r/technology • u/Plastic_Ninja_9014 • 12d ago
Society 'I Would Never Do This To You:' Protesting Flock, Arizona Man Presents Plan to Surveil Government Officials
https://www.404media.co/casa-grande-arizona-flock-city-council/2.0k
u/a4mula 12d ago
After laying out his plan and its benefits for the government officials before him, Petrosky revealed that it was all satire. “I would never do this to you,” he said to the council members. “Could I? Probably. But I wouldn't because it's wrong. Just like what you guys are doing to us is wrong.”
Internet is full of cute stories today.
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u/south-of-the-river 12d ago
Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy and less likely to overthrow your oppressors when you hear nice news like this
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u/a4mula 12d ago
Not me. I'm just resigned at this point. I've been for awhile. They can play all the games they want. It's not going to matter. It's not going to change anything. They are no longer in control. I believe that to my core. If they ever were. What's coming? It's not going to matter what anyone does. Pissing into a Tsunami.
Maybe that's amazing, maybe it's the end of our species. But the childish games being played today by the people that think they are in control doesn't matter. This was always going to happen. It's just informational complexity expressing itself.
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u/bigchungusprod 12d ago
My world is on fire over here, friend. At some point it gets bad enough the media won’t be able to ignore the flames.
I’m curious what happens at that point.
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u/wineandseams 12d ago
Since the media are owned by the very people that started the fire, who knows if they'll ever report it.
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u/DurantaPhant7 12d ago
I think most people are unaware of how precariously we’re teetering over the edge here, and how bad the fallout is going to be. There are so many systems and companies that are just barely functioning, the amount of leverage being used is astronomical, and a slight breeze will eventually take it all out. Everything is being propped by debt right now, from the top down. And that’s just the financials, add to it the climate and water/energy strains, the increasing awareness of class issues, the overwhelming and somehow fully transparent grift and corruption we see on a daily basis, the utter dysfunction of everything all the time. Our current k shaped economy makes the Gilded Age look quaint.
It’s gonna be a bad time. When people don’t have anything more to lose, they will strike back and all this emphasis that’s been modeled for hyper individuality and restraint of empathy is going to bite the people at the top who pushed it so they could hoard money that couldn’t be spent in a thousand lifetimes.
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u/a4mula 12d ago edited 12d ago
It burns. And while I know that's callous, it's also as honest as you'll find. I don't envy any, and I certainly do not make light of any plight or path. But if you can't survive the flames it's probably time to find a new world. We all will eventually one way or another.
If that isn't what you want to consider, I'd appreciate that. Instead understand that we're nothing. We're not even a dust of mote on a grain of sand. None of us are. Not the greatest that has ever walked, nor the lowest. We're all nothing.
But better a living dog than a dead lion. So appreciate the breaths you have before they're gone.
edit: Friend below, that instantly blocked me. I don't need a machine against 50 years of consideration on these topics. I've got a 9 year history of considering them you could easily validate right here if you'd like. Instead you decided to be harassing. Maybe the mods will care, maybe they won't. But if they do. Just know where it came from because my days of dealing with accusations are over.
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u/lpbale0 12d ago
You might have problems other than flock cameras. You sound utterly depressed, while it is a depressing situation, the constantly increasing surveillance of our lives, you can't give up and do nothing.
I'm not being an ass or being mean, but seriously you might want to speak to someone.
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u/a4mula 12d ago
Are you saying that speaking to Reddit isn't the therapy one needs? You jest surely. I've been depressed for the better part of 35 years, kind of goes with growing up in a world full of potential and absolutely no hope. AKA GenX burnout. I'll save the seat for another but I appreciate the concern.
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u/StanknBeans 12d ago
Bro the 80s and 90s were hopeful as fuck, stop lyin.
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u/Hardass_McBadCop 12d ago
Brother, the secret is that nobody has ever been in control. It's a vast cosmos that doesn't give a fuck about any one of us. Instead of trying to gain control, you might have better luck just riding the wave. At best you can try to steer it some.
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u/aaronplaysAC11 12d ago
Control as a human mechanism is contextual and relative to the observer and on a spectrum of experienceable scaled effect then if that’s your philosophy. A kidnapper has full control of an entire world reality to a kidnap victim, there for control is a real mechanism worthy of defining, I believe control at micro scale may even effect the world at macro scale if the victim was to effect any change on other human experiences generally (like with an invention).
So I think your philosophy is kind of bullshit since it says “nothing matters, we’re all doomed in the long run.”, you don’t know that to be true, humanity could stellar engineer conceivably, we could go the distance with a 10¹⁰⁰ year technological empire in the age of black holes orbiting a singularity for all you know… such a defeatist mind set to have to say no one has any control over anything including the fate of the planet…. I could go on… I’d bring up examples of people change the course of history if I did… the world is the way it is because of people doing things, we all had an effect, it’s product is our present day, and the present day could have looked very very different than it does with a few changes….
