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Person

Hamid Khan

Nationality:

American
Occupation:

Founder, Stop LAPD Spying Coalition
Residence:

Los Angeles, California

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Hamid Khan is the founder of the left-of-center Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, the organization that publishes the Watch the Watchers database which provides Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers’ headshots, names, hire dates, ranks, and ethnicities to the public. 1

Khan is a vocal critic of the Los Angeles Police Department and his tactics have been described by left-of-center publication The Atlantic as “more radical than those of many other activist groups.” 2 Khan believes law enforcement should be abolished, that modern policing is a direct descendant of slave patrols, 3 and has said that the role of the political right in the U.S. all along has been “preserving and sustaining white supremacy.” 4 5

In 2011, Khan received a Soros Justice Fellowship from liberal financier George Soros’s Open Society Foundations to challenge Los Angeles Police Department surveillance and profiling practices. 6

Career

Hamid Khan is the founder 7 and coalition coordinator of Stop LAPD Spying, 8 the organization that publishes the Watch the Watchers database that provides Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers’ headshots, names, hire dates, ranks, and ethnicities to the public. 9

Khan has been activist in Los Angeles for over 30 years. 10 His professional career in the United States began as a pilot for United Parcel Service (UPS). After founding the South Asian Network in 1990, Khan eventually quit his job flying in 2006 to become a full-time activist. He remained as the director of South Asian Network until 2010. 11 12

He is on the board of Political Research Associates, 13 the immigration expansionist National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, 14 and the Youth Justice Coalition. 15

In 2011, Khan received a Soros Justice Fellowship from liberal financier George Soros’s Open Society Foundations to challenge Los Angeles Police Department surveillance and profiling practices. 16 In 2010, Khan was recognized by the left-of-center Liberty Hill Foundation as one of six grassroots leaders to watch. 17

Activism

Hamid Khan is one of the most vocal critics of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), and his tactics have been described by left-of-center The Atlantic as “more radical than those of many other activist groups.” 18

Khan characterizes some police activities as the “surveillance-industrial complex,” 19 claims that modern policing is a direct descendant of slave patrols, 20 and says that the role of the political right in the U.S. all along has been “preserving and sustaining white supremacy.” 21

Khan supported Stop LAPD Spying’s release of the database of LAPD officers’ headshots and has said that he plans to add officers’ weight and height, badge number, and other information to the public database after going through public records requests and lawsuits that Stop LAPD Spying has filed seeking this information. 22

Khan does not follow the movement of nonviolent civil disobedience, 23 claimed that policing is the knife to enforce white supremacy and that surveillance is at the tip of that knife, 24 and said that patriotism, the American flag, the police, Americanism, American exceptionalism, and religion are entrenched political correctness in American society. 25

According to the left-of-center organization Race Forward, Khan has a long-standing and deep commitment to left-wing organizing in Southern California. 26 Khan has spoken at Race Forward conferences in 2014 and 2016, where he was a panelist discussing what he identified as digital Jim Crow and the surveillance of minority communities in the United States. 27

As a participant in a webinar hosted by the Othering and Belonging Institute, Khan said that community policing is “rooted in military occupation,” a process of expanding mass surveillance of a community and infiltrating a community, and built on the occupation tactics of Vietnam, Afghanistan, and other parts of the world. 28 He has also called community policing the forced pacification of youth. 29

Khan has also said that the Patriot Act is used to help support a white supremacist system of control and social control 30 and that the phrase “America First” refers to a white minority government as demographics are changing. 31 He has called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a federal policy program that protects illegal immigrants brought to the United States as children from deportation, as a “tremendous model that young people have been building for what direct organizing and resistance would look like” 32 and claimed the U.S. is built on slavery and the genocide of Native Americans, among other things. 33

