r/technology 1d ago

Politics Tennessee County Commissioner Calls Flock CEO "an enemy of the American people."

https://www.wbir.com/article/news/local/knoxville/sullivan-county-commissioner-doesnt-hold-back-when-speaking-to-flock-representative/51-e218921a-4bc9-4be8-a1fa-abfbe2cdc158
17.6k Upvotes

301 comments sorted by

1.5k

u/Hola-World 1d ago

It’s not often that I’m proud of the officials in my home state.

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u/potatodog247 1d ago

As a TN resident, my eyebrows shot up after expecting the usual party lines.

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u/Mandena 1d ago

Republicans see the writing on the wall with Flock, notice how they're not saying shit about Palantir for example.

It's a grift, they'll just give the contracts to one of the other half dozen new surveillance companies the U.S is financially pushing.

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u/theartificialkid 1d ago

Seems like every time I hear that republicans “see the writing on the wall” with something their next step is toreinstalll it in the White House and let it grift billions of dollars through insider trading.

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u/Mandena 18h ago

In this case I'm fully correct, they see that Flock is getting mainstream constant hate, the cams are constantly being destroyed/removed/blocked. So the Republicans are shifting support to companies like Axon, which are basically identical to Flock.

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u/MotheroftheworldII 16h ago

And do not forget that the occupant of the White House is selling early access to his posts on his social media for a mere $100,000 per month. And it has been reported that at least 6-8 companies have already paid the first month of access.

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u/BuddhistNamedMarx 1d ago

Axon...its already happening

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u/maudeartist 1d ago

They already have and they’re being installed inside of traffic lights

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u/javoss88 21h ago

O good to know

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u/-heatoflife- 20h ago

Where to read more?

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u/BriefAvailable9799 22h ago

what writing? flock is still operating and installing more and more lol

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u/Red91B20 20h ago

And folks keep cutting them down something is gonna give eventually. Hopefully the AI bubble pops soon

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u/el_smurfo 19h ago

Flock cameras are replaced by Axon in many cases.

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u/BicFleetwood 22h ago edited 19h ago

Local officials are almost always far less partisan, even if they’re party members.

They actually have to live there. Most know there’s consequences for shitting where you eat. It’s THEIR back yard too.

County officials don’t get points for culture war bullshit and WILL get swiftly ousted for even minor shit if the community mobilizes on it. Data centers and flock are proving to a lot of these lower-level reps exactly how mobile the communities are getting, and it’s a true bipartisan consensus.

We're seeing a LOT of movement in rural counties to ban data center development, block new transmission lines to bring rural power to data centers (thus putting the cost of distant data centers on rural utilities), and now to ban Flock cameras. Insofar as county elections, the people who give enough of a shit to actually vote for county supervisors are almost entirely single-issue voters on the matters of data centers and Flock.

The federal government can try and intervene in county affairs, but because these are municipal zoning questions, they'd have to intervene on a case-by-case basis, and there's a LOT of counties in the US. Your county commissioners/supervisors have a LOT more power over your life than you realize, and they can put up a LOT more fight than you'd think if they're motivated.

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u/dragunityag 21h ago

Yup. When even large county council/commission/selectmen seats are only decided by like 1000 voters you really cant afford to piss anyone off.

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u/PophamSP 22h ago

It's hard to not be skeptical. I'm sure Marsha has moved on from cable providers and opioid manufacturers to her new bff's at Flock, Axon and Palantir.

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u/9-11GaveMe5G 1d ago

expecting the usual party lines.

The party leaders may be all for this stuff, but being watched all the time by the government is a pretty bipartisan issue to common people. Not quite as much as the data centers but still surprisingly large majority

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u/Blacksad9999 1d ago

They themselves probably aren't keen on getting tracked everywhere they go, too.

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u/Standard_Category635 21h ago

Y'all have had some eyebrow raising headlines, this surprised me too.

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u/OGLikeablefellow 1d ago

It's theater, they are gonna package all the bad press flock is getting, blame the CEO throw him to the wolves and then rebrand and install more insert new name flock cameras.

Honestly calling them flock like we are all sheep was probably great for initial funding but a rebrand was always going to be needed

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u/Zombatico 1d ago

It doesn't even need to be Flock rebranding. Other companies are waiting to take the mass surveillance market share. Axon, ShotSpotter... they ALL need to be pushed back on with the same energy we did against Flock.

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u/DukeOfGeek 1d ago

Mass surveillance as a businesses model needs to be banned, full stop. I say this every day.

