00:00:54.420Maybe you've heard of the horseshoe theory, which was coined, I think, back in the dark ages by a wise man who realized that all of his podcasts were starting to sound the same.
00:01:04.720And the idea is that at the extreme ends of the spectrum, the right and the left are pretty much indistinguishable.
00:01:12.080And under this theory, whether they're on the right or the left, political activists, quote, have a tendency to see politics in unambiguous terms, distrust authorities and elites, and have intense hostility towards those who hold other views.
00:01:24.380Now, whatever you make of the theory itself, there's no question that the left and the right are now finding a lot more common ground than usual.
00:01:31.980And that's notable because, as they've openly admitted many times, the left is committed to the destruction of Western civilization and the rule of law.
00:01:40.320You'd think it would be very difficult for anyone to find agreement with these people, but increasingly that's not the case.
00:01:47.320Communists have found very unlikely allies in the conservative movement on a handful of issues, on an increasing number of issues.
00:01:55.840First, of course, there was the AI data center debate, which we've discussed before.
00:02:00.680On both the right and the left, there's a consensus that these data centers are going to poison the water, prevent anyone from sleeping, usher in the apocalypse, and take everybody's job.
00:02:08.200among other things. And while there are very real issues with data centers, which we've
00:02:14.460talked about, the debate surrounding the issue has become a complete mess. It's descended into
00:02:20.440hysteria. Now, whenever there's a bipartisan consensus, that's the typical result. People
00:02:26.180tend to work themselves into hysterics when they're in echo chamber because they just keep
00:02:31.420ratcheting up the paranoia and the panic. The end result is that nobody can have a serious discussion.
00:02:38.200Anyone who tries to provide a dissenting opinion gets shouted down.
00:02:41.600And ultimately, perversely, that works for the benefit of the bad guys or alleged bad guys.0.92
00:02:47.700If you're running a data center and you want to do something nefarious with it, it's very good news if all your critics start sounding like lunatics.0.79
00:02:54.380People who sound crazy are easy to discredit and dismiss.
00:02:58.500We're seeing a similar trajectory play out with the debate over flock cameras, which at this point you've probably heard about.
00:03:04.640People are talking about Flock cameras on podcasts and local news reports and cable news and social media.
00:03:09.740They're talking about Flock cameras on Nextdoor.
00:03:12.960In case you haven't heard about them, though, Flock cameras are, just to basically summarize,
00:03:16.820are AI-enabled surveillance cameras that scan license plates and log other information about vehicles,
00:03:22.600which are then used by law enforcement to track people with outstanding warrants,
00:03:26.660or they're used in the case of Amber Alerts or a missing person, and so on.
00:03:31.220And there are now tens of thousands of these cameras all over the country,
00:03:34.640soon there will be hundreds of thousands if there aren't already. And no matter who you ask about
00:03:39.540this, you'll hear the same thing, that these cameras are supposedly making 1984 real. They're
00:03:45.180ushering in a vast surveillance state in which no human connection or interaction is possible and
00:03:50.880in which innocent people are stalked and harassed everywhere they go. And most of the people making
00:03:55.760this argument are using their cell phones to do so without a hint of irony. I mean, they're logging
00:04:00.240on to social media platforms, which exist to sell your personal information, and complaining
00:04:05.640about the surveillance state. They're using cellular networks that are constantly surveilled
00:04:10.900by a major corporation as well as the NSA. And after telling the NSA exactly where they are,
00:04:16.660and after informing Facebook and XDoor and Instagram of all their personal information,
00:04:21.060these people are alerting the public to the danger of the surveillance state, and specifically the
00:04:26.160danger that's posed by Flock cameras. Now, before we begin, I am not a supporter of mass surveillance
00:04:32.900in general, obviously. Flock, as we will discuss, has a lot of problems, but these problems are
00:04:40.180not a license to lie about Flock or about any other issue. They're not an excuse to spread
00:04:48.040false information or make posts that are deliberately misleading. And that's what we're
00:04:53.500seeing you know it's gone on far too long and it needs to end for example here's a report from the
00:04:58.980official news channel of the democrat party ms now where every anchor is apparently contractually
00:05:04.680obligated to look as much like rachel maddow as possible watch so i hate to tell you but you might
00:05:12.020be getting flocked as in f-l-o-c-k-e-d flocked across the country there is a new kind of
00:05:20.080surveillance taking place. It is an estimated 100,000 cameras recording cars, where they go,
00:05:26.120what they look like, when they pass by. All of this is creating searchable records
00:05:30.760of everyday Americans' movements. It is what happens when you get flocked.
