Q: Why WHERETHEYLIVE.ORG? Why now?
A: Technology has greatly increased the divide between the powerful and the powerless. Today, the power elite, and the military and law enforcement bureaucracies it controls, has unprecedented power to surveil, coerce and control. From spy satellites to massive data-bases to mind-control to exotic weaponry, these people are drunk on power and they can’t seem to kick the habit.
Think about it: They know where you live. So why shouldn’t you know where they live? WHERETHEYLIVE.ORG is an equalizer. Just as you have to worry that if you get too far out of line, they may show up on your doorstep, so too they should have to worry that if they get too far out of line, we will show up on their doorsteps. Think of it as a way to restore the ecological balance between the powerful and the powerless.
WHERETHEYLIVE.ORG began as a response to the taser-torture of Andrew Meyer by University of Florida police. But that incident is just the latest example of increasing police and military repression in the USA and around the world—repression driven by the boundless greed of an ever-wealthier elite who no longer seem to have any use for freedom or democracy. If we are to restore Constitutional governance in the USA, and promote the spread of freedom and democracy around the world, we will need to confront that elite and their agents WHERE THEY LIVE.
Q: Are you against the police and the military?
A: No. We are against abuses of police and military power. Most police and military personnel are good, law-abiding, Constitution-honoring citizens. Unfortunately these professions attract a few yahoos and psychopaths, who can contaminate the rest. An ethos of “covering up for your fellow officer/soldier” often gives the yahoos free rein. Good police and military personnel need assistance in their struggle to restrain the yahoos in their professions, and WHERETHEYLIVE.ORG seeks to help them in that struggle. The mere threat that an abusive officer or soldier’s home address could be published at WHERETHEYLIVE.ORG should help deter such behavior—and good cops and soldiers can point this out to their abusive brethren.
Q: Are you against the corporate/financial elite?
A: Yes. Today, there is simply too much power in too few hands, and that power needs to be taken away and redistributed. By publicizing where the most egregious power elite members live, and thereby facilitating peaceful demonstrations outside their residences, we hope to contribute to the large project of redressing the current imbalance of power.
Q: Why will power-abusers care if demonstrators are holding signs outside their homes?
A: Psychologically, home is a place of refuge – and busy greedheads and powermongers feel the need for refuge even more than average folks. The presence of demonstrators outside their homes will not make them happy. Additionally, they will be “shamed.” Shaming is an ancient practice by which communities deter bad behavior. It has worked for tens of thousands of years of history, it has worked in local battles against police abuse, and it can work on a broader scale today, thanks to the magic of the internet and WHERETHEYLIVE.ORG
Q: What kind of power-abusers is WHERETHEYLIVE.ORG focusing on? And why?
A: We’re looking for two things in power-abusers: 1) strong evidence that they appear to have abused their power, and 2) the importance of the abuse they appear to have perpetrated.
As advocates of nonviolence, we are especially concerned with abuses of power that include the application or infliction of physical force, violence, or pain. We hope to redress the power imbalance between those capable of inflicting violence or pain on other human beings with impunity, and those incapable of defending themselves.
Here are some rubrics of power-abusers we hope to cover:
Abuse of uniform
There is often a presumption that acts carried out under color of a military or police uniform are legitimate—no matter how awful or abusive. For example: Take the police uniforms off the cops who mugged Andrew Meyer or Rodney King, and they would be revealed as just a bunch of naked thugs. But we are conditioned to think that those who dress up in uniforms, put on badges or insignia, and take orders from the power elite are allowed to abuse people. Wrong! Recognizing that abuse of uniform is perhaps the most common form of unjust application of pain and violence, WHERETHEYLIVE.ORG will make such cases a priority.
Corporate crimes against humanity
Most technologies of violence and pain are produced by corporations. Those corporations have responsible individuals behind them, notably C.E.O.s and other officers as well as owners and major investors. We think the corporations that have manufactured and marketed tasers are just as responsible for the torture of Andrew Meyer as the cops who did it. In fact, the invention, manufacture and marketing of tasers and other hi-tech weapons is a crime against humanity, and the corporate heads behind these crimes need to be held responsible and publicly shamed. WHERETHEYLIVE.ORG will facilitate the shaming of these and other corporate abusers, by publishing their home addresses in order to encourage peaceful demonstrations on public property outside their residences.
Abusive politicians
The expression “abusive politicians” may seem repetitious and redundant. But some are clearly worse than others. The most apparently abusive among them, especially those implicated in the unjust infliction of physical force or pain, will be targeted for peaceful demonstrations at their residences. (For example, people ought to show up at John Kerry’s residence to keep asking Andrew Meyer’s questions about why Kerry just stood by while the nation was mugged in 2004—and why Kerry also stood by while Meyer was mugged for asking that question.)
9/11 suspects
So far, the perpetrators of the 9/11 crimes against humanity have walked away scot free. While we do not know precisely what each perpetrator of this complex and murderous covert operation did, we do have a list of suspects. Because of the magnitude of this crime and the impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators, we will seek and post home addresses of suspects in the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed on 9/11 and during the 9/11 wars.