SMOF News, volume 4, issue 17

Police surveillance around Comic-Con International draws a lawsuit, and news in brief.

Lawsuit Over Police Surveillance of Comic-Con International

The city of San Diego has been sued over the allegedly unauthorized use of surveillance tools around this year’s Comic-Con International and San Diego’s Pride parade.

The San Diego Union-Tribune explains:

Per the city ordinance regarding use of the equipment, the City Council must vote to approve any additional locations or uses that hadn’t been previously approved.

But in early July, prior to the Pride Parade on July 20, Police Chief Scott Wahl publicly announced that he would be placing equipment in the Hillcrest neighborhood due to an increase in hate crimes.

The use would be allowed under an “exigent circumstances” clause in the ordinance that allows equipment to be deployed without City Council approval, Wahl said.

…

Wahl used the same justification weeks later in regard to the placement of equipment downtown ahead of Comic-Con.

The lawsuit, uploaded to DocumentCloud by NBC 7 San Diego, includes a letter from the plaintiffs alleging:

In neither of SDPD's July 8 (Pride) or July 24 (Comic-Con) memos regarding the new locations, or in any of SDPD's public statements, have any "known facts" sufficient to satisfy the "exigent circumstances" definition been identified. Indeed, Chief Wahl has stated in writing to at least one of our clients that "[t]here is no specific threat," only a "general threat."

The extra surveillance included, but may not have been limited to, automated license plate readers and “smart streetlights”. The streetlight technology has already been through one scandal, as NBC 7 San Diego notes:

The use of smart streetlights in San Diego has sparked debate after what was initially billed as a traffic management tool was later publicly revealed to involve camera technology utilized by police. The camera network was shut down amid the ensuing uproar, but was revived last year with city council approval.

In addition to three named plaintiffs, the lawsuit includes “Does 1 through 999,999” as placeholders for other affected parties, presumably to allow all attendees of Comic-Con and the Pride parade to receive damages if the lawsuit results in any.

In Brief

• KuroNeko Cultural Association, which ran KuroNekoCon, has dissolved itself.

• Beta Quest has held its last event. No reason was given for its discontinuation.

• The Guest of Honor for Fur the More (Herndon, Virginia, March 7-9) will be Golden Druid.

• Fan Expo Portland (Portland, Oregon, January 24-26) has added Rachelle Lefevre, Peter Facinelli, Brandon Routh, Dean Cain, and George Newbern.

• Indiana Comic Convention (Indianapolis, Indiana, March 14-16) has added Kellen Goff and Katey Sagal.

• Game On Expo (Phoenix, Arizona, April 4-6) has added Tony Hawk.

• SMOF News has added a presence on Bluesky and is in the process of going through its listings to see which conventions can be followed there. Some statistics will be provided in a future issue.

Event Calendar

Weekend of December 27-29

• Furvester 6: Into the Cyberspace (anthropomorphic), Reutlingen, Germany

• New Year’s Furry Ball, Newark, Delaware, USA

• OKiCon (anime), Norman, Oklahoma, USA

• Comic Market 105 (fan-made comics), Tokyo, Japan

Weekend of January 3-5

• ShadowCon XXVIII (relaxacon), Memphis, Tennessee, USA

• Anthro Northwest 7 (anthropomorphic), Seattle, Washington, USA

• Painted Desert Fur Con: Camping in the Canyon (anthropomorphic), Phoenix, Arizona, USA

