Greetings friends, check out what we’ve been up to:
On Tuesday (7/4), the Coalition held our monthly webinar on the policing of gender and sexuality. Chella recounted the history of the Stonewall Rebellion and the Queer Liberation movement, and how it ties to how Pride is celebrated today. Matyos and Hamid discussed how historically criminalized behaviors are being tracked and recorded in an information sharing environment. We talked about how this especially poses a threat to our communities today, when states are passing anti-trans and anti-queer legislation and relying on information gathered to criminalize our communities. Matyos also talked about how the most recent update to the LAPD PATHE program includes assessing communities for risk factors for extremism that include gender identity issues.
During Thursday’s (7/6) episode of Radio Insurrection, we discussed the lineage of LAPD’s information gathering and infiltration practices and how this long standing mission is being operationalized today. We also discussed LAPD’s ever increasing social media surveillance capabilities including the utilization of third-party social media surveillance tools, and also discussed the utilization of false online personas to monitor the social media accounts of individuals deemed criminal. You can listen to our conversation at kpfk.org/archives.
Later that day we kicked off our six week internship with students from Fairfax High School’s Peace and Social Justice Club at LA CAN. Students were introduced to the work being done at Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, and also had an opportunity to discuss and share what they have been working on during their school year.
To plug in with any of the work groups listed above, or for more information about the Stop
LAPD Spying Coalition, email us at stoplapdspying@gmail.com.
If you or your organization are interested in hosting a teach-in or discussion regarding our report, Automating Banishment, please fill out this google form.