00:05:35.960It is a reference to flock safety, the largest provider of automatic license plate readers in
00:05:40.480the United States. These plate readers are pretty unassuming. They're often
00:05:43.120attached to utility poles like that and streetlights that line highways and neighborhoods
00:05:47.340and parking lots. And supporters say that those plate readers help solve crimes by giving
00:05:52.980investigators leads they might not otherwise have. But you don't have to be suspected of a crime or
00:05:57.700really do anything at all to end up being in the database. You simply just drive by it.
00:06:01.700And as you might imagine, concerns about privacy and whether flock cameras actually work
00:06:07.280are starting to pile up. Can anybody in this room tell me, do flock cameras stop crying?
00:06:14.540Okay? Y'all wasting money, man. A million dollars on that? That's trash.
00:06:19.600I trust our police. I don't trust Locke.1.00
00:06:22.660No more automated license plate readers of any brand. This technology is anti-democratic.
00:06:28.540Just so you all know, I am a right-wing MAGA Republican voter.
00:06:32.360I'm telling you all this so you all grasp how this issue spans across this political spectrum.
00:06:36.780An AI surveillance apparatus goes against the very essence of freedom and the core values of our country.
00:06:42.300We didn't vote for this, and we sure as hell don't want it,
00:06:44.520so do us a favor and get the flock out of here.
00:06:49.720That anchor was so impressed with himself for that flock pun.
00:06:53.320He was so impressed, even though he didn't even write it.
00:06:57.940I hate to tell you, but you're getting flocked.
00:07:11.920Now, no matter what you think about flock cameras, even if you think they should all be banned immediately, there's something you need to know and notice about segments like this.
00:07:20.820Every single investigative segment into flock cameras does the same thing.
00:07:24.820They all brush past the idea that these cameras could possibly be useful in solving crime.
00:07:30.780As you just heard, the guy in the town hall meeting implies that these cameras don't stop crime at all.
00:07:36.600And the anchor barely mentions the idea that cameras could be useful.
00:07:40.920He simply said that supporters say they solve crime before immediately talking about the privacy issue.
00:07:47.440That's a pretty obvious sign that you're being manipulated.
00:07:50.100If we're going to talk about the issues with flock cameras, and we should talk about them, and we will,
00:07:55.540we have to tell the whole story, not just part of it.
00:07:58.880Again, this is not going to be a pro-flock monologue, exactly,
00:08:03.240but it's also not going to be the same slop that insults your intelligence,
00:08:06.700which you've probably heard dozens of times now.
00:08:08.880So let's begin with a few real-life cases in which Flock cameras have been directly involved in criminal investigations.
00:08:16.680There's no better way to learn what these cameras are capable of and how they're useful or not useful, as the case may be.
00:08:23.200Because as, in fact, they are used to solve crimes. That's a real thing.
00:08:28.460So you can't just stand there and say, well, you think that these are used to solve crimes? Ridiculous.0.99
00:08:35.220waving your hand at it doesn't like of course they're used to solve crimes it's a real thing0.88
00:08:40.340so we'll start with a murder that took place on april 13th 2024 at wilbur young park in blue
00:08:45.360springs missouri there was a fist fight and then a shooting around 10 30 p.m dozens of shell cases
00:08:50.540were discovered at the scene and authorities determined that at least three people had fired
00:08:54.760shots three people were hit and two were killed the first thing the police did was check the city
00:08:59.620owned cameras that were nearby these are dumb cameras that are not connected to flock system
00:09:05.600The cameras revealed that a man, later identified as Marquise Earl Lee Savannah, raced to a car
00:09:11.740shortly after the shooting. But the footage was grainy. It didn't capture the license plate of
00:09:16.940the car. All the camera showed was that the car was a Chevy Cruze with a specific color and
00:09:21.300configuration. And that information ordinarily would not narrow down the search very much.
00:09:26.720Then the authorities turned to the city's flock cameras, which worked differently. They aren't
00:09:30.280simply license plate readers, Flock cameras track dozens of individual characteristics of cars from
00:09:35.200color to bumper stickers to dents. And this is one of the core features of the product, which they
00:09:39.920call Freeform. A police officer can type in the Flock system that he's looking for a gray pickup
00:09:43.960truck with tinted windows and a bumper sticker that says no border wall, and the system will find
00:09:49.200it. They can use AI in ways that would have been unthinkable just 10 years ago, even five years ago,
00:09:54.300to sift through thousands of videos and identify a precise match.
