Portland passes broadest facial recognition ban in the US
Note: I shall talk of politics in this comment. I am <i>not</i> offering any opinion on the politics of either Biden and Democrats or Trump and Republicans.<p>Regardless of the merits of such a ban or the lack thereof, why do it <i>right</i> <i>now</i>?<p>Maybe I've missed some subtleties in Portland politics, but the impression I've gotten is that the people there and the politicians that win elections there would greatly prefer that Biden beat Trump in the US presidential election that is 23 days from now.<p>One of the points Trump has been trying to run on is that he supports law and order and the Democrats support crippling law enforcement to aid anarchists and far left extremists who want to destroy everything good about America.<p>I will not be at all surprised if this ban becomes part of Trump's message at rallies and in ads and helps drive some votes to him.<p>There is no good way for Biden to counter that. If he comes out in agreement with the ban, it helps Trump's law and order message. If he comes out against the ban to appeal to the law and order voter, without a long explanation of subtle tradeoffs involved, he'll alienate some voters on the left. If he comes out against the ban <i>with</i> a long and subtle explanation, he'll still alienate those voters because who the heck is going to actually read the long and subtle explanation?<p>We are at the "sound bites are all that matters" stage of the election, and Portland is giving Trump a great sound bite. The damage minimizing option for Biden is to just ignore it, ceding those law and order voters to Trump.<p>What about facial recognition in Portland is so urgent that they could not wait a month on this?