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A 77-year-old Republican man is staging a solo protest against Flock cameras
- dyauspitr 2mo agoIf I made an app that showed their locations and gamified knocking them out (subtly), would that get me in legal trouble?
- Dig1t 2mo agoMake it a web app and host it in a different country? Probably also depends on the mechanics of the game though as well..
- vkou 2mo agoIn a country where not attending a protest gets you 30 years in prison, and attending a protest where you set off a firework gets you 70, and where a government thug can pin you down and execute you on the sidewalk, and get recognized for his heroism and bravery... you tell me.
- trollbridge 2mo agoIn what country did those things happen?
- ethin 2mo agoIn the United States
- vkou 2mo agoThe United States, the first two in Texas and the latter in Minnesota. In that bit, an unarmed man was murdered, the killers scatter like roaches, the federal police is covering for them, while actively preventing the state from giving the guilty a fair trial and a swift sentencing and imprisonment. (What they did is a state crime with a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, and also a federal crime that carries the death penalty.)
- parineum 2mo ago> ... while actively preventing the state from giving the guilty a fair trial Interesting.
- vkou 2mo agoAnyone with eyes can see that those killers are guilty. You don't need to split hairs on that, you can look at the video yourself. As anyone else, though, they constitutionally deserve a fair trial where the onus is on the state to prove that guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, before they can be sentenced. My assessment of their guilt has little bearing on the state's ability to do that. Proving that guilt would be trivial if the federal government weren't actively complicit, by preventing such a trial from taking place. There's no need to cover for it, it's behavior is unconscionable and treasonous.
- trollbridge 2mo agoSo, a jury convicted them of not going to a protest? I’m trying to understand your original claim.
- vkou 2mo agoThere was a protest in Texas. Some protestors set off fireworks into the air. One protestor brought and shot a gun at a cop. He got 100 years in prison. Everyone else who was there got 70. One person in their signal group, who didn't even show up to the protest... got 30. This is Soviet Russia, or Putin Russia-level insanity. Punch a fascist, go to a camp. A fascist punches you, he gets a medal.
- throwaway173738 2mo agoHey if anything we should keep protesting. You should read about what the British did to Indians protesting for independence. Protest in spite of consequences is a singular act of bravery. The cops want people to give in.
- nielsbot 2mo agoI hope a (civil rights) lawyer will reply. I’m curious too.
- anematode 2mo agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incitement#United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incitement#United_States If done obliquely enough... e.g., just making a tracker and having the ability for people to report broken cameras, you're probably fine in theory. In practice, this is a litigious society, so you'd want to build this anonymously.
- cmxch 2mo ago[dead]
- Zak 2mo agoThe article already links to a website that shows their locations: https://deflock.org/ https://deflock.org/ It does not gamify or otherwise encourage damaging them, which would be legally risky.
- indy 2mo agoNo need to damage the cameras, just place some balloons in front of them.
- codeddesign 2mo agoWhy “republican” man? Editorials like this piss me off. Just say “Man from Florida”. Why bring party politics into an article that isn’t about party lines?
- Avicebron 2mo agoIkr, "Florida man" already has a distinguished pedigree
- forsalebypwner 2mo agoRight, and also, a 77-year-old man in Florida means that adding "Republican" is just redundant.
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- trollbridge 2mo agoDeSantis won with something like 50.1% of the vote. I think it’s a bit of hyperbole to claim all Florida men are Republicans.
- forsalebypwner 2mo agoI was gonna try to pull up the data to prove you wrong, but then the data disagreed with me, what the heck! what do I do now! ad hominem, I guess: uhhh your penis looks dry!
- cindyllm 2mo ago[dead]
- codeddesign 2mo agoIf there was regular prejudice between 76 vs 77 yr olds, then yes. It’s similar to saying “white/black man”. It adds no value beyond sparking a prejudicial emotional response. It’s CNN/Fox news style sensationalist entertainment writing rather than news/journalism.
