SECURITY CULTURE 101: The Tools of State Surveillance and How to Resist

In Direct Action 101: Episode 10, we expose how modern policing relies on surveillance—not just force—to control, intimidate, and punish. From facial recognition and drones to door knocks and license plate readers, this episode unpacks the digital and physical tools the state uses to monitor dissent. We trace the roots of policing from slave patrols to AI-driven surveillance, showing how pain compliance and repression are embedded in law enforcement’s logic. Learn how activists resist this infrastructure through security culture, anonymity, and collective care.

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Want to learn more from the resources in the episode?

📚 BOOKS TO READ

• Politics as a Vocation – Max Weber
  ➤ Explains how the state monopolizes violence.
  🔗 Read here

• The End of Policing – Alex S. Vitale
  ➤ An in-depth critique of the policing system in the U.S.
  🔗 Read here (affiliate link)

• 📚 Ready for Revolution The Life and Struggles of Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) 🔗 https://bookshop.org/a/23229/9780684850047

• 📚 Police: A Field Guide Revised Edition By David Correia , Tyler Wall , Craig Gilmore  🔗 https://bookshop.org/a/23229/9781015317260

• The New Jim Crow – Michelle Alexander
  ➤ On mass incarceration as a racial caste system.
  🔗 https://bookshop.org/a/23229/9781620971932

• War at Home – Brian Glick
  ➤ Classic resource on infiltration & government suppression of movements.
  🔗 Free PDF Download: https://we.riseup.net/assets/77713/hambone10001.pdf

• How to Push Back on License Plate Surveillance – ACLU
  🔗 https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/how-to-pump-the-brakes-on-your-police-departments-use-of-flocks-mass-surveillance-license-plate-readers

• Watch Where You Walk: Protester Surveillance – California Law Review
  🔗 https://www.californialawreview.org/online/watch-where-you-walk-law-enforcement-surveillance-and-protester-privacy

• If an Agent Knocks – Center for Constitutional Rights
  🔗 https://ccrjustice.org/if-agent-knocks-resource

• End No-Knock Warrants – NAACP Legal Defense Fund
  🔗 https://www.naacpldf.org/end-no-knock-warrants/

FBI Raids Pro-Palestine Student Organizers – Truthout
🔗 https://truthout.org/articles/fbi-and-police-raid-homes-of-pro-palestine-student-activists-in-michigan/

Pain Compliance Tactics Explained
🔗 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRyqyzZFjpw&pp=ygUhUGFpbiBDb21wbGlhbmNlIFRhY3RpY3MgRXhwbGFpbmVk

Line 3 Protest Surveillance (Documentary)
🔗 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5hDJddQ6nM

Stingray Surveillance Tech

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1E3r2USd8I

Facial Recogni