[p2p-research] Fwd: Petition against police violence to migrants and activists in Greece

[Nathan Cravens]

When you begin to view the world as 'automotons of protocol', the world you
live in today may look like nothing but a spiral of autocracy, a misery only
subdued by pointless gestures and 'entertainments'.

Remain critical; it will be tempting to rage; but instead; suspend for a
moment if necessary; place such energies for the better. . .
After suspension, that which was of benefit, you will find was left ignored;
no longer. Or, you will know better how to rage with fiery precision.

[insert your favorite Buddhist text or Star Wars quote here]

Nathan


On Sat, Oct 24, 2009 at 6:37 PM, Nathan Cravens <knuggy at gmail.com> wrote:

> Render the 'automotons of protocol' null by forming an alternative that is
> best for you and them. If it is best for you and them, 'you and them' are
> less distinguished, as we tend to ignore what works, but banter and fume on
> when it does not.
>
> Nathan
>
>
> On Sat, Oct 24, 2009 at 6:10 PM, Nathan Cravens <knuggy at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Yeah. Leave them kids alone. And by kids I mean, the cops. ;)
>>
>> Nathan
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Oct 24, 2009 at 10:13 AM, Paul D. Fernhout <
>> pdfernhout at kurtz-fernhout.com> wrote:
>>
>>> In the long term, we need structural reform more than we need to ask the
>>> police to be nicer to individuals.
>>>
>>> As I suggested before, in ten or twenty years, policing will just be done
>>> with robots, who will have even less humanity than the human officers. :-(
>>>
>>> Google search:
>>> http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=police+robots
>>>
>>> Examples:
>>>
>>>
>>> http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/10/18/1320259/MIT-Researchers-Develop-Autonomous-Indoor-Robocopter
>>> "Researchers at MIT's Robust Robotics Group have developed a robotic
>>> helicopter capable of autonomously flying inside buildings or other
>>> GPS-denied environments. It has an on-board camera and a laser scanner
>>> that
>>> maps the local environment. The video talks about search-and-rescue and
>>> civil engineering applications, but it also brings somewhat scary
>>> reminders
>>> of Minority Report to my head. How long till I see one of these chasing
>>> me
>>> down a dark alley? The team's website has more videos showing earlier
>>> stages
>>> of the project."
>>>
>>> An apparent robocop mock up, but likely within twenty years:
>>>  "Humanoid Automonous Police Robot"
>>>  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLbla1IJ6oc
>>>
>>> As depicted here in text fiction:
>>>  http://www.marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm
>>>
>>> For reference:
>>>  "Latest Humanoid Robot (to help disabled and older people)"
>>>  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CETUmThm8Rg&feature=related
>>>
>>> But one for real with treads available right now:
>>>  http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2007/08/armed-robots-so/
>>> "Armed robots — similar to the ones now on patrol in Iraq — are being
>>> marketed to domestic police forces, according to the machines’ manufacturer
>>> and law enforcement officers.  None of the gun-toting ‘bots appear to have
>>> been deployed domestically,  yet.  Both cops and company officials say it’s
>>> only a matter of time, however. ... Other than some R&D with the shotgun
>>> mount, we haven’t used it operationally,"  Massachusetts State Police
>>> Trooper Mike Rogowski tells DANGER ROOM.  "But they’re on the way.  They’re
>>> coming," "
>>>
>>> And this one in Korea is it seems currently in use (previously
>>> mentioned):
>>>  "South Korea's Machine Gun Sentry Robot"
>>>  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5YftEAbmMQ
>>>
>>> And already there is use of Predator drones in my home state (previously
>>> mentioned):
>>> "Predator Drone Patrolling New York Border "
>>> http://www.infowars.com/predator-drone-patrolling-new-york-border/
>>>
>>> We have so few years to turn this culture around as we continue to build
>>> our values and an assumption of scarcity instead of abundance into
>>> infrastructure of advanced technology.
>>>
>>> If we have the amazing technology we need to build police robots, we
>>> ironically should not need them (at least for what they are planned to be
>>> used for.)
>>>  "Jacque Fresco on Research & Development versus Law & making the world
>>> work for everybody"
>>>  http://www.youtube.com/user/jacquefresco#p/a/u/2/pbtbGcKiLiM
>>>
>>> Or, from 1940 and Charlie Chaplin:
>>>
>>> http://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechthegreatdictator.html
>>> "Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has
>>> goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed but we
