Cop Block

Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

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Is the Cop Block Brand More Important Than Ideas and Effectiveness?

Pete Eyre 648 Views , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Over the past half decade I chose to allocate many hours and resources to disseminate the ideas encapsulated by the phrase “Badges Don’t Grant Extra Rights.” I connected with thousands of people on the ground during a handful of tours. I authored the most posts at CopBlock.org. And I uploaded the most videos to CopBlock’s Youtube channel.

During that time, in concert with many others, CopBlock.org became a resource hub. One of the most prominent features was the Groups page, which listed known police accountability groups from around the globe – not just groups who chose the “Cop Block” moniker, but also those who operated under other names, like “Cop Watch” or “Peaceful Streets.” Including these groups aligns with Cop Block’s stated mission:

Cop Block is a decentralized project supported by a diverse group of individuals united by their shared goal of police accountability.

No matter the stripe, those listed on the Groups page were helping to move things forward in their community. Without question, we’re all better off when it’s easier to find and collaborate with others nearby. The exchange of ideas, empowerment of individuals, building of networks, and voluntary solutions most excited me.

In the past, many who started new groups were known to myself or others heavily involved. Now, due to the growth of the network, and the sheer volume of people who realize the violence inherent in the police apparatus, that is no longer the case.

To ensure no new group was overlooked and to make it easier for others to connect with them, last year I added a form to that Groups page that enables new groups to add their location and contact information for all to see. As I’d hoped, the Groups page continued to grow with the addition not only of new Cop Block groups, but with Cop Watch and Peaceful Street, as well.

Then something strange happened.

Last week I received an email asking where Tampa Copwatch’s contact information had gone. Huh? I had personally added Tampa Copwatch to the Group page. The founder had ventured up to Atlanta (along with the founder of Cop Block Central Florida when I passed through town with the Police Accountability Tour). I was pretty sure Tampa Copwatch was still active.

So, I went and checked out the Groups page for myself. I found that it had been radically altered. All the non-Cop Block groups were missing. Did someone hack the page? Not exactly – it turns out that the mass deletions were made by the founder of Cop Block, Ademo Freeman. Huh?

I emailed Ademo, and noted:

Is the prime motivation for the site now to push the “CB brand” rather than to facilitate bottom-up connections regardless of the banner? Is an organization now being put before an ideal? I’ve got to say, this is a big thing for me personally. It goes in the opposite direction of what should be the core focus.

Ademo replied and stated that the page was being restructured to “promote cop blocks brand first and foremost.”

Has CopBlock.org suffered from mission creep? Is police accountability now secondary to the promotion of a brand?

Removing any principled groups from the Groups page will only stymie overall effectiveness. It matters not what branding is claimed by those involved. What is important is the spread of ideas.

After having almost gone into “law” enforcement, I know first hand the paradigm-shifting implications that can be had by simply being introduced to a new idea. In fact, I often told people that Cop Block was more an idea than anything – a phrase often followed by its corollary – that ideas have consequences.

As Julian Assange outlines in When Google Met Wikileaks, the potential of a decentralized network is huge:

What is happening is that these people are finding each other across the world and across states. We are creating our own computational network of human beings that can think the same way, that can trust each other on a point-to-point basis… an organization starts to form as these people start to find each other locally. As they discover each other they become optimized – that network of notes starts linking up and becoming more and more efficient at comprehending its environment, planning for action, and then acting.

What will be the fate of the Groups page at CopBlock.org?

Perhaps if enough feedback is received, Ademo will re-add the groups he removed. Or maybe further decentralization is a better solution, and the information below will be mirrored and continually updated by other website operators.

The strongest networks are the ones that eliminate single points of failure. CopBlock.org need not become such a point.

_______________________________________

Alabama

  • Alabama Cop Block – Facebook / AlabamaCopBlock@groups.facebook.com
  • Auburn Cop Block – Facebook
  • Central Alabama Cop Block – Facebook
  • Hoover Cop Block – hoovercopblock@gmail.com
  • Southeast Alabama Cop Block – Facebook / website / sebamacopblock@yahoo.com

Alaska

Arizona

  • Arizona Cop Block – Facebook
  • AZ Maricopa Cop Block – Twitter
  • Kingman Cop Block – Facebook / kingmancopblockers@gmail.com / P.O. Box #6693, Kingman, Arizona 86402
  • Tucson Cop Block – Facebook / tucsoncopblock@gmail.com

Arkansas

California

  • Bakersfield, CA Cop Block – Facebook
  • Berkeley Cop Watch – Facebook
  • Cop Block Clemson – Twitter
  • Cop Block Fresno, CA – Facebook / Ustream
  • Cop Block Imperial Valley – Facebook
  • Cop Block Los Angeles – Facebook / copblockla@gmail.com
  • Cop Block El Segundo – Facebook
  • High Desert Cop Block – Facebook / highdesertcopblock@gmail.com
  • Orange County Cop Block – Facebook / Twitter / occopblock@gmail.com
  • Redwood Curtain Cop Watch – website / (707) 633-4493 / copwatchrwc@riseup.net
  • San Diego Cop Block – Facebook
  • Santa Ana Cop Watch – Facebook / cwsantaana@google.com
  • Stockton Cop Block – Facebook
  • Southbay Cop Block – Facebook

