So right about now, Sudo Room court is in full effect* ...
For those who weren't paying close attention to the news about the Oakland Police Department this past week, let me try to condense and read in between the lines. In case there was any doubt as to the unprecedented mess they/we are in: Two police chiefs resigned; Oakland made first in the country for robberies; news came out that only one person is in charge of coordinating burglary response; and the long-awaited police reform report was pulled from publication. (Raw footage of Fri. press conference - http://news.yahoo.com/video/raw-video-oakland-officials-address-221600024.h…)
Our police chief friend Howard "It's Unconscionable" Jordan of LockPickGate (http://oaklandwiki.org/Lockpickgate) announced his retirement suddenly on Wednesday, the same day that the Wasserman-Bratton Report was supposed to come out. Since he's three years short of being eligible for the top pension (75% of salary) for life, he claimed undisclosed medical reasons and getting to spend time with his family (where he lives somewhere other than Oakland). Anthony Toribio was named interim chief on Wednesday, and announced his resignation on Friday. Sean Whent is our new interim police chief as of Friday (https://local.nixle.com/alert/4999940/?sub_id=894092).
Thomas Frazier, who was appointed the Compliance Director by the federal court who fell short of a federal takeover of the OPD, had just announced the re-opening of investigations into police misconduct, including ones related to Occupy Oakland, the week before. Part of the deal the federal judge struck was that the Compliance Director has important authority over the OPD, including the ability to recommend the firing of police chiefs. (http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/frazier-to-reexamine-police-misconduc…). Frazier was the one who delivered the scathing report about the OPD response to Occupy about a year and a half ago (http://www2.oaklandnet.com/oakca1/groups/cityadministrator/documents/webcon…).
The press conference for the release of the Bratton Report, which was supposed to come out on Wed., was cancelled and turned into a press conference for Jordan's early retirement. While the full report didn't come out, the six-page summary was posted by local CBS News (http://cbssanfran.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/bratton_group_report_051813.p…). When Oakland hired the Bratton Group to do the report, there was significant protest among Oakland communities because of Bratton's support for "stop and frisk" policing (euphemism for racial profiling) and "zero tolerance" policies. He's generally known as the top cop that brought LA & NY crime rates down significantly during his tenure there. Robert Wasserman ran the community meetings because of the community backlash against Bratton (http://oaklandlocal.com/article/wasserman-lays-out-general-plan-crime-preve…).
So is there anything that Sudo Room can do? Anything other than what other groups are already doing in trying to bring accountability to the OPD? A couple things in the Bratton Report (reprinted at OccupyOakland.org at http://occupyoakland.org/2013/05/bratton-group-report-may-8-2013/) come to mind. I think folks on this could have a lot of productive things to say about the Compstat Process, a computerized crime tracking system, which Bratton points to as key to improving crime response. The effectiveness of Compstat and how it can be optimally used and the drawbacks in how it is being suggested to be used has not really been discussed anywhere, as far as I can tell.
There is also reference to significantly increasing camera surveillance all over Oakland - getting more info about that will be very useful. Makes me think that now would be the ideal time to finally get our surveillance tours going - identifying surveillance cameras around downtown and taking people on tours pointing them out as they walk around. Before posting such a list on Oakland Wiki or something, we would want to narrow down those listed to ones that are aimed at public areas (or private ones that also capture public space).
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*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70lH373A1NU
Hi All,
I recently came across a definition of Hackers and Makers and wanted to
share the concept with the Sudo Community.
Hacking can be defined as: Finding ways be make something perform a
function it was not indented to.
While Making can be defined as: Building new things.
The basic idea being that Hackers take existing things and get them to do
the unexpected, while Makers build new things. Makers can hack and Hackers
can make.
I like these definitions. Thoughts?
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Andrew Lowe
Cell: 831-332-2507
http://roshambomedia.com
http://www.instructables.com/id/1x1x1-LED-Cube/
"In the course of history, it becomes necessary to create something new to
advance the state of humanity.
The wheel, agriculture, and electricity were all transformative inventions
that seem downright simple today. But without them, we'd be munching our
nuts and half-rotted carcasses in the dark. Even the simplest project can
transform the world.
With that, we bring to you the 1x1x1 LED cube. Beauty in simplicity.
Absolute control over the fundamentals of microcontroller programming.
Saying "Let there be" and making it so like the PG chapters of Genesis.