00:09:58.880Now, Flock's relevant patent specifically covers a, quote,
00:10:02.000system and method for object-based query of video content
00:10:05.980captured by a dynamic surveillance network,
00:10:08.080which allows them to parse videos for content
00:10:10.260and keep it in a database in connection with data that identifies the content,
00:10:14.420object class aspects of the object, confidence scores,
00:14:52.440So it can't be as simple. If we have technology that would help us solve crimes like this, it cannot be as simple as just to say, well, we just shouldn't use it.
00:15:02.700We should be more sporting. You know, we should be we should be good sports.
00:15:06.760Yeah, we could we could solve these crimes, but it'd be better to have these murderers running free.
00:15:11.740That seems like a wildly, overly simplistic take on this issue.
00:15:15.580And there's a reason that no one at MS Now or on your favorite conspiracy podcast wants to talk about these cases.
00:15:23.220It's a lot easier to get clicks by telling people that Big Brother is watching them and that they need to panic and riot in the streets about it.
00:15:30.040But the reality is just a lot more complicated.
00:15:33.480And there are plenty of other cases I could talk about.
00:15:35.460Just a couple of weeks ago in Porter County, Indiana, a flat camera alerted police to a stolen U-Haul on the highway.
00:15:41.720They pulled it over, arrested the driver, and returned the vehicle.
00:15:45.520Again, it's clearly a positive outcome.
00:15:47.900Last year, a flat camera tracked down a man who shot a police officer in Oklahoma.
00:15:51.420The cameras traced his vehicle to New Mexico.
00:15:53.480The cameras identified his license plate in a Walmart parking lot.
00:15:59.780This is clearly a violent and dangerous person.
00:16:01.860And because of these cameras, the police got to him before he could shoot anyone else except himself, which, you know, well, that's his choice.
00:16:10.800Then there was the carjacking that took place a couple of months ago in Oakland County, Michigan, in which a man shot a woman in a mall parking lot and took her car.
00:16:20.380The police department used Flock cameras to find the car and arrest the carjacker in a little over an hour.
00:16:25.820There was also the 60-year-old man in Indiana who was arrested near a park for sexual battery on a juvenile after Flock cameras found his car.
00:16:32.480That seems like a positive outcome.0.99
00:16:35.120And here's another example from Iowa a few months ago.
00:16:37.560Last Tuesday, one person was shot and another assaulted here at Nicholson Ford Park.
00:16:44.360Marshalltown police were later able to arrest a suspect thanks to a piece of technology.
00:16:49.000The technology is extremely beneficial for us.
00:16:51.800The two victims who were at Nicholson Ford Park, along with witnesses,
00:16:55.120gave authorities a description of the vehicle.
00:16:57.160We really didn't have a whole lot to go off right away, short of a vehicle description.
00:17:02.060So we were able to use our flock cameras.
00:17:04.260Captain Kyle Stevenson with Marshalltown police says one of the flock cameras helped authorities zero in on a vehicle the day of the incident.
00:17:11.340It was kind of a unique vehicle description and we're able to use the cameras to find that vehicle and identify the vehicle and then ultimately the occupants of the vehicle.
00:17:21.420And here's one more. This is from the Brown University mass shooting that you probably remember from the end of last year.
00:17:26.660A random homeless guy reported a suspicious vehicle on Reddit and told police that it was probably related to the shooting.
00:17:32.440They tracked the car retroactively and learned that it had been spotted 14 times by Flock cameras in the two weeks before the shooting watch.
00:17:41.120Now, a case that gripped the nation can be seen as the latest success story for Flock cameras.
00:17:46.920Much of the Northeast was on edge after two people died and many others were injured in a mass shooting at Brown University.
00:17:53.600Police then connected the gunman on the loose to the murder of an MIT professor.
00:17:58.500More fear and concern out in the community.
00:18:00.380After several days, investigators got their breakthrough tip, a lead on the car driven by the gunman.
00:18:07.000According to an Associated Press report, police used the 70 Flock cameras in Providence, Rhode Island,
00:18:12.820to retroactively track the movement of the suspect's Nissan sedan.
00:18:17.140That trail helped lead them to a storage facility in New Hampshire, where police found the suspect dead.
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00:20:36.860the switch to Pure Talk again. That's puretalk.com slash Walsh to start saving. By itself, of course,
00:20:43.540that doesn't mean the cameras are automatically a net positive. It's a good point in their favor.
