Matter

ICYMI, revisit our recent Flock coverage:

Activists push Columbus to join other Ohio cities in cutting ties with Flock
https://matternews.org/community/policing/activists-push-columbus-to-join-other-ohio-cities-in-cutting-ties-with-flock/

Local Politics: A rundown of what the Flock is going on
https://matternews.org/community/politics/local-politics-a-rundown-of-what-the-flock-is-going-on/

Columbus City Council meets to discuss Flock amid rising public scrutiny
https://matternews.org/community/policing/columbus-city-council-meets-to-discuss-flock-amid-rising-public-scrutiny/

Local Politics: Flock representative leaves halfway through Columbus City Council hearing
https://matternews.org/community/politics/local-politics-flock-representative-leaves-halfway-through-columbus-city-council-hearing/

Opinion: Columbus’ Flock debate is not facts versus feelings
https://matternews.org/voices/opinion-columbus-flock-debate-is-not-facts-versus-feelings/

Opinion: Columbus' Flock debate is not facts versus feelings – Matter News Residents did not speak at a City Council hearing this week merely to express discomfort with new technology. They presented an evidence-based argument that the current system is inadequately governed, vulnerable to abuse, and capable of uses far beyond the narrow public-safety examples emphasized b...

When police say Flock helped solve a homicide, ask what “helped” means. When officials say guardrails prevent abuse, ask what actually prevents an improper search before it happens. When Columbus says its officers cannot use Flock for immigration enforcement, ask who else can access Columbus data and what those agencies and departments do with it. And when dozens of residents present audits, documented abuses, technical vulnerabilities, legal liabilities, court decisions, and concrete examples of loopholes in city policy, do not reduce their case to “privacy concerns.”

This matters particularly now because Councilmember Emmanuel Remy had already expressed reluctance before Monday’s hearing to eliminate ALPRs altogether and indicated that Columbus could consider another vendor if Flock itself proved unacceptable. Many residents who testified Monday were making a different argument: not which company should operate Columbus’s ALPR network, but whether the city should maintain an all-encompassing and unaccountable automated mass surveillance dragnet at all. If that argument is remembered only as one side’s “concerns,” Council can say it listened while leaving the basic policy framework (or lack thereof) untouched: retain ALPRs, perhaps change vendors, and maybe modify the rules.

Columbus residents did not come to Council on Monday merely to express discomfort with new technology. They presented an evidence-based argument that the current system is inadequately governed, vulnerable to abuse, and capable of uses far beyond the narrow public-safety examples emphasized by its defenders.

New in opinion from Lucas Pompey.

Opinion: Columbus' Flock debate is not facts versus feelings – Matter News Residents did not speak at a City Council hearing this week merely to express discomfort with new technology. They presented an evidence-based argument that the current system is inadequately governed, vulnerable to abuse, and capable of uses far beyond the narrow public-safety examples emphasized b...

In December, Oneida gathered for sessions that yielded new single “I Can’t Stand You,” a cantankerous, darkly psychedelic burner that rides the guitars of Hanoi Jane and Showtime to a smoldering crescendo. The track is backed by the hypnotic, Krautrock-esque “Steel,” edited down from a 60-minute jam and highlighting the kinetic kit-work of drummer Kid Millions as well as the atomic bond the musicians have developed over the nearly three decades they’ve played together.

“We were kind of trying to find something,” Millions said by phone ahead of Oneida’s concert at Cafe Bourbon Street on Friday, Aug. 14, which will also feature the great Columbus rock band the Lindsay and a collaborative set between Oneida and members of Kinski, whose guitarist, Chris Martin, flew home to Seattle earlier this week to have surgery for a detached retina. “So, you’re just listening and trying things, and if something is landing, you repeat it. … And even if it’s not working, sometimes you just play on faith that something will happen. … And there is a sense of length or time when you start to let go of those expectations, like: ‘I want to play this riff’; ‘I want to play this’; ‘We’re trying to do something.’ And when all of those things begin to fall away, sometimes a diamond can fall out.”

Curiosity, community continue to fuel Oneida – Matter News The long-running experimental rock band will visit Cafe Bourbon Street for a concert on Friday, Aug. 14.

I occasionally get private questions from parents or friends seeking treatment for a loved one. In hushed tones they ask how and where they can get help. Their discretion tells me we have so far to go before they and their loved one know that they are loved and cared for and that there is help available.

In the wake of the overdose catastrophe, more Americans should be aware that addiction is not a moral failing, and that the overdose crisis was generated by policy failures.

It’s not just the interpersonal things. It’s the way that stigma is baked into the system. How structures, such as the ridiculous barriers for dispensing methadone, prevent people from practicing research-based medicine. Most recently, consider the cuts to SAMHSA, the virtual erasure of the term “harm reduction” from the CDC, RFK Jr’s apparent belief that “wellness farms” are gold-standard, and our continued war on drugs.

New from Jack Shuler.

American stigma: A brief history – Matter News In the wake of the overdose catastrophe, more Americans should be aware that addiction is not a moral failing, and that the overdose crisis was generated by policy failures.

