Earlier quoted context omitted.
US Citizens have been tamed by “social” and other media propaganda by the people in power. But we got 2A handy to you know, hunt for rabbits and shit
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Flock worker calls police on reporter filming public camera installation
51–60 of 297 posts
Re: Flock worker calls police on reporter filming public camera installation
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
Flock was seed round funded by YC, not "a YC company". It's not like they control it, manage it, and what was pitched may be significantly different than what happened since then. YC isn't perfect, but what words you use, and their order is important. And the way you're phrasing it, you make it sound as if they are a subsidiary of YC. Or as if YC is on the board. If any of these things are true, you should plainly st…
YC funds companies and we are all aware of that so by saying it's a YC company because they gave them seed money is already exactly the correct wording
How about the "it’s them" part?
Re: Flock worker calls police on reporter filming public camera installation
#53>The officer said the installer was also concerned about privacy. "And his worry more than anything is that, you know, he's just an employee. Anybody like you and me. And now he's going to be in the news and he doesn't know if it's going to be targeted at him or his family." Don’t you understand? He was just following orders.
Too bad somehow the face that ends up out there as the face of surveillance isn’t the CEO of Flock, not their coders, not the YC people who gave them money to do exactly what they’re doing. It’s the lowest of the low in the chain, the guy sitting in the sun to install the cameras on a post.
Re: Flock worker calls police on reporter filming public camera installation
#54Irony is dead.
Re: Flock worker calls police on reporter filming public camera installation
#55Random people calling 911 on other people filming them is a staple of Youtube; banks, coffee store workers, hairdressers, most especially restaurant managers. I don't know why anyone would expect technicians from Flock to be different. It's worse for the technician in this case, because he really was being followed --- that's not unlawful but it's unnerving. You'd think from the response that this was like the VP/Sal…
Well, when you’re on the clock, you’re an agent of that company. And when you’re installing an indiscriminate mass-surveillance camera, calling the police on someone that’s video recording you is kind of bananas. Perhaps you don’t find that to be an interesting event, but a lot of people who are rightfully angry at the non-consensual deployment of a mass surveillance network disagree.
Re: Flock worker calls police on reporter filming public camera installation
#56man, these guys bungled their PR so, so hard. What they should have done is pre-seeded a ton of stories about flock catching some notorious criminal, helping solve xyz serious crimes, helping solve abc minor nuisance issue crimes, and maybe some lines about reducing direct law enforcement interactions. On the flip side, let Axon, Motorola take some of the heat, paint your enemies as "defund the police", and stop bein…
Their problem is they believed their own bullshit and thought they were offering people a good deal that basically amounted to "the government 1984s you more than they already do but your package thief gets arrested, maybe".
Ignoring the fact that that deal is not necessarily good, if they had been slightly scummier, not given two shits about actually reducing petty crimes against the people and instead set out to help municipalities collect civil fines (which have basically no 4th-8th amendment protections these days) they probably could have gotten away without scrutiny for a very long time and gotten their systems deeply entrenched. The useful idiots would've eaten it right up with the flimsiest of pretexts so long as each segment of useful idiots was peddled to individually.
"The truck we saw carrying 2-tons of waste tires away from your tire shop is not owned by an entity on the state approved list, pay up"
"We saw you leaving home depot with a water heater but you didn't pull a permit, prove it didn't go into your house or pay the fine"
"we saw your 2004 Altima emit a puff of blue leaving a light. Per vehicle code XYZ any vehicle that emmits a visible cloud cannot pass emissions inspection, submit proof of passing withing 30d or your resigstration is revoked"
If they had done that a lot of people would have eaten it up and asked for more. But nope, they believed their own BS and built a system for "real" law enforcement. And of course that leads to a bunch of bad interactions with cops and the public doesn't like that.
Re: Flock worker calls police on reporter filming public camera installation
#57Flock has solved crimes in my state, including a few horrendous violent crimes. We forget US society was configured (imperfectly) to allow families to raise their children in stability and safety, with guardrails around both sides of liberty. Surveillance has a legit role in protecting communities and their families - especially the most vulnerable. Willing to be most of the Flock hate crowd doesn't have kids walking…
Oh, yes, "think of the children", nobody has ever explored this angle to push unpopular things before.
Re: Flock worker calls police on reporter filming public camera installation
#58US citizens are bad at protesting. In my area these cameras would be on fire weekly.
In Florida, we just talked to our reps and got them banned from the entire state. It was easy and didn’t require protests at all.
Re: Flock worker calls police on reporter filming public camera installation
#59[dead]
Flock was seed round funded by YC, not "a YC company". It's not like they control it, manage it, and what was pitched may be significantly different than what happened since then. YC isn't perfect, but what words you use, and their order is important. And the way you're phrasing it, you make it sound as if they are a subsidiary of YC. Or as if YC is on the board. If any of these things are true, you should plainly st…
Having your seed round funded by YC is what being a "YC company" means. That is exactly what people are referring to every time they say that phrase.
Re: Flock worker calls police on reporter filming public camera installation
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
Especially when chances are that this camera installation was the result of local government asking and paying Flock to put it up. I'm not sure why the anger is directed at the company instead of local elected officials, and I understand the plight of the installer who's worried about being labeled as a bad guy for executing public works contracts.
The company could have rejected the government deal if they cared about the moral aspect of spying on citizens instead of money; by accepting the deal and executing the contract they are complicit.
What? Is that not their whole business?