One of the women on the corner said sometimes when cops are called, ICE shows up later

Our dispatcher confirmed this. Cops report to a database, ICE looks through the database and “checks up” later if they think someone is undocumented. Are the cops cooperating with ICE? technically not….

What I found unsettling was how similar the cop uniforms are to ICE uniforms. I couldn’t tell a difference from half a block away. My camera’s zoom lens showed only police badges.

#icewatch #observers

one was a bus driver, the other two were parents who had dropped off kids at the school bus

They said the cops had been called for an emergency—possibly medical—they knew the house had disabled kids inside.

Was ICE part of the raid? They assumed so. The uniforms were a near match, and why were undercover cops there? the bus driver pointed out unmarked cars—she knew them well (we later confirmed)

My partner and I took photos, made reports, lots of uncertainty.

#icewatch #observers

@femmepraytell I discovered Meshtastic a little over a year ago and got setup with some radios and gadgets to use with it, convinced a few friends to also check it out. Its really neat but not all too practical compared to some other standards that use the same tech. Meshcore uses the same LoRa devices but is built in a way that allows for much larger reach and works more efficiently in general (not to say its “better” then meshtastic, but its more practical at the moment)

Here in the pacific north west we have regular comms on meshcore across all of oregon and a good part of washington consistantly, with seattle and even futher away to BC, Canada coming in too on a good day.

As to the improving the community part: Its useful during protests and for operations where you need comms but wouldn’t want to use a cell phone or have access to wifi. There’s a #Icewatch channel that gets used occasionally to report on activity locally, another benefit being that there is no way to censor or shut down a meshcore (or meshtastic) channel in the way they could with something like a discord or website.

It’s perhaps still niche at the moment, but the potential is pretty huge. The gadgets are also incredibly versatile, if meshcore or meshtastic dont end up being your jam, there is also chatterbox, and reticulum.