00:20:49.940It doesn't automatically mean it. It doesn't mean we shouldn't talk about the privacy implications,
00:20:53.420but if we're going to have an honest discussion about these cameras, we have to talk about the
00:20:56.820benefits that are clearly being realized because of the cameras. You can't weigh the pros and cons
00:21:03.040of the cameras, and you can't talk about the trade-offs if you simply refuse to discuss
00:21:07.360stories like this. Now, if you ignore all this evidence and simply conclude that anybody who
00:21:13.040supports flat cameras must be a corporate shill or a fed or whatever retarded nonsense, then you're0.93
00:21:18.940not worth taking seriously. I mean, I could just as easily say that you're on the side of the1.00
00:21:22.860foreign invaders and the leftist NGO allies who despise flat cameras because they're being used
00:21:27.880to enforce immigration law, which by the way, is one of the main reasons why the left doesn't like
00:21:32.420them. That's what they're really upset about. If we're actually being honest, people who enforce
00:21:37.360COVID lockdowns don't actually care about your privacy. Their sole objective for some time now
00:21:42.740has been to flood this country with criminals, particularly foreign criminals, but really any0.99
00:21:46.060criminal that they'll take them all, in order to enact demographic replacement. They've turned0.97
00:21:52.160California into a colony of Mexico that will never again elect another Republican, and they want to0.88
00:21:57.060do the same thing to the rest of the country. Flock cameras stand in the way, which is why they
00:22:01.540oppose them. It's that simple. Let's go back to that MS Now segment to give you an idea.
00:22:07.380so don't take it from me listen to their objections and now the fight over flock has
00:22:15.580moved on to college campuses at least 75 campuses have these cameras places that my next guest
00:22:22.900bulwark journalist adrian carasquillo says are the next frontier of the deportation wars
00:22:27.340but there are students who are pushing back the bulwark reports the groups are organizing against
00:22:32.000the use of plate readers with the goal to, quote, see flock no longer deployed on campuses
00:22:37.040at all. And joining me now to discuss it all is Adrian Carrasquillo, National Immigration
00:22:42.340Correspondent of The Bulwark, and Tobias Halpern, student at California Polytechnic State University
00:22:47.340and founder of D-Flock SLO, a.k.a. SLO. Tobias, let me start with you. Thanks to both of you
00:22:52.980for being here. Tell me more about what you guys are doing at D-Flock SLO and, you know,
00:22:58.900why of all the issues on a college campus was this so important to you?
00:23:02.000Yeah, I mean, so we're in a unique institution where San Luis Obispo and Cal Poly claims to be a Hispanic serving institution. And as you started to bring up, the ICE connection was just too big to ignore.
00:23:17.600When you opt into Flock, when you buy a Flock camera like Cal Poly did, you don't just buy a surveillance camera.
00:23:25.620You're buying access and participation into this network.
00:23:29.660And so I think that's what really bothers people and that's what really bothers students.
00:23:33.040And that's what bothered us at Cal Poly is that as a Hispanic serving institution,0.97
00:23:38.220they are going out and entering this network that has time and time again aided ICE in illegal deportations0.97
00:23:45.260and just created this surveillance dragnet that is really uncomfortable to anyone when you think
00:23:50.720about it. So MS now brings on two guests, both of them opposed to Flock, and both of them spend
00:23:56.400the entire time talking about ICE and immigration enforcement. And one of them is literally an
00:24:00.700immigration reporter. The other is some kid who's concerned about illegal deportations,
00:24:04.600by which he means deportations. Of course, all deportations are illegal to these people.
