Thanks to everyone who came out to Monday’s Cambridge City Council meeting and spoke in opposition to increasing surveillance cameras. Thanks also to Digital 4th and the Mass. ACLU for turning people out for this meeting.
Cambridge Day reported on the meeting and included statements from various commenters including me. A video recording is available.
If you want to send your comments to the City Council, email them to council@cambridgema.gov.
Thank you to Mayor Simmons and the City Council for allowing me to speak before you. My name is James O’Keefe. I am chair of the Massachusetts Pirate Party and I live in Somerville. I am speaking on CMA 2024 #149.
Cambridge does not need more surveillance cameras.
Cambridge had no murders last year. Its rate of violent crime is lower than that of other similarly sized cities – even though those cities generally have extensive public surveillance camera networks.
Cambridge was one of the first cities to pass a surveillance ordinance, without which City Councilors wouldn’t even have a say in this matter. Cambridge is a successful, innovative, 21st-century city in which people want to work and live. It has succeeded because it treats residents and vistors as human beings and not as people to be watched or feared.
Expanding the number of surveillance cameras, especially in the city’s major squares, will be used by police to monitor and identify the organizers of peaceful protests. That video will be shared with the Boston Regional Information Center (BRIC). It will go on people’s permanent records.
Attorney generals of states that ban abortions will request the video Cambridge police record to track down women visiting the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center in Central Square. Can you honestly tell me that Cambridge police could deny such a request? Do you want aiding the persecution of women for activities that are legal in the Commonwealth on your conscience?
The only way to protect people from misuse of surveillance data is not to gather it at all. The Pirate Party urges you to reject this attempt to expand the number of surveillance cameras im Cambridge.
Thank you.
Thanks to everyone who came out to Monday’s Cambridge City Council meeting and spoke in opposition to increasing surveillance cameras. Thanks also to Digital 4th and the Mass. ACLU for turning people out for this meeting.
Cambridge Day reported on the meeting and included statements from various commenters including me. A video recording is available.
If you want to send your comments to the City Council, email them to council@cambridgema.gov.
Thank you to Mayor Simmons and the City Council for allowing me to speak before you. My name is James O’Keefe. I am chair of the Massachusetts Pirate Party and I live in Somerville. I am speaking on CMA 2024 #149.
Cambridge does not need more surveillance cameras.
Cambridge had no murders last year. Its rate of violent crime is lower than that of other similarly sized cities – even though those cities generally have extensive public surveillance camera networks.
Cambridge was one of the first cities to pass a surveillance ordinance, without which City Councilors wouldn’t even have a say in this matter. Cambridge is a successful, innovative, 21st-century city in which people want to work and live. It has succeeded because it treats residents and vistors as human beings and not as people to be watched or feared.
Expanding the number of surveillance cameras, especially in the city’s major squares, will be used by police to monitor and identify the organizers of peaceful protests. That video will be shared with the Boston Regional Information Center (BRIC). It will go on people’s permanent records.
Attorney generals of states that ban abortions will request the video Cambridge police record to track down women visiting the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center in Central Square. Can you honestly tell me that Cambridge police could deny such a request? Do you want aiding the persecution of women for activities that are legal in the Commonwealth on your conscience?
The only way to protect people from misuse of surveillance data is not to gather it at all. The Pirate Party urges you to reject this attempt to expand the number of surveillance cameras im Cambridge.
Thank you.