MLK Remembrance Day

The 1st week of this year was a terrible start, I want a do over.  I would like to encourage attendance in Ridgecrest MLK Celebration Committee’s event.  Dr. King gave us the framework for carrying out successful non-violent civic action.  Let’s get inspired and motivated.  

Monday 1/19 starting at 11:30am
Kerr McGee Center
100 W California Ave.
(This is not a 50501 event, but we are promoting it)

ICE Out for Good recap

We had 104 people in attendance who have had enough with the lies of this administration.  A woman was murdered on video and they still felt emboldened to paint a different picture about what actually happened.

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears.  It was their final, most essential command.” 1984, George Orwell.

and…

“Fascism is government by the few and for the few. The objective is seizure and control of the economic, political, social, and cultural life of the state. Why? The democratic way of life interferes with their methods and desires for: (1) conducting business; (2) living with their fellow-men; (3) having the final say in matters concerning others, as well as themselves. The basic principles of democracy stand in the way of their desires; hence—democracy must go! Anyone who is not a member of their inner gang has to do what he’s told. They permit no civil liberties, no equality before the law. They make their own rules and change them when they choose. If you don’t like it, it’s “T.S.”

They maintain themselves in power by use of force combined with propaganda based on primitive ideas of “blood” and “race,” by skillful manipulation of fear and hate, and by false promise of security. The propaganda glorifies war and insists it is smart and “realistic” to be pitiless and violent.”
Army Talk, “Orientation Fact Sheet 64,” March 24 1945.

Sound familiar?

Flock Cameras

Protest: January 24th 10am-12pm Ridgecrest & China Lake Blvd.

Townhall: February 7th from 9-11am at City Hall, 100 W California Ave.

We need to raise awareness of the townhall and give people more opportunities to sign our petition.  The Chief made the ridiculous suggestion that we should gather 10,000 signatures.  Please… we elect mayors with less.

• In 2020, Bruen won with 2,148 votes vs Stephens with 1,558, Wiknich with 1,092, and West with 630
• In 2022, Bruen won with as little as 1,298 votes vs. Wiknich with 1,011
• In 2024, Endicott won with 5,682 votes vs Bruen with 5,212

Both conservatives and progressives don’t like the Flock camera system for different reasons. Please share the information about the townhall with your friends and neighbors. Everyone deserves to be able to voice their opinion on the subject. I initially wasn’t opposed to the cameras, but after learning more about them, I changed my position. Knowledge is power and our concerns are valid.

As a community, we need to come together and prove to the City Council that we don’t want this in our town.  The Townhall is a step forward in our goal by getting the public engaged in this topic.  Afterwards, we can push to to get the topic added to the City Council’s agenda for a vote to suspend the contract. There are two councilmembers against the system out of 5, we just need to convince one more that the system isn’t worth the risks and sacrifices of our civil liberties.

I would like to encourage everyone to read the contract between the City of Ridgecrest and Flock. This has been provided to us by the City Clerk after our FOIA request.

I find the following paragraph in the contract most alarming:

“4.3 Anonymized Data. Flock shall have the right to collect, analyze, and anonymize Customer Data and Customer Generated Data to the extent such anonymization renders the data non-identifiable to create Anonymized Data to use and perform the Services and related systems and technologies, including the training of machine learning algorithms. Customer hereby grants Flock a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free right to use and distribute such Anonymized Data to improve and enhance the Services and for other development, diagnostic and corrective purposes, and other Flock offerings.”

Wired and 404 Media have reported that images from Flock are being sent overseas to low-paid gig workers in the Philippines to help train the Ai by identifying things in the image.

Are you ok with Flock using images of you and your vehicle for a data mining operation for training Ai?

To learn more about all of the issues and see news from around the country about Flock, you can go to deflockridgecrest.org for more info.

Music

We hope that people enjoyed the playlist at our ICE our for Good event.  We now have a contract with ASCAP for the year of 2026 to play music at our events. 

If you would like to request a song be added to the playlist, please first check the library to see if the song is owned by ASCAP by going to  https://www.ascap.com/repertory#/ and searching for the song title and performer’s name.  If it is owned by ASCAP, then send an email to ridgecrest.50501@gmail.com with a email subject of “Song Request.”