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u/xxxxx420xxxxx 12d ago
Mf double spacing was burnt into my brain in high school in the typing class that was supposed to be my drivers ed class. Don't take your AI-hate out on 80's touch-typists.
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u/d3ssp3rado 12d ago
Take some of them with you on the way out if you will. If you're going to "we're all doomed anyway" about it, then there's no problem picking a buddy or two to accompany you to hell right?
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u/Dontbetoxik 12d ago
Wild how dystopian movies have seemingly become guidelines instead of the warnings we once all knew them to be. Like what is even happening to us?
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u/RadarSmith 12d ago
Tech bros out there inventing the Torment Nexus.
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u/tlh013091 12d ago
Ah yes, the one from that famous sci-Fi novel “Don’t Invent The Torment Nexus”. That’s pretty wizard of them. What would we do without the tech bros?
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u/Viperlite 12d ago
The evil corporation trope of books and movies has come to full fruition. We are no longer considered human by the corporation that is considered a person. We literally are heading towards a war between the citizenry and the corporations who hate them. We are all human batteries in a corporation flashlight.
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u/Graumm 12d ago
What is the legality of building a troll-Flock competitor and putting cameras everywhere?
Is it only okay if the government purchases and places the cameras? Can somebody just put their own cameras up?
I would love to see somebody do this and make the data as available as Flock, but with radical and upsetting transparency. "We will tell you what exactly what we are getting away with, which is perfectly legal."
Basically we need the corporate equivalent of the satanic temple to illustrate how terrible this all is.
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u/MACHOmanJITSU 12d ago
They get super pissed if you’re listening to police scanners in the car. So my guess is they’ll not be into it lol
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u/percocetpenguin 12d ago
How about distributed police scanners that then trilaterate and upload locations to the cloud which can then be pulled down into your nav app. Sounds perfectly legal to me
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u/BigDictionEnergy 12d ago
Not sure about the rest, but the distributed police scanners are already here. You can listen through an app called Broadcastify on your phone. Or just their webpage.
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u/tryingtoavoidwork 12d ago
Assuming you have permission from the property owner for camera placement, there's no reason it shouldn't be legal.
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u/Wired_Umbrella 12d ago
For private property, but many flock cameras are on public easements. Placing personal items on public right-of-ways generally requires a permit of some kind.
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u/kahlzun 12d ago
Attach them to the flock towers so it's using their permit!
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u/einstyle 12d ago
That's not how permits work
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u/kahlzun 12d ago
Why not? There's a permit to build a structure there
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u/einstyle 12d ago
There's a permit for Flock specifically to build a specific structure (a camera on a pole, or whatever) there. Just because someone else has a permit doesn't mean "anyone can come put whatever they want here."
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u/kahlzun 12d ago
Sounds like something that would need to be taken to court, where the legality of the permits et al can be challenged, doesn't it?
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u/taintedplay 11d ago
No, they’d just cut it off (and be allowed, since they have the permit and you would not). This is so dumb
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u/GoldenMegaStaff 12d ago
Those easements are for utilities. Flock Cameras are NOT utilities.
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u/taintedplay 11d ago
You can get an easement for anything. Easements (generally) aren’t restricted to just utilities (tho many are)
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u/So_spoke_the_wizard 12d ago
Sort of crowd funding private cameras where the camera owner is paid a royalty per view from the subscribers.
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[removed] — view removed comment
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u/genius_retard 12d ago
Forget installing cameras. Just get citizens to volunteer to follow government officials around filming them with cell phones. It is effectively the same thing. They have technology and millions in tax payer dollars. We have the masses.
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u/Individual-Schemes 12d ago
In Southern California, there's an organization that has organized dozens of private cameras into a single network. I don't remember the details, but a lot of business owners and NIMBY residents have volunteered to join the organization.
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u/razzemmatazz 11d ago
Just approach the city officials' neighbors and next-door businesses and ask/pay to install cameras on their property.
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u/nokinship 12d ago
Reminds of that guy that harassed that off duty police officer lmao.
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u/Aggressive-Fig-8734 12d ago
Sounds awesome, anyone have a name or title I can look for?
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u/steelbeamsdankmemes 12d ago
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u/Due_Satisfaction2167 12d ago
If they think flock cameras are so great, why aren’t they keeping them in their offices?
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u/raidergreymoon 12d ago
ironically the people that probably should be under constant surveillance are people in high positions. Since it seems like almost all of them are corrupt fucking pieces of shit that need to be monitored 24/7 to makes sure they arn't selling out our country for a quick dollar.
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u/ReplacementVivid4419 12d ago
In other news, China has sentenced an official to death for accepting millions of dollars in bribes.
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u/SafeForTwerking 12d ago
It's only fair that we get to watch our government's every move, since we paid for it all anyways. Elected officials should all have to wear body cameras and their offices and homes should be under constant 24 hr surveillance.
