Matthew Guariglia
@mguariglia.bsky.social
11K followers 970 following 1.7K posts
Historian of race, policing, surveillance, and technology. Senior Policy Analyst at EFF. Sometimes teach at Emory. Book on race and the origins of modern policing out now! My views are not my employers. MatthewGuariglia.com
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mguariglia.bsky.social
Hello new followers! I wrote a book--Police and the Empire City--which explores how the New York City police department's encounters with race, immigration, and empire shaped how modern police use technology, recruit, do violence, and operate generally.

www.dukeupress.edu/police-and-t...
mguariglia.bsky.social
If you where in Atlanta, one of those might have been me.
Reposted by Matthew Guariglia
melissagiragrant.com
I wrote about Chicago: "Is this city burning? There is a definite answer to the question. In all these cities, the answer is no. No American city is currently on fire, and if Chicago is a war zone, it’s because it’s being invaded by the president."
Trump Is Waging War on an American City
The real threat to people in Chicago ​(and Los Angeles and Portland) is our maniacal president.
newrepublic.com
mguariglia.bsky.social
In 2019 when I was interviewing for the job of anti-surveillance activist at EFF I was asked what is biggest civil liberties threat that no is talking about yet---and my answer at the time was Ring. Given the general climate and its capabilities, it's even worse now.

Get. Rid. Of. Your. Ring.
Ring's Facial Recognition Sparks Privacy Backlash Among Customers - Phandroid
Amazon's new Ring feature uses facial recognition to identify visitors, prompting customers to cancel subscriptions over privacy concerns.
phandroid.com
Reposted by Matthew Guariglia
mguariglia.bsky.social
🚨 We wrote about Flock rolling out "distress detection" that monitored human voices on their gunshot detection devices & asked how it was lawful under eavesdropping laws.

Now, they've changed the ad to replace a "SCREAMING" alert with a "DISTRESS" alert. See below:

www.eff.org/deeplinks/20...
An add for flock raven with the title "safety you can see and now hear" with an alert for someone "screaming" An add for flock raven with the title "safety you can see and now hear" with an alert that says "distress"
Reposted by Matthew Guariglia
Reposted by Matthew Guariglia
redemmas.org
Because certainly there's no reason why this history might be terrifyingly relevant right now, here's a link to preorder @stschrader1.bsky.social's "Blue Power" on how police in the US organized to exempt themselves from democratic oversight and control: redemmas.org/titles/48838...
Blue Power: How Police Organized to Protect and Serve Themselves
Buy from Red Emma's, a worker-owned radical bookstore
redemmas.org
mguariglia.bsky.social
🚨 We wrote about Flock rolling out "distress detection" that monitored human voices on their gunshot detection devices & asked how it was lawful under eavesdropping laws.

Now, they've changed the ad to replace a "SCREAMING" alert with a "DISTRESS" alert. See below:

www.eff.org/deeplinks/20...
An add for flock raven with the title "safety you can see and now hear" with an alert for someone "screaming" An add for flock raven with the title "safety you can see and now hear" with an alert that says "distress"
mguariglia.bsky.social
Many groups need your $, BUT you can support @eff.org's awesome work fighting the digital surveillance feeding abortion and immigration policing and the unholy alliance between big tech and an authoritarian government by buying one of this tremendously awesome "Let's Sue the Government" T-shirts.
'Let's Sue the Government' T-Shirt
When privacy is at stake, we don’t stay quiet.EFF has filed suit against OPM and DOGE over unauthorized access to millions of government employees’ personal records. Wear this ringer tee to signal: ou...
shop.eff.org
Reposted by Matthew Guariglia
jennbudd.bsky.social
Please don’t say he is not trained. Border Patrol agents do this on the border all the time. Agents at my station used to throw rocks into car windows that sometimes made them crash. They think it us funny. It’s not training in the academy, but in the field.
premthakker.bsky.social
I fear if things don’t change right now, this image is going to come back to haunt us
Laura Rodriguez, on Twitter:

A federal agent points a weapon at a woman who was recording them.

Jess, a U.S. citizen and member of a neighborhood patrol team that documents and shares ICE activity across the city, was filming when the incident occurred earlier today in the Berwyn area.
Reposted by Matthew Guariglia
mila425.bsky.social
🧵
mguariglia.bsky.social
I spent the week at the police surveillance convention and let me tell you my biggest observation: The name of the game now is consolidating as much information as humanely possible from surveillance devices, the internet, other governmental data, and literally a million other places. 🧵
mguariglia.bsky.social
Thanks for sharing EFF's work!
Reposted by Matthew Guariglia
Reposted by Matthew Guariglia
onekade.bsky.social
New: Records obtained by the @aclum.bsky.social show police across the state are conducting dragnet surveillance of motorists and sharing their location information with cops in states that have banned abortion and gender affirming care, and those that work w/ICE data.aclum.org/2025/10/07/f...
Flock Gives Law Enforcement All Over the Country Access to Your Location – The Data for Justice Project | ACLU of Massachusetts
data.aclum.org
mguariglia.bsky.social
A county commissioner tried to take down a License Plate Reader in his jurisdiction where elected officials had ended their contract w/ Flock. Police arrested him.

Who really runs these counties? Politicians gave blank checks to police and are now learning the genie is out of the bottle.
Camden County commissioner pleads guilty to misdemeanor for removing Flock camera
A Camden County commissioner has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge stemming from taking down a Flock camera on Highway 54.Todd Isaac Skelton pleaded guilty
krcgtv.com
mguariglia.bsky.social
🚨🚨 Both the police and Flock's defense for why Texas police searched the entire country for License Plate Reader data to find woman who had self-administered an abortion was because she was a missing person and family was concerned with her health. Now documents reveal they wanted to charge her.
Police Said They Surveilled Woman Who Had an Abortion for Her 'Safety.' Court Records Show They Considered Charging Her With a Crime
Court records show that the narrative Flock and a Texas Sheriff's Office has told the public isn't the whole story, and that police were conducting a 'death investigation' into the abortion.
www.404media.co
Reposted by Matthew Guariglia
galvinalmanza.bsky.social
To put it another way, I have represented thousands of people. I cannot think of a single instance in which the initial police report was entirely correct. Not one.

Journalists, please stop copying them down as if they were. Or at least give context re credibility!
mguariglia.bsky.social
Whether you're a casual news reader or a breaking news reporter at the NYTimes, I implore you--please, please, please--do not believe or report DHS/ICE/CBP's side of events uncritically. End the state's monopoly on legitimate storytelling. They are not the objective arbiter of what really happened.
chicago.suntimes.com
Body-camera video appears to contradict the government’s claim that Marimar Martinez, 30, drove toward officers before one of them opened fire at her late Saturday morning in Brighton Park, her attorney claimed.
trib.al/9Sxu9IN
mguariglia.bsky.social
We'll see how much longer it's available after this!
mguariglia.bsky.social
A lot of people who have ignored this are also about to learn really *really* quickly that when police control when cameras turn on, footage storage, and release of footage, body-worn cameras are much more a tool of surveillance and state propaganda than accountability.
mguariglia.bsky.social
Whether you're a casual news reader or a breaking news reporter at the NYTimes, I implore you--please, please, please--do not believe or report DHS/ICE/CBP's side of events uncritically. End the state's monopoly on legitimate storytelling. They are not the objective arbiter of what really happened.
Reposted by Matthew Guariglia