Oakland City Councilmember Gets Backlash for Flipping Off Audience During City Council Meeting

"Tuesday's Oakland City Council meeting was the site of a very spirited debate about police use of automated license plate-reading cameras from the surveillance company Flock Safety. On one hand, we have seen these cameras lead to the arrests of genuine criminals who may not have otherwise been caught. But Flock cameras also have a troublesome trend of misidentified vehicles and false arrests,"

"But that debate was not a particularly healthy debate, as KTVU reports that at one point during a very spirited public comment session, Councilmember Ken Houston gave the finger to an audience member, or maybe it was directed at several audience members. : The video below not only shows the middle-finger moment, but also features a public commenter commenting from the dais, How the fuck does that make sense?"

Oakland City Council approved a two-year, $2 million extension to use automated license plate–reading cameras from Flock Safety. The cameras have led to arrests of genuine criminals but have also produced misidentified vehicles and false arrests. Flock camera data has been shown to have been shared with federal agencies including the FBI and ICE, even when identified vehicles were not associated with crimes. Public comment at the meeting grew spirited, and a blogger known as the Oakland Observer recorded a clip that was not shown on the main public feed. A commenter later accused council members of being bribed by the Oakland Police Officers Association and astroturf groups.

Read at sfist.com