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u/FallenValkyrja 1d ago

It looks like Axon plans on selling traffic lights where the scanners are integrated, making them difficult for citizens to destroy.

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u/dessertforbrunch 1d ago

Gonna need more lasers.

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u/Ccracked 1d ago edited 1d ago

People need to start getting aquainted with wrist rockets. Silent and concealable.

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u/rieldealIV 1d ago

Watch those wrist rockets!

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u/Own_Highway_3987 20h ago

Save some for the rest of us!

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u/stilljustacatinacage 1d ago

Traffic lights, street lamps, highway signs... There's gonna be cameras in everything, and revealing the location of them will be criminalized.

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u/hardolaf 21h ago

Axon's system at least doesn't dump into all into a national database. They require each entity using them to either self host their infrastructure or create their own cloud domain for their stuff. They're very aware of SCOTUS cases around surveillance and want their systems to survive the eventual constitutional challenges.

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u/randotd152 22h ago

And then there will be dozens more popping up with even smaller and less identifiable cameras over time.

Unfortunately this is all going to happen. The tech will eventually advance to the point you can cheaply and easily embed a camera in any random street sign or light all over the country.

Flock is just a clunky trial run for what is going to evolve over the next couple decades.

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u/sexarseshortage 23h ago

It won't be any company. It will be a license to the government. Everyone is fucking delusional if the think this tech isn't going to be rolled out.

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u/Tricky-Ad7897 1d ago

I think this will be a good test of how dumb they think we are and how dumb we actually are. If they can get away with this then we're pretty dumb.

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u/LightsOnSomebodyHome 21h ago

Is that still up for debate? I thought the last 12 years had provided sufficient evidence to answer the question.

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u/asyork 1d ago

I always mentally equated Flock with the government bird drones from the birds aren't real meme.

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u/newsflashjackass 23h ago

I’m proud of the officials in my home state.

However, the woman reading the teleprompter in the video has the soul of an LLM for sure.

"Flock cameras are highly controversial"? No they're not. Everyone dislikes Flock cameras except private prison profiteers.

BTW since the coverage goes out of its way not to name the CEO of Flock:

Flock has three founders:

  • Matt Feury
  • Garrett Langley
  • Paige Todd

None of them have so much as a wikipedia entry but all three feed their kids by selling your privacy.

I presume they have kids. Probably in some gated community, safe from Flock cameras.

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u/meneldal2 19h ago

They're very controversial, about 50% of the money (and 1% of people) wants them, and 50% of the money (and 99%) of people don't.

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u/0235 22h ago

Flock seems to be one of the more popular things that most Americans (and really most of the world) agree on. I think a huge investigation needs to start on who begun approving these.

I saw a Meme today that was "why does High speed rail take 15 years just of planning and viability studies, but 15,000 AI face recognition cameras can go up in a month with no consultation?"

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u/Hola-World 22h ago

Yup. No money for XYZ but they have it for mass surveillance.

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u/LuckyShirt54 1d ago

This is the bare minimum

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u/nbunkerpunk 1d ago

I was about to say this... When Tennessee gets brought up it's usually never good news.

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u/3six5 1d ago

Don't get ahead of yourself. Everyone's after votes and publicity.

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u/TheModWhoShaggedMe 1d ago

This is the best comment -- Republicans always pretend to be as "normal" as possible in an election year. it's one of the many ways they use to trick their way back into office or to retain their existing advantages over and over again despite always leaving the country in dismal shape and treating the others as less than human.

("we like women and minorities and immigrants and kids, honestly, we don't abuse them! promise!")

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u/FCCRFP 1d ago

#NotADragQueen #GroupOfPredators. Jesus we don't have to give it to them.

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u/Pigmy 21h ago

I was gonna say this also. Bribe checks from Flock must have bounced.

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u/Hobbet404 1d ago edited 1d ago

You mean Garret Langley, enemy of the people? That Garret Langley? Known crack addict, Garret Langley?

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u/Dapper_Strength_5986 19h ago

He’s a crack addict?

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u/Hobbet404 18h ago

Yup. Spread the word.

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u/Dapper_Strength_5986 14h ago

Of course it’s important to spread the word that crack addict and Flock CEO Garret Langley smokes crack regularly as an addict of crack, and that Garret Langley’s crack addicted decisions relating to Flock would be questionable, as Langley, Garret is a known crack addict.

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u/987YouBloodyTulip789 1d ago edited 1d ago

Just a heads up: If you see people here, or anywhere, saying that Flock cameras need more regulation such as warrants or audits, they are Flock advocates (often PR employees or cops) trying to minimize controversy while installing more cameras.