- ryandrake 2mo agoBeing against mass-surveillance should be a bipartisan struggle. Given our political polarization, each side is highly distrustful about what "the other side" will do with mass amounts of data about their side. This should be a cause that unites everyone.
- tedggh 2mo agoWe do have some bipartisan initiatives, it’s just that they are not news worthy. Take for example the initial push for banning TikTok. It had unprecedented bipartisan support.
- SwellJoe 2mo agoAll the evil shit (war, funding genocide, mass surveillance, privacy invasions or curtailing free speech in the name of protecting children) nearly always has bipartisan support.
- nozzlegear 2mo agoIn my state (Iowa), a bill making animal abuse a felony had bipartisan support, and went into effect a few weeks ago. Not everything need be so cynical.
- jmspring 2mo agoHaving binged on a bunch of modern British detective fiction in the last year or so - Rhys Dylan as an example. The reliance on cameras in society, yes it is fiction, but there is also truth is an interesting thing in terms of what a society accepts.
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- PaulHoule 2mo agoI've seen Trump 2024 voters go to No Kings in 2026 because they fear being the victim of federal overreach as in ICE.
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- arkhiver 2mo ago[dead]
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- drnick1 2mo agoA sledgehammer would be a better solution.
- Barbing 2mo agoFor the company Flock, yes. For the community, the vandal, and progress, no.
- cogman10 2mo agoThese cameras aren't just invasive, they are expensive. Cities are paying a pretty penny to access a few web cams. Last I looked it up, $2500 per year per camera in the surveillance area.
- dagurp 2mo agoThey are also installed improperly https://www.wate.com/news/tennessee/flock-cameras-tennessee-safety-audit/ https://www.wate.com/news/tennessee/flock-cameras-tennessee-...
- hamandcheese 2mo agoThat doesn't sound expensive to me. Not compared to, say, a $1.7M public toilet[0]. To be clear, I do not support Flock cameras. [0]: https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/san-francisco/san-francisco-noe-valley-expensive-toilet/3511302/ https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/san-francisco/san-fran...
- RickJWagner 2mo ago[flagged]
- culi 2mo ago> $300,000 for architecture, engineering, and environmental reviews, plus $150,000 for construction management. Multiple rounds of public feedback, commission reviews, and administrative paperwork required extensive paid city staff time. WTF this is it! This is the solution. Every single Flock camera should be required to have an environmental review and multiple rounds of public feedback!
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- mondomondo 2mo ago[dead]
- Aboutplants 2mo agoCurious if hoisting an Ipad on the end of his pool skimmer that just showed a video of random cars and their license plates, causing the camera to register a bunch of false positives?
- biztos 2mo agoThat's a fun idea! I wonder if it'd work if you just used something like an e-Ink screen and had it generate random license plates? I suppose "blocking the view of surveillance cameras" is probably illegal though.
- jagged-chisel 2mo agoWaiting for the “obstruction of justice” suit. Probably won’t stick, but it’ll be a tremendous pain in the ass of the protester.
- culi 2mo agoIt's likely illegal in Florida (where this happened). They made it illegal to paint stuff on your cars that would trick ALPR or surveillance cameras
- jubilee33 2mo agoWhy does it matter his political party? Many otherwise good people have fallen for a con of some sort at least once at some point it their life. The man has some time and uses it in a non destructive manner to do what he thinks will help his community rather than just posting nonsense online, that in itself is commendable . I find the article trying to forment division by naming him a Republican...who cares, human privacy and the imbalance of power is something every American and even non Americans should care about.
- aliasxneo 2mo agoI'd wager it has something to do with this: https://www.cltampa.com/news/creative-loafing-tampa-bay-has-always-been-staunchly-liberal-and-some-readers-think-we-should-fix-that-12181618/ https://www.cltampa.com/news/creative-loafing-tampa-bay-has-....