00:24:09.080This is not an accident. This is their entire focus. The kid's not worried about Flock cameras
00:24:13.040somehow being used to frame him for a crime or record him in his home or any of the horror stories
00:24:17.300you might hear about, he's concerned that flat cameras will be used to identify and deport
00:24:20.920Democrat Party voters. That's where the left's opposition to flat cameras comes from. Similar
00:24:26.580to why they hate ring cameras. It's why they elect DAs who open the prisons. They want criminals to
00:24:31.700get away with crimes. I mean, it's really no more complicated than that. So if you're on the right,
00:24:35.820if you want to preserve Western civilization, which means preserving law and order and national
00:24:40.420identity, you're making common cause with these people. It doesn't necessarily mean you're wrong,
00:24:45.400but it should give you some pause. It should make you scrutinize very carefully why you oppose
00:24:50.900flock cameras and what you know about them. So let's do that. Now, the arguments against flock
00:24:56.500cameras break down into two categories, hypothetical problems and actual problems,
00:25:00.420meaning cases where flock has been misused beyond any doubt. Professor Wilford Riley offers this
00:25:05.360example of a hypothetical problem with flock cameras. He says, quote, it's just objectively
00:25:09.780is bad if you scuffle with a bum for 45 seconds to protect your girl, make out with that same
00:25:14.620lady against the wall outside a nightclub, or drive 25 miles over the speed limit anywhere,0.99
00:25:19.700a robot can fly to your house and charge you with two A misdemeanors. This is especially the case
00:25:24.260given that one, only taxpayers with addresses can get targeted in this fashion, and two,
00:25:29.480this will immediately get political in both directions. Now, this is a scenario that we
00:25:36.320should say, for the record, has never taken place. As far as I know, nothing like this has actually
00:25:40.280ever occurred. And for good measure, we'll include Peter Hassan's reply to that post. He's at the
00:25:44.760Free Beacon. He says, quote, I'm sorry, but the flock discussions are so deranged. Flock is
00:25:48.800basically a tool to make it easier to catch gangbangers after drive-by shootings, which is
00:25:53.040why libs hate it. And you have people on the right making up fake scenarios and then getting mad about
00:25:57.320them. Very stupid own goals. Now, as you'd imagine, Peter was dogpiled for that post, including by1.00
00:26:04.000people on the right. It's not an easy position to stake out. A lot of people replied to him by
00:26:08.320making the argument that under a future Democrat administration, you could imagine Riley's scenario
00:26:12.780happening for real. During the next fake pandemic, you could easily picture Gavin Newsom's
00:26:17.480administration shutting down the roads and arresting any homeowner in a right-wing neighborhood
00:26:21.020who ventures outside. And just as easily, you could imagine Gavin Newsom's administration
00:26:24.920allowing foreigners and felons like George Floyd to roam the streets with total impunity.0.84
00:26:30.080This is the anarcho-tyranny objection to flock cameras, which Mike Cernovich has made very forcefully.0.57
00:26:34.800The idea is that if the rule of law existed in this country, then flock cameras would be fine.
00:26:40.540But we all saw how the FBI ruthlessly hunted down January 6th grandmothers, while at the same time they ignored BLM rioters who committed murder and destroyed small businesses all over the country.
00:26:50.180We all saw how the public health experts, so-called, said we couldn't protest the lockdowns because it was too dangerous.0.88
00:26:56.120but at the same time, BLM had every right to terrorize entire neighborhoods because white
00:27:00.320supremacy was supposedly an even bigger problem than COVID. So what guarantees do we have that
00:27:05.580flat cameras won't be used in the exact same way to punish the enemies of the Democrat Party?
00:27:10.680Well, the answer, of course, is that we have no guarantees whatsoever. I mean, it's conceivable
00:27:15.260that if communists take control of the government, again, they'll use these cameras to crack down on
00:27:21.180free expression. They'll track us everywhere we go. They'll make sure we aren't going to, you know,
00:27:24.900They'll go to any unapproved gatherings or visit any enemies of the state.
00:27:29.000They'll make 1984 real, and we'll have to endure another 50 years of listening to cliched
00:27:54.900You know, they log every single one of your movements going back years.
00:27:58.980Now, I'm not just talking about Google services like Google Maps, which record your location in the background.
00:28:03.280I'm talking about the cell phone signal itself, even when you're not using the phone.
00:28:08.180Just to give you an idea of how precise this tracking is, remember the lunatic who ambushed those firefighters in Idaho last summer?
00:28:15.420He lit a brush fire on the west slope of Canfield Mountain, and then when the firefighters showed up, he retreated to the woods and opened fire.
00:28:22.880Now, the SWAT team had no idea where the shooter was, so they spent several hours slowly
00:28:26.940driving up to the scene of the shooting in an armored bearcat trying to find where the sniper
00:28:31.400had gone. They didn't want to get out and look because they were worried they'd get shot.
00:28:35.660And they sent up thermal drones, but they weren't returning any heat signatures.
00:28:39.780So what did they do? Well, they got a court order requiring a cell phone company to provide
00:28:45.360information about any cell phones in the area. And while they had a tentative match with somebody
00:28:49.540in the woods, the data wasn't specific enough to pinpoint the suspect's exact location. So the FBI
00:28:53.580flew a helicopter overhead equipped with digital receiver technology, which is basically a cell
00:28:58.300site simulator. It mimics a cell tower and cell phones automatically attempt to connect to it.
