No Justice No Peace

howff /haʊf/. A favourite meeting place or haunt, especially a pub.

Welcome to the Howff, Bella’s boozer for the cultural void and your lounge for the lockdown. We are promoting artists and musicians who are now gigless because of the virus.  Today’s Howff is dedicated to black lives matter.

We caught up with Steg G the rapper behind Scottish Hip Hop Artists for Equality who have created an album of 21 exclusive and classic tracks from some of Scotlands top artists including Solareye, Shogun, Empress, Loki, Gasp. Werd (SOS), Bigg Taj and See 69, Sherlock, and Steg G and the Freestyle Master.

Steg G told us:

As Hip Hop artists we were brought up, educated, entertained and empowered through black people and black culture and this has changed our lives in a positive way. We wanted to do something with our collective voice and our music so I asked my friends if they wanted to help and within hours I had an inbox full of amazing music including lots of exclusive tracks from some of the best artists in the country. All money goes direct to CRER a Scottish Charity supporting Black and Ethnic minority rights“.

Go check them out here: https://www.crer.scot/ and follow them @crer_scotland

Comments (5)

Leave a Reply to Michael Cancel reply

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  1. Michael says:

    The following from a 2019 Cambridge University Press paper should serve as warning re what “de-fund the police” means in elite circles:

    “According to Hartzog et al. (2015, p. 1769), ‘[w]e are entering a new era when large portions of the law enforcement process may be automated … with little to no human oversight or intervention’. In this paper, we seek to explore this contention by looking specifically at the introduction of body-worn video (BWV) into policework and its implications for the automation of policing (Joh, 2018a; 2018b). The use of technological processes, unmediated by human interaction or assistance, is increasing across a range of human activities, such as robotic manufacturing and ‘smart’ self-monitoring infrastructure systems, as well as in services ranging from taxi-dispatch and food delivery to nursing and legal analysis (Brownsword, 2019). As these machines develop, they aid, augment, modify and replace human actions.

    “We situate the introduction of BWV within a larger paradigm shift in policing, where technology is altering and replacing human behaviour and decision-making. Within this background shift towards automation, we examine the ways in which BWV is embedded within human action, generating new forms of policework while eliminating and transforming others. We ponder the scope for discretion currently given to officers in the decision to turn the body-worn camera on and off. Given this discretion, it is unclear whether the stated intentions of BWV use – effective, transparent and accountable policing – have been achieved. The issue of discretion is linked with further questions: What has in fact been automated, and to what degree? And what is the potential for automation to be overridden manually? Contrasting manual and automated policing also draws attention to the discriminatory outcomes associated with high levels of discretion, as well as the fear that perfectly enforced laws might erode contextualised decision-making and citizens’ reasonable expectation of privacy. In this sense, BWV operates in a continuum of surveillant and investigative technologies that generate information on citizens, but it is distinct, as the automation it enables remains dependent on human intervention and interpretation. As the direction of further development is towards more advanced automation, we conclude with a series of general remarks to do with this shift in policing and the questions that it raises for scholars, legislators and the wider public.” – https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-journal-of-law-in-context/article/automated-policing-the-case-of-bodyworn-video/921E811F147249D1699B59471CDC4B94/core-reader

    When you hear “de-fund the police” and re-imaging the police”, think “busting the police unions” and “de-funding human policing resources” in favour of elite controlled algorithmic tech policing – imperfect human policing that at least has a beating heart in it’s chest, to be replaced by dispassionate heartless tech policing – choose your poison. We’re not getting cuddly community policing anytime soon, no matter what nonsense the headlines try and distract us with.

    What is currently happening is the usual story of those with actual power, covertly hijacking peoples emotional response, to progress their agenda.

    When we respond emotionally to an issue without organisation, and clear strategy and tactics, we get manipulated – this is a tried and tested strategy that anyone one with half a brain and some resources can deploy!

    1. john w shaw says:

      Yes. But it will not be stopped just think of the belief ( of those investing ) in smart cars. You just sit there and watch as it obliterates your life?

    2. Daniel Raphael says:

      Much thanks for that, Michael. I just tweeted the link you provided, with a comment of my own and credit to your site for the link and critique.

    3. Did you mean to post this on this page?

      1. john w shaw says:

        Yes you are correct wrong response , John

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