Tag: Ze’ev Drori

Tesla’s president and CEO Ze’ev Drori has exercised his civic duty via the age-old agent of democracy — the strongly-worded letter. Drori posted a letter on Tesla’s blog to Mary Nichols, Chairperson of the California Air Resources Board, that vehemently disagrees with the Board’s decision to slash the zero emission vehicle mandate by 70 percent.

Critics say that at the behest of large automakers, the Board drafted a new mandate, which requires a mere 7,500 ZEVs on California roads between 2012 and 2015. The ire of Drori’s letter boils down to his assertions that the board is “misguided” in its fact finding process, which led to the “erroneous” conclusion that an electric vehicle wouldn’t be commercially available until 2012. Drori is quick to point out that Tesla is already delivering ZEVs and lists Nissan, Daimler, BMW, and Mitsubishi as other automakers who have announced plans to sell ZEVs in California by 2010.
Read More about Tesla’s Ze’ev on CARB’s “Misguided” ZEV Mandate

Jimmy Justice‘s approach to justice is an intimate one: just a man and his camera, roaming the streets in search of cops parked illegally — and once he discovers them, confronting them. “I’m using a video camera as a weapon,” he says. “I believe a video does not lie.”

In Sunday’s Washington Post, Keith B. Richburg interviewed the self-appointed vigilante while connecting him to other recent instances of citizen-documented police misconduct, such as this video of a Critical Mass bicyclist being assaulted by the NYPD

When I watched the Critical Mass clip more than once, it seemed fairly obvious that the officer in question wasn’t paying enough attention to the onslaught of bikes coming towards him, and reacted instinctively when he and the bicyclist nearly collided. I’ve been hit by bicyclists while on foot: it’s scary and it hurts. But many people disagree, including the NYPD — Officer Patrick Pogan has been stripped of his badge and put on desk duty pending a review of the incident. Meanwhile, Christopher Long, the assaulted bicyclist, was also charged with assault and resisting arrest. And according to Pogan’s statement, while resisting arrest Long made statements like, “You are pawns in the game, I’m gonna have your job.” The facts here, as always, are tangled and complicated, and a grainy YouTube video does not hold all the answers.

I’m very much in favor of citizen journalism, but it’s important to remember what it isn’t — specifically, a replacement for properly fact-checked journalism. By holding cops to the standards of the law, Jimmy Justice may be providing a valuable service to the community. But Jimmy is mistaken on one point: While a camera can indeed be a weapon, it can also lie.