00:29:03.520That's how they located the precise location of the shooter within a margin of inches.
00:29:08.760Okay. So in other words, if you have a cell phone, then you can't hide from anyone. If you have a
00:29:15.280cell phone, then the scenario you're worried about with flat cameras is already happening.
00:29:20.840Google, Apple, and the cell phone carriers already know everything about you, including
00:29:25.760where you are every second of the day. They're all selling that information. And even if they
00:29:30.360weren't, the FBI has equipment that can locate precisely where your cell phone is at any moment
00:29:35.200in time. So if you're opposed to flat cameras, then it doesn't make any sense to also have no
00:29:42.200problem with the cell phone. There's no getting around it. But even if you successfully lobby
00:29:46.400to get flock cameras banned nationwide, and even if you throw away your phone,
00:29:51.100you're still going to be tracked by cameras 99% of the time. First of all, pretty much every
00:29:56.500residential neighborhood is now flooded with ring cameras. If you go for a walk in a typical
00:30:00.860suburb, there's a very good chance that ring cameras can easily piece together your entire
00:30:05.860route and listen to your conversations. Many of these cameras have enough range to see the street.
00:30:37.320without asking individual homeowners for permission.
00:30:40.380So if you want to ban flock cameras, then to achieve any kind of meaningful result, you really have to ban ring cameras, too.
00:30:48.980And that would obviously be a disaster for about a dozen reasons.
00:30:51.780First of all, people have the right to install cameras on their own property if they want to.
00:30:56.500That's their right. Secondly, ring cameras capture all kinds of criminal activity every single day.
00:31:01.380If you've ever used the Ring app, you know that people are constantly posting videos of crimes.
00:31:06.000They're also posting thousands of comments about missing dogs and lost mail, which you need to filter out before you go insane.
00:31:11.580But third, as the journalist Cam Higby pointed out, once you start banning private people from using cameras, you're basically making it illegal to be a journalist, a real journalist anyway.
00:31:20.460Cam Higby has shot some extremely important footage over the past few years.
00:31:23.680We feature his coverage on the show many times.
00:31:25.840He's one of the few people who's willing to risk his life to cover Antifa violence, for example.
00:31:29.840But if we're going to ban private surveillance, then we have to ban journalists like Cam Higby, too.
00:31:36.000Now, of course, none of the opponents of Flock will go that far.
00:31:39.040When you drill down, they'll say that they're really opposed to Flock because there are specific concrete issues with this specific surveillance system, not cameras in general.
00:31:49.960At least that's what the rational critics will say.
00:31:53.060So let's focus on that debate, on the rational debate, as opposed to the hypotheticals and the grand sweeping paranoia about a surveillance state that has already been in place for a really long time.
00:32:04.100and you're already participating in every single day when you walk around with your cell phone.
00:32:08.000The first substantive argument against Flock, one you may have seen,
00:32:12.660is that they supposedly spied on children.
00:32:14.740So here's one viral post, for example, that has millions of views.
00:32:17.880Quote, a Flock vice president logged into the Dunwoody PD's Flock system
00:32:21.640and looked at a camera in the children's gymnastics room of a private community center here in Dunwoody.
00:32:26.660He did not look at any other cameras in the entire 400 camera network that day.0.74
00:32:31.960Now, the way that's written, it obviously sounds like the Flock vice president is a pervert who belongs in prison.0.91
00:32:37.180And indeed, you'll find thousands of comments accusing the VP by name of being a pedophile.
00:32:42.980Now, what this post omits is that, according to Flock, their vice president was running a sales demo of the system when he pulled up the feed.
00:32:50.180He wasn't specifically trying to pull up the gymnastics center for the purpose of looking at children.
00:32:53.880Instead, they say he was trying to demonstrate how the system safeguards work.0.71
00:32:57.520So, for example, if you try to search for Star of David so that you can round up all the Jews, it will deny the request.
00:33:04.220You know, if you try to enter someone's specific name, it will deny the request.0.76
00:33:07.520It's only supposed to pull up videos that match general descriptions like black pickup truck, you know, or something like that.
00:33:18.000We don't know, but it's also true that we have no actual evidence that Phlox's VP is a pedophile.
00:33:23.740The VP knows that all of these searches are stored, which is how they were eventually released to the public.
00:33:28.800So it certainly would be odd for him to pull up this footage one day, knowing that anyone could submit a records request and discover the search.
