Adding to the ways that we think technology should be used, Lydia Guzman, director of the nonprofit immigrant advocacy group Respect/Respeto, has created a “text tree” system in Maricopa County, Arizona, to alert people of when Sheriff Joe Arpaio is conducting one of his infamous (and likely unconstitutional) street sweeps.

“Everyone is responsible for sending it out to their own networks, and that is how it spreads like wildfire,” Guzman said of the text messages.

This relative simple use of technology is more important to me than say, text lists that are being built by orgs to promote legislation. Not to knock that work but this is about the very immediate needs of communities and is something that can be replicated easily and is accessible to many. While not all Latinos are plugged into the internet, most do have cell phones and use text messaging.

Not surprisingly, Sheriff Joe and others are saying that such information sharing borders on illegal since the text messages could be construed as evading law enforcement. In fact during the RNC activists who used twitter to report on the moves of law enforcement, this was a charge levied.

I think this is something that all communities should try and replicate on some level in order to deal not just with raids and street sweeps but with other types of attacks against our community.

Via / LA Times