Not before getting Mic Checked though.
Mic Check!
Seventy people gathered in the drizzle at 5:30 PM before the City Council meeting on Tuesday, November 19th. The rally against DAC was muted by the rain, as the Brass Liberation Orchestra had to cancel due to the H2O, but a huge kettle of soup provided by good samaritans keep spirits high as the crowd waited for the City Council non-consent agenda to begin.
The latest DAC proposal was to give the City Administrator authorization to select a new contractor instead of going through a standard Request For Proposal process. The proposal had become necessary because SAIC, the original contractor, had been caught with its hands in the nuclear weapons jar.
More than seventy people signed up to speak to the Council about this one item, including “Edward Snowden” and “Seymour Butts.” A request was made to move the DAC proposal up on the agenda (it was on the schedule as last) because of the number of speakers signed up. This request was summarily shot down by City Council President Kernighan without even consulting the rest of the Council.
Some thirty minutes later dozens of DAC opponents scattered through the Council Chamber and upper gallery Mic Checked the City Council.
“75 People Signed Up to Speak on DAC.”
“This is Half of Everyone Who Signed up to Speak Tonight.”
“You Denied a Request to Move Forward the Agenda Item.”
“By Refusing to Move it Forward You Are Perverting the Right of the People to be Heard.”
and then a chant
“Let The People Speak.”
“Let The People Speak.”
“Let The People Speak.”
“Let The People Speak.”
….
Kernighan, the Councilor whose emotion chip will not be ready until the 24th century, was unmoved.
“1984 was NOT supposed to be an Instruction Manual.”
It was not until approximately midnight that the DAC proposal even came up on the Council Agenda. Despite claims in a SF Chronicle article that “the protest sputtered out” (since updated and erased 1984 style) plenty of people stayed into the Wednesday to speak truth about DAC to people who refused to listen.
“I don’t want to live in a city that is testing this giant surveillance system, because I believe it is going to be used to criminalize normal existence,” said Magdalena Kazmierczak, 24, a membership coordinator for the Electronic Frontier Foundation who lives in West Oakland.
Some time past 1:00 AM the motion carried 6-1, with only Lynette McElhaney voting against it.
There will be a meeting Saturday, at 6:00 PM at the SuDo space for opponents to discuss further steps to take to stop Orwell’s thirty-years delayed vision from become a reality.
Oakland City Council Meeting – Nov. 19 2013
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