Sunday, September 7, 2014

Alameda Co. Sheriff censors the media, ejects "liberal" journalist for taking photos of Urban Shield convention vendors for militerizing civilian law enforcement

The complete record of the banned reporter's visit to the Urban Shield conference
[https://storify.com/smbauer1/urban-shield-swat-convention-in-oakland-2014]

"The Urban Shield Full Scale Exercise is an unclassified exercise"


Militerization? the Police aren't being militerized!
Shane Bauer @shane_bauer, Sept.11th: Sorry, I just tweeted an inaccurate fact. I said the military gave 1,200 bayonets to the police. It's actually 12,000. Bayonets. [http://www.npr.org/2014/09/02/342494225/mraps-and-bayonets-what-we-know-about-the-pentagons-1033-program]


"Mother Jones Reporter Booted From SWAT Convention For Act Of Reporting
Shane Bauer was booted from the Urban Shield convention after one of the vendors complained about him 'filming.' "
2014-09-07 from [http://crooksandliars.com/2014/09/mother-jones-reporter-booted-swat]:
View video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFK0ExHR5Fo]
Also see [http://www.motherjones.com/mixed-media/2014/08/armed-guards-ushered-me-out-prison-convention].
---
Oakland is having a SWAT convention today, and Mother Jones reporter Shane Bauer has been sending out some amazing images from it. Scary images. Image that confirm everything you thought about police militarization.
Like this one [http://twitter.com/shane_bauer/status/508670571920769024/photo/1]:
Shane Bauer ‏@shane_bauer: A drone company is set up at an #UrbanShield site, but the county is waiting for FAA permission to use them.


And this one [http://twitter.com/shane_bauer/status/508671570479689729/photo/1]:
Shane Bauer ‏@shane_bauer: The @HaloDropDrones vendor got nervous about us taking too detailed of pictures, in case we wanted to duplicate them. 


And one more [http://twitter.com/shane_bauer/status/508429922504015872/photo/1]:
Shane Bauer ‏@shane_bauer: Here is the University of California, Berkeley SWAT team, which is used to respond to muggings of students.

 

It appears that those photos and some other videos (see his twitter feed for more) may have gotten Bauer a quick escort to the exit.
Shane Bauer @shane_bauer: A cop just took our media badges for the #UrbanShield SWAT training. Says his captain called and told him to do it. Not clear why. 11:09 AM - 7 Sep 2014

Someone didn't care for either the video or stills they were taking, even though they remained in the areas where they were told filming was permitted.
I'll bet it was one of these guys [http://twitter.com/shane_bauer/status/507978633894313985/photo/1]:
Shane Bauer ‏@shane_bauer: Here are the corporate sponsors of Urban Shield

This is really scary stuff. The mayor of Oakland said last night that the city would not host this convention next year. To that, she received a big "screw you" from the police [SFGate.com link], [begin excerpt]
But officials from the Alameda County Sheriff's Office, which coordinates the conference, hit back at Quan's statement.
"Mayor Quan has had little to no involvement with Urban Shield. She does not have the authority to tell Urban Shield or anyone that they can't come into the City of Oakland," said Sgt. J.D. Nelson, a spokesman for the office.
"We recognize that she can influence the Oakland convention center, but we find it amazing that the mayor of Oakland does not want better training for the cities' first responders nor the hotel tax revenue, sales tax revenue, and low crime rate in the downtown area that Urban Shield and its 5,000-plus attendees has provided in the last few years to the City of Oakland," he said.
[end excerpt]
Yeah, because Oakland hasn't seen any abuse by the police. Sure.


"FirstNet-related Tactical LTE Communications System at Urban Shield Exercise"
2014-09-10 from [https://web.archive.org/web/20140912052024/http://www.mutualink.net/FirstNet-related-Tactical-LTE-Communications-System-at-Urban-Shield-Exercise.asp]:
Oakland CA -
Urban Shield is a full-scale regional preparedness exercise assessing the Bay Area's Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI) response capabilities related to multi-discipline planning, policies, procedures, organization, equipment and training. Urban Shield tests regional integrated systems for prevention, protection, response and recovery in high-threat, high-density urban areas.
---
At Urban Shield 2014, Mutualink, Sonim and Oceus will participate in a FirstNet-related deployment of an Enhanced System on Wheels (ESOW). The exercise will give public safety officials in northern California the opportunity to prepare for a coordinated, multi-agency, emergency response using advanced collaboration across LTE Band 14.
During the Urban Shield exercise, officials from the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center (NCRIC), Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), and other agencies will communicate and collaborate with onsite SWAT teams, during a simulated emergency incident involving a terrorist boarding a public transit vehicle.
The ESOW will enable all parties to share real-time video, images and voice communications using mobile phones and tablets on the scene. An ESOW provides secure local, multimedia multiparty collaboration capability between user equipment and legacy devices, such as video cameras and land mobile radios (LMRs).
Mike Sena, Director of the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center (NCRIC), commented, "When we first explored options for interoperability between agencies, we found Mutualink was the only platform that allowed agencies to share audio, video and digital files over a secure network. We currently use the technology at various agencies within the San Francisco Bay area, and our goal is to continue the growth of the network within the region. A key feature of the system is that we can include first responders as well as other public and private entities for community-wide coordination."
"This exercise at Urban Shield is another proof-point of FirstNet's mission for delivering nationwide broadband capability for public safety, and further evidence that the future is now when it comes to next-generation technologies for first responders and emergency personnel," said Dr. Mike Wengrovitz, Mutualink's Vice President of Innovation.
"First responders and mission-critical personnel need the ability to access relevant information quickly to help assess a situation and become more efficient in making time-critical decisions. This exercise will showcase technology that addresses these needs today," said Bob Escalle, Senior Director of Public Safety and Defense for Sonim.
Mutualink's technology will serve as the interoperable communications platform for the ESOW enabling real-time sharing of radio, voice, text, video, data and location information in a secure environment. Mutualink serves as the gateway for bridging disparate systems so that all parties responding to an emergency can communicate and collaborate in real time.
Sonim Technologies will provide handheld devices for the ESOW based on their ultra-rugged features such as 20+ hours of LTE based talk time, extreme durability in heat, dust, wet environments, visibility in direct sunlight and support for a wide range of android applications and accessories with full support of LTE Band 14.
World-class rugged performance standards combined with an unprecedented industry leading 3-year warranty to protect even the most active users from accidental damage deliver the lowest total cost of ownership in the industry.
Xiphos, Oceus Networks' 4G LTE lightweight deployable communications system - a complete mobile "network in the box" - will provide the Band 14 broadband network for Urban Shield participants. The solution demonstrates interoperability and integration between first responders utilizing Mutualink applications, Sonim devices, and COTS WiFi-enabled devices.
"Deployable technology creates an environment that allows First Responders to literally bring the network with them, delivering coverage when and where it is needed to operate as part of a larger network or as a standalone node.
"We are excited to bring our proven technology to the Public Safety community and demonstrate how broadband solutions can transform the first responder mission in the field," said Jim Patterson, Oceus Networks' Vice President of Public and Federal Solutions.
Urban Shield is a full-scale regional preparedness exercise assessing the Bay Area's Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI) response capabilities related to multi-discipline planning, policies, procedures, organization, equipment and training. Urban Shield tests regional integrated systems for prevention, protection, response and recovery in high-threat, high-density urban areas.

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