http://www.milforddailynews.com/state/x1851000821/Cambridge-balks-at-Big...

Hi, folks, Below I have cut and pasted parts of two announcements from Amy Hendrickson. There is a meeting called for Monday, January 5 at the ACLU office in Boston. The purpose is to Stop the Surveillance Cameras! This is something we can all work together on. Hope to see you there. This issue of federal invasion and control of local communities (these cameras are just one example) has the potential to unite a very broad coalition of groups and individuals from across the political spectrum. We have a unique opportunity in the Boston area to make this happen now and to develop a model for the rest of the country. Here is something I wrote a couple years ago which still applies today: And then there's the homefront where "Homeland Security" leads the way. They are creating institutions and technologies and whole industries that will alter our lives and our culture in unimaginable ways for decades to come. The antiwar movement must resist the temptation to focus only on the Bush administration and/or the war in Iraq. We must call to shutdown the War on Terror and to dismantle the "national security state" which feeds on it. And we can begin that struggle right where it matters most (and where we have the best chance to succeed ) -- in our own backyards. More than anything else we need two things. We need to pool our resources in a focused project with a measurable goal. And then most importantly we need to win something. We need a victory against the New World Order. Let's do it in 2009. Let's stop the cameras in the Boston area and then we will have something to build on for the future and next we can go after the "totally creepy" Fusion Centers. For more background on this issue, here's a link to an article about cameras in Cambridge. http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/news/x1246331248/City-officials-pla... All Resistance Is Local! Doug Fuda Antiwarleague.com 14 Fletcher Street Roslindale, MA 02131 USA 617 331-1491 (cell) dougfuda@aol.com ************************************************************** begin announcements from Amy: Re: Mon Jan 5, 6pm, ACLU office, Plan to STOP THE CAMERAS! Please share widely! Planning Meeting at the ACLU office Monday Jan 5, 6pm Stopping Homeland Security Funded Surveillance Cameras in Your Community Forming a Greater Boston Coalition to Stop the Cameras The ACLU of Massachusetts office is at 211 Congress St., 3rd floor (corner of Congress and High Streets, close to South Station and Post Office Square). ===================================================================== The new version of surveillance camera-- under the black part is a camera that can turn 360 degrees, pan and zoom, at instructions from someone at the police station. Once you know what they look like, you'll notice them all over... Homeland Security is funding cameras like this all over the county-- The images captured are digital, meaning that they can easily be sent anywhere, including to Homeland Security, very easily, over the net. ========================================================================= Stop Homeland Security funded Cameras from being installed on your community's streets! Community Previous cameras Planned additional cameras Boston 44 30 Brookline 0 12 Cambridge 0 8 Chelsea 27 9 Everett 10 3 Quincy 0 8 Revere 7 9 Somerville 0 7 Winthrop 0 9 Come hear Nancy Murray give a short introduction to the full dangers of a national Surveillance State, Fusion Centers, the Homeland Security initiative to fund and place surveillance cameras all over the country, and what we can do about it in the Boston area. Especially Encouraging activists from each of the affected communities to come, to help develop a strategy to work against the cameras in each community, including those that never had a chance to vote on it, and to give each other support as a Greater Boston Coalition to Stop the Surveillance Cameras! More info: amyh@texnology.com nancy@aclum.org 1. Stop the Cameras! Organizing to keep Homeland Security Cameras out of Boston (Amy Hendrickson) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2008 23:29:47 -0500 From: "Amy Hendrickson" Subject: [act-ma] Stop the Cameras! Organizing to keep Homeland Security Cameras out of Boston ........................................... Dear Activist-- Do you know about the Homeland Security funded surveillance cameras being installed around the city, supposedly to monitor an evacuation from Boston in case of emergency, and meanwhile the images to be monitored and recorded by local police departments 24/7? presumably with the video recordings to be shared with Homeland Security? Brookline is one of the communities that has been selected to receive cameras, and we are working hard to stop them from being installed here. There is a possibility that we may be successful in doing so (See Globe article below) -- which, if we are successful, will set a model for other towns turning down Homeland Security Cameras-- Excellent! A number of us from ACLU, Brookline PeaceWorks, and Brookline PAX are now putting together a coalition of people from all the other communities that have recently had Homeland Security cameras either installed, or proposed to be installed. Are you concerned about becoming part of a "surveillance society", part of a nation wide surveillance network, heavily funded and encouraged by Homeland Security, with "Fusion Centers" for processing the data collected?? See http://www.aclu.org/pdfs/privacy/fusion_update_20080729.pdf for an explanation of the totally creepy Fusion Centers! If you want to join in with us and see what we can do about stopping the cameras as a city wide coalition concerned about civil liberties, PLEASE let me know immediately! amyh@texnology.com We are planning a meeting in late December/early January and hope to have representatives from each of the Communities listed above. Nancy Murray, ACLU, has offered to speak to us and help us strategize for work in the coming months. Exciting to have the possibility of being able to have a successful local action, that may have national consequences!!! Let me know if you can work with us-- and please pass this on to anyone else that you think might be interested-- Thanks, -- Amy Brookline wary of surveillance cameras Residents resist installation push By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff | December 15, 2008 Even as eight other cities and towns across Greater Boston prepare to more than double, to 183, the number of security cameras monitoring their streets, Brookline