Fed Up Americans are DONE with Flock Cameras in Their Communities

People are calling for Halloween to become deflock Americanite this year. It's a viral uncoordinated movement encouraging people to cut down and disable flock surveillance cameras using Halloween as cover. People can get dressed up in costumes without looking suspicious and crowds give deflockers cover to blend in. >> These hooligans are going out and purchasing battery-operated reciprocating saws like this one and 6-in Diablo Steel Demon blades knowing it's more efficient and quieter than angle grinders. >> They go out dressed in non-identifying disposable clothing including work gloves and full face covered so as to not display the color of their skin, their eyes, their hair color, or their tattoos. >> They're using cash to purchase baggy nondescript clothing and they're using sunglasses specifically designed to block infrared light which is used for [music] facial recognition software. >> Others rely on deflock.org to map their routes [music] in order to avoid ALPR cameras. I mean, come on. Just look at him. He he only wants to help you. >> Some creative wackos are using illegal license plate covers [music] or even chemical sprays that make your license plate invisible to ALPRs. >> With all phones, smartwatches, and geolocating devices left at home, these villains know if they're not caught in the act they'll get away scot-free. I've set up a demonstration on my private property to show you just how efficient the lunatics have become. >> With their saw wrapped in a trash bag, they approach from behind the camera's line of sight and tear right through this black aluminum alloy post. Once these degenerates have destroyed the post, they go for the camera, too. Even the solar panel. They're thorough in their destruction to ensure maximum monetary loss and they always leave the remnants behind as a visceral message to all. >> By adhering to this specific set of principles, this wild subculture of flock hunters ensures that their MO is always the same. The modus operandi never changes. >> That way, if one of their members is picked up by law enforcement, they will face one charge of vandalism, but tying them to any previous or subsequent acts of destruction will be nearly impossible for the prosecutor. >> You just watched coverage from independent journalists of a growing flock hunter movement where vigilantes are committing acts of vandalism to protest the surveillance state. Now, this goes without saying, but I unequivocally condemn property damage and in no way condone illegal activity. I'm also beaming some additional thoughts into your brain from the computer or TV screen, but it's important to understand why so many Americans are fighting back against Flock, even if we all definitely disagree with what they're doing. Now, for those who don't know, Flock cameras are AI-powered automatic license plate readers or ALPRs, and in just over the last couple of years, more than 100,000 of them have been put up in around 6,000 or so communities across the country. And according to the ACLU, less than 1% of license plates scanned are actually connected to crimes, and about 10% of them read the license plates incorrectly, which leads to situations like this, where people are wrongfully accused of crimes that they didn't commit. >> On September 27th, a Columbine Valley police officer came to Crystal Elser's door and issued her a summons to appear in court, accusing her of stealing a $25 package in the town of Bowmar. The officer said he had doorbell video of the theft and had tracked her car in the area using Flock cameras. >> It's locked in. There is a zero doubt. I wouldn't have come here unless I was 100% sure. 100%. >> The only problem with this case, she wasn't there and she had the evidence to prove it. Dash camera video from her car, a log of her location from Google Maps, and doorbell video of her walking into her tailor's house when the package was stolen. >> He just kept telling me that any evidence I had wasn't worth it. >> Because you have not been honest with me, so I'm not going to extend you any courtesy of showing you a video when I don't need to. >> But I can show you videos that >> No, you cannot. >> After a few weeks, Elser was able to get in touch with the police chief, who wrote her in an email, quote, "After reviewing evidence you have provided, nicely done by the way, we have voided the summons that was issued. But Elser says she shouldn't have needed to prove her innocence and worries Flock cameras can paint a picture police will rely to heavily on. >> AI is going to AI, right? But aside from mistakes, police have abused Flock cameras and illegally used them to spy on citizens and we're not talking about a couple of anecdotes here. The Institute for Justice put together an entire database to track Flock abuse by police officers and documented more than 150 cases and counting which includes police officers tracking their ex-girlfriends, their current girlfriends, their boyfriends' ex-wives, their former employees, their spouses, as well as their soon-to-be ex-spouses during divorce proceedings just to give you a few examples. And in total, they found 39 stalking cases, 55 cases of officer misconduct, 31 errors leading to wrongful stops, and 15 other miscellaneous abuses as of August 12th, according to Christopher Ingram of the Institute for Justice. So, people are rightfully concerned about their privacy seeing as how we've already seen so many instances of abuse even though these Flock cameras haven't been around that long. And I just want to point out that as police budgets in cities across the country continue to grow, this is the [ __ ] that they're spending their money on. Hence, why we need to defund the police because this money could be spent to actually improve communities instead of terrorizing them. You know, one thing that you could do with all this money if you're a police department or if you're a city is instead of criminalizing homelessness by policing the unhoused and constructing anti-homeless architecture, communities could actually invest in housing in order to address the root cause of the issue. What a crazy thought. Or instead of treating police officers like de facto social workers, you could dispatch actual social workers trained to deal with mental health and behavioral issues instead of