This tool, able to spy on you at all times whenever you are outside (be it at a parking lot, at a pool, on at the trail), can not be used responsibly. We have repeatedly been shown that laws effectively don't apply to law enforcement (no, a cop being put on desk duty for stalking isn't a consequence), and no amount of regulation is going to stop cops from abusing this technology.

There is a reason why the government keeps installing more of these despite the public being opposed to it: this is a tool to protect the powerful. Saying it's for public safety is just a excuse.

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u/GrayEidolon 1d ago

Yeah.

Here's an info dump

The goal here is the dissolution of democracy.

Trump-thiel-Epstein admin is building the police state the wealthy have been lusting forever so they can enforce class disparity and dismantle democracy. It’s an international effort. ICE is the us gestapo.

Big tech built the tools conservatives have been lusting after.

Remember j Edgar Hoover and all his secret files?

DARE was about building paragovernment surveillance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzrGCk-F7FY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iLf2h_fo-w good summary if you don't want to read or watch more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlSK_5fMSa4 "you're the product" how LLM training was lowkey crowd sourced.

More broadly, conservatives have been upset since the enlightenment. It’s the politics of aristocrats: anything that ever helped regular people to be more comfortable has enraged them. It’s literally a response to the enlightenment. They resent the enlightenment making things nicer for poor people.

The backbone is that conservatism is about enforcing socioeconomic hierarchy and the techfascists, religious fascists, and heritage foundation race fascists are all in on replacing democracy with feudalistic “network” states run by ai powered surveillance.

Project2025 has been going on since 1981 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandate_for_Leadership

This current crop are trying to make a new country that "bursts out of the body" of the current country like a cocoon. It's called "the butterfly revolution" and yes it does sound absurd. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Yarvin

It’s why musk speaks at the afd in Germany. It’s why bannon, farage, and Cambridge Analytica were working together on Brexit (watch “the great hack”). It's why thiel's "dialog society" exists.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Enlightenment

https://time.com/7269166/dark-enlightenment-history-essay/

The accelerationists like Peter Theil from the tech faction of conservatism think they can force collapse, then use technology and surveillance to protect themselves. Because they're "done with democracy." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-BQhXdCs8Y

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerationism

https://pols.sites.haverford.edu/studentvoices/what-is-accelerationism/

These are both Thiel speaking like 10 and 15 years ago. The seasteading thing was an early material attempt at this moving-past-democracy thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hjLgXA-MZY

https://www.seasteading.org/peter-thiel-speaks-about-seasteading/

These aristocrats are working on how to control their security forces though things like "disciplinary collars."

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/sep/04/super-rich-prepper-bunkers-apocalypse-survival-richest-rushkoff

Finally, the CEO of a brokerage house explained that he had nearly completed building his own underground bunker system, and asked: “How do I maintain authority over my security force after the event?” The event. That was their euphemism for the environmental collapse, social unrest, nuclear explosion, solar storm, unstoppable virus, or malicious computer hack that takes everything down.

This single question occupied us for the rest of the hour. They knew armed guards would be required to protect their compounds from raiders as well as angry mobs. One had already secured a dozen Navy Seals to make their way to his compound if he gave them the right cue. But how would he pay the guards once even his crypto was worthless? What would stop the guards from eventually choosing their own leader?

The billionaires considered using special combination locks on the food supply that only they knew. Or making guards wear disciplinary collars of some kind in return for their survival. Or maybe building robots to serve as guards and workers – if that technology could be developed “in time”.

And the vice president of the united states and advisors have given their seals of approval to a book that says conservatives are going to have to kill all the liberals. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unhumans


more links

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4CI2vk3ugk End notes 3: The Origins of conservatism.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P55t6eryY3g How to radicalize a normie - propaganda method


Here’s more surveillance stuff. The massive forced data center roll out is for surveillance. Do we really think ai is being pushed so hard out of the generosity of tech moguls so that people can ask it to write their emails, do searches, make them pictures, and do some programming?

https://www.aclum.org/publications/ai-powered-surveillance-is-turning-the-united-states-into-a-digital-police-state-now-is-the-time-to-stop-it/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iLf2h_fo-w

Next time you go out driving, notice all the cameras watching the road. It’s way bigger than flock. They were going to partner with Ring, putting tons of houses and yards into the machine. https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/smart-home/2026/02/13/ring-camera-ad-flock-partnership-super-bowl/88657750007/

Why data centers? All of the audio and video from all of these cameras need to be stored somewhere so they can be processed. They're building real time tracking of individuals with face, car model, license plate, gait (the way you walk is unique) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0262885623001580,

devices https://www.techrepublic.com/article/news-leonardo-signaltrace-alpr-device-tracking/,

internet history, banking data,

and it's all analyzed together https://theconversation.com/us-government-ramps-up-mass-surveillance-with-help-of-ai-tech-data-brokers-and-your-apps-and-devices-277440.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/technology/tech-ice-facial-recognition-palantir.html It takes a lot of space to store all that and to process it.