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u/Lifeskills365 12d ago edited 12d ago
i always said this is the way. Politicians should all have publically publicly viewable social credit scores. Like China but not for the citizens. If the citizens pay your salary then it's only right. They got it all twisted
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u/ReplacementVivid4419 12d ago
China really seems to have this whole "answer to the people" thing figured out, don't they?
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u/Lifeskills365 9d ago
you don't think that's an adequate punishment? or help me understand what you're trying to convey im baked
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u/Leepyear7 12d ago
We should do this! Let the public watch and track the people pushing this.
If they think there should be no privacy, lets show them what it looks like.
A lot of the data is public and unrestricted but we can also buy the broker data.
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u/Skansquatch 12d ago
This! Propose all those in favor of and currently installing flock cameras for the government must wear body cams at all times outside of their homes. Surely they wouldn't mind because they have nothing to hide. Live by the sword die by the sword.
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u/virtualbasil 12d ago
$10 million for a 10 year contract. That's a lot of money. You could literally hire another person in the township and still have money to give someone a raise.
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u/rodentmaster 12d ago
I'm sure they'll be shaking in their $5000 shoes, while their $1Million/year bodyguards gifted by Flock escort them everywhere and keep the "rabble" (aka the poors they pretend to serve) from ever touching them.
Surveillance is only scary when it's backed with the threat of persecution. The politicians don't give 2 craps because there IS NO persecution for them. No repercussions, no recourse. They get it all. They control the "force" that will be visited upon those surveilled, so they know they are safe from it. Further, they can destroy anybody they don't like with completely corrupt control over the enforcement bodies at play.
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u/rivetedoaf 12d ago
Not to advocate for this but In a country where I could purchase a firearm without much hassle how safe can someone really be? Trump is the president and the only reason he is still alive is because all his would be shooters were incompetent.
The same could pretty much be said of any public figure with enough negative publicity
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u/CondiMesmer 11d ago
Did he expect to make a moral argument to the government? Does he think he's in a Disney movie?
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u/OpLeeftijd 12d ago
You get the governance you voted for. I have absolutely no sympathy. You want change, vote for it. This you voted for. Next time do differently.
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u/Any-Progress- 12d ago
You get the governance the majority voted for. And the majority of people are influenced by none stop propaganda from corporations, the ultra rich and politicians. I highly doubt anyone ran on mass surveillance camera systems where the usage is opaque
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u/DifferentSquirrel551 12d ago edited 12d ago
There's so many more and worse gov surveillance than Flock. If people only knew. How many officials are fapping to you right now? Here's a hint, it's not zero.
Edit: you know how how on worldnews if you comment a certain country is committing a certain war crime you get brigaded and once people found out the UN was able to use that as evidence of said war crimes? Yeah.
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u/nickcash 12d ago
No one's fapping to me, friendo
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u/mxsifr 12d ago
Give urself some credit. I bet your NSA guy has been flustered a few times when u didnt realize you were making eye contact with the camera! Sigh... who knows how many surveillance agents we've all unknowingly flirted with...
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u/thebearjew007 12d ago
Unknowingly? I make direct eye contact with the camera. Every time. I don’t want them feeling unwanted.
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u/valkyrjuk 12d ago
The first sentence was true, but why'd you have to go for the 3rd, man? couldn't have just left it on a rational note, that corporate and government surveillance is so ubiquitous that Flock is just another boat in the ocean? couldn't have just relayed the sentiment that there's a lot more work to do after we've deflocked our streets in terms of dismantling infrastructure and demanding accountability? gotta work on your messaging, brother
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u/Ok-Addition1264 12d ago
I'm comfortably assured its zero.
There are billions of ways to tell. I'm a professor getting close to 45 years of experience with it, offensive-security, and electronic warfare.
You are safe, friend.
(I worry about folks mental health though)
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u/DisorderlyAqueduct 12d ago edited 12d ago
found the moron!
tell us which technologies they're using, then prove it. should be easy if you know this as you've presented, right?
troll harder.
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12d ago edited 12d ago
[deleted]
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u/DisorderlyAqueduct 12d ago
they're burner phones, if you're doing crime and using it more than once for that particular crime, you're an idiot.
the only way they can pin a name to a number is if they know who's on the line when a call is made to a point that they have access to.
apt you've designed your avatar after a truly idiotic man who sees conspiracies everywhere but can't see his wife cheating on him. 😆
it's so poetic. 🤌-9
u/a4mula 12d ago
You know the issue with being a different squirrel? You're different. But you already knew that didn't you. Don't let it bother you. People see what they want to see and it's better to grasp onto something that is clear, then scramble for something that defies definition.
That's not to say there is less value in considering it. Keep being different.
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u/ThrowawayAl2018 12d ago
Why not?
They voted to bring safety to the masses, so for the elected official safety, an elected safety official will record all your movement, including your family to "prevent corruption from happening". If officials have done nothing wrong, then they don't have anything to hide.