Increased surveillance is the quick answer—not the right answer. Just like after 9/11, we’re seeing a rush to implement policies after the events of January 6 that will make us “safer,” but will end up doing more harm than good. Law enforcement agencies claim the use of facial recognition technology (and other forms of high-tech policing) will help identify those who break the law, but we’ve seen time and time again how these tools disproportionately harm historically oppressed communities while letting violent white supremacists go free. MediaJustice Executive Director Steven Renderos explains in The Los Angeles Times.
“Black, brown, poor, trans and immigrant communities are routinely over-policed, and that’s no different when it comes to surveillance…This is always the response to moments of crises: Let’s expand our policing, let’s expand the reach of surveillance. But it hasn’t done much in the way of keeping our communities actually safe from violence…To be Black, to be Muslim, to be a woman, to be an immigrant in the United States is to be surveilled. How much more surveillance will it take to make us safe? The short answer is, it won’t.”
Steven Renderos via The Los Angeles Times