Colorado

Connecticut

Delaware

No known groups [change that! scroll down to learn how to start a group]

Florida

Georgia

Hawaii

Idaho

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Kansas

  • Kansas City Metro Cop Block – Facebook
  • KCK Cop Block – Facebook
  • MO/KS Cop Block – Bambuser / Facebook / YouTube / mokscopblock@gmail.com
  • Northwest Kansas Cop Block – Facebook / bukubaddeath@gmail.com
  • South East Kansas Cop Block – Facebook / sekansascopblock@yahoo.com

Kentucky

  • Kentucky Cop Block – Facebook / kycopblock@gmail.com
  • Louisville Cop Block – Facebook
  • Northeastern Kentucky Cop Block – Facebook / northeasternkycopblock@gmail.com
  • Prestonsburg Cop Block – Facebook / fratercorleonis@gmail.com

Louisiana

Maine

  • Maine Cop Block –Facebook / mainecopblock@gmail.com

Maryland

  • Baltimore Copwatch – Facebook
  • Cop Block Keyser WV / Cumberland MD – Facebook

Massachusetts

Michigan

Minnesota

  • Communities United Against Police Brutality – website
  • Minnesota Cop Block – Facebook / Twitter / minnesotacopblock@gmail.com

Mississippi

Missouri

  • Central Missouri Copblock – Facebook / Twitter / centralmissouricopblock@gmail.com
  • Kansas City Metro Cop Block – Facebook
  • Lake of the Ozarks Cop Block – Facebook
  • MO/KS Cop Block – Bambuser / Facebook / YouTube / mokscopblock@gmail.com
  • North Missouri Cop Block – Facebook
  • Southeast Missouri Copblock – Facebook / southeastmissouricopblock@gmail.com
  • Southwest Missouri Cop Block – Facebook / Twitter / SouthwestMissouriCopBlock@Gmail.com
  • St. Louis Cop Block – Facebook

Montana

Nebraska

  • Eastern Nebraska Copblock – Facebook

Nevada

New Hampshire

New Jersey

  • No known groups

New Mexico

New York

North Carolina

North Dakota

No known groups

Ohio

Oklahoma

  • Oklahoma Cop Block – Facebook / copblockokla@gmail.com

Oregon

Pennsylvania

  • Cop Block Venango County – Facebook
  • Harrisburg Cop Block – Facebook / harrisburgcopblock@gmail.com
  • Lehigh Valley Cop Block – Facebook
  • Pennsylvania Cop Block – Facebook
  • Philadelphia Cop Block – Facebook / phlcopblock@gmail.com
  • Pittsburgh CopBlock – Facebook
  • State College Pa Cop Block – Facebook / SCPACopBlock@gmail.com
  • Twin Tiers Cop Block – Facebook / twintierscopblock@gmail.com
  • Waterford Cop Block – Facebook
  • York, PA Cop Block – Twitter
  • Warren County Cop Block – Facebook

Rhode Island

  • No known groups

South Carolina

South Dakota

Tennessee

Texas

Utah

Vermont

Virginia

Washington

Washington, D.C.

West Virginia

  • Cop Block Keyser WV / Cumberland MD – Facebook
  • Cop Block West Virginia – Facebook / copblockwv@gmail.com
  • Huntington Cop Block – Facebook / Twitter / UStream / huntingtoncopblock@gmail.com

Wisconsin

Wyoming

No known groups

Canada

Europe

  • CopBlock UK – Facebook
  • Cop Block Denmark – Facebook / copblockdenmark@gmail.com
  • Cop Block Europe – Facebook
  • Cop Block Greece – Facebook
  • Cop Block Holland – Facebook
  • Cop Block The Netherlands – Facebook
  • Impunity of the Police (Poland) – website / redakcja@bezkarnoscpolicji.info

Middle East

  • Egyptian Copblock – Facebook
  • Israel Cop Block – Facebook / CopBlockIsrael@gmail.com

Oceania

  • Australia Cop Block – Facebook
  • Cop Block of New Zealand – Facebook
  • New Zealand Police Corruption Association – Facebook

Other

 

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Pete Eyre

Pete Eyre is co-founder of CopBlock.org. As an advocate of peaceful, consensual interactions, he seeks to inject a message of complete liberty and self-government into the conversation of police accountability. Eyre went to undergrad and grad school for law enforcement, then spent time in DC as an intern at the Cato Institute, a Koch Fellow at the Drug Policy Alliance, Directer of Campus Outreach at the Institute for Humane Studies, Crasher-in-Chief at Bureaucrash, and as a contractor for the Future of Freedom Foundation. In 2009 he left the belly of the beast and hit the road with Motorhome Diaries and later co-founded Liberty On Tour. He spent time in New Hampshire home, and was involved with Free Keene, the Free State Project and The Daily Decrypt.