00:33:36.360If you're going to accuse a man of one of the most serious crimes imaginable, you need some evidence.
00:33:51.780they've admitted this was wrong and that flock cameras that are installed in sensitive locations
00:33:55.580shouldn't be a part of any sales demo. The only reason flock should have been looking at this
00:33:59.580gymnastic center is if there was an emergency and somebody was trying to harm these children,
00:34:03.640like what happened at that Taylor Swift dance studio in the UK when the foreigner whose
00:34:07.080family was imported from Rwanda massacred several children. So for example, that would be a
00:34:12.200valid occasion to use the cameras. And you can see the mugshot of that guy here, by the way,
00:34:17.840the guy who looks like he's been struck by lightning every day of his life. These people
00:34:21.900exist, and Flock is supposed to assist in tracking them. That was their deal with the
00:34:27.460gymnastics center when they installed the equipment, and they broke the deal by accessing
00:34:31.660the footage for no reason. But this is the perfect illustration of what I'm talking about.
00:34:35.880By making this about pedophilia, critics of Flock are discrediting themselves for no reason.
00:34:40.520There's no evidence that Flock's vice president is a pervert, but that's the claim Flock's
00:34:45.180tractors are making with total confidence, instead of focusing on the actual issue,
00:34:49.100which there is one, they're just making something up. It's counterproductive. It's also extremely
00:34:53.240dumb. And we see it all the time. Now, another argument you'll hear, which is a better argument,1.00
00:34:59.120is that flocks tracking is so pervasive and so extensive that it's the equivalent of a specific
00:35:03.860police officer following you around all day when you're in your car. This is the kind of
00:35:08.580surveillance that under our existing law may be a violation of your Fourth Amendment rights.
00:35:12.120It's true that anybody, including police officers, has the constitutional right to
00:35:15.760observe you in public. You don't have any expectation of privacy when you're driving
00:35:19.680in your car. People are free to observe you on the road. But it's also true that if somebody
00:35:24.100follows you around all the time, everywhere you go, then they're crossing a line into stalking
00:35:28.000and harassment. And the argument is that by tracking people for hundreds of miles,
00:35:31.660flock cameras are basically acting as stalkers. They're the equivalent of police officers who are
00:35:36.340harassing you, following you around. Now, you can think of a few ways to address this concern.
00:35:41.460one solution would be to prevent anyone at flock or a local police department from viewing any
00:35:45.520footage without explicit authorization from a court. That's already the expectation, but it's
00:35:50.520often violated. Flock footage is routinely being accessed without any justification. Watch.
00:35:57.120A police officer who used license plate reader cameras to track down a woman and wrongly accuse
00:36:02.840her of theft will be disciplined. This story has been spreading online over the last month.
00:36:07.060Sergeant Jamie Milliman with the Columbine Valley Police Department showed up to a woman's home and claimed he had video evidence proving she stole a package.
00:36:16.200Milliman used the Flock safety cameras to track her down.
00:36:44.280Investigators say Anna Altabello, a secretary at the Eccles County Sheriff's Office,
00:36:49.060searched the flock safety system on multiple occasions for two people she knew personally.
00:36:54.920The GBI says the searches were unrelated to any law enforcement activity.
00:36:59.000And unfortunately, this isn't the first time that law enforcement has been accused of misusing flock safety data.
00:37:06.140Back in October, Sandy Springs Police said that they had to fire a reserve officer for refusing to cooperate in an investigation into possible misconduct related to the system.
00:37:16.300These are cases you'll hear about a lot when you're listening to the anti-flock side of the argument.
00:37:20.660They'll point to the fact that technology has been abused.
00:37:23.360And there are many more cases like this.
00:37:27.160Quote, Cherokee County, three sheriff's employees, including a lieutenant and sergeant, were arrested after investigators alleged they improperly searched the county's license plate reader database.
00:37:35.940Albany, five former Albany police officers were arrested after a Georgia Bureau investigation probe found they allegedly used flock data for unauthorized purposes following an internal audit.
00:37:46.220Green County, a sheriff's deputy, was arrested and fired after investigators said an audit showed she used the flock system for personal reasons.
00:37:52.940Fayetteville, three police officers were fired this week after investigators say they searched license plates belonging to themselves, family members, and acquaintances without a legitimate law enforcement purpose.
00:38:02.300Meanwhile, Reason put out this video where a sassy reporter outlines a few more egregious cases.
