'Google Bus' protests escalate as activists target employee's home

[Redfairen]

Source: LA Times

Bay Area protests against technology companies got very personal on Wednesday when activists blocked the driveway of a Google employee's home.

Calling themselves the Counterforce, the protesters showed up on Anthony Levandowski’s doorstep to call attention to the Berkeley resident's work for the military and Google’s “surveillance” techniques. 

Levandowski, who works for Google’s X laboratory, where he helped develop Google’s self-driving cars, was recently featured in the New Yorker magazine. In the article, he talked about his 43-mile commute in a Google self-driving car from Berkeley to the Google campus in Mountain View.

.......

"Our problem is with Google, its pervasive surveillance capabilities utilized by the NSA, the technologies it is developing, and the gentrification its employees are causing in every city they inhabit. But our problem does not stop with Google. All of you other tech companies, all of you other developers and everyone else building the new surveillance state--We're coming for you next.”



Read more: http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-79001157/

[Lucky Luciano]

1. All this protesting against tech companies makes me

The smartest people in this country should be celebrated. If they only targeted this guy for the surveillance thing, then fine...but this seems like an offshoot of the general protest over the generic employees just trying to commute to work on the company buses. So annoying. Would they prefer all those employees use their cars instead?

Those employees are among the smartest people in the world. I am so sorry that the protestors can't make that claim, but it is not the fault of these employees.

[boblgumm]

2. You don't have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.

These protesters are smart enough to know that the surveillance state being constructed by the government and corporations is a hugely awful and fast approaching reality. As with global warming, we are beyond pulling-out-all-the-stops time. I would prefer all those employees use their cars to drive to other work. I know you do to, because you are smart.

[jberryhill]

3. So, they are smart

I don't get the point these protestors are trying to make, but I'm fascinated with the notion that being a "smart person" is some sort of independent virtue.

I'll bet the chemical engineers who came up with the process for making whatever the fuck is in the water in WV are freaking geniuses.

[GeorgeGist]

4. Perhaps if they were smarter ...

they'd choose better employers.

[Lucky Luciano]

5. You kidding me? The perks at Google are hard to pass up.

If they were better risk takers (read: probably don't have a family yet or have a few bucks squirreled away), then they would probably try to be the next great disruptive thing - in lieu of that, they can settle on a very good upper middle class (or better) lifestyle and a comfortable work environment where they get to work on a lot of cool highly technical projects (which is something they are passionate for) as well as having the prestige of working for Google. Why would someone say no to that?

[iamthebandfanman]

6. seems like a bit much..

but then again im not there or involved.. so what do I know

[cprise]

7. If anything says "20th century gone for good..."

its stories like this.

[mackerel]

8. if you lived here you'd know this isn't really

about Google. they don't like the way the techies have taken over the cities. mostly San Francisco. they don't like how Google and other companies like Google send in their community buses and use the city bus lanes to pick up their employees exclusively. reason this whole commuting started was because the city bus system absolutely sucks. its sucked since 1981 and these tech companies finally have the brains to do something about it but at the same time its very invasive on the non tech community.

[penultimate]

9. Google should do the right thing and fire all it's employees.