In the face of protests and a pandemic, things need to change

[View this email in your browser]( [Open Ars Technica in your browser]( [Image] [Catalina, an island off the coast of California and the new MacOS release name.]( You don't need us to tell you things are bad and we need changes. Ars Technica doesn't directly cover national news, policing, or social justice—but those things frequently and repeatedly intersect with our focus on science and tech. Last week, a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd, a local black man, by kneeling on Floyd's neck for almost ten minutes. Video was captured and soon shared widely. It's a vicious bit of deja vu for anyone who's paid attention to the increasingly high profile instances of lethal police violence against Black Americans. Accordingly, protests followed in town, spread all across the country, and now have no end in sight. All of this has played out against the backdrop of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic (which [recently surpassed 100,000 US deaths](). It's a moment, frankly, that requires everyone, every organization, and every industry to reexamine what they are doing and what they can do to work towards a safer and more equitable society. Journalism, of course, is very much included in that. As we work to accurately cover the ongoing protests and crisis in America, we're simultaneously trying and struggling to dissemble whatever structural issues have prevented newsrooms at large from diversifying at the same rate as our country at large. We have to do better. Ars Technica is a Condé Nast publication, and we stand in solidarity with the statement put out by NOIR, the Condé Nast US Black Employee Resource Group. You can read the entire thing [here](, but this passage captures the sentiment well: "What we need is for everyone to speak up and advocate. Though these issues may make you feel uncomfortable, we challenge you to stand in your truth and address these issues head-on. Take the time to educate yourselves. In that process, you will learn that we are not all in this together. Black people have been carrying the weight of bias, prejudice and racism for too long. It’s time for everyone else to step up." As one small action towards those goals, know that Condé Nast is pledging $1,000,000 in advertising support across the company's platforms to help give voice to non-profit organizations combating racial injustice. If you or someone you know works with an organization that could benefit from such resources, reach out to communications [at] condenast [dot] com. As for this week's Orbital Transmission, we'll simply do what we can for now—offer clear and insightful reporting on our current situation. These protests feel like they've taken on some added weight given the sheer scale and the looming health risk each and every demonstrator has chosen to take on given how imperative it is to speak out against these repeated actions of injustice and bias. History, on other hand, suggests we'll be having this exact conversation again sooner rather than later. Hopefully, society's current actions borne out of such deep hopelessness will reach a different outcome. —[@NathanMattise]( Orbital Transmission 06.03.2020 [(image) ]( [A Border Patrol anti-terror drone watched over Minneapolis protesters]( Minneapolis has been the epicenter of the past week's activism and activity. And on Friday, as local protests over George Floyd's death reached their fourth day and sparked events nationwide, a Customs and Border Patrol drone kept a careful eye on the unfolding unrest. The drone circled the city six times in a little more than an hour, and it so less than 12 hours after President Trump labeled the Minneapolis protesters "thugs" and pledged military support to counter them. Officials later commented on the maneuver: "[Customs and Border Patrol] routinely conducts operations with other federal, state, and local law enforcement entities to assist law enforcement and humanitarian relief efforts." In past activity logs unearthed by the EFF, other drone activities included the capture of synthetic-aperture radar imagery and video to aid in surveilling and arresting cannabis growing operations and methamphetamine labs. In one case, the drone repeatedly circled and fed video in real time to police until all lab suspects have been captured. [(image) ]( [A reminder of what's in tear gas (lots of chemicals)]( Police use a number of different tools and methods to contain or disperse crowds, from rubber bullets and sheer people power to tasers or flashbombs. One of the roughest to experience based on anecdotal accounts is tear gas, and thanks to past large social movements what's in that stuff has long been public. During the Egyptian uprising of the early 2010s, ABC News discovered tear gas canisters on the streets of Cairo weren't local products; they came from Jamestown, Pennsylvania, home of Combined Tactical Systems. The [Model 5220 CN Smoke grenade]( (PDF), for instance, has a small starter mixture of potassium nitrate, silicon, and charcoal. This in turn is used to light the "CN smoke"—a form of tear gas. The CN smoke is 71 percent fuel, made up of potassium chlorate, magnesium carbonate, nitrocellulose, and… sucrose. The other 29 percent of the smoke is the tearing agent, chloroacetophenone, which has been around for nearly a century and causes severe irritation of the mucous membranes. [(image) ]( [Remember: Pinpointing protesters and their motivations isn't straightforward]( Sadly and perhaps predictably, a lot of public conversation has pivoted from "Why does lethal police force against black people keep happening?" to "Who can we blame for looting, again?" (Worth saying: C'mon, all, that's misguided.) The average Ars reader, of course, knows even the most straightforward of public displays aren't always what they seem. Recall that a large number of recent COVID-19 reopening protests, for instance, were eventually traced back to pro-gun Facebook groups that had seemingly nothing to do with taking a stance on the economy. So, world, don't be so quick to pin violence, looting, or public property destruction on peaceful protesters this week. [(image) ]( [Police ask for video of protests, receive K-pop instead]( In Dallas over the weekend, DPD asked locals to participate in a little "see something, say something" initiative through the city's official app. But instead of submitting videos of "illegal activity from the protests," Dallas-ans chose to inundate the app with something else—K-pop videos. Within a day, the app stopped working due to "technical difficulties." K-pop Internet remains undefeated when motivated. 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