This session is facilitated by Hamid Khan, Jamie Garcia
About this session
This session is for individuals interested in learning about community-based response to surveillance in their communities. The target audience is folks who are working with directly impacted communities and centering their histories and experiences in their fight against state violence.
Participants will collectively map out the architectures of surveillance in their local communities and explore if accountability is even possible in an oppressive and unjust system. We will collectively explore where our fight begins in the establishment of the ever-expanding digital world. Participants with collectively map and understand the trajectory of coerced consent and the illusion of rights – necessary elements to preserve the “legitimacy” of the Stalker State. By the end of the session participants should be able to walk away with a deeper understanding of why community-based response and organizing is critical to sustain our very being through collective action.
Goals of this session
Tools of social control are deployed through many sectors, including social services, health care, housing, and employment; enabling a constant surveilling and policing of our bodies. Communities of color, migrants and the economically marginalized are the primary targets of these practices. The Stop LAPD Spying Coalition continues mapping the various intersecting tentacles of public and private sector agencies, corporations, academic institutions, social media, law enforcement agencies, and international partnerships creating a comprehensive landscape of surveillance. These practices violate our human rights, undermine basic democratic principles, and impact our political, structural, economic, and cultural lives. The Coalition has named it The Stalker State.
The primary goal of this session is for attendees to learn about the mapping and functioning of the Stalker State and how the work of the Coalition and grassroots efforts to stop and dismantle the Stalker State are building community awareness, knowledge, and power leading to structural changes.