Thanks to everyone who came out to our camera mapping outing and party. Thanks to Micky and John for organizing them.

This Friday at 10am the City of Boston Public Safety Committee will decide whether to approve federal grants of up to $3.4 million for the Boston Regional Intelligence Center (BRIC). The BRIC is one of two Federal/State/Local police fusion centers in Massachusetts, but is run out of the Boston Police Department. Our friends at Restore the 4th Massachusetts summarize them as:

By 2021, a mountain of evidence had accumulated that the Boston Regional Intelligence Center (BRIC), run out of the Boston Police Department, was spying on the residents of Boston and its surrounding municipalities, without reasonable suspicion of a resident’s personal involvement in an actual crime. Their racist “gang database” targets young people of color, even in some cases deporting them, without their having committed any crime. Their license plate reader systems keep tabs on where Bostonians come and go; they harass and intimidate filmmakers, Black Lives Matter protesters, and journalists engaging in First Amendment-protected activity. And nobody has ever obtained redress from them for violating Boston residents’ rights.

We have long opposed the BRIC and urge you to speak out accepting this funding tomorrow in person, virtually or by email. If you or others are interested in providing testimony in person, please sign up on the sign-in sheet near the door when you arrive in the Chamber on Friday. Anyone interested in providing virtual public testimony via Zoom, please email Christine O’Donnell (christine.odonnell@boston.gov) directly to be added to the list for public testimony. The Committee will accept written testimony sent to ccc.ps@boston.gov.

This meeting isn’t our only opportunity to stop this funding, but stopping it early is best.

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