[News] SF & Oak - Thurs, April 10 - National Day Of Action - Shut Down Spy Centers

[Anti-Imperialist News]

*For Immediate Release--April 9, 2014*

*What:* *SHUT DOWN THE SPY CENTERS, National Day Of Action*

* *

*When*: *April 10, 11am*  at the Northern California Regional 
Intelligence Center, located at the San Francisco Federal Building, 450 
Golden Gate Blvd /to be followed with a rally/

6:00 in Oakland at the Oakland City Hall, 1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza

* *

*Who:* In San Francisco: Nadia Kayyali, Electronic Frontier Foundation; 
Isaac Ontiveros, Critical Resistance; Brian Hofer, Oakland Privacy 
Working Group

In Oakland: Cinthya Munoz, Causa Justa:Just Cause;  Dustin Craun, 
Lighthouse Mosque/PICO; Matthew Kellegrew, Bill of Rights Defense 
Committee; Cat Brooks, ONYX Organizing Committee

* *

* *

*Contact: **Brian Hofer, Oakland Privacy Working Group, (510) 303-2871, 
brian.hofer at gmail.com***

*On April 10^th , activists across the country will come together to say:*

*1. Shut down all fusion centers*

*2. Stop funding fusion centers*

*3. Release all suspicious activity reports and other secret files*

* *

An estimated 85 fusion centers across the country, partially funded by 
the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), "fuse" information from 
local, state, and federal law enforcement and other agencies, creating 
an unprecedented level of total information awareness for law 
enforcement. Fusion centers were originally intended to provide shared 
intelligence information to prevent terrorist attacks. They have become 
panopticons that enable racial profiling and political repression.

Here in the Bay area, we say NO to dragnet surveillance in our 
communities. We know that our local law enforcement already has problems:

The Oakland Police Department has been continuously embroiled in 
litigation around violent suppression of political speech and vigilante 
justice targeting people of color. In March, Oakland narrowed but did 
not end plans to move forward with its own mini fusion center, a "domain 
awareness center" funded partly by DHS dollars, even as harassment of 
the city's Arab and Muslim populations by the FBI skyrocketed.

San Francisco is undergoing a violent wave of gentrification aided by 
police. On March 21^st , a young unarmed man of color, Alex Nieto, was 
shot dead by the SFPD in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood after a 
suspicious person called the police on him. We also know that SFPD 
participates wholesale in suspicious activity reporting to fusion 
centers, that the Arab, Muslim, and South Asian community of San 
Francisco has been targeted by the FBI, and that both police departments 
work directly with the FBI through Joint Terrorism Task Force agreements.

We cannot ignore the connection between dragnet surveillance and biased 
and oppressive policing. Dragnet surveillance and fusion centers enable 
police to target communities ever more precisely.

What's more, fusion centers do not operate in a vacuum. In March the New 
York Times revealed that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court 
(FISC) approved the sharing of raw NSA data with the National 
Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), the agency that coordinates information 
sharing among various intelligence agencies. NSA spying has come home to 
roost; through fusion centers, your local police may have access, 
without a warrant, to all the data the NSA has on you.* *

The Bay Area events are part of a nationwide "Shut down the Spy Centers" 
coalition. Events have been confirmed for April 10 in: Chicago, IL, Los 
Angeles, CA; Washington, DC, Boston, MA; Charlotte, NC; and Dallas, TX.

###


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Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
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