Nobody promoting a police panopticon deserves to hold public office in your city

I really wish people would stop talking so much about what Trump does every day and focus on the things their local elected leaders do that make it possible for the worst of Trump's policies to reach into your city and neighborhood. Trump lives very far away from you. Yes he wants to send militarized cops here to harass, assault, and deport you.  But also it is your city councilmembers who are explicitly inviting him to do this.  

After the New Orleans Police Department’s informal arrangement with Project NOLA was uncovered by The Washington Post in May, the city has moved to officially authorize the use of live facial recognition analysis.

The city council is currently scheduled to vote next Thursday on an ordinance that would make New Orleans the nation’s first city with a formal program that uses facial recognition to surveil people in real time, according to the Post. The proposal would expand on the council’s 2022 vote authorizing police to use facial recognition technology, but only as a last resort and only to investigate crimes after the fact.

City officials insist that their new ordinance has clear protections for civil liberties. In particular, they stress, the ordinance explicitly states that data gleaned from these cameras cannot be used for immigration enforcement.

But local advocates for immigrants’ rights insist that those protections are not strong enough to withstand state or federal pressure on the city to hand over information. They warn that New Orleans’ Democratic leadership might be setting itself up to hand ICE a powerful new tool.

Eugene Green insists that it is possible to put "guardrails" up against ICE intruding on the local surveillance dragnet. This is obviously untrue and he is obviously lying about that. Or else he simply doesn't know anything about how the federal government under Donald Trump behaves with respect to legal "guardrails" or the rule of law in general.  Maybe Green really is that ignorant of present day politics?  Probably not, though. More likely he simply agrees with draconian police state policies and wants to see them implemented.  No one with this agenda should be allowed to represent you on any governing body at any time. Especially not now. Because ultimately, it's these local offices where the actual crimes against you and your freedom are enabled and executed.