NEW ORLEANS -- Hitting with all their might, children took turns smashing a pinata version of the NOPD's surveillance cameras.
It's a symbolic resistance and message they're sending directly to city leaders and the police department.
"Perhaps it's thought that this is going to make our communities safer, but actually we're seeing that it's a point of concern and risk and jeopardizing our community," said Santos and Chloe Sigal with Congress of Day Laborers.
Surveillance cameras are popping up on different corners throughout New Orleans as the city continues rolling out their $40 million security plan. Those at the protest, however, feel it's an invasion of privacy and could criminalize communities of color.
"I have a camera just a few blocks from my home right now and I think it's coming closer and closer and closer, basically you won't have privacy in our cities, in our neighborhoods, in our lives," New Orleans resident Daniel Castellanos said.
Next month the city plans on voting on a proposal that would require bars, restaurants, corner stores or any any location selling alcohol to install cameras and feed it into the city's central command station.
"People already living in fear. Scared. So if you catch my image going in and out of the store and you know where I'm hanging at, then you'll come," Alfred Marhsall, Organizer with Stand with Dignity said.
The New Orleans Police Department released this statement regarding the protest:
"The NOPD believes that the proposed cameras, like the larger Real Time Crime Center operation and crime cameras already deployed across the city, will make the people of New Orleans --- and every community in our city--- more safe.
"Chief Harrison has made it clear that the camera system is intended to help deter and prosecute violent crime. This is not a surveillance operation that will have any role in immigration enforcement."
- NOPD Spokesperson Beau Tidwell
"They can say that, yeah of course they can say that, but how do you prove that to the people," Marshall said.
New Orleans has been plagued with violent crime for decades. Like many U.S. cities, it's turned to technology to help prevent crimes, and also prosecute those committing them. But these protesters say until cameras are proven to reduce crime, they'll continue fighting until they feel their voices are heard.