A dozen activists and residents gathered at 21st and Shotwell streets on Sunday afternoon to protest and demand removal of the city’s new high-tech surveillance cameras installed to deter sex work on Shotwell Street.
“We’re told that these cameras are for public safety,” said Rachel West, of US PROStitutes Collective. “We ask: Whose safety?”
The three 22-foot-tall surveillance units on Shotwell Street (each mast holds three cameras) are part of a city response to sex work in the area and a lawsuit filed by five neighbors. The 18-month experiment also includes barriers to prevent vehicular traffic on Shotwell and “Dear John letters,” where residents are encouraged to send in tips about people engaging in solicitation or other prostitution.
The cameras have been placed where sex workers gather, West said. In order to avoid arrest, those women will be pushed to more isolated, less safe areas, putting them at increased risk of rape and other violence. “Targeting sex workers, many of whom are mothers working to survive and support children, should not be the priority,” she added.
District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, following the announcement of these new cameras, said that they will be used not only as a deterrent to crime, but also as a “tool for law enforcement to investigate and prosecute crime.”
West and other speakers, which included a Shotwell resident and a sex worker, decried the use of such technology for surveillance purposes, and expressed concern for the lack of transparency over how that data is used or disseminated.
Participants also expressed concern over the cost of such surveillance. Each unit, created by LiveView Technologies, purportedly costs between $30,000 and $40,000 a year to operate.
The demonstration was organized by a coalition of women’s advocacy groups: US PROStitutes Collective, In Defense of Prostitute Women’s Safety Project, Global Women’s Strike, Women of Color/GWS and Crossroads Women’s Center.
The event also served to commemorate International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers.
“We know that cameras do not make us safer. In fact they make us less safe against the violence that they say they’re protecting us against,” said Nell Myhand, of Women of Color/GWS, who spoke during the stand-in.
Thank you to the protesters. I was sorry to miss this. In addition to the protesters’ great points, this surveillance tower is ugly and creates a paranoid, un-neighborly vibe. It goes against the spirit of making Shotwell a Slow Street, which was to make it more of a public space welcoming to all, conducive to healthy neighborhood connections. The diverters limiting through traffic are good, but the surveillance should go.
The whoreproofing on Capp has made it a much more bicycle friendly ride along those four blocks.
Shotwell as a slow street, especially the northern reaches, is like everything else that the city does to the Mission, checking a box with no subsequent follow through.
Not sure why the cameras would make sex workers less safe. If I were a resident I would want the cameras and anything else that would move the sex workers to a safer location.
If that were true there would be no crime in the most-surveilled city in America.
It was merely the substitution of one piece of nonsense for another.
Same here as for the people who decide about Muni and the Great Highway : the people protesting do not live there ; they mentioned “Activists and residents” : please, there are probably 2 dudes living on that street who like what is going on. Lets take the cameras down, lets the sex workers move in totally, lets the John’s and the pimps freely roam the street. Guess what : in 2 years the same people are begging for law enforcement, license plate readers and cameras; remember the “Defund the police crowd”? they are now all begging to get cops to go help them in Oakland and guess what, the cops rather go to work in Marin County to more tranquil pastures..Cynical reality.
That camera vehicle is parked in violation of the daylighting law that goes into effect on Jan. 1. All those opposed to it should call SFMTA and ask them to cite it.
See https://www.sfmta.com/getting-around/walk/daylighting.
The issue here is not sex work, it is not sex workers, it is the sex trade, outdoor commercial activity, situated on residential blocks.
The City should identify a location near a freeway somewhere in Showplace to relocate the sex trade to a place where its commercial activities will not conflict with residents’ right to peace and quiet in their homes from 10PM-8AM.
That said, the whoreproofing that Capp residents had to spend years prying from the City has made it quite a sedate bike ride. Hopefully, the barriers will remain in place.
I wish we got this much coverage of the calls to do away with red light and speed cameras.
As a resident near corner of 20th and Shotwell, since barriers and cameras came in the streets are quieter and there has been no sex trade visible into the evening. Maybe not a scalable solution but it’s working for us.
Please, please bring those cameras to the Powell Street Turnaround, 6th and Market and 7th and Mission.
How about arresting the men who traffic the women and/or buy their services? The city responds to neighbors’ complaints by installing barricades and cameras, then does nothing to stop the actual sex trafficking. These half-hearted measures help no one.
Oh, please. There is an entire city out there for these folks to attempt to ply their dangerous and illegal trade other than this one residential street.
To Mayor-elect Lurie,
Show some bold,new kid in town moves no one else could do.
Legalize Sex Work
Put Indian Casinos in the Armory and Twitter buildings
Make Police Chief an Elected Office
Have coffee at Carlin’s with our hero, Nick who not only stopped a strong-arm bear mace spraying robber but captured him to answer for his actions here and East Bay warrants for same.
Go Niners !!
h.
Casinos are never the right answer.
SD,
AI is the answer to all of the Future whether you like it or not as the Gavster once presciently said about Gay Marriage.
No one on Earth will have to work so they’ll need more places to play.
UBI in some form and its Tendrils will guarantee you’re unable to ‘overgamble’ cause a big Robot will drag you away from the table and take you out in back in Justin Alley and kick your ever-loving butt.
Just kidding about the Robot cause I’m surrounded and very comfortable with mine.
And, no normal person should need a job to define them.
I am 80 and haven’t had a paying job but work hard every day doing things I want to do like clean my neighborhood and advise politicians from the President to Street Sweepers and forever tuning and repairing my body.
Go Niners !!
(but, I wouldn’t bet on them making the Playoffs this year)
h.
Absolutely! Legalize sexwork and designate some buildings near Union Square that are completely geared towards providing this service. The hotels would be booming, the restaurants and bars would be humming with that Ka-Ching sound! It would be good for everyone. Then just make sure the area is safe. Lots of Street Ambassadors that know how to help the tourists and cops that will show up if things go bad.
Campers,
There are 300 Licensed Sex Workers in Amsterdam and they fill the Restaurants and hotels year-round.
It was high class here up to time of Sally Stanford and I co-managed a building on Geary that was her last … aheem … Outlet.
Late 90’s and couple of her girls (in their 70’s by then) were still living there and had few discreet friends also that old or older.
Go Niners !!
h.
Unfortunately, most Americans who have spent their entire lives knowing how “bad” and illegal sex work is, won’t go for this. SF may be the place for it to start, but the last election tells me that we are a little more backward than I had thought.
As long as the negative stigma reigns, things like sex work and addictions will remain “moral issues” rather than a tough choice in necessity or a way to cope with life.