“I was really interested in mini-comics and zines, and I wanted to do something studying those materials. And very early on when I was in grad school, I found the documentary ‘The Punk Singer.’ And again, Kathleen Hanna sort of led the way for me, because she talks a lot in the documentary about girls’ bedrooms as these connective spaces, and the things that girls made in their bedrooms as the tissue that kind of existed pre-internet to help girls connect with one another. … And my advisor probably thought I was insane, but I was like, I’m going to do my thesis about girls’ bedroom culture, so let’s go.”

Rachel Moss finds deep cultural connection ‘In the Girls’ Room’ – Matter News ‘When I think of my bedroom now, it was almost this little incubator for what my life would become as a writer and researcher, getting to explore things I liked without anybody watching or commenting on it.’

Interviewed in 2020 ahead of her installation “It Is What It Is,” for which she created more than 5,000 paper dolls meant to represent the number of Ohioans who died of Covid in the early pandemic, Cavanaugh said she was compelled to more politically motivated work later in life, seeing in her art a way to potentially reach those who might tune out other messaging.

“Perhaps as I get older, I get more concerned about the country and the world, and I want to have a positive impact,” said Cavanaugh, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2022. “One does what they can, I guess, and one can hope that by saying something in an artistic way, one might be able to reach someone who can’t be reached by other means.”

This reach continues with “A Common Thread,” a new group exhibition curated by Char Norman and celebrating the life and work of Cavanaugh, which opened last week at the Ohio Craft Museum and will remain on display through Sept. 26.

Artists seek out ‘A Common Thread’ with the late Sue Cavanaugh – Matter News A new group exhibition curated by Char Norman and celebrating the life and work of the late Columbus artist will remain on display at the Ohio Craft Museum through Sept. 26.

No decisions were made by the Council at the hearing. The funding and existing contract for Columbus’s access to Flock expires in December. Councilmember Emmanuel Remy, who called the hearing, asked CPD Deputy Chief Tim Myers what would happen if that contract was allowed to lapse.

“Our ability to access Flock would go away,” Myers responded.

The room erupted in raucous cheers.

Local Politics: Flock representative leaves halfway through Columbus City Council hearing – Matter News Of the 55 Columbus residents who signed up to speak at the hearing, only five voiced support for keeping the cameras in place.

This sense of solitude bleeds into a handful of album tracks centered on human connection, or more specifically on the ways this connection can dissolve and fall to pieces in time. Witness “Garbage,” on which Autumn details an eroding romantic relationship that falls “one step away from being toxic.” Then there’s “Jesus Heist,” a track where the narrator chooses indifference over sitting with the sting of the inevitable end. “I don’t want to cry/I don’t want to fight,” Autumn sings atop loping drums and the strum of acoustic guitar. “I don’t want to know where you slept last night.”

“With this record, yeah, I was definitely struggling with connection and what that means, and where to seek connection, how to seek connection,” Autumn said by phone ahead of a free concert at the Snow Fork Event Center in nearby Nelsonville on Thursday, Aug. 13. “And then it’s also [finding] connection to nature … and connection to something else outside of people, I suppose.”

Angela Autumn attempts to find heaven on Earth with ‘Believer’ – Matter News The Nashville-based country singer performs a free concert at the Snow Fork Event Center in nearby Nelsonville on Thursday, Aug. 13.

In response to the growing public scrutiny, Columbus police launched an online Flock “transparency portal” in July, reporting the number of unique vehicle license plates read over the previous 30 days (927,279 as of publication), the total number of Flock searches conducted in that same timespan (5,080), and select CPD “success stories.”

However, Shannon of DeFlock Upper Arlington said that there are aspects of the data presented in the CPD portal that don’t capture the full nature of the city’s deal with Flock, including the site’s claim that the collected data is only kept for 30 days.

“When they talk about this 30-day retention period, that really ignores the contracts, which describe an irrevocable, universal license for Flock to feed the aggregated data into their machine-automated-learning products,” Shannon said. “So, the footage might be gone after 30 days, but the contracts state pretty explicitly that Flock gets to keep the aggregated data to do all sorts of AI stuff with it. … And I’m not sure City Council quite grasps the whole metadata, AI-training ecosystem of this.”

Columbus City Council meets to discuss Flock amid rising public scrutiny – Matter News Officials will hold a public hearing at City Hall beginning at 4 p.m. today (Monday, Aug. 10), with anti-Flock protesters planning to stage a 3 p.m. rally ahead of the meeting.

In many ways, new Dari Bay album Surprise Wish (Double Double Whammy) exists at a point of transition, singer and songwriter Zack James penning impressionistic lyrics that suggest a deeper exploration of the person he once was and the one he hopes in time to be. Witness “Video,” built on chunky drums and fuzzed out guitar, on which the musician professes a desire to “believe in the latest version, ’cause I don’t want to do it all again.”

“I was thinking about how my experiences shaped me, and about how I have friends who are better at addressing that, which made me feel a little bit emotionally behind on that kind of thing,” the Burlington, Vermont-based James said by phone ahead of his band’s early show at Ace of Cups on Saturday, Aug. 8, supported by Columbus’ Villagerrrr. “And that’s something I would say I hadn’t done before this record, just going into the vault and thinking about some of those core memories that are hazy and distant but were profoundly impactful, for better or worse.”

Dari Bay charts a more focused course on ‘Surprise Wish’ – Matter News Vermont singer and songwriter Zack James, who joins Columbus’ Villagerrr for an early concert at Ace of Cups on Saturday, Aug. 8, said he’s approaching music with a different level of intent these days.