- carimura 2mo agonice. i just asked chatgpt for the lean and it said progressive so there ya go.
- carimura 2mo agoya. classic tactic to label someone so there's pattern matching for readers. happens everywhere unfortunately.
- JMKH42 2mo agoBecause the modern GOP is itself a con. Its great that he is protesting flock cameras but he should also be protesting his own party, which is engaged in unprecedented corruption, murders american civilians, attacks democracy, and seeks to disenfranchise our daughters and wives. I cannot stand it that disingenous and ignorant people pretend this isn't the case, you can all go to hell.
- cindyllm 2mo ago[dead]
- WhyComboNadir 2mo agoEqually informative title: A 77-year-old lactose-intolerant man is staging a solo protest against St. Pete’s Flock cameras
- culi 2mo agoIt's relevant that supporters of the party of "law and order" and "tough on crime" are anti-Flock too.
- nozzlegear 2mo agoHe's a 77-year-old patriot o7
- nozzlegear 2mo agoFlock enjoyers didn't like this one
- Barbing 2mo agoThanks for acting out my daydream, Carl.
- carimura 2mo agoi've said this before on Hn but I called the sheriff to discuss these in our neighborhood and asked if they could search for our whereabouts and he said "only if there's an active crime for your plate", so I said "what if the governor imposes a 'bird flu curfew'?" and after some kerfuffling said in theory yes they could then use it to track offendors.
- grg0 2mo agoThe other issue is that the company obviously has access to the streams nationwide, and they likely don't have the same oversight that a local police might have to document when/how they are used, if they have any oversight at all.
- Barbing 2mo agoOther possible searches (in some areas): “heavy-set male with a black and white hat” “person on skateboard” “person wearing orange vest and construction hat” https://www.404media.co/how-cops-use-flock-to-track-people-not-cars/ https://www.404media.co/how-cops-use-flock-to-track-people-n...
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- linsomniac 2mo agoLast month I said to my wife that we should start paying homeless people to hold their signs while standing in front of the radar speed cameras the city has been putting up around our town.
- Barbing 2mo agoThis post has just dropped from the top three to #72 on the third page (heavy downvotes/flagging?).
- indoorfish 2mo agoIt's not flagged, more likely @dang or @tomhow got a call from Flock.
- Barbing 2mo agoHmm… Also post no longer visible on first dozen pages if I’m not mistaken.
- JuniperMesos 2mo ago> “We’re private citizens; we don’t need this stuff,” Gunn told CL. “And they’re reporting now that the Chinese have already picked up all of our voter registrations. They’re picking up more information on us, on how we live, and you know there’s a reason for it.” This is the kind of comment that makes me think that a person is old - and therefore has had their values shaped by the concerns of the mid-20th-century - gets most of their information about the world via cable news, and isn't thinking very carefully about what is and is not likely to be a problem in their life. My dad, of similar age to this person, constantly gets angry about the Chinese getting some kind of information about ordinary American citizens, while being unable to clearly articulate exactly what this information is and why specifically this is a problem.
- Atreiden 2mo agoLeverage. Some of those people will turn out to be significant political figures. We live in an information-driven world. Our economy is driven by information. Geopolitics is driven by information. War is driven by information. An historically adversarial competitor country that is able to slowly amass lengthy dossiers on our public figures private lives will have an asymmetrical advantage in any geopolitical engagement. This doesn't even require scandal, the traditional leverage. Just the ability to see a few of someone's cards makes knowing what move they will make next, and what bluffs to call, significantly easier. For the record, I don't think our own government, or any other, should have this information either. As was demonstrated back in 2015 by CA, this type of information can be used to effectively manipulate and influence people's decisions.
- eointierney 2mo agoYou US citizens don't seem to realise just how legal/lucky you are. I'm Irish. We're way more legal than you. Listen to anyone from China.
- FpUser 2mo agoSpying on citizens just in case. Reminds me some countries.