cops. This is actually what Denver is doing with their STAR program, and the results speak for themselves. Out of 14,000 encounters, only 3% of them have actually resulted in mandatory psychiatric holds because the first responders have been able to de-escalate situations, and a significant amount of calls that they respond to result in people actually getting the mental health treatment that they need. So, that as opposed to say, arresting somebody having a manic episode is an effective alternative to policing, but unfortunately, that's not the norm yet. And as a country, we've gotten in the habit of just responding to every societal issue with criminalization and by throwing more police at the problem. And that's what got us to where we are right now, where police are tracking our every move with Flock cameras to make sure that we're always on our best behavior. And that's not to say that there haven't been some success stories with regard to Flock. Police have used ALPRs to stop some crimes for sure. For example, a local news affiliate cited unverified data from a police department that claims they solved 100 cases thanks to Flock. But, if you look at the comments, people clearly don't think that the potential benefits outweigh the costs. You know what else has 24-hour surveillance? Prison. 100 cases of what? Seatbelt violations? Parking tickets? Did they catch anyone within their own department? AI-enabled mass surveillance without warrants. Yeah, sounds super constitutional. And this is just a small sample, but virtually every commenter expressed opposition to Flock with the exception being this individual who definitely wasn't being sarcastic when he warned others to not point green lasers at Flock cameras because they could destroy them. That exception aside, everyone else was universally against Flock, even on Facebook, mind you, which is a magnet for insane people. But, even there, you couldn't really find anyone who disagrees, which speaks to how universally hated Flock cameras are. And listen, we all want to live in safe communities, obviously. But, we also value our freedom and our civil liberties. We could, theoretically, have no crime at all if we had flock cameras on every corner and if we set up police checkpoints on every other block, but the safety that that level of Orwellian totalitarianism would bring would be negated by the loss of freedom. What's the point of safety and security if you have no freedom to take advantage of greater safety and security? And even though most people wouldn't really articulate this, I think they intuitively understand that an expansion of policing wouldn't necessarily make communities feel more safe. It's the cops that makes people feel uneasy after all, not our neighbors. And on that note, a man showed up to a city council meeting in Fridley, Minnesota and he made a fantastic point about how the surveillance state is gaslighting all of us into thinking that we should be skeptical and afraid of our neighbors when that shouldn't be the case. >> I've not been a resident of Fridley for as long as many of you, but like many of you, I came here to build a life, a future with my family. It's caused me to think a lot about the future, about the world we will be building for our children. I want that world to be one where we trust one another. A world where newcomers to the community are greeted with open arms and kindness. Flock is not that. Where we could be spending our money uniting our community and building it into something for everyone to trust in, we instead send it to unproven tech oligarchs to invade and spy on our communities. That spying is not without consequence. When the federal invaders arrived to terrorize our state in the name of scams, lawlessness and racism, that very network was used to track and kidnap our neighbors, as we know. Our children will look back on this moment with revulsion, nauseated by the cowardice that led us to turn our gun guns inward, nauseated by the squandering of our natural resources to build the data center and surveillance infrastructure, a monument to fear, voyeurism, and delusion. We must not forget this is much bigger than a few cameras spying creepily on civilians. The surveillance state cannot exist without data centers. Every second these cameras are running is another second spent sucking the life out of our planet. You keep this up and we're staring down more than a future without privacy. We are staring down the destruction of our future in entirety. Does it comfort you to know that when the last drop of water is drained, when the weather gets so hot that your sweat can no longer keep you alive, and when electricity is so expensive that we can no longer afford to cool our homes, there will still be cameras pointing at the people that frighten you? If my words offend you, remember that I warned you months ago in this very room. You have had adequate time to change course and be the responsible adults you were elected to be. If you cannot see this situation for what it is, then you should not be anywhere near a position of power. We are better than this. Spend our money on something the community would actually benefit from. We should be enjoying our parks together and making friends, not living in fear of one another. I ask that you disarm these cameras. >> He absolutely nailed it. This is why there's so much backlash to data centers and AI more broadly, because we all see where this is going. The oligarchs aren't building all of these data centers for our benefit. It benefits them and them alone. AI is going to be used to replace workers and then spy on them to make sure that they don't get angry enough to revolt. It's about profits and it's about control. It's the oligarchs' way of insulating themselves from the peasants who may revolt against the dystopia that they forced us all to live in. And it's not like mass surveillance is anything new. The Patriot Act has been a thing for most of our lives at this point, but the Flock cameras really do feel like the straw that broke the camel's back. Where there's just nowhere we can go where we're not being watched by Big Brother. And if we allow them to get away with this, then really there's nothing that they won't be able to get away with. And that thought is thankfully too much to bear for a lot of Americans finally, which is why people across