A Black Lives Matter activist named Derrick Ingram had his home swarmed by the police. It led to an intense standoff with the NYPD, but luckily fellow activists came to his aid.
The way that dozens of officers hunted down this one person led to some disturbing revelations, though.
When Ingram repeatedly asked the police to produce a warrant, they refused! It turned out he’d been accused of “assault” for allegedly yelling in an officer’s ear with a bullhorn.
Luckily, witnesses kept the cops from doing too much – but there’s still a deeper issue at play here.
Though officers eventually stood down and left, why were they there at all?
The cops admitted they had used highly controversial facial recognition tech to track him down. The use of this technology has serious implications for us.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said police tactics need to be “reassessed,” but there’s nothing to assess.
When it’s not being used to hunt and intimidate us, facial recognition is racially biased tech that frequently misidentifies Black people, and police are increasingly interested in it. We’re fighting back for a reason.
At least half of adults across the U.S. are in facial recognition databases! Calls to “defund the police” mean eliminating spending on expensive, racist technology like this. That money could be better used enhancing our neighborhoods!