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Surveillance and Police State Infrastructure
A society becomes a militarized-police-state when its law enforcement agencies adopt military tactics, equipment, and strategies. As the police drape themselves in tactical gear more reminiscent of a military force, and outfit themselves with battlefield weaponry- our communities must ask the question: Who are they going to war against?
Chicago police monitor demonstrators during a protest march and rally in 2012 in Chicago
Paul Beatty AP File
Eric Thayer AP
As ICE has descended upon our communities and the Trump administration has weaponized the National Guard and Military to police those standing up to this ICE terror campaign- we know the answer to that question. They're going to war against us.
But it's not just the military-grade weapons and equipment, it's also the surveillance technology that is at the disposal of the state. As technology has rapidly advanced, so too has the capability of the state to surveil us. In the hands of tyrannical leaders, these tools of surveillance become weapons of control that are turned against The People.
Palantir is one such company that should be on the radar for all of us. Trump signed an executive order earlier this year that allows the federal government to exchange data between agencies. Palantir is the Peter Thiel backed data-analytics company that has been tapped to compile this data in a centralized database. ICE also recently granted a $30 million contract to longtime contractor Palantir to develop "ImmigrationOS" an advanced surveillance platform meant to track people in real-time. This is in addition to a 795 million dollar contract with the Department of Defense, a 1 billion dollar contract with the Navy, and the 113 million its received from the federal government since the start of 2025.
A Palantir Skykit is displayed at the company's booth during the CES trade show in Las Vegas on Jan. 5, 2023. The Skykit incorporates Palantir's software, along with a UAV drone, a trail camera, battery packs and a SpaceX Starlink terminal, into a self-contained defense intelligence package deployable to hostile environments.
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images
Peter Thiel, the multi-billionaire founder of Palantir and PayPal, who has a close relationship with the Trump White House
Follow the money. Trillions and trillions of dollars of our tax money has been funneled into the creation of our militarized-police-state and surveillance-state. A tiny handful of people have become wealthy beyond imagine at the helm of companies powered by fear-mongering, division, and intolerance. These companies aren't interested in peaceful coexistence, tolerance, education, and uplift. They are interested in creating profit through perpetual war, whether its at home or abroad.
These companies and what they produce do not keep us safe. Instead, they keep us perpetually feeding their rapacious appetites for profit through the never-ending creation of a war machine. And that war machine has now been turned against us domestically.
We must start to dismantle this war-machinery by withholding from it what is required for its existence: money and support. There are many publicly traded corporations that contract with ICE as part of its surveillance state, the militarized police state, or both. There are also many ways for individuals and coalitions to divest from the ICE prison-industrial complex. Check out these two sites for more information on divesting from ICE:
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