Thread by @samswey

We just issued a Cease and Desist letter to #CampaignZero over their attempt to plagiarize our Mapping Police Violence platform. They have until next Weds to stop masquerading as Mapping Police Violence and misappropriating our work & site as their own. Here are the facts. (1/x)

I began building the Mapping Police Violence project in 2014, before I met @deray and before Campaign Zero existed. The first time he found out about my project was in this email on February 4, 2015.

Note that We The Protesters (which later became Campaign Zero) first became an organization after filing for incorporation on June 29, 2015. And Campaign Zero didn’t exist until August 21, 2015. There was no actual CZ/WTP organization when MPV was created and launched.

At no time did I sign any contract or employment agreement with CZ/WTP or transfer ownership of my projects/IP to them. They repeatedly asked me to sign an employment agreement last year (2021) with this language designed to give them legal authority to take my IP.

I refused.

I refused to sign that (or any) agreement because 1) I knew they’d try some shady shit like this and 2) it would’ve contractually put Deray in charge of my work and given him more ability to retaliate when we disagree, as he is trying to do now.

Campaign Zero should make their *own* data projects, instead of plagiarizing my research. What they especially can’t do is masquerade as MPV by stealing our work, analysis and website and presenting it as their own.

A side by side of the two sites’ methods sections:

Mapping Police Violence has been designed to help communities access as much data as they need. Campaign Zero has exploited this to download our exact database & analysis and stand it up on a website they copied with no attribution, pretending as if they’re us doing the work.

Now CZ is claiming they have a “team of experts” to work on my project. But the database and analysis is exactly what we already produced (and we’ve even pushed new updates they haven’t included yet). Where’s their actual work product? They must be waiting for our next update.

Our data will continue to be public. But we produced this analysis and should be credited. We are the primary source and nobody knows our methodology or data better than us. Communities should not be misled about who they are reaching out to when they have questions or requests.

They even put their org’s donate button on the site. As of today, I don’t see it anymore though. Unfortunately for them we have receipts.

#CampaignZero has until next Wednesday to cease and desist from this behavior, restore the actual site and transfer the domain to its rightful home - our official Mapping Police Violence organization. We are ready to pursue all necessary remedies for the theft of our project.

In the meantime you can find the REAL database at its temporary home: mappingpoliceviolence.us.

And here’s more information on why they suddenly decided to steal our platform in retaliation for us calling for basic accountability for how Deray has decided to operate.