References

  1. [1] Lykke, Hanna. “New website has LAPD officers’ names, photos, ranks and ethnicities.” Los Angeles Daily News. March 17, 2023. Accessed April 16, 2023. https://www.dailynews.com/2023/03/17/new-website-has-lapd-officers-names-photos-ranks-and-ethnicities/.
  2. Moravec, Eva Ruth. “Do Algorithms Have a Place in Policing?” The Atlantic. September 5, 2019. Accessed April 16, 2023. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/09/do-algorithms-have-place-policing/596851/.
  3. Civic Media Speaker Series.” Annenberg Innovation Lab of the University of Southern California. Time Stamp 21:00. October 29, 2020. Accessed April 16, 2023. https://www.annenberglab.com/projects/civic-media-speaker-series-hamid-khan/.
  4. “Immigrant Justice and the Right Wing’s Eliminationist Agenda.” Political Research Associates. April 24, 2018. Accessed April 16, 2023. https://politicalresearch.org/2018/05/24/immigrant-justice-and-the-right-wings-eliminationist-agenda-a-qa-with-hamid-khan.
  5. Moravec, Eva Ruth. “Do Algorithms Have a Place in Policing?” The Atlantic. September 5, 2019. Accessed April 16, 2023. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/09/do-algorithms-have-place-policing/596851/.
  6. “Hamid Khan.” Open Society Foundations Fellows. 2011. Accessed April 16, 2023. https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/fellows/hamid-khan.
  7. Moravec, Eva Ruth. “Do Algorithms Have a Place in Policing?” The Atlantic. September 5, 2019. Accessed April 16, 2023. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/09/do-algorithms-have-place-policing/596851/.
  8. “Hamid Khan.” Race Forward Speaker Bio. Accessed April 16, 2023. https://facingrace.raceforward.org/speaker/hamid-khan.
  9. Lykke, Hanna. “New website has LAPD officers’ names, photos, ranks and ethnicities.” Los Angeles Daily News. March 17, 2023. Accessed April 16, 2023. https://www.dailynews.com/2023/03/17/new-website-has-lapd-officers-names-photos-ranks-and-ethnicities/.
  10. “Civic Media Speaker Series.” Annenberg Innovation Lab of the University of Southern California. Time Stamp 11:10. October 29, 2020. Accessed April 16, 2023. https://www.annenberglab.com/projects/civic-media-speaker-series-hamid-khan/.
  11. Moravec, Eva Ruth. “Do Algorithms Have a Place in Policing?” The Atlantic. September 5, 2019. Accessed April 16, 2023. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/09/do-algorithms-have-place-policing/596851/.
  12. “Hamid Khan: The Surveillance-Industrial Complex.” The Laura Flanders Show. Uploaded 2016. Accessed April 16, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPn9CJFMxL8.
  13. “Hamid Khan.” Unequal Cities. Accessed April 16, 2023. https://unequalcities.org/hamid-khan/.
  14. [1] “Hamid Khan.” Political Research Associates. Accessed April 16, 2023. https://politicalresearch.org/bio/hamid-khan.
  15. “Hamid Khan: The Surveillance-Industrial Complex.” The Laura Flanders Show. Uploaded 2016. Accessed April 16, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPn9CJFMxL8.
  16. “Hamid Khan.” Open Society Foundations Fellows. 2011. Accessed April 16, 2023. https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/fellows/hamid-khan.
  17. “Hamid Khan.” Open Society Foundations Fellows. 2011. Accessed April 16, 2023. https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/fellows/hamid-khan.
  18. Moravec, Eva Ruth. “Do Algoritms Have a Place in Policing?” The Atlantic. September 5, 2019. Accessed April 16, 2023. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/09/do-algorithms-have-place-policing/596851/.
  19. “Civic Media Speaker Series.” Annenberg Innovation Lab of the University of Southern California. Time Stamp 11:10. October 29, 2020. Accessed April 16, 2023. https://www.annenberglab.com/projects/civic-media-speaker-series-hamid-khan/.
  20. “Civic Media Speaker Series.” Annenberg Innovation Lab of the University of Southern California. Time Stamp 21:00. October 29, 2020. Accessed April 16, 2023. https://www.annenberglab.com/projects/civic-media-speaker-series-hamid-khan/.
  21. “Immigrant Justice and the Right Wing’s Eliminationist Agenda.” Political Research Associates. April 24, 2018. Accessed April 16, 2023. https://politicalresearch.org/2018/05/24/immigrant-justice-and-the-right-wings-eliminationist-agenda-a-qa-with-hamid-khan.
  22. Lykke, Hanna. “New website has LAPD officers’ names, photos, ranks and ethnicities.” Los Angeles Daily News. March 17, 2023. Accessed April 16, 2023. https://www.dailynews.com/2023/03/17/new-website-has-lapd-officers-names-photos-ranks-and-ethnicities/.
  23. “Civic Media Speaker Series.” Annenberg Innovation Lab of the University of Southern California. Time Stamp 1:08:30. October 29, 2020. Accessed April 16, 2023. https://www.annenberglab.com/projects/civic-media-speaker-series-hamid-khan/.
  24. “Civic Media Speaker Series.” Annenberg Innovation Lab of the University of Southern California. Time Stamp 11:10. October 29, 2020. Accessed April 16, 2023. https://www.annenberglab.com/projects/civic-media-speaker-series-hamid-khan/.
  25. “Civic Media Speaker Series.” Annenberg Innovation Lab of the University of Southern California. Time Stamp 1:06:05. October 29, 2020. Accessed April 16, 2023. https://www.annenberglab.com/projects/civic-media-speaker-series-hamid-khan/.
  26. “Hamid Khan.” Race Forward Speaker Bio. Accessed April 16, 2023. https://facingrace.raceforward.org/speaker/hamid-khan.
  27. “Hamid Khan.” Race Forward Speaker Bio. Accessed April 16, 2023. https://facingrace.raceforward.org/speaker/hamid-khan.
  28. “How Surveillance, Displacement and Counterinsurgency Happens in Our Cities.” Othering and Belonging Institute YouTube Channel. Timestamp 1:31. Posted June 2022. Accessed April 16, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHUVmrgpP5A&t=94s.
  29. “How Surveillance, Displacement and Counterinsurgency Happens in Our Cities.” Othering and Belonging Institute YouTube Channel. Timestamp 26:25. Posted June 2022. Accessed April 16, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHUVmrgpP5A&t=94s.
  30. “Hamid Khan: The Surveillance-Industrial Complex.” The Laura Flanders Show. Posted 2016. Accessed April 16, 2023. Time Stamp 6:20. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPn9CJFMxL8.
  31. “Immigrant Justice and the Right Wing’s Eliminationist Agenda.” Political Research Associates. April 24, 2018. Accessed April 16, 2023. https://politicalresearch.org/2018/05/24/immigrant-justice-and-the-right-wings-eliminationist-agenda-a-qa-with-hamid-khan.
  32.  “Immigrant Justice and the Right Wing’s Eliminationist Agenda.” Political Research Associates. April 24, 2018. Accessed April 16, 2023. https://politicalresearch.org/2018/05/24/immigrant-justice-and-the-right-wings-eliminationist-agenda-a-qa-with-hamid-khan.
  33. “How Surveillance, Displacement and Counterinsurgency Happens in Our Cities.” Othering and Belonging Institute YouTube Channel. Timestamp 1:31. Posted June 2022. Accessed April 16, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHUVmrgpP5A&t=94s.
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