Oh No, Those Flock License Plate Readers That Track Your Every Move Keep Getting Vandalized

Flock Safety, the controversial Atlanta-based surveillance company, just wants to build a network of cameras that allows it to track every single person's movements at all times, and for some reason, people seem to have a problem with that. Mainly, they focus on license plate readers that allow authorities to track your driving habits, but they're always looking to expand. Sadly, though, Flock's dreams of building a horrifying surveillance state could be in danger now that tech journalist Brian Merchant reports people keep destroying Flock's surveillance cameras. The horror!

Why these vigilantes won't simply accept an all-powerful surveillance state that tracks their every movement, no one can really say, but in La Mesa, California, two Flock cameras were just destroyed by hooligans using two different methods — one was disabled when someone removed a necessary part, while the second was disabled with a sophisticated percussion attack that left the camera inoperable, most likely due to the use of an advanced, military-grade weapon known as a "blunt object."

Clearly, these vigilantes must be stopped, but what's even more disturbing is they aren't alone. Just last month, someone in Greenview, Illinois, gained access to a technology that allowed them to cut down the pole that held up a Flock camera and the solar panel that powers it. They also conducted a similar attack in places like Lisbon, Connecticut, and in December of last year, one Suffolk, Virginia, man was arrested on charges that he'd intentionally destroyed 13 Flock cameras before finally being brought to justice. 

In fact, we know of at least five states where this has already happened. And unless these antifa super soldiers are stopped, they could begin destroying Flock cameras in your state, too. Could you imagine?

For a lot of people, the name Flock was a new one that they only heard about when they saw the recent Super Bowl commercial bragging about its new (and now dead) partnership with Amazon's Ring. But the company, which was founded back in 2017 after Trump was first elected, is no stranger to making the news, often over paid protestors claiming people are misusing the system and using those so-called abuses as justification for forcing their municipalities to stop working with Flock:

Meanwhile, abuses have been prevalent. A Georgia police chief was arrested and charged with using Flock data to stalk and harass private citizens. Flock data has been used to track citizens who cross state lines for abortions when the procedure is illegal in their state. And municipalities have found that federal agencies have accessed local flock data without their knowledge or consent. Critics claim that this warrantless data collection is Orwellian and unconstitutional; a violation of the 4th amendment. As a result, civilians from Oregon to Virginia to California and beyond are pushing their governments to abandon Flock contracts. In some cases, they're succeeding. Cities like Santa Cruz, CA, and Eugene, OR, have cancelled their contracts with Flock.

That's the same Eugene, Oregon, where outside agitators have reportedly vandalized at least six Flock cameras, by the way. Even worse, someone allegedly left a note at one of the scenes that read, "Hahaha get wrecked ya surveilling f–ks." Except they didn't censor themselves. Protest the rise of a violent, oppressive surveillance state all you want, but to use such crude language like that? It's horrifying. Can you not think of the children?

If you were hoping for some good news here, I'm afraid I don't have any. You'd think more people would stand with Flock as it works to create a big, strong police state, but instead, Merchant reports that the response on social media has been overwhelmingly negative. In fact, some people are even calling the dangerous criminals destroying these cameras "heroes." It's sad, but that's just the state of America these days. You can't even build a nationwide surveillance system that's ripe for abuse without people getting mad anymore.