the country are actually standing up. And they're showing up to city hall meetings to protest these Flock cameras. And it's why protesters are holding up signs to block Flock cameras for hours. And also it's why Flock hunters are straight up just cutting these [ __ ] down. And I don't think that most people view these vigilantes as criminals. They justifiably believe that the real crime is the Flock cameras themselves, which obviously violates our Fourth Amendment rights. And to show you what I mean, an Ohio man was actually facing felony charges for destroying a Flock camera, but the charges were dropped after a grand jury decided to not indict him. And we don't necessarily know why the grand jury chose to not indict him, but I wouldn't be surprised if at least some of them were sympathetic to him since they might have actually viewed his act of so-called vandalism as a public service. And if you really want to get a sense of just how bad the blowback to Flock has been, listen to what a Tennessee county commissioner told a Flock executive to his face. >> Your your CEO recently uh three weeks ago he gave a TED Talk called "Can a camera on every corner make us safer?" Do you agree with that statement? Do you think a camera on every corner will make Americans safer? >> I'm not here to speak for our CEO. >> Okay. I kind of thought that's why you were here. You know, it is the 250th anniversary of our country's founding. Uh One of our founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, once famously said that those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. Um I actually have a problem with this resolution because it's I think it needs to be amended. It's too open-ended. It says that we shall not review it until such, you know, concerns have been addressed as laid out by Gary Stidham and written in the resolution. And you know, I have some concerns with what Gary and what Mark are talking about. I don't think we need to renew this at all. I don't think the people of Sullivan County want this. Um I believe that Flock right now is one of the most hated companies in America. They are one of the most corrupt companies in America. And uh quite quite frankly, sir, I don't think we can make America great again without hanging your CEO publicly for treason. Your company is an enemy of the American people. >> we're not going to threaten violence to anybody. >> And again, that's a county commissioner who said that. But it just goes to show you how intense the backlash has been. And I don't think the company or police officers around the country understand that public opinion is only going to get worse. There's no saving Flock at this point. And I think that this fake ad for Flock by a voice actress pretty much summarizes where the public is at right now. >> Our users can't stop raving about our AI-enabled Flock license plate cameras. Like Frank, a Minnesota police officer who used our cameras to track down a girl he met at Walmart. Looks like she's about to be cited for shopping while attractive. Or John, a police administrator who made some extra cash accepting bribes in exchange for access to our database. Just don't tell his customers that Flock logins are already available for purchase on Russian hacking sites. And we know Police Chief Joe is a happy customer. His department's productivity has skyrocketed since adopting our technology. Now, his officers are free to spend more time antagonizing people of color. With Flock, we're putting your mass surveillance in the hands of trusted local, state, and federal law enforcement officials, government agencies, ICE, and more. And with our new Flock Alpha drones, the trampling of your civil liberties is now airborne. So, get started today. Go to deflock.org to find out if your town has already decided that Flock Safety is right for you. Flock Safety, countless applications, zero oversight. >> And that's basically the public's perception more broadly about Flock. We're not the ones benefiting from it, so why would we want this? It doesn't make us feel any safer. Quite the contrary, it makes people feel more vulnerable, especially communities of color. So, again, why would we want this when there is nothing to gain and everything to lose by having these cameras in our communities. And if you actually decided to go to deflock.org and you put in your zip code, I think you'd be surprised to see just how ubiquitous Flock cameras already are. And while the company has tried to placate those of us with privacy concerns by limiting the amount of time that they're storing footage, I don't think they understand that they are never ever going to be able to win back the public's trust. That ship has sailed. And I actually think that the company shutting down isn't sufficient. I think at this point, people are so pissed off that Americans wouldn't be satisfied unless the actual executives of Flock themselves are prosecuted for violating the US Constitution. And I don't think that that's an unreasonable request seeing as how they're violating the [ __ ] Constitution. So, this goes without saying, we don't want these [ __ ] cameras in our communities. Every single one of them needs to be removed. We don't want them to be taken over by some more ethical or trustworthy company. We don't want them to be nationalized. We want them gone. Period. And if they're not removed willingly, then I wouldn't be surprised to see more vigilantes take it upon themselves to just cut them down because we're starting to really reach a tipping point where Americans are no longer pacified or easily distracted with bread and circus. They're literally cheering on Luigi and celebrating people burning down warehouses for not paying them enough. And if you look at the comments under any flock hunting video, I promise you they are overwhelmingly positive. People support what they're doing. And none of this is happening in a vacuum. Our government's criminality and ineptitude has facilitated the breakdown of society and vigilantism is only going to become more common if our material conditions continue to get worse and our rights keep getting trampled on and politicians will have nobody to blame but themselves for all of this. >> Luigi not happy. >> Hey! Hey! >> Luigi! >> Hey! >> Bye-bye. >> Hey! >> Oh, yeah. >> Hey! >> Luigi! >> Yeah! >> Luigi! See you. Bye-bye. Good job, Luigi. Yahoo!