Nurses present they’ll ‘be disruptive too’ at ICE protest in downtown SF

Any commuters ditching work early Wednesday to get house earlier than rush hour picked the mistaken day. For a couple of hours, downtown San Francisco’s streets belonged to California nurses. 

Approximately 1,000 nurses marched down Market Street and gathered in entrance of the United States Appraisers Building at 630 Sansome St., which can also be house to Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s San Francisco subject workplace. The protest, organized by the California Nurses Association and National Nurses United, focused ICE’s use of Palantir expertise to detain and deport immigrants. 

Palantir, a synthetic intelligence information firm based partly by Peter Thiel, has gained critics for its contracts with ICE and U.S. intelligence businesses. Its CEO, Alex Karp, has contributed to the controversy by defending the contracts and by making statements similar to a public manifesto that argued some cultures have been inferior to others. As one speaker on the protest put it in Spanish, “[Palantir] is among the most harmful corporations.”

“No a part of our nation has been untouched by the fear and violence unleashed by federal immigration brokers and enabled by Palantir’s expertise,” stated NNU President Jamie Brown in an announcement. “… Nurses aren’t simply saying no to Palantir, however we’re calling for our public sources to go towards the advantage of working folks, not billionaires and their companies.” 

The nurses unions are a part of what they name the “Purge Palantir coalition,” and Wednesday’s march via downtown is a part of a “Global Week of Action towards Palantir.” Throughout the week, affiliated nurses unions will probably be internet hosting demonstrations calling for medical establishments, universities and pension funds to cancel contracts or finish relationships with the AI firm. 

In their final displaying towards Palantir on Aug. 27, nurses gathered in Palo Alto and Los Angeles and 6 different cities, placing 50 pairs of baby shoes on the road. Each pair represented 10 infants detained in ICE custody because the second Trump administration took cost, in line with an NNU information launch.

The sea of employees parading via town in brilliant purple additionally chanted “Free Palestine” in entrance of the federal constructing and referred to as for Medicare for All, in addition to the abolition of ICE. As one other speaker put it, nurses have been there to “present ICE that nurses will be disruptive too.”