I am currently incandescent with rage about
something else entirely that I'm told I can't talk about yet, so let me sublimate that instinct with this unrelated story:
The SFPD "Real-Time Investigation Center" is the surveillance nightmare funded by a $9.4 million "donation" from billionaire Chris Larsen and another $3 million "donation" from Salesforce and Trump quisling Marc Benioff.
"We're going to be covering the entire city with drones," said RTIC representative Captain Thomas MacGuire.
Because there's nothing fascists like more than keeping the populace under constant surveillance.
(Funny story about this Chris Larsen guy, he calls himself a "privacy activist". How does a "privacy activist" end up buying cameras for cops? Oh that's easy; when he says "privacy" he means "financial privacy" which means "tax evasion" and "cryptocurrencies".)
Well. Besides partnering with enthusiastic ICE accomplices Flock, they have now begun "reaching out" to local businesses to really build out that Public-Private Panopticon Partnership. From a recent couple of emails we received from some private company who apparently got an SFPD contract to recruit for this grift:
Vale is building a direct link between SOMA and SFPD's Real-Time Investigation Center, the same unit that's already helped with over 500 arrests. We'd love your feedback on what to build to make SOMA safer and help businesses flourish. [...]
By tying businesses directly into the RTIC, SFPD can respond faster with evidence that actually leads to an arrest. We're reaching out to businesses to build a list of the first 100 businesses to roll out Vale's product with.
Let me know if you'd like your business included in Vale's Pilot with the City or just want to learn more about what we're doing to clean up SOMA.
My best guess as to how to translate that: "We want real-time access to your security cameras, and/or to install our own cameras on your property. And if you happen to have facial recognition at the door, well Hello Sailor!"
It sounds like Vale is a Nextdoor clone (that's the Weaponized Karens snitchware app whose main function is reporting people for Walking While Black.)
And it looks like the founder and CEO (Jon Goldsmith and Andrew Munday) also run a "ghost kitchens" company (that means "ratfucking independent restaurants".) Their third partner? Disgraced former SFPD Chief Greg Suhr.
Did I respond to those emails? I did.
The "Real-Time Investigation Center" is the most dystopian shit I've ever heard of. we want nothing to do with the surveillance nightmare you and your billionaire fascist buddies are trying to purchase for yourselves. Unsubscribe.