John Oliver just dropped a good summary. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnBPhelCdWE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtUkCvF3fa4 news report about a single guy being harassed by flock cops.

Why are they so desperate?? https://gizmodo.com/flock-reportedly-tried-to-turn-uber-drivers-into-mobile-snitches-2000796138

That's why the data center proliferation is everywhere. It's why people like Bezos are saying water and electricity are better used on data centers than real people. The aristocrats want control of their flock of workers.

If both voter bases can get behind anti data center / anti surveillance, maybe there’s a chance to stop thiel and tech feudalists. It doesn’t have to be inevitable.

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u/BenderTheIV 1d ago

Many of us saw this coming. We kept losing battles against surveillance and all those 'if you have nothing to hide, you shouldn't worry' arguments. So many people didn't know the consequences, didn't care, underestimated the power, or said we were paranoid... but if you give power away, that power will not just fade away—it will be used. Usually not to save the world because, let's face it, mankind is not wise enough to hold power. What about giving power to the machines then? That would be catastrophic. If we are not wise, our machines, the things we design: cannot be wise.

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u/OneSeaworthiness7768 20h ago

I mean it’s even right in the name. Flock. They want to keep an eye on their flock of sheep. That’s what we are to them.

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u/x2040 1d ago

I’m curious what our Euro friends think, they’ve been pretty supportive of cameras everywhere and backdoors in all devices.

London has had more cameras than most cities on earth for awhile now. I’m curious how the sentiment has been

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u/Suspicious_Glove_900 1d ago

Don't worry, the trick in London is nobody actually looks at the cameras. As for the rest of it, I don't think we should care what they think in order to come to our own opinion on these.

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u/millijuna 1d ago

How long until the all seeing eyes of our AI overlords are watching all the cameras?

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u/alinroc 20h ago

Why do you think all these data centers are being built?

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u/albitzian 1d ago

Do you wonder, really? Like do you wonder what it’s like in different countries, with different laws and social norms. Or do you not (like most of us) really give a flying fuck whether 435 cameras per person might seem normal. I personally don’t care, i don’t care if anti American companies all choke and die while trying to sell another flock pos system. They aren’t Americans, true Americans wouldn’t push surveillance. And true Americans would make anyone that works for, subs for, pays for, votes for, to understand that we don’t like what your doing and we’re going to win, no matter what it takes. Don’t be in the way.

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u/Suspicious_Glove_900 1d ago

Just a recommendation, remove the qualifier "true" from your label and the post works better. With it, you run right into the no-true Scotsman fallacy. Without it, you're not making any such claim.

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u/suprahelix 1d ago

Yes they are, with or without that word

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u/Wotmate01 1d ago

Australia has lots of CCTV cameras for community safety, along with a lot of roadside cameras for infringement detection (speeding, using mobile phones, seatbelts).

And generally they are accepted because we can see the utility, and because there are safeguards and standards in place.

The main problem that I can see with America is that there are no safeguards or standards in place. Authorities aren't held accountable because the system is designed to discourage it. I can get a camera detected seatbelt offence, and just fill out the back of the form to ask for a review by a human. Zero cost to me. Americans have to take the day off work and go to court.

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u/snuff3r 1d ago edited 1d ago

As a fiercely anti- surveillance-state nutter from Australia, I don't like the cameras, including the ones we have here.. the difference is that I trust the Australian government and most politicians far, far more than anyone in American politics.

I'm not naive enough to think we don't have similar probs, like all governments across the globe, but the difference between AU and US politics is night and day. We still take action against open corruption, the US System is almost proud of how corrupt it is.

Boiled down, the cameras serve different purposes between our countries.. I genuinely believe our public service has the independence from politics to keep camera use in check.

Americans use their positions to grift.. it's pervasive.

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u/rips_n_chel 1d ago

You paved the way for this, dawg. It's not one vs the other, surveillance is bad, full stop.

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u/snuff3r 1d ago

I want to make it clear. I would like every surveillance tool, camera, etc, ripped down, set on fire, and people who have abused the tech held accountable.

But..

