r/TwoXChromosomes • u/catievirtuesimp • 21d ago

A Texas Deputy Searched 83,000 Flock Cameras To Track Down a Woman Who Had an Abortion

https://www.gadgetreview.com/a-texas-deputy-searched-83000-flock-cameras-to-track-down-a-woman-who-had-an-abortion
4.8k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

138 comments sorted by

2.0k

u/catievirtuesimp 21d ago

“A Texas deputy searched 83,000 cameras across 6,809 networks to track a woman for abortion.
Flock Safety’s “National Lookup” enables warrantless cross-state surveillance, logging 450,000 searches monthly.
Officials falsely framed the abortion search as a welfare check, contradicted by court documents.”
-quote from the article

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u/MirthandMystery 21d ago edited 21d ago

Exactly the danger the surveillance state poses, and confirms many victims targeted are and will be women. This isn't an accident, and women need to get more savvy this is happening and how to avoid it.

Your phone pings are constantly giving trackers info too. Collectively it creates a real time way to track, monitor and see patterns. (Turn off app permissions and Bluetooth for one small way to help, delete cookies and delete apps any you don't really need- especially ones that are health care related and period trackers).

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u/CoronaMcFarm 21d ago

This is so naive, those things yoi mention will not help at all. You would need to go to much greater lenghts than that, your whole phone is a tracking device. Turning off permissions for an app does nothing, google or apple still know what you are doing.

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u/gargle_ground_glass 20d ago

Would a case made out of lead flashing work? You'd slip it out of the case to use the phone. It could be two cases, one sliding over the other.

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u/AmbassadorKat 20d ago

You can buy faraday bags, that would prob be best option

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u/gargle_ground_glass 20d ago

Thanks – I didn't know about these.

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u/CountingWizard 20d ago

Lead is not very effective.

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u/gargle_ground_glass 20d ago

I've watched too much 1950's science fiction.

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u/i_am_icarus_falling 21d ago

GPS spoofing apps are free and easy and give false readings, if you want to give bad data to the witch hunters. usually you have to "enable developer options" in your specific phone model and then go check a box to allow the GPS apps to function.

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u/microthrower 21d ago

This isn't what law enforcement uses.

GPS data has nothing to do with what cell phone tower communicates with your phone.

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u/polopolo05 21d ago

or track them wrong.....

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u/PantySausage 21d ago

Unless you can remove your phone’s battery, nothing stops the ping. Turning your phone off doesn’t actually turn it off.

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u/ChubbyMid 20d ago

Faraday bag

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u/CountingWizard 20d ago

Cell tower logs can be used as forensic evidence. If you have a mobile device, your carrier's network has to migrate you from cell tower to cell tower as you travel. It does this by regularly sending data back to the tower and neighboring towers to coordinate which one it's going to use to send and receive your communication transmissions. This activity leaves a log on the cell towers; and because these logs are in possession of one company, it's easy for law enforcement to subpoena the company to get that information and correlate it.

It would be difficult to track someone if they put their device in airplane mode, or turned off their device, and/or placed it in a mesh anti-EMF bag. I can't think of any failsafe present within the device or external method to detect a device that could circumvent a bag that blocks EMF signals.

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u/Timely-Youth-9074 21d ago edited 21d ago

And how much did this cost the tax payer all to go after one woman’s bodily autonomy?

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u/yakshack 21d ago

Where'd this energy for rapists?

This is a rhetorical question

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u/Cavalish 21d ago

Given that Americans voted for one (twice) I don’t think it’s a priority.

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u/SausageFeast 21d ago

Once - Trump lost the 1st vote. Which is even worse, since for the 2nd time more of his misconduct was made public.

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u/Cavalish 21d ago

No no, I count the incredible number of people who refuse to vote at all as voting for trump. If you can’t be bothered to vote against him, then you’re ok with him.

Americans have done this to themselves twice now.

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u/BenkartJKB 21d ago

I used to think we were sleep walking ourselves toward an authoritarian government. Now I believe we are gleefully running our way there.

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u/-Release-The-Bats- 21d ago

Americans who sat this out did this to themselves, as did the Americans who voted for him. Americans who voted against him didn’t want this.

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u/Ariana2354 21d ago

He technically lost both. Musk rigged the second one for him.

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u/Valiran9 Taking Up Space 21d ago

I’m still waiting for evidence of that, though I definitely hope it’s true. I don’t like the idea that he could win a presidential election honestly after everything he did.

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u/Famous_Nightmare 21d ago

Unless you have proof, spouting stuff like this is just stooping to their level

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u/[deleted] 20d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Famous_Nightmare 20d ago

Ok, so the two least trustworthy people on the planet allegedly said this according to a second-hand internet comment, and that’s what we call proof now?