is threatening to reject the cameras, as town officials confront a brewing rebellion of residents decrying the rise of a "surveillance society." A rejection would be unusual. Hundreds of cities and towns across the country - from Liberty, Kan., (population 95) to New York - have installed surveillance cameras funded by the US Department of Homeland Security in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Barry Steinhardt, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's technology and liberty program, said the city council in Washington, D.C., recently barred its mayor and police chief from accepting a federal grant to install the cameras. But he said he did not know of any other municipality in the country that had taken such a step. In considering a rejection of the cameras, Brookline is thrusting itself into a roiling international debate over the merits of surveillance cameras and the limits of privacy in public places. On one side are law enforcement officials who say the cameras can help them keep an eye on potential targets of terrorism, manage traffic during an emergency, and investigate street crime. On the other side are civil liberties groups and some residents who say the cameras could also be used to follow people going about their daily lives, even zooming in to see what books they are reading. "The overarching concern is what kind of society are we creating, where general police surveillance cameras are in operation," said Sarah Wunsch, an attorney for the ACLU. "You cannot assume that we will always be a free society, and we are putting the structures in place that would allow a very different United States of America from the one we have lived in." Wunsch, a Brookline resident, scoffed at the notion of the cameras' use as a traffic management tool during an emergency. "The people who live in town laugh at that because the town can't prevent gridlock at rush hour," she said. "To say these cameras are going to help traffic during an evacuation is, quite frankly, ludicrous. Using cameras for that purpose, most people think, is crazy." Brookline Police Chief Daniel C. O'Leary said the cameras could help manage traffic and investigate crime. "It's a valuable tool that I don't want to lose, and I think the value goes beyond just managing an evacuation," he said. "There are everyday uses that a lot of people could benefit from." He has proposed installing 12 cameras on the arms of traffic lights on Beacon Street, Route 9, and Longwood Avenue, among other locations. Police would monitor the cameras at headquarters and install a screen in the lobby to allow the public to view what the cameras are recording, he said. Footage would be stored for 30 days before it is automatically erased. Even so, Nancy Daly, chairwoman of the Board of Selectmen, said she is worried about the potential for abuse. She cited an incident in 2004, when gruesome footage of a suicide captured by a police camera in a Bronx housing project was leaked to a website featuring violent videos. "This is pretty controversial here," she said. "We all have great respect for the chief, so I think people are reluctant to go against him on something he wants. But there are some serious issues involved here, so I think it's still up in the air." After two contentious hearings during which about 40 residents testified in opposition to the cameras, Daly said she is "leaning against" approval of the cameras and believes the board could reject them. A vote is scheduled for Jan. 6. The first batch of cameras in Greater Boston went up on roads, bridges, and buildings just before to the Democratic National Convention in 2004, after nine cities and towns received a $4.6 million grant from the Homeland Security Department. Boston installed 44 cameras, Chelsea 27, Everett 10, and Revere seven. Now, under the second phase of the program, Boston is to receive by spring 30 additional cameras, Chelsea an additional nine, Everett three more, and Revere nine more. In addition, Cambridge is to receive eight cameras, Quincy eight, Winthrop nine, Somerville seven, and Brookline its 12. The bulb-shaped Bosch IP cameras can tilt, zoom, and pan 360 degrees. One community is allowed to view scenes from another's network when it obtains permission from that community's police. In communities other than Brookline, the cameras were installed quietly and without a vote. "There was no debate in Boston," said Robert P. Dunford, superintendent in chief of police in Boston. "Obviously, there are some people who look at it as an invasion of privacy, but we're not looking at anything that's not already public." Boston's cameras, he said, monitor traffic for the Transportation Department in City Hall. An officer at headquarters also monitors the cameras 16 hours a day, and police have used the footage to investigate several shootings, he said. The city is now looking at ways to make its cameras swivel in the direction of shootings recorded by the acoustic gunshot detection system. "They've been very useful," said Brian A. Kyes, chief of police in Chelsea, which has used its cameras to investigate bank robberies, car accidents and shootings. "We're able to go back into the archive and capture some pertinent information for our investigation." "This is some of the price all of us to have pay for living in a free society, but a threatened society," said David B. Goldstein, Winthrop's police chief, who said his cameras will monitor Logan Airport, the Deer Island Sewage Treatment Plant, and the Belle Isle bridge. Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com. ? Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

Cambridge - If you have the strange feeling that you’re being watched, it’s probably because you are. There are plans to install eight new surveillance cameras in Cambridge. Cambridge is not alone in its quest to spy on city streets. This year, government officials plan to install nearly 100 new surveillance cameras in nine cities and towns in the Greater Boston area with federal grants from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. read more> http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/news/x1246331248/City-officials-pla...

This is certainly a disturbing trend as I am seeing these cameras popping up everywhere I go. It is apparent that homeland Security is just another front group for the Mossad as Chertoff’s mother created that Israel’s version of the CIA but far more ruthless, which Ron Paul wants to abolish along with the Federal Reserve, and the IRS. BTW: Chertoff has dual citizenship in both Isreal and the US.