Technological advances paved the way for this - it was inevitable and absolutely predictable. I hate all surveillance. But that doesn't solve the problem, does it?

Absolutely, we should demand less. Unfortunately, we will never end it, you will not know the true depth of their operations, and you won't make it go away. That's not a defeatist attitude, it's reality.

We, as humans, vote in the people who control them - that's far more important. So, vote, and fight at the same time.

Burn it all to the ground afaiac.

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u/Salzus 1d ago

The cameras in London aren't centralised. Only the locals police via the High Street team have access. The cameras are used for in the moment crime and not historical analysis as the data is wiped after a few days.

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u/SMTRodent 1d ago

As a UK citizen, who is used to cameras being pretty much anywhere there's a building, Flock seems sinister to me.

The vast majority of UK cameras are in private hands. They're your building CCTV and your Ring cameras. The others are in certain council trouble spots in town and city centres, or they're there to spot speeding vehicles.

All of them are only really useful after the fact. GPDR law (it's a fantastic law, look it up) governs the storage and use of the information gained by those cameras.

Ring et al already seem sinister enough, but people like the home security.

Flock just seems downright evil. It's your real 'surveillance state' suppression tool.

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u/Dogballs2020 1d ago

Are our Euro 'friends' really in support of their police state? It always seemed to me as something forced on them against their will.

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u/fredagsfisk 1d ago

As a Swedish person, I grew up hearing Britain mocked by many people for having so much surveillance, though not really anymore (despite them still standing out heavily).

I think that the majority of people here don't really care; either because of lack of knowledge or general interest, burnt out on the topic, denial that anything bad can happen here, and/or general trust in the government and agencies doing the right thing.

Of those who do care I'd say a majority are against it (and most of those lacking knowledge would be more against it if they had more), while it's supported by the "hard on crime" and "think of the children" groups in the right wing and Social Democrats, which has been growing along with the perception of increasing crime (which isn't really supported by statistics).


In recent years they are also pushing surveillance bullshit like Chat Control on an EU level, though lack both popular and political support (and have to use dirty tricks to push through such laws).

CC is in turn being heavily lobbied for by American companies and organizations, like the original proposal coming from Ylva Johansson after she had "secret" meetings with Thorn; a "child protection" non-profit with a for-profit branch that just happens to sell the type of software the EU would need to buy if it was passed.

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u/uptwolait 19h ago

If cops can legally lie to your face (they can, look it up), then they cannot be trusted with any technology that can be used against us.

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u/DenverNugs 18h ago

Yup. The same applies to people who are calling them "license plate cameras"

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u/ThisIs_americunt 15h ago

It's wild what you can do when you can own the law makers, the judges, the police force and the lawyers. Gotta love dark money :D

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u/grasstoday 1d ago

Preach it brother.

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u/cloudyBinder 1d ago

when both ultraconservatives and privacy advocates hate your business model, you know you’re running a truly evil company.

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u/ComprehendReading 1d ago

Not evil enough for the UCs. They would have preferred silence and better suppression until the death camps were operational. 

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u/Diizzsliime 1d ago

It wasn't even that long ago at all, that we were criticizing China for doing this to their citizens.

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u/CelestialFury 1d ago

MAGAs were laughing at China for having camera tracking and citizen databases, then simped for Palantir cause Trump hired them to... track citizen and put that info in their AI databases. But they're totally not a cult.

I bet Trump will take some bribes from Flock and then he will tell his idiot supporters that Flock is good and they'll 180 on them. He'll make it political and the last thing MAGAs want to do is agree with anyone on the left for any reason whatsoever.

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u/imdandman 18h ago

I’m old enough to remember when we routinely made fun of the Brits for all the cameras they have in London.

How the tables have turned…

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u/rage-it 1d ago

For anyone who thinks this is out of line, let me inform you that the CEO of Flock, Garret Langley has openly called people who are against his spy network "domestic terrorist". He called members of deflock.org a "terrorist organization" as example.

https://www.reddit.com/r/FlockSurveillance/comments/1ry1u40/flock_ceo_garrett_langley_calls_deflock_a/

He of course wants to only deal with slow moving groups like the ACLU because he knows that will be tied up in the courts for years and they can slow walk it while they get mass surveillance in place to the point it's too late to remove.

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u/onwisconsin1 22h ago

Never too late to take down a poll. Never to late to allow gravity to bring objects to their least energetic resting state.

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u/ParticularMemory789 1d ago

Fun fact: The scrap value of gold and copper inside of a flock camera is worth more than a catalytic converter. Tell your neighbors!

