+1 for both of you... This is a skilled trade. The police don't show up at lock-smith schools. Just relabel the training skilled trade workshops. Done.
In no way am I suggesting that we start "working with the city or
law enforcement officers on reporting who shows up at events or
assist them in doing so," any more than the radical Quakers did.
What I _am_ advocating is to open the lines of communication and
point out that if the city is truly concerned about badguys showing
up, they can send someone along to hang out and observe for
themselves. What they're going to see is a room full of geeks
learning an oldschool mechanical skill. More likely they won't
bother, in which case their objection can be dismissed as
meaningless.
(BTW, I've known how to pick locks since my naughty phone phreak
days in highschool, when the word "tweet" was slang for the 2600-Hz
"clear tandem" signal, not a friggin' commercial brand for
neo-telegrams dressed up as something cutting-edge.)
As for comparing "'known gang member'" to "the more privileged
class": that's postmodern BS. The #1 killer of young black men in
Oakland isn't police bullets but gang bullets. So where are the
outraged protests in front of known gang enclaves, eh? This isn't
an abstraction: a young black man I knew was killed in a drive-by.
As for "privileged class," about 1/3 of SudoRoom members are
unemployed, and many are borderline-homeless. A few more
"privileges," such as full-time jobs that pay decent wages, would be
a good thing.
-G.
=====
On 13-02-28-Thu 12:09 AM, Shawn Lesniak
wrote:
On 2013-02-27 23:52, Anon195714 wrote:
Yo's-
On the other hand, the Mayor could send along a plain-clothes detective
to hang out and keep an eye open for known gang members etc. "Just say
Honeypot!", and we're doing the city a favor.
...
Does anyone here have good relations with anyone in Oakland city gov,
and want to volunteer to get the lines of communication open?
I would be uncomfortable showing up at this event or other sudoroom
events if we were working with the city or law enforcement officers on
reporting who shows up at events or assist them in doing so. It is not
any more illegal/immoral/wrong for a 'known gang member' to show up at a
class than one of the more privileged class.
-Shawn