities since last month’s killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, at the hands of a white Minneapolis police officer) have been pretty chaotic. If you found yourself in Lawrence during the recent protest that occur June 4-8 , you should know that your face was captured by police cameras in and around the areas that these protests took place as well as in any other areas, of the city, that you immediately visited afterwards.
Furthermore, Rumbo has received unofficial information that the cameras are being used to capture places where people are not complying with facial mask rules of the City of Lawrence. This is certainly not a high crime issue to use the cameras, but the videos capture facial features that are shared with other law enforcement agencies.
There is a notion that these cameras are used to solve crime, but also they are used to be a bit lazy in police work or calls. A recent arrest was made by LPD on two individuals for using illegal fireworks in the city by using these cameras. Although, I am all for going after individuals who break the law, we question the manner that these arrest are being made. After all, in an era of Black Lives Matter, we should be looking for systems of racial inequity.
On Monday, June 8, 2020, International Business Machine (IBM) announced that it was removing the company out of the facial-recognition business over concern about how it can be used for mass surveillance and racial profiling. “We will not sell facial-recognition technology to police departments in the United States until we have a national law in place, grounded in human rights, that will govern this technology,” Microsoft President Brad Smith said, according to an article on the Washington Post.
Moreover, employees of Amazon have made their concerns to the owner over facial recognition and racial inequity which forced Amazon to place a one-year moratorium on letting police use its facial recognition technology, calling for strong government regulations for its ethical use.
The technology’s use by government officials has been controversial due to its inaccuracy, especially when it comes to people of color, the MIT Technology Review reported in December.
In February 2020, Congress held hearings on the use of facial recognition following a federal government report that found the technology has more difficulty accurately reading faces, based on race, gender and age. Rumbo agrees that such errors could easily result in bias. The House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee will hear testimony from the federal report, that found depending on the algorithm used, facial recognition software lead to “false positives,” particularly among Native Americans, Asians and African Americans, including women of color.
So Rumbo wants to hear from you, especially from a new group called Black Lawrence Activist Collective or any nearby BLM official representative, on the use of facial recognitions and surveillance cameras.
How to combat racism
This picture was posted on my Facebook account because it’s Denzel Washington, someone I greatly admire and I like the message: “This is how you stop racism! An innocent black man was murdered by a corrupt white cop.”
Notice that the words “black” and “white” were crossed out. Why can’t we just say the same without mentioning their races? A crime is the same no matter who commits it.
The reason for bringing it up here is because that hit home with me. How many times have we seen newspapers mentioning the nationality of criminals taken into custody? We have become so used to seeing in print things like, “Dominican arrested…”, “Illegal alien from the Dominican Republic using false documents…”, “Dominican arrested in Boston who used to live in Lawrence…” and so on.
Have you seen a news item mentioning the nationality of someone committing a crime?
Yes, we have a drug problem in this city and many people without the proper credentials to be in this country but, the media contributes greatly to the negative reputation of Lawrence. People take for granted what they read and worse than that, at times they don’t even read the articles and judge by the headlines or the pictures attached to the story.
That happened when I posted that picture originally. Someone wrote:
“The Rumbo is the most racist paper since the Lowell Sun. These posts are absolute garbage. The first step in stopping racism is to ignore that white police violence is primarily directed against black people? Really?
I didn’t bother responding because this is one of those people whose mind is made up (against Rumbo, me, Latinos, whatever) and it will be a waste of my precious breath. He didn’t bother to read that the races were crossed out.
Regarding being called “racists,” that is so ignorant after 24 years defending this community that it only attests to the fact that he has never seen a Rumbo issue to pass such judgment.
Like we say in Cuba: “We must plow with those oxen.”
Speaking of COVID-19
In a recent posting of Richard Russell (who is keeping track of the COVID-19 numbers) he stated that the numbers reported for Essex County were 31 victims, for Lawrence it was 8 victims. While the numbers are decreasing, Lawrence still 25% of Essex County’s victims. Lawrence only has about 11% of Essex County’s population.
When are people going to start asking the obvious questions? The problem is that most people do not follow those statistics and don’t understand them.
Clearly put: Lawrence represents 11% of the entire Essex County population but 25% of the victims of the entire county are here. There has to be some logic and no one explains!
