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Activists find camera inside box on power pole near union organizer’s home

fox13memphis.com

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Re: Activists find camera inside box on power pole near union organizer’s home

#41

Post by badRNG »

stefco_ wrote: post #16
ashtonkem wrote: post #6

The accusation that the police are surveilling union organizers is extremely troubling, and harkens back to the early 20th century when cops killed union organizers. The police should stay out of such political matters; especially if they expect their continued funding to be above political reproach.

Given how prevalent police unions are, and how incredibly quick they are to raise complaints, you'd hope for more self-awareness/solidarity and less hypocrisy.

There has always seemed to be an antagonistic relationship between police unions and trade unions. Police unions are often disallowed membership in so-called "big tent" unions due to their perceived past and alleged ongoing role in union-busting. Since the early 20th century, there hasn't been a meaningful reconciliation between the movements (and often, the role of police in general is perceived to be inherently antagonistic to the goals of labor activists.)

It might be worth reading about how police performed aerial bombardment and gunned down union workers during the labor movement (late 19th, early 20th centuries) in the US, notably the Battle of Blair Mountain [1]. Even though this nears over a hundred years worth of distance, the effects ripple through today.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain

Re: Activists find camera inside box on power pole near union organizer’s home

#42

Post by barry-cotter »

Someone1234 wrote: post #35
barry-cotter wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Corporations are voluntary organizations that exist for the benefit of their owners and if their owners don’t like their politics they can leave much more easily than any union member can. Of course they should be involved in politics.

If you cap corporation's contributions to the same as each individual member of the union, no problemo.

Contributions to unions aren’t capped and don’t need to come from members. If George Soros wants to leave his fortune to the AFL-CIO I doubt they’ll refuse.

Re: Activists find camera inside box on power pole near union organizer’s home

#43

Post by Dahoon »

frabbit wrote: post #27
moltar wrote: post #4

Can someone from the US please explain why would police surveil a union organizer? How is s/he a threat to the public?

Why do you think it is just the USA? Are you genuinely surprised or this just a baity-get-things-rolling type of question? Just off the top of my head this is one of the most famous (exposed) examples in the UK https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-47457330 Police were created explicitly to help with suppressing the threat that comes from anyone that earns their living by a wage from others.

Not just the US, but the US and those that is trying hard to be just as bad (like the UK) are not like the rest of the western world. For example a union in the US versus one in Scandinavia is like comparing apples to ...something not even a fruit. The US unions are not real unions and haven't normalised since the war against the police and their mob ties.

Re: Activists find camera inside box on power pole near union organizer’s home

#44

Post by adolph »

herpderperator wrote: post #13

The camera in question is a Canon PTZ camera with 20x optical zoom, model VB-H41: https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/support/de...

Cell Modem is Sierra Wireless Airlink GX440

https://source.sierrawireless.com/devices/gx-series/gx440/#s...

Re: Activists find camera inside box on power pole near union organizer’s home

#45

Post by Dahoon »

Natsu wrote: post #30
moltar wrote: post #4

Can someone from the US please explain why would police surveil a union organizer? How is s/he a threat to the public?

The Twitter with the pics of this claims this is related to Operation Legend, so presumably they're investigating something related to that - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Legend

So an operation against people who unite and protest legally and who are then beaten, killed or hunted like cattle? What better place than a union leader to catch "bad guys".

Re: Activists find camera inside box on power pole near union organizer’s home

#46

Post by sudosysgen »

barry-cotter wrote: post #42
Someone1234 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you cap corporation's contributions to the same as each individual member of the union, no problemo.

Contributions to unions aren’t capped and don’t need to come from members. If George Soros wants to leave his fortune to the AFL-CIO I doubt they’ll refuse.

Unions are directly elected institutions with general assemblies. That means you can't ever capture a union using money alone.

Moreover, unions are legally prevented from contributing to political campaigns, while corporations are allowed to do so.

Therefore, the comparison breaks down at every single level, and no useful conclusion can be reached from it.

Re: Activists find camera inside box on power pole near union organizer’s home

#47

Post by barry-cotter »

OpieCunningham wrote: post #33
barry-cotter wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Money governs access to political power in this country. Billionaires who failed to get anywhere in the Democratic primary: Bloomberg, Steyer. Remember, all political campaign funding plus all think tank funding plus all media funding is less than the US spends on almonds each year. Money doesn’t buy political influence in the US, it flows to it. > (in case you’re keeping track: all donations to all candidates, all…

Money will only get you so far in your public facing political ambitions if you are politically incompetent (Bloomberg) or devoid of charisma (Steyer). But money got both of them to the stage.

> But money got both of them to the stage.

So what? They lost comprehensively. The point of politics isn’t to be heard. It’s to win so you can get what you want done done. If being heard led to political change US politics would be a great deal more libertarian. You don’t just need to be heard you need to persuade people to believe what you believe and to vote for you. Money doesn’t do that. It buys you a bigger megaphone but if no one likes the message they hear from you they won’t vote for you. Then you end up like Bloomberg, having spent a ton of money on a Presidential bid that failed utterly.

Re: Activists find camera inside box on power pole near union organizer’s home

#48

Post by anamexis »

blinkengus wrote: post #39
ponker wrote: post #21

I’d bet 1:2 odds that this activist wasn’t the target and they’re just trying to get some low effort dope busts.

I'd bet 1:1 odds that even if it were, ITS STILL ILLEGAL TO POINT A SURVEILLANCE CAMERA AT A HOUSE WITHOUT A WARRANT.

I'll take that bet.

Re: Activists find camera inside box on power pole near union organizer’s home

#49

Post by throwaway0a5e »

moltar wrote: post #4

Can someone from the US please explain why would police surveil a union organizer? How is s/he a threat to the public?

Because the police's primary revenue stream is taxpayer money and therefore they are very interested in anyone who may affect political change for any reason.

Re: Activists find camera inside box on power pole near union organizer’s home

#50

Post by throwaway0a5e »

ahelwer wrote: post #14
adrr wrote: post #7

Irony if this was done for political reasons that it was by law enforcement who have a strong union.

Not ironic at all. Police are the agents of capital and their union is thus in service of capital, not labor. They are conspicuously the only union which isn't protested very much by the powers that be. The union protects police from retribution by the people against whom they mete out punishment, who are essentially never capitalists. To put it another way, there is zero solidarity between police unions and unions o…

Police are agents of the state and the state serves nothing but itself.
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