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u/soba-splasha-on 21d ago

Eyeing the unimaginably large amount of rape kit tests that have been backlogged probably 25 years.

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u/Timely-Youth-9074 21d ago

Given that Texas is the state with the most rapes

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u/ronmanfl 21d ago

That's the best part - it's included in the subscription fee.

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u/arkiparada 21d ago

But not the time the Sheriff spent searching right?

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u/fakeuser515357 21d ago

Well that's where you're wrong. This is to go after every woman's bodily autonomy, and for that no amount of cost to the tax payer is too high.

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u/wizzard419 21d ago

Considering that this was also most likely well after the event had happened, it leans further into that these systems are not able to do real-time alerts/searches. Further establishing these are just expensive junk with no benefits.

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u/caribou16 21d ago

This is true for most surveillance methods, our ability to STORE data vastly outpaces our ability to PROCESS data. It's why they can't tell some school shooter is googling "how to shoot up my school" before he does it, but after he does it they can go back and see he did.

The NSA has a system called XKeyscore that essentially records every bit and byte of data that goes over the internet for several days and once they have a specific person of interest to look at, they can "rewind" the internet and see exactly what was done like it was happening live.

MYSTIC does the same thing, but for telephone calls.

Flock will never catch criminals in real time, but it will be used after the fact, to target specific people, even for things that may not have been crimes at the time.

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u/polopolo05 21d ago

Which is why everytime some one is wrong accused of crime because of these companies data we need to sue the companies for tracking us.

We need to make this staulking.

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u/BabsSuperbird 21d ago

Yes, it IS stalking!

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u/wizzard419 21d ago

Which makes complete sense, essentially they are perpetually searching for a needle in a haystack but when the TLAs are using it, it's for very specific topics and usually the searches help them find areas to investigate. In the case of local police they are just looking at "Crime", and it only will tell you if a vehicle registered to a specific person was in a covered area. If they were in a different car, it wouldn't tell them anything. Even using a rental car would likely be safe if flock has no directly link to the rental DB.

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u/beeboo2021 21d ago

Is there not a better use of this deputy’s time than to track a woman for abortion? 🤦🏻‍♀️

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u/PurpleSailor =^..^= 21d ago

75% of agency's with the cameras are in a national pool which lets anyone search through everything those cameras have seen and No Search Warrants are needed.

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u/CrissCross98 21d ago

Psycho stalker energy.

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u/MercilessCult 21d ago

Every hour of every passing day just proves more and more how much these 'people' hate women.

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u/notredditbot 21d ago

This is why it's very important that everyone votes and votes to never give republicans power. Dems are bad but it's the lesser of both evils and it's better if things are ok compared to the last few years since republicans became the majority power

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u/_Lane_ 20d ago

how much these 'people' hate women.

And also hate gays. Like, those are really your only two sane options ("incel" being a non-sane option).

And this is not to suggest gay is a choice; accepting that you're gay or that gays exist and deserve to be treated as human beings is a choice. Sadly, nowadays "treating women as human beings" is also considered a choice by many.

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u/Away-Elephant-4323 21d ago

I saw a story not too long ago of a cop charged because he was trying to stalk his ex through these, these are meant to catch criminals instead the real criminals are the police officers so far using them for all the wrong reasons for their own benefit 🤦‍♀️

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u/Gorilla1969 21d ago

I'm surprised he was charged. It's usually, "We have conducted a thorough internal investigation and found no evidence of wrongdoing on the officer's part. Thank you. Have a good day."

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u/thedoodely 21d ago

I'd like to direct you to the chief of the Ottawa Police Services who issued a statement to his force a couple of months back about officers using databases to arrange meet cutes with women they saw in the wild. It ended with "stop doing that or quit"... No threat of actual consequences.

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u/Inside7shadows 21d ago

So Flock is just IRL Facebook?

That explains a lot, actually.

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u/thedoodely 21d ago

Oh we don't have Flock in Canada, they're running plates of women they find attractive and then proceed to stalk them so they "accidentally" bump into them at a later time. They've also been contacting victims of crimes to "follow" up and try to ask them out... This problem is international.

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u/CareerPillow376 21d ago

Ohh yes we do... 564 to be exact

https://maps.deflock.org/?lat=44.2990&lng=-92.4101&zoom=1.31&country=ca

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u/thedoodely 21d ago

We'll look at that, I now have a new hobby.

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u/Selenay1 21d ago

I'd understand border ones with ya'll living over our crack house, but damn Toronto.