>>> have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want.
>>> Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think
>>> too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More
>>> than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities,
>>> life will be violent and all will be lost."
>>>
>>> It is amazing now how fast a couple buttons can get pushed to permanently
>>> shut someone out of a digital world (banning from some digital forum). Soon,
>>> it may not be that hard to do the same physically.
>>>  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facial_recognition_system
>>> "In addition to being used for security systems, authorities have found a
>>> number of other applications for facial recognition systems. While earlier
>>> post 9/11 deployments were well publicized trials, more recent deployments
>>> are rarely written about due to their covert nature."
>>>
>>> The same metal we can use to build spaceships and seasteads and
>>> skyscrapers can also be used to forge chains.
>>>
>>> But, once police robots are in place, they will be unlikely to listen to
>>> Chaplin's plea from that movie: "Soldiers: Don't give yourselves to brutes,
>>> men who despise you, enslave you, who regiment your lives, tell you what to
>>> do, what to think and what to feel; who drill you, diet you, treat you like
>>> cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don't give yourselves to these unnatural
>>> men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not
>>> machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have the love of humanity in
>>> your hearts. You don't hate; only the unloved hate, the unloved and the
>>> unnatural."
>>>
>>> Still, eventually the robots may become more compassionate than the
>>> people who build them or deploy them? One can hope.
>>>  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Robotics
>>>
>>> But until then, we need structural reforms, IMHO.
>>> "Getting Greece and Iceland to be 99% self-sufficient by mass;
>>> international consortium"
>>> http://groups.google.com/group/openmanufacturing/msg/b918d271f9bb701d
>>>
>>>
>>> --Paul Fernhout
>>> http://www.pdfernhout.net/
>>> http://www.beyondajoblessrecovery.org/
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Michel Bauwens wrote:
>>>
>>>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>>> From: akis gavriilidis <cr33396 at telenet.be>
>>>> Date: Fri, Oct 23, 2009 at 1:43 AM
>>>> Subject: Petition against police violence to migrants and activists in
>>>> Greece
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Feel free to sign and/or diffuse further on
>>>>
>>>> Twitter petition  http://act.ly/pq
>>>>
>>>> Sign here http://www.petitiononline.com/nomadic1/petition.html
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> To:  The Greek Minister of Citizen Protection
>>>>
>>>> Following the December revolts in Greece, police violence against
>>>> migrants and activists in Greece is becoming more and more intense. The
>>>> xenophobic turn of the mainstream media combined with the electoral rise
>>>> of the extreme right wing party LAOS have played a vital role in
>>>> legitimizing police violence against both foreigners and citizens who
>>>> dare to protest. Ironically these tactics are part of an overall plan to
>>>> "protect the citizen" by openly demonstrating the ability of the state
>>>> to control those who participated in the December revolts. While “scoop”
>>>> operations and deportations take place daily all over the country
>>>> subjecting migrants to different forms of physical and psychological
>>>> violence, activists who react against it are also becoming subject to
>>>> the arbitrary violent and terrorizing tactics of the police. Recently
>>>> Mohamed Kamran Atif, a migrant from Pakistan, has died after being
>>>> tortured in detention at the police station of Nikaia. During the
>>>> protest march organized in response, several activists were arrested and
>>>> imprisoned. Few days later Dimitris Parsanoglou, a sociologist and
>>>> anti-racist activist, has been arrested and detained without a legal
>>>> representative for three days because he protested against the arbitrary
>>>> arrest and beating by the police of a migrant in a central spot of
>>>> Athens.
>>>>
>>>> We ask from the Greek government to
>>>>
>>>> - stop police violence against migrants and activists
>>>> - stop “scoop” operations and arbitrary deportations of migrants
>>>> - stop arbitrary arrests and imprisonment of activists of all
>>>> nationalities
>>>>
>>> \
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>
>>> http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/p2presearch_listcultures.org
>>>
>>
>>
>
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