• TundraCon 2025 (gaming), Oshkosh, Wisconsin, USA

• Everwinter (miniatures gaming), Waltham, Massachusetts, USA

• SacAnime, Sacramento, California, USA

• Anime-ZAP!, East Peoria, Illinois, USA

• Animate! Raleigh (anime), Raleigh, North Carolina, USA

Weekend of January 10-12

• GAFilk 2025 (music), Atlanta, Georgia, USA

• Japan Meeting of Furries, Toyohashi, Japan

• Spartacon XXXIV (gaming), DeWitt, Michigan, USA

• Midwinter Gaming Convention, Pewaukee, Wisconsin, USA

• OrcaCon 2025 (gaming), SeaTac, Washington, USA

• Animé Los Angeles 20, Long Beach, California, USA

• Ichibancon 15 (anime), Concord, North Carolina, USA

• Ikkicon (anime), Round Rock, Texas, USA

• Orlando Anime Day, Orlando, Florida, USA

• Fan Expo New Orleans (media), New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

• MondoCon 2025 (media), Budapest, Hungary

Weekend of January 17-19

• Chattacon L, Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA

• Monumental ConFusion, Novi, Michigan, USA

• Marscon 2025: Galactic Empires & Epic Interstellar Legends, Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA

• Arisia 2025, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

• COSine 2025, Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA

• CanthroFur: Perdrix and the awakening of the volcanoes (anthropomorphic), Auvergne, France

• Anthro New England: A Staggering Case!, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

• Yunyou Island (anthropomorphic), Chengdu, China

• Further Confusion: Animal Business (anthropomorphic), San Jose, California, USA

• MidWinterFrolic 2025 (anthropomorphic), Altura, Minnesota, USA

• Snowcon 15 (gaming), Orono, Maine, USA

• Philadelphia Area Gaming Expo 2, Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, USA

• Congress of Gamers Winter Session, Rockville, Maryland, USA

• Geekway Mini: Geekway to the Dragon Hoard (gaming), St. Louis, Missouri, USA

• Dice + Diversions (gaming), Atlanta, Georgia, USA

• IDEAG 2025 (gaming), Parma, Italy

• AdamCon 2025 (gaming), Woodlawn, Ohio, USA

• KapCon 2025 (gaming), Wellington, New Zealand

• SCARAB 2025 (gaming), Columbia, South Carolina, USA

• Ducosim (gaming), Amersfoort, Netherlands

• SaltCON Bryce (boardgames), Bryce Canyon, Utah, USA

• Morpheus 37 (RPGs), Herne, Germany

• F.R.O.S.T. XXVI (RPGs), Freuenstadt, Germany

• Siege of Augusta XXXIV (miniatures gaming), Augusta, Georgia, USA

• BattleTex V (wargaming), Houston, Texas, USA

• 29th Annual Chattanooga Railgaming Challenge, Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA

• Kawacon: 4 Honor (anime), San Antonio, Texas, USA

• G-Anime, Gatineau, Québec, Canada

• Central Florida Comic Con, Lakeland, Florida, USA

• Albuquerque Comic Con, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

• Mouse-Con Bakersfield (Disneyana), Bakersfield, California, USA

• Vanhoover Pony Expo (My Little Pony), Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Weekend of Januay 24-26

• Winter War 51 (gaming), Champaign, Illinois, USA

• Game-iToba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

• TantrumCon (gaming), Charlotte, North Carolina, USA

• Platypus-Con (gaming), Juneau, Alaska, USA

• RiverCityCon (gaming), Louisville, Kentucky, USA

• Cancon 2025 (gaming), Canberra, Australia

• VerminCon 2025 (gaming), Vermillion, South Dakota, USA

• Whose Turn Is It Anyway? (boardgames), Durham, North Carolina, USA

• Niagara Boardgaming Weekend, Grimsby, Ontario, Canada

• Super MAGFest (gaming/videogame music), National Harbor, Maryland, USA

• Isshocon (anime), Ypsilanti, Michigan, USA

• Taiyou Con (anime), Mesa, Arizona, USA

• Animazing-Con (anime), Savannah, Georgia, USA

• UChi-Con 2025 (anime), Chicago, Illinois, USA

• Desucon Frostbite 2025 (anime), Lahti, Finland

• Fan Expo Portland (media), Portland, Oregon, USA

Coda

• NORAD’s Santa tracker began with a typo and a good sport (NPR)

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