A dozen activists and residents gathered at 21st and Shotwell on Sunday afternoon to protest and demand removal of the city’s new high-tech surveillance cameras installed to deter sex work on Shotwell Street.
“We’re told that these cameras are for public safety,” said Rachel West, of US PROStitutes Collective. “We ask whose safety?”
The three 22-foot-tall surveillance units on Shotwell Street (each mast with three cameras) are part of a city response to sex work in the area and a lawsuit filed by five neighbors. The 18-month experiment also includes barriers to prevent vehicular traffic on Shotwell and “Dear John letters,” where residents are encouraged to send in tips about people engaging in solicitation or other prostitution.
The cameras have been placed where sex workers gather, West said, and in order to avoid arrest, those women will be pushed to more isolated, less safe areas — making them at increased risk of rape and other violence. “Targeting sex workers, many of whom are mothers working to survive and support children, should not be the priority,” she added.
District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, following the announcement of these new cameras, said that they will be used not only as a deterrent to crime but also as a “tool for law enforcement to investigate and prosecute crime.”
West, and other speakers, which included a Shotwell resident and a sex worker, decried the use of such technology for surveillance purposes, and expressed concern for the lack of transparency over how that data is used or disseminated.
Participants also expressed concern over the cost of such surveillance. Each unit, created by LiveView Technologies, purportedly costs between $30,000 and $40,000 a year to operate.
The demonstration was organized by a coalition of women’s advocacy groups: US PROStitutes Collective, In Defense of Prostitute Women’s Safety Project, Global Women’s Strike, Women of Color/GWS and Crossroads Women’s Center. The event also served to commemorate International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers.
“We know that cameras do not make us safer. In fact they make us less safe against the violence that they say they’re protecting us against,” said Nell Myhand, of Women of Color/GWS, who spoke during the stand-in.
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Jim’s, Mission diner, will keep cooking under nonprofit ownership
Fear not, we won’t be missing the beloved green salsa at Jim’s Restaurant for some time — breakfast is here to stay. Mission Local has learned that the Mission Language and Vocational School will take over neighborhood mainstay Jim’s, which invited customers in today for its last day in business under current ownership. This afternoon, a line was seen reaching the corner of the building at 20th and Mission streets, and the diner had to take a waitlist for people to get in. Mission Language and Vocational School, a nonprofit that offers workforce development and small business supportive services, will staff the restaurant with graduates from its catering program and culinary school. The nonprofit will keep on Beto, the longtime cook. The owners, husband and wife Kim Ok Un and Kim Jung Nyun, are retiring. MLVS is expected to take over the restaurant […]
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Hawk on the house
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Jim’s, Mission diner, will keep cooking under nonprofit ownership
Fear not, we won’t be missing the beloved green salsa at Jim’s Restaurant for some time — breakfast is here to stay. Mission Local has learned that the Mission Language and Vocational School will take over neighborhood mainstay Jim’s, which invited customers in today for its last day in business under current ownership. This afternoon, a line was seen reaching the corner of the building at 20th and Mission streets, and the diner had to take a waitlist for people to get in. Mission Language and Vocational School, a nonprofit that offers workforce development and small business supportive services, will staff the restaurant with graduates from its catering program and culinary school. The nonprofit will keep on Beto, the longtime cook. The owners, husband and wife Kim Ok Un and Kim Jung Nyun, are retiring. MLVS is expected to take over the restaurant […]
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Street sheet – Mission Local
Mission Local produces enterprise reporting on San Francisco's most critical issues: police reform, corruption, public health, housing and homelessness. Learn more about us, and donate below keep us reporting.Subscribe to Mission Local's daily newsletter Source: missionlocal.org
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