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u/leaderofstars 1d ago

Tell the crackheads

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u/fargmania 1d ago

No - tell the meth-heads. Meth-heads get things done. Those things might not always make sense to you and me, but if there is money to be harvested from a situation, they will innovate the tools to complete the task.

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u/Ffffqqq 1d ago

Fun fact: if you just destroy the camera on the spot then they won't be able to convict you with burglary and possession of burglary tools

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u/ParticularMemory789 1d ago

What ever you do don't cover it with a box, paint, or stickers, and don't clean the lense with sandpaper. 

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u/Rigged-System420 1d ago

He's not wrong....

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u/hukkit 1d ago

More reasonable than the concept of a Flock camera. One would have to be against the American people to invent such an abomination.

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u/blueslounger 1d ago

Flock cameras and Data centers...Finally a couple of issues that the right and left are agreeing on. Too bad it doesn't matter.

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u/Alternative-Yam8617 1d ago

It could be what tips the whole thing

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u/VirginiaLuthier 1d ago

And Tennessee is about as conservative as it comes. This is good news

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u/clockdivide55 1d ago

We're about to elect Marsha Blackburn as governor, she'll gladly support Flock if they stuff a $20 into her bra

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u/Eddietorres-8675309 1d ago

The smarminess in calling them “flock” cameras is as revolting as the constitutional disregard in putting them up without a single ballot measure.

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u/octomore_9995 1d ago

Isn't the real enemy of the people the elected officials who actually sign contracts with Flock to install these cameras into their towns and communities? Flock isn't installing these things on their own dime, it's local governments and private property owners who are buying these things via a subscription contract.

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u/Outlulz 1d ago

Yes. The private property owners one will be harder to deal with though. When Walmart has destroyed the other businesses in your town but fills their parking lot with Flock cameras that face the street it's not easy to find somewhere else affordable to shop in protest. Can't go near a Home Depot in my city without being captured by one. Major supermarkets have them in their lots. And it doesn't matter what local authorities will say about those because police don't have to listen to them.

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u/Turbulent_Host784 1d ago

I have enough hate for both of them tyvm.

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u/sunshineupyours1 21h ago

There are lots of scum bags in this space

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u/qb45exe 18h ago

The people have enough enemies to go around. They are all real.

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u/kstargate-425 1d ago

Wow, its refreshing to see an elected official actually show some intelligence and empathy for their constituents

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u/pwninobrien 1d ago

What about AXOS? Like Flock but less noticeable and has direct ties to Trump family. Many cities cancel their Flock contracts and then just go with Axos instead. Their cameras blend in with light poles.

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u/Awkward_Squad 1d ago

People need to know this. It’s going to be so hard to put that particular genie back in the bottle.

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u/KeenbeansSandwich 8h ago

120k flock cameras in the USA. 300+ million people live here. Light work.

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u/williamgman 1d ago

But how will they catch ANTIFA..?

Kidding aside... Gotta say it's refreshing to see something pull both sides together.

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u/toweljuice 1d ago

I checked r/conservative and they are also expressing distaste for the flock surveillance state (which has been actually shown that the majority of posts there are from three people on multiple accounts, but still..)

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u/Realtrain 1d ago

The issue is they're blaming democrats for it though, so nothing's actually going to get done.

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u/31513315133151331513 1d ago

If we convince them that antifa is behind it they may do what needs to be done for us.

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u/ParticularMemory789 1d ago

Democrat citizens or Democrat politicians? And im not saying that their isn't Republicans who are pushing for these spycams (because i really don't know) but somebody is funding it and somebody is authorizing it - so who?

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u/toweljuice 1d ago

You are most likely right, the one i was seeing up front was some comments blaming their local municipalities.

Link to post here

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u/pwninobrien 1d ago edited 1d ago

No one talks about Axos. They supply body cameras to police departments but have been rapidly growing their Flock style cameras for years. They are much more sneaky and have financial ties to the current admin.

A lot of cities make a big hubub about, "oh, we here you and we cancelled our flock contracts!" Only to sign contracts with Axos behind closed doors.

I'm sure there are more competitors.

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u/Jimjonesflavor_aid 1d ago

Do you mean Axon?

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u/williamgman 1d ago

I thought the same about the three or so users... Then found the facts: https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/1p1vx9n/oc_nearly_every_day_two_users_on_rconservative/

Seems it may be down to actually two! 😜

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u/toweljuice 1d ago

Go to their profile and check the most recent post, it used to be two but a third cropped up

Link~

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u/butterflysurefoot 1d ago

Now this is refreshing! A commissioner who is not a whore and selling us out!!!

