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I’m happy for the revival of Luddism in American culture that finds intractable problems associated with particular technologies, such that the only thinkable solution is to remove them from circulation. Let’s begin by rank ordering those most harmful to lives and freedom and begin with the most egregious of them. I’m sure we’ll eventually get to guns. But let’s be honest about the fact that dismantling dams, shutting down nuclear reactors, eliminating toxic synthetic chemicals, and reducing the numbers of vehicles on the roads and planes in the sky would be no more difficult a task and have a far more significant improvement on the quality and longevity of lives, human and otherwise. To select those technologies only based on their purpose in design (for instance, those designed to kill), while simultaneously disregarding the relative magnitude of their actual effects is to appeal to blind moralism. I’m too much of a materialist to believe we should focus only on intention and not on consequence.

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April 23rd, 2019

Standing on the Shoulders of Unpaid Labor

It is fair to say that science today would not exist without unpaid labor. In the academy today, we are […]

September 6th, 2017

Teaching in the Time of Adjunctification

I am now in my second year as a contingent, adjunct instructor. For those not familiar with this terminology, it […]

September 17th, 2015

Police: The Strong Blue Thread

Facebook user, Anthony Welichko posted the picture above with the following message about “The Safe Harbor Initiative.” “To all law […]

September 16th, 2015

What will we take away from the Ahmed Mohamed controversy?

On Monday, August 14, a 14-year-old ninth grade student, Ahmed Mohamed, was arrested for bringing a homemade clock to Irving […]

December 21st, 2014

Challenging Police Union Leadership in the War on the Poor and People of Color

Police Leadership in Manufacturing ‘War Zones’ Police increasingly describe the communities they occupy as war zones, their inhabitants as enemy combatants, […]

December 4th, 2014

The Reason Mike Brown Can’t Get Justice Has Nothing To Do With Cameras

  Cops killed #EricGarner #OscarGrant #TaneshaAnderson #TamirRice #JohnCrawford #ErnestoDuenez #KellyThomas on camera. pic.twitter.com/4gCc65gcAj — Ben Brucato (@BrucatoBen) December 4, 2014 […]

December 3rd, 2014

A Short Script on On-Officer Wearable Cameras and Civilian Complaints

The scene is an interrogation room. A small room with brick walls, painted in light green-grey. A two-way mirror is […]

December 3rd, 2014

Cameras on Cops and Junk Science in Rialto

Those of us who don’t confront the potential wide diffusion of on-officer body-worn cameras with excitement and hopefulness have already […]

December 1st, 2014

Police Violence Is Not A Problem Because Of Its Invisibility

  For months, in response to the killing of Michael Brown, Ferguson and Saint Louis have been sites of ongoing […]

November 12th, 2014

Civilians Less Violent, Cops More Violent, All More Visible

Police are safer than ever, civilians are less violent than ever, and violent force and imprisonment is more often to […]