As Antoine de Saint-Exupery skillfully points out, "Perfection is Achieved
Not When There Is Nothing More to Add, But When There Is Nothing Left to
Take Away"
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Andrew Lowe
Cell: 831-332-2507
http://roshambomedia.com
This was a great weekend
I'm happy we can put this stuff up on a mailing list and our wiki and not someone's social networking 2.0 site crammed with ads. ;)
I hear Rusty's complaint of cleanliness. and I want to speak in defense of
Oakland Nights Live. I didn't see you at Oakland Nights Live, so I imagine
you showed up after the event was over?
I saw them vacuum and pick up and vacuum the common area too a high level
of cleanliness. Maybe the front ground floor entry way was more dirty.
Rusty perhaps you could be more specific about what was wrong, because I
have a different understanding of their cleaning practices. Maybe it got
dirty inbetween when you saw it and when they cleaned it. If so then I feel
you are speculating on where the dirtiness came from.
Jenny, . I also didn't see you at ONL, and during the hour following. I
read that you sent an email to Oakland Nights Live with the phrasing "we
can no longer..." at some point. I feel upset that you did so because I
want messages claiming to be from sudo as "we" to be approved by all
sudoers before they're sent. I would like to request that you don't send
messages on behalf of sudo without consensus in the future.
Thanks,
Max
Hey Everyone,
Andrew and I saw late last night that the space was really messy and there
were piles of stuff everywhere. I was wayyy to tired to do anything about
it, but it was really bad, especially with all the left out bottles, food
on the floor, and etc. Romy and Jordan already started cleaning up earlier
today, but they shouldn't be doing that. It also wreaked of cigarette
smoke in the front hallway to the building.
Can someone forward this email, so that the host of this event knows that
this is an ongoing issue, and that we have gotten several complaints from
the landlord, George?
-Rusty
hello everyone--
last week bill, matt senate, yardena, rusty and i (and i think a few other
people) participated in the cleaning of natural decay.
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*we are doing it again tomorrow. cleaning of natural decay!*
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*sunday. sudoroom - 7 to 9pm!!!*
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*do come! it's rad!!!*
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*[image: Inline image 1]
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==
*- because I did the cleaning of natural decay, I was able to tell vicky
today that we have two gigantic bins of scrap and cloth materials in the
back closet. she got to use this material that we didn't even realize we
had...*
I was able to reveal this to her last minute, and she was able to use the
materials to make cloth menstrual pads. she wasn't aware of this stuff!
==
i found out that we have a cool light projector that's broken in one of the
black cloth messenger bag cases in the back that needs fixing. there's a
wire loose. it's something you can use to project large art pieces on thew
all. it's so cool.
we danced to erasure.
R labelled the recycle bin with a cool "ninjas will screw us or save us"
poster... nobody knew for the longest time whether we had a recycle trash
can or not.
i got to help george our landlord empty our garbage. our garbage has been
piling up.
==
i found out we have a cool cuisinart hand mixer whose motor is broken but
we have to fix.
=
even though i don't biohack i saw that someone is working on a cool hack to
make a low cost biohacking freezer
=
we moved the satellite dishes in the back so that they don't take up space
in an inconvenient way.
=
i got to learn where some extra sewing supplies were along witht he scraps
=
<3 <3
I started the day out a little grumpy, hungover and not having gotten a lot
of sleep the night before. There were rough edges.
[image: Inline image 1]
here is max's drawing from our today i learned comics art and more 3d
printing jam
we are still trying to figure out the right fill type (not honeycomb) in
this case... if we had made this thinner the drawing would be more
apparent...
https://sudoroom.org/wiki/page/ComicsAndMore
- I feel good because last night & today even more 3D Printing experts
apprenticed me
- I feel like there were all these people who are excellent cartoonists and
artists who came out of the woodwork. there were also lots of new people
willing to learn. this collaboration i'd been craving for a while came to
happen.
- new people came to the space and someone's friend even stayed behind and
started writing technical documentation in our wiki for 3D Printing (new
stranger but potential new member!)
- oakland nights was packed, a few people came in but it was mostly a calm
working night
- people were putting up a lot of the drawings, we hope to decorate more in
teh space
- S brought a hella ton of art supplies without me even asking for today i
learned. thanks dude!
- someone's mom walked in off the street and talked about hanging out with
her daughter at art events in oakland. it's always good when that happens.
all of our problems are really not that bad and not much more dramatic than
a lot of stuff you experience living with roommates. it is really nice when
we create together.