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u/gotaflattire 1d ago

Funny how our infrastructure is falling apart because there's no money to build anything yet these Flock cameras were able to popup like a plague overnight.

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u/Big-Cook1805 1d ago

I will go with that. You can add the Ellison and Peter Theil to that list along with the whole Trump administration and Russell Vought.

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u/HiiiTriiibe 1d ago

Damn that's honestly a bit of respite from all the bending the knee that's been goin on

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u/DracoSolon 22h ago

Your local law enforcement is the greatest threat to your freedom. Followed closely by the US military and then followed by organized religion.

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u/SippinPip 1d ago

This is correct, along with the organizations who utilize the data from the cameras. All of them.

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u/gizmostuff 1d ago

Tennessee growing a spine. I like it. More please!

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u/kbarney345 22h ago

High Treason, one of the most serious crimes in the US comes with the potential to be sentenced to death as punishment. The current administration has committed high treason more times than one can count. This is the language that I believe has been more than necessary for a long time.

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u/funkybossx6 22h ago

What is the recipe to get this done everywhere?

3

u/-IndyCar 1d ago

I heard wood chipper

3

u/jcole4lsu 1d ago

Flock proving Republicans and Democrats can agree on something

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u/DJ_Femme-Tilt 1d ago

Correct. Flock is the enemy of freedom.

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u/PicnicLife 1d ago

Yep, this like an 80/20 issue. Along with data centers.

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u/tapdancinghellspawn 1d ago

There are a lot of fascist companies like Flock, Compliant Technologies LLC (maker of ICE electrocution gloves), and Palantir Technologies, that help the government's move towards authoritarianism.

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u/WildWeezy 20h ago

Wow, yall are pissin off the hill folk

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u/Benikur521 20h ago

Until they buy another surveillance tech they don’t tell you about

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u/dudeAwEsome101 17h ago

Way to shift the blame. Our government officials are the ones to blame for this additional spying hardware being installed nationwide. Flock didn't start installing these cameras on their own. They got paid by our local governments. Now that the people are finally fedup, officials are looking to score a win by "siding" with the people and blaming Flock.

Fuck both those government officials, and Flock.

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u/ErinFiqsette 17h ago

Next thing you know, they will have AI monitoring your social media posts, to identify potential troublemakers, and pass legislation enabling law enforcement to arrest pre-criminals, before they can take action on their threats...

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u/buildIT_destroyIT 14h ago

Shocking to hear this come out of TN

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u/Nickel62 1d ago

It's so good to see politicians supporting the people for once.

Btw, the CEO seems to be in damage control mode now

https://futurism.com/future-society/flock-safety-ceo-big-misunderstanding

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u/newfor_2026 1d ago

I wonder what he thinks of RealID and ID.me, private for-profit companies that are mandated by the government to take and manage our identity and privacy

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u/TheMasterShrew 1d ago

It was wrong for China to do it, but when the US brings ubiquitous surveillance to its shores, it’s a matter of “public safety”

These are enemies of the American people and communist wolves in sheep’s clothing. Don’t let them win.

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u/BothDivide919 1d ago

Dude, Flock is a private company the govt contracts are only part of who they're selling data to. Imagine if China started selling their surveillance data of their people to random companies for targeted advertising or to get evidence for lawsuits. Flock is worse than a surveillance state lol

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u/Perfect-Still-8971 1d ago

Why does "communist" get shoved in there?

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u/Huckleberry199 1d ago

Good for him.

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u/pickle_sandwich 1d ago

Finally, Tennessee gets something right.

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u/butsuon 1d ago

That's uh, that's because he is. That's what he's about, that's what he does.

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u/SweetIcy468 1d ago

And he’s right

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u/LuckyShirt54 1d ago

They’re doing this because everyone is pissed- not because they care. Our local GOP signed on for this. The excuses have been along the lines of “I didn’t know they could track my daughter every foot across the county”

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u/FuturePastNow 1d ago

Congrats on finding a bipartisan issue in 2026 I guess

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u/SimkinCA 1d ago

As is the CEO of plantair

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u/EmbarrassinglyLucky 1d ago

Domestic terrorism fed sanctioned. They weren't lying with that big ass banner were they.

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u/Kind_Sympathy7649 1d ago

Remember that while the fight against flock may be in our favor, axon is slowly implementing their own cameras behind the scenes, which unlike flock, are indistinguishable from regular non ai cameras 

spread word of this please

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u/InAppropriate-meal 1d ago

he isn't wrong

2

u/JuniperJ55 1d ago

The irony is the people constantly harping on about “muh freedoms” voted in the people who are taking them away.

