Why is “libertarian” Uber sponsoring San Francisco’s giant police militarization conference?

[KamaAina]

http://pando.com/2014/09/04/why-is-libertarian-uber-sponsoring-san-franciscos-giant-police-militarization-conference/

Uber’s Travis Kalanick is probably tied with (Pando investor) Peter Thiel for the title of Silicon Valley’s most high profile libertarian. Kalanick’s entire schtick has been that Uber is Robin Hood to the government’s Sheriff of Nottingham.

Last month I wrote about what seemed to be a weird, heavily armed overreaction to an unlawful Uber pickup in San Francisco. Armed cops and SFMTA agents surrounded a driver, with hands hovering over their weapons, apparently because he picked up a street hail.

Surely Uber’s uber-libertarian CEO would have something to say about that? And yet, the company remained weirdly silent, even after Pando asked them for comment. Why on earth would Kalanick not want to make hay from another example of government oppression?

Today we got a possible answer, via this tweet from Mother Jones’ Shane Bauer. Uber is “platinum sponsor” of Urban Shield 2014, a two day convention and training exercise, happening right now in San Francisco, dedicated to encouraging and supporting… the militarization of law enforcement. The event’s slogan: “critical training for critical times.”

A better question is, why the fsck is San Francisco having a giant police militarization conference?!

[TreasonousBastard]

1. All good questions, but as far as Uber goes...

they just cut their drivers' pay and are going down in Europe.

Methinks they'll be but a dim memory soon enough.