00:38:11.100Then there's the Arkansas couple that had a flat camera pointed right at their house, putting them and their guests under constant warrantless surveillance.
00:39:17.440the tone, the attitude, the like, I gotta, I gotta have 50 different poses. It's a 30 second
00:39:24.940video. You have important information about a serious topic and you need 50 poses.
00:39:32.740You're looking this way. You're up this way. You're sitting down. You're on top of the light
00:39:36.120posts. You're doing pull-ups. You're what, and what is with everyone now, every video,
00:39:43.100especially on TikTok, people have the cadence of like a cartoon character. Yeah. That's like a
00:39:46.780cartoon character. Yeah, it's like a cartoon character, cadence and tone and facial expressions
00:39:53.200and like moving around all the time. Why is everyone talking like cartoon character? Just
00:39:59.140give the information. That's all we need. Does that, does anyone, do you absorb the information
00:40:06.040better when they cut it together that way with 50 different poses and the attitude and the tone and
00:40:11.640the cartoon character, you know, cadence. Does that help anybody? Anyway.
00:40:21.700We need to flock cameras to track every single person who makes videos like that.
00:40:26.800Round them all up and deport them to the surface of the sun.
00:40:33.860Anyway, these are all legitimate examples of problems with the implementation of flock
00:40:37.780cameras. Some cops are misusing them for personal reasons. The cameras also apparently
00:40:41.540have some technical vulnerabilities, although it's worth pointing out that no one has actually
00:40:45.960hacked these cameras in real life, as far as we know, outside of these proof-of-concept tests.
00:40:50.660There have been situations where police departments' passwords have been compromised or where
00:40:53.840camera feeds have been broadcast online by mistake, but it looks like those issues were
00:40:59.080patched. In any event, it's true that flat cameras have been abused, which is a problem.
00:41:03.160The problem is, if you banned every technology that was abused, you wouldn't have any technology
00:41:08.100you left. I mean, there have been cases where bad actors purchased data from wireless carriers,
00:41:13.880which they obtained via web portals operated by third-party brokers that didn't run any legal
00:41:18.480checks. That doesn't mean that we should ban cell phones. It means we should punish the brokers who
00:41:23.040are selling the data. Along the same lines, when Edward Snowden revealed the NSA was secretly
00:41:27.260collecting phone data from millions of Verizon users with secret warrants, nobody suggested that
00:41:32.280we should ban Verizon or cell phones. And for good reason. For all my critiques of modern
00:41:39.880technology, and there are many, cell phones ultimately do more good than harm. The fact
00:41:48.160that bad actors can hijack our cell phone data doesn't mean that we should revert to the Stone
00:41:52.160Age. It means that to the best of our ability, we need to recognize that some degree of surveillance
00:41:56.460is an inevitable byproduct of the age that we're living in. It's just the reality.
00:42:02.280The only practical safeguard against the abuse of that surveillance, aside from the things we've
00:42:06.880already talked about, putting systems and policies and laws in place, governing when this kind of
00:42:12.580stuff can be accessed and by who, which we should do. But that all requires that we elect people
00:42:20.540who will not abuse the technology and punish those who do abuse it or will. End the anarcho-tyranny.
00:42:30.600Now, that's not the most dramatic or compelling solution. It's not a perfect solution. But it's the only one with any chance of success. It's the only choice we have. We can't align with communists for any reason on any issue. We can't repeat the talking points from activists on MS Now who are lying to your face in order to subvert ICE and assist illegal aliens in avoiding detection.
00:42:54.500I mean, as unpopular as it may be to say, with or without Flock, mass surveillance is already here.
00:43:04.140You've already made yourself 100% trackable and traceable with the cell phone you're using to listen to me right now.
00:43:12.340And while that may sound ominous, and it is, the truth is there are a few things even worse than mass surveillance.
00:43:20.840Mass demographic replacement is one of those things.
00:43:25.460So don't let your concerns about mass surveillance, which are totally legitimate, turn you into an unwitting supporter of mass demographic replacement.
00:43:34.660That's where the flock debate is heading.
00:43:37.360Whether or not you're a fan of flock cameras, that's the unavoidable reality of the current debate.
00:43:44.240Now, yes, if you say that out loud, you'll be called a shill and a fed and a fascist.
00:43:48.880But one thing you won't be is an accomplice to the largest foreign invasion this country has ever seen.
00:43:54.340You'll be one of the few people who's not giving the communists exactly what they want right now.
00:44:00.120And whether you support Flock or not, that's a pretty good place to be.