NATIONWIDE PROTEST AGAINST SURVEILLANCE WITHOUT ACCOUNTABILITY:
Destruction of privacy and dignity by corporate chains is target of camera-weilding "sharpshooters".
An international coalition that includes artists, scientists, engineers, scholars, and others is declaring December 24, to be "ShootBack Day" (National Accountability Day) and is requesting that at noon on Friday, December 24, people all over the world protest the growing and dehumanizing effects of increased video surveillance, by browsing in various department stores (and other similar organizations that use video surveillance), armed with their own photographic or videographic cameras and recording devices.
We are all accountable for our actions. The Bigs keep us under surveillance, whether we're just walking down the street, shopping, or sometimes even when we're changing clothes in their fitting rooms (Phil Patton, Jan. '95, WiReD).
That's why the week of Dec21-Dec24 is National Accountability Week, and in particular, Friday, December 24th is National Accountability Day. This is the day to arm yourselves with all manner of cameras, and other photographic or videographic instrumentation, and to enter various department stores, and other establishments that match the classic definition of totalitarian (e.g. establishments that wish to know everything about everyone yet reveal nothing about themselves).
Examples of totalitarian establishments are those in which we are placed under extensive video surveillance, yet we are prohibited to take pictures ourselves. The goal of National Accountability Day is to challenge this one-sided aspect of Totalitarian Surveillance.
Participants are urged to photograph or make videos of illegal activity in totalitarian establishments. Illegal activity includes fire exits chained shut, and other forms of entrapment, forcible confinement doors, and the like, which are often potential fire hazards.
It is preferable that larger groups of sharpshooters participate in unison, to prevent, or at least document illegal theft or vandalism of photographic equipment by the Bigs.
When we ask why we are under video surveillance, we are told by the Bigs that ``only criminals are afraid of cameras'', or we are asked ``why are you so paranoid''. Now is the time to allow the Bigs to define themselves. The camera is Hamlet's Mirror, allowing the Bigs to define themselves within a Reflectionist context.
Shoot Authority First
Question Authority Later.
(Shoot first, ask questions later)