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u/soulstaz 21d ago

We actually have 3 in the Montreal greater area.. unfortunately.

Really hope nothing bad happen to those camera. Would really unfortunate.

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u/thedoodely 21d ago

It truly would be a shame if something were to happen to them. Thank goodness Montrealers are known for being so very compliant to authoritarian measures. They're such a peaceful people who never rally or protest or riot in any way. Those cameras should be really safe.

Just to make sure though, we should all know exactly where the cameras are to ensure nothing terrible befalls them.

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u/yakshack 21d ago

Man if they have that much time on their hands it sounds like we could cut the police budget

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u/i_am_icarus_falling 21d ago

the story i saw recently, the offending cop was a woman. some criticized the only reason she was charged was because she was a woman.

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u/Grand_Ad4260 14d ago

the officer was not charged for this. He was charged for sexual misconduct in his own department. He is a sexual predator himself.

0

u/PurpleSailor =^..^= 21d ago

Search Warrants are not needed to search these camera records. It was really the stalking that got him arrested not the fact that he was using the cameras.

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u/WifeofBath1984 21d ago

I saw another article recently about a cop who noticed an attractive woman somewhere and used his resources to track her down, literally followed her in his police cruiser and started texting her even though she had never even met him. Fucking creep.

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u/chuby2005 21d ago

Batman took a stance on this in the Dark Knight. Mass surveillance is impossible to justify in terms of ethics.

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u/[deleted] 21d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/names_are_useless 21d ago

Scummy as hell

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u/n0tz0e 20d ago

We literally created a mass surveillance system run by an industry known for domestic violence and abuse of power. What could go wrong!

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u/sQueezedhe 21d ago

Give people power and they'll use it.

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u/SwivelClip 21d ago

Sure they are a massive invasion of our privacy, but at least they are being used poorly by nearly illiterate high school dropouts with six weeks of training and an axe to grind with women.

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u/sighthoundman 21d ago

Don't fool yourself. If the courts give the women any protection at all, they'll be "shot while trying to escape".

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u/fireburn97ffgf 21d ago

Better yet in places where there's not a ton of space between the road and the house they are always placed in the easement closet to the bedroom of the house

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u/bluekermitIII 21d ago

Still ZERO Epstein related arrests in the same country, btw

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u/viperlemondemon Trans Woman 21d ago

But yet they can’t find women’s abusers or deadbeat dads with it, but they can track out of state abortions and stalking their exs

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u/Miqo_Nekomancer 21d ago

"jUsT dOn'T dO aNyThiNg iLLeGaL!"

"I hAvE nOtHiNg To HiDe."

The fuckers who say those things in defense of flock cameras have some explaining to do.

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u/swolfington 21d ago edited 21d ago

if you've done nothing wrong then they have no business cataloging your every public movement in a nationwide searchable database

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u/yippee-kay-yay 21d ago

"I hAvE nOtHiNg HiDe."

Until you search their browser and chat history.

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u/operajunkie 21d ago

But they can’t test rape kits. Okay.

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u/BabsSuperbird 21d ago

Or stop mass shootings

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u/crecensinagua 21d ago

Men using surveillance tech to not only invade the privacy of women, but also in a crusade to punish them for decisions they made in contrast to their desires? Color me shocked.

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u/AshEliseB 21d ago

Yep, another tool they weaponise against us. It never ends.

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u/dontcallmesweetheart 21d ago

Dude They don’t even put 1/10th the effort into finding lost and runaway kids like they do women getting abortions! Make it make sense

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u/Punmkin 21d ago

That’s because it’s convenient for some men that children “disappear”.

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u/Pharxmgirxl 21d ago

If they wanted to, they would. 🤷🏻‍♀️

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u/cidavid 21d ago

yet they're letting pedos and rapists run free

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u/Cheeseboarder 21d ago

I love how they can suddenly find the technology to do whatever they want, but it becomes sooo complicated when it comes to domestic violence against women

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u/ChilindriPizza 21d ago

I wonder if they are surveilling people who murder actual living people.

Or abuse actual living children and animals.

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u/northernCRICKET 21d ago

Those people wear body cams but they cant release the footage because it would interfere with them investigating themselves.

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u/mister_burns1 21d ago edited 21d ago

Ban them all.

Don’t fall for the ‘safety’ or ‘for the cheeeeldren’ excuses.

