The Solarpunk Workshop

I don't want a printing subscription, or a typing subscription. Hell, I'll go find an old typewriter before I buy into that sell. I'll even learn to make ink and paper.

I don't want to "subscribe and save" to something. I don't want everything to automatically renew. I most certainly do not want to give an AI assistant access to ANYTHING of mine (including my thoughts, questions, or ideas), but especially not to my bank account.

I don't want glasses that tell me what things are, I'd rather ask someone who knows. I don't want a robot to summarize the key points of my group chat, I want to talk to my friends and family for myself.

I want picnics in the park, phones put away in bags and not thought about unless they're actually needed. I want water fights in summer, not water shortages to feed the machine. I want a colorful house, not a smart one. I want care, not convenience.

If one day Microsoft locks me out of my laptop because I refuse to pay for a subscription, I'll go to the library and check out a few books to figure out how to reprogram it. I'll learn fucking Linux, if I have to. Hell, I'm considering learning it now, with the way the world's going.

The really really free market in brookside park is over but now we're driving over to howdy/farewell to set up for mutual aid day. If you missed us in the park, you can catch us there from 2:30 to 5:30 along side many other great kansas city orgs!

Flock cameras, for those who don’t know, are cameras sold to police by the company Flock, placed at high-traffic intersections and “high-crime neighborhoods” 😐 to catch photos of cars coming in and out of different areas.

Though they’re often referred to as “license plate readers,” it turns out they can also identify make and model of car, sometimes driver, unusual additions, stickers or decorations, and damage patterns. By placing them at key intersections, police can start to form a database of driver movement that they can later connect to crime.

Police do not have to cite a case number, report number, or even any specific reason at all to run a search, and there is no paper trail left by the searches they run.

Data is deleted from Flock’s servers after a month. Problematic because cases often take more than a month to resolve, and in that time police only download the hits that are relevant to them. (Ex: They grab these 3 camera hits and not the 100 others you could use to prove your client was delivering for UberEats; they grab camera matches for Event A and not alibi hits for Event B, which are under a different car.)

Police basically get a full picture of your movements in a city for free all the time.

These things look like a solar panel + a little camera underneath it on a pole.

Source regarding a place where lawsuits are pending.

It’s unconstitutional to get cell phone data without a search warrant because of the ease of it and the overwhelming data privacy breach. Essentially unknown if judges will treat this the same — so far they’ve been trying very hard to find ways that this is okay and fine.

Flock disclaims all ownership over the data — they sell the software and cameras and lease the server space, they say, and so the data belongs to the police.

I’ve seen it start cropping up the last couple months in police reports. “We saw the allegedly stolen car on Flock cameras, and sent like five cops in full tactical gear to take down the horrendous criminals… the car owner’s teenage child and their friend.”

And folks if you see programs for you to sign up to give your doorbell camera to police, please don’t! Phase one of those programs is identifying community cameras so they can ask you for footage; phase two is linking up your cloud storage so they can access what you have; phase three is literally always finding a way to control and retain the data themselves. If you read their community initiative plans, they usually even tell on themselves and say this is their goal.

The good news is that since indivigual city governments are the folks who have these contracts. And since these cameras cost around 3000$ per camera per year (meaning a city with even a few dozen cameras becomes legitimatly expensive). If you show up to a city council with a few other people and raise a concern about the lack of trust in these cameras, the concern about data being stolen and sold, and probably most importantly the yearly cost. It's possible to remove these cameras, at least in your own backyard.

Tomorrow, Sunday April 5th, the Kansas City Really Really Free Market will be in Brookside park from 9AM until Noon. We'll be set up near the intersection of 57th street and brookside blvd. Here are some of the items that we know we will have when we first set up. However, the collection is sure to change during the market.

Clothes

Shoes

Books

Paper Binders

Drinking Glasses

Toys

A kid's scooter

An air mattress

Kitchen Utensils

Clothes Hangers

Hopefully this is helpful to someone out there 🌸

You can find the Prompts podcast here, I drew some of the covers :D Also check out this digital library full of Creative Commons Solarpunk art (neither of these are sponsored).

🦗Somewhat shameful plug🦗

For US. Quick info on calling here. Doesn't take too long: https://x.com/omarsbigsister/status/1998542899915395414?s=46

The Kansas City Really Really Free Market is back at the 816 bike collective tomorrow, Nov 15th ,from Noon to 3PM. The bike collective is at 518 East 31st Street, KC, MO. We'll be up on the 2nd floor with loads of free items. Hope to see you there! Here are just a few of the item I know we'll be bringing out.

Clothes

Shoes

Books

Clothes Hangers

Toys

Jewelry

Hats

Home Decor

Kitchen Utensils

Cups and Glasses