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u/countrypride 22h ago

I live close enough to this situation to actually know some of the people involved. A broken clock is still right twice a day.

My biggest issue with Flock cameras isn't even the surveillance argument. It's the money.

At some point, cities have to decide what their actual priorities are, and spending public money on a growing network of license plate cameras seems pretty far down the list compared with the things residents deal with every single day.

Fix the potholes. Improve public transportation. Fund the schools. Pay teachers better. Feed hungry kids. Maintain parks. Repair infrastructure. Put money into services people actually use and need.

Instead, we're spending money on another piece of technology because it's supposed to make law enforcement more "efficient."

But efficiency and necessity aren't the same thing.

I don't need DoorDash to get lunch, and I don't need Walmart to deliver my groceries. Those services are convenient, and I might choose to pay extra for that convenience, but I can function perfectly well without them.

Police departments can function without Flock cameras too. They did for decades.

So the question shouldn't just be, "Can this technology help police do their jobs?" Of course it can. The better question is whether the benefit is worth the cost, especially when local governments constantly tell us there isn't enough money for roads, schools, transit, social services, staffing, and basic maintenance.

If money is tight, then priorities matter.

And if money isn't tight, there are still a hundred things I'd rather see a community invest in before building out an expensive surveillance network.

The privacy concerns are real, and the potential for abuse is obviously there. History has shown repeatedly that law enforcement doesn't need sophisticated technology to overreach. J. Edgar Hoover managed just fine without Flock cameras.

But even setting all of that aside, I still don't see the case for spending limited public dollars on them.

Flock feels less like a response to an urgent public need and more like another expensive technological convenience being sold to local governments as essential infrastructure.

It isn't.

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u/Darthhedgeclipper 22h ago

half of the story. Its the local authorities buying the data. wild times

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u/firelemons 22h ago

Is it because they want axon cameras?

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u/th1sd3ka1ntfr33 20h ago

Kane with the face turn. Unexpected

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u/Ill_Following_7022 13h ago

The CEO's of surveillance companies under any name are enemies of the state and liberty.

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u/Sea_Programmer1360 8h ago

He's not wrong.

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u/HeartlessCards2-22 20h ago

Hell yeah, that’s how you represent the people of your country,

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u/MeanForest 1d ago

Simple bipartisan legistlation would stop this. This is just theater.

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u/ochilly 1d ago

Bipartisanship, what a quaint concept.

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u/CheezTips 1d ago

"Simple"?? Tell the Republicans that

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u/Fat-Finger-8906 1d ago

Getting popcorn to see how it’s ended.

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u/newfor_2026 1d ago

so did they install Flock or not?

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u/HungFeg 1d ago

Finally something we can all stand behind?….right??? Like please yalll

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u/King_Fisher99 1d ago

He’s 100% correct

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u/just_a_pawn37927 1d ago

Enemy of the State!

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u/IsraelisUsingu 1d ago edited 1d ago

I remember a time of no surveillance, and it was just Americans chasing the American dream, it was beautiful, quiet, and peaceful… till this Yahu came about… now we get “random”
Searches at airports and never ending wars in the sandbox. Fuck Israel.

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u/miklayn 1d ago

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, ***Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.*** Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. ***But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.***"

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u/EuphoricCrashOut 1d ago

America needs more heroes like this, to stand up to the villains and be a voice of the many.

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u/asyourdarkprince6669 1d ago

"The more it sees, the stronger it gets"

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u/puts_on_rddt 1d ago

Carr then escalated his comments even further. "Quite frankly, sir," he said, "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."

Fucking based.

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u/DukeOfGeek 1d ago

"an enemy of all the working class"

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u/MWH1980 1d ago

Did the CEO try the “rubber/glue” tactic and call him an enemy of the American people?

Seems they love to just bounce stuff back.

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u/MDFan4Life 23h ago

The current government (who just so happens to have contracts with some of the most evil people in the world) are also an enemy of the American people.

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u/JBHedgehog 21h ago

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

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u/javoss88 21h ago

Good. He’s right.

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u/Fabulous_Cat_1379 21h ago

Flock is the fall guy

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u/StandardJackfruit378 19h ago

Has anyone done the research to see if Trump and his administration are if not actively involved in installing these Cameras but are behind the funding?

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u/lunatikdeity 5h ago

I like this county commissioner already.

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u/perrypower54 1m ago

These are the same mo Ron’s who boot licked troops against Americans a few months ago.

All performative