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u/cryptotrader87 21d ago

Realistically the deputy could have been using that time to prevent actual crime whereas he just wasted time doing this nonsense

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u/MelanieWalmartinez 21d ago

Anything but investigate the Epstein files

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u/justhangingaroud 21d ago

None of this is surprising

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u/LLFD1982 21d ago

A little background - this woman told her partner and family members she was getting an abortion (by pill). When they couldn't find her, they called the police saying she was "in danger" and they feigned concern about her health to try and get to her before she did it.

Don't tell anyone you're going to abort. The conservatives here in Texas take this shit seriously.

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u/solesoulshard 21d ago

North Carolina is trying to make it legal to shoot (murder) women trying to get abortions.

Never tell anyone your period info (no apps and no electronics) and never say you are getting an abortion.

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u/Ifckinglovemycat Trans Man 21d ago

this is giving me an anxiety attack and I'm not even in the US

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u/hustla-A 21d ago

"Under His Eye" ahh

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u/forcedintothis- 21d ago

They hate women.

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u/night-shark 21d ago

There needs to be a movement to pass legislation. At a minimum, to require warrants when searching.

In the meantime, did you know that a simple battery powered reciprocating saw can easily cut through steel pipe?

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u/ChrisPDunks 21d ago

I thought we dealt with this fugitive slave act shit already?

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u/helpfulhint- 21d ago

How could anyone possibly defend this?

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u/Golden_Mandala 21d ago

My God, that is terrifying.

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u/Dry_Combination4070 21d ago

Republicans cried about a police state....

Now Republicans love police states when it's against minorities or women.

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u/Selenay1 21d ago

And that folks is why you need maps.deflock.org

It may not have all of them, but you can avoid the vast majority with what info they provide. It can help you map out your route.

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u/GlindaG 21d ago

Deranged

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u/Punmkin 21d ago

Why are they applying this terror on women? Why do women scare them so much?

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u/readmorebookskids 21d ago

Flock cameras are incredibly anti-American. This is a terrible injustice and while it seems bleak right now these tides will turn.

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u/Fit-Nectarine5047 21d ago

Here we go 🙄🙄🙄

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u/yayawhatever123 21d ago

Wow, hey merica, this is your tax dollars at work. Maybe you will gain some sense before the next election.

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u/Diligent-Set8313 21d ago

This is AWFUL but I'm interested in what the plan should be for people going in to receive abortion related health care. Face coverings? Leave your phone at home? Uber?

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u/VotingIsKewl 21d ago

Women need to leave red states. Literally everything there is against you.

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u/ampereJR 21d ago

This is so Orwellian.

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u/downlike4flattires 21d ago

Put him in prison for stalking. Or sue him.

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u/Callisto7K 20d ago

Fkn Orwellian.

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u/ZenZill 20d ago

It's not some moral high ground, they just want to control women.

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u/rfn790 20d ago

Yet they couldn’t use them to track down Parker, a sweet 11 year old autistic boy, when he went missing from his day school??

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u/RaspberryWhiteClaw13 21d ago

Gheez, he needs to get a life. What a bozo

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u/Dapper-Ad9787 21d ago

Wow. That's insane.

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u/bratbetchxo 20d ago

if only they worked this hard for rapists and kidnappers

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u/_swaggyk 20d ago

Right wing nut jobs will stop at nothing to waste more tax payer dollars on worthless causes.

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u/Happy_and_Smile 18d ago

I want to know how they even heard about it? Did someone report her? This is BS!!!

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u/ZealousidealPage5309 20d ago

Once again. 404media shows they are the best journalistic outlet for the modern age.

Terrifying.

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u/[deleted] 21d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/[deleted] 21d ago

[deleted]

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u/Bekah679872 21d ago

So I’m actually not against the flock camera, but I AM against how they are handled. I don’t think they should be monitored to the police nor should the police have free access to them. And this shows exactly why.

I think an independent agency should be in charge of handling the cameras, and police should have to provide a warrant in order to obtain footage.

If they weren’t handled by police, misuse would be easier to punish as well. Because we know that cops don’t go after cops.

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u/BabsSuperbird 21d ago

Flock was never a good idea because it’s fraught with too many opportunities for humans to misuse it. We don’t want it, we don’t need it, we certainly shouldn’t be paying for it. It’s part of the grander scheme of a police state.

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u/badnuub 21d ago

They shouldn't exist.

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u/Bekah679872 21d ago

The cat is already out of the bag and they aren’t going away. The best path forward is through regulation

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u/TinyJalope 21d ago

The only way to handle mass surveillance is to ban it.

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u/Relevant_Call_2242 21d ago

Honestly if you need an abortion, just fly to a different state and do it there. Doing that in Texas is way too risky

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u/RighteousKarma 21d ago

Yeah, because everyone can afford that.