If Protests Are ‘Terrorism,’ What Are State Brutality And Surveillance?
In 2020, in Canarsie, Brooklyn, a gunshot detection technology, called ShotSpotter, reported a gunshot fired. It alerted the NYPD and sent them to a street address. The officers arrived at the location, and a Black man named Fitzroy Gayle happened to be walking past it, on his way home. The officers got out of their cars, targeted and detained him and started hitting him, causing serious injuries to his neck, knee and ankle.
“If the robot tells you, ‘GO,’ you’re already scared and amped. They just beat this guy mercilessly,” said Matt Mitchell, a digital technology expert who studied the case. “The guy was saying ‘What did I do?’ This is an example of when digital surveillance and tools go wrong.”