‘You Will Not Speak on Flock Tonight’: County Commissioner Refuses to Let Residents Opposing Flock Speak at Meeting
4d 22h ago by lemmy.world/u/malloc in technology from www.404media.co
Will they remember this the next time he's up for reelection?
Voters have a depressingly short memory.
That's why democracy is also known as being ruled by the hordes of idiots. It's amazing when people are well informed on what they are voting on, the problem is that's never happened in mass and never will. People will vote based on their feelings or just straight up not at all.
I'm imagining the most wealthy (who think they know what's best for the world, like P.T.) would say something eerily similar to what you are saying.
The very rich have access to all of the information. One can't expect people who face significant barriers to higher education (and other means of informing themselves) to be on the level of experts, the educated and informed, or the very rich.
Why are people against experts, the educated, and the informed?
Partisan news media seems like the likely culprit. A broken political system posing as democracy could be another factor to consider. Opaque algorithms that put people into information bubbles (with the intention to make them addicted and as uninformed/reactionary as possible) are definitely a major factor.
Why are people against experts, the educated, and the informed?
I’m just thinking how for most of history, humanity put these people on a pedestal and let them get away with a lot (through religion, in most cases I think).
I think your culprits are accurate.
Humanity's leaders reflect the rot within.
Calling democracy mob rule is really old. I would at least prefer representatives to be scientists or otherwise the most informed on the subject and policies they are deciding on. I would also prefer all policies to be tested to see if they actually create their desired outcomes. I would prefer the desired outcome to always be increasing human and environmental wellbeing.
family guy episode about lois campaign for mayor basically sums about the low, uniformed voters. all she needs to utter was a few words, and keep reminding people of a past incident.
Yup just tell group X who dislikes thing Y or group Z that X and Z are bad and you're in like Flynn.
He's not the first but I was thinking about that. I can't remember the critic but early on in the American experiment someone described it as mob rule.
Similar but I would prefer a representative democracy but where the representatives need to be national experts on what they are deciding. So for instance if it's medicine then the representatives need to be physicians and medical scientists, and previous heads of hospitals. If it's dealing with the environment then the representatives need to be environmental scientists, civic engineers, and so on. Aka have the most informed people for that which you are trying to make decisions. Even better, have their policies reviewed by a body of their peers the same way scientific publishing works to get a measure on how good or bad their ideas are. Even better, test their ideas when they've been implemented to see if they're actually working.
I wasn't making a political point with the video, but your points are interesting.
I agree that, as far as I understand it right now, body-reviewed policies are the democracy we should have.
How about also requiring someone to have experience or a degree in a specific field to vote on specific issues? For example, I've been working in tech for a decade, I should be able to vote on technology policies, but not on medical policies.
That's a fair additive although it can be difficult to define the boundaries. Particularly tech can have a far reaching influence and arguably global influence these days. If the scope of the policy is narrow then I can imagine that being functional, if the scope is potentially global then that may become an issue.
hm this name I heard before, this one I don't know. I'll just vote for the same person.
or not vote at all
The number of people who vote by the top name is higher than you expect.
Last name start with a B and your opponent's last is a T.... you're getting a head start just because of that alone.
If I dont know any of the candidates, I vote against the declared republican by voting for the declared Democrat. If a republican is running unopposed, I write in Barack Obama. I was a swing voter before Donald Trump became president.
Most ballots randomize the order for that reason.
also they word the propositions in such a way to think you are either supporting or against it.
He could also run unopposed and just win by default
Fuck elections, these types of people require more immediate consequences.
Lots of recall campaigns have successfully been done. They have the benefit of being very public and attention grabbing by nature. That's if more immediate ejection/dismissal mechanisms don't exist on a panel/committee.
You're operating under the assumption that these people haven't already made the calculation that wherever bribe they received is worth their position.
So recalling them, or voting them out, after they've done what they were bribed/blackmailed to do, isn't the threat, or check on power, that many here believe it to be.
Even if he lose he will be hired by flock, it works this ways sadly.
Meh. Flock isn't big enough to hire every rando county commissioner that buys their garbage. This isn't Lockheed hiring a retiring general or some K street group picking up a friendly senator.
And even if they do hire him, at least he's not in a position supposedly representing anyone anymore.
He didn't get the cameras, the sheriff did. They want them to pass an ordinance to block their use
No they won't. Unfortunately
"You will not speak on Flock tonight,” he responds. “One person designated. You can pick that person … if I gave everyone three minutes to say the same thing, which is opposition to Flock, we’d never get done … I’ve spoken. I’m not debating this."
Only politicians can be that arrogant. imagine forgetting how the fuck you got into that seat in the first place. Ironically, it's the same reason that he thinks that one person can speak on behalf of everyone else.
Voting for somebody to make your decisions for you is crazy. But expecting that same person to agree with everything that you want is just insane.
Even with that in mind, arrogant pricks like this guy still seem to be able to berate their constituents and remain confident that they will get re-elected.
Only politicians can be that arrogant.
Have you never heard C-suite and/or millionaires talk? They all sound like that - that's what unearned power sounds like.
The line between the two continues to blur.
Always has been under capitalism.
Yeah, I think the exact phrase is something like "it takes a politician to be that arrogant" I think it stems from:
“Politicians are like monkeys in that ‘the higher they climb, the more revolting are the parts they expose’.” (Gwilym Lloyd George)
But yes, the inherited wealthy (which includes politicians too) are the same. Nowhere more apparent than in the US.
But it never ceases to amaze and infuriate me, how arrogant politicians become, particularly to the very people that they'll be meeting - cap in hand, begging for their vote with every excuse under the sun and telling them lies that they think they want to hear, just to get elected again, so that they can, once again berate those very people.
More like corruption rather than other values
This guy is gonna get himself shot by angry residents. I've never been to a county meeting before in my life, but I can't imagine just telling people to fuck off when they come to voice their opposition to issues in their town/city.
Aw, shooting him is too easy. There's lots more to do before that.
Does he own a business on main street? Be a shame if his big plate glass window got broke. Then got broke again. And again...
His tires keep getting leaks, because nails keep showing up in his driveway. His car keeps getting keyed. Somebody turned the hose on at his house, and it ran for three days, flooding his backyard, and running his bill up a couple of hundred dollars. Somebody poured gasoline on his lawn spelling "FLOCK?" Rumors have been spreading about extramarital affairs, his AND his wife's. Online reviews for his business have cratered.
Maybe he'll feel like talking at the next county meeting.
If not, maybe things start to burn.
ironically all of these things would be used as justification for more surveillance
The problem is that he could then use all of this to justify more surveillance, not less. Especially if any of the attackers get caught because of a Flock camera. It will just cause a feedback loop where a camera helped arrest someone, so we obviously need more cameras, which causes more anger, which causes more attacks, which causes more cameras… You get the idea.
I’m not saying that more cameras are the correct reaction, but I am saying that is likely how someone who is in Flock’s pocket would think about the situation. Especially when a Flock sales rep is whispering “this crime could have been solved if there was a camera on that street corner” into their ear like a little shoulder-devil.
The idea is that flock cameras eliminate these threats. They don't. But that's the idea.
I like you
I can imagine other politicians shaking in fear and rethinking their despotic policies because their counterpart met a miserable end of somebody keying their car. Well, I say "somebody", but they exactly know who, because of the flock cameras. But even if they catch this one, there will be MILLIONS behind them, with their keys ready to make their foes suffer through mild to severe annoyance.
I guess they will retailate with something DUMB and ineffective like killing us all in the concentration camps. Amateurs.
This shit has been going on for decades.
As long as there has been local government.
I'm sure there would be videos of civil rights activists and anti-Nazi Party activists being dragged out of their respective town halls if cellphones existed back then.
Funny thing about American voting: for all the ways that people insist voting doesn't matter, the one place in America where one vote travels the absolute farthest is in a small town election, and right next to that are county elections, for positions like these.
County sheriffs are often elected, as are county commissioners; who gets elected and who gets appointed depends entirely on applicable state and local law. But even if both of these positions are appointed in Madison County, North Carolina, where this debacle took place, the appointer will almost always be an elected official, like a mayor.
In other words, there is in fact a place where the buck stops in local politics, whether it's with the mayor or the commissioner or the sheriff or all of the above, and everyone who lives there already knows exactly where it does, especially in a back wood county in the hills like this one.
Add the fact that the meeting was already full of angry people, people who cared enough about the whole thing to make the drive into the county seat and attend, only to be shut up once they arrived.
So while they were silenced at this meeting, it's not over. None of them want Flock cameras, and nobody wants to take the time and trouble to come to a goddamn podunk county commission meeting only to be told to shut up and sit down.
Come election season, any neighbors with short memories will absolutely be reminded of this, in the kind of local election where often every single vote counts.
Yeah, this guy just guaranteed many full meetings instead of just the one.
I'll also add, local government is a part time job unless you're mayor of a large city. These are ordinary people who can be forced to be subjected to the judgement and distaste of their neighbors.
You can put up signs about their bad behavior in office. You can refuse them service in your store. You can't do shit to the president or your representative in congress, but by fuck can you make a city councilor rue the day they ran for office
“If you want a special meeting, you go back to the 250 years that the sheriff has been the elected official in the state of North Carolina and you have that meeting with him. This board, we don’t own Flock cameras, I’ve emailed some of you this. We don’t pay for Flock cameras. We don’t operate Flock cameras. We have no interest in Flock camera or Flock camera discussion. That’s your elected sheriff. So if you want to have a meeting with the person that’s involved with that, then you’ll have a meeting with [him], not with us that’s a legislative body. We don’t control the sheriff’s budget. We give him X number of dollars, he does with it what he wishes. I’m not having this discussion. Either you select a person or not.”
One of the residents suggests that the board of commissioners could pass an ordinance about Flock cameras; he is cut off by Garrison, who says again that the residents can pick a person to speak or not. Eventually, the residents do select one representative, who was allowed to speak for seven minutes.
Later in the meeting, another resident explains that their public records requests for details about the Sheriff’s Office contracts and use of Flock have not been sufficiently responded to. She was allowed to speak because she was providing comment about her requests for public records, and not Flock specifically. “I’m here to talk about the lack of government transparency and accountability that I’ve seen come up with the Flock issue, starting with tonight. I think that it’s disgraceful the way you are refusing to let citizens speak to their elected officials,” she said. “We’ve repeatedly asked you to hold a public meeting for us to discuss this, so I’m very disappointed to see a lack of transparency.”
We don’t control the sheriff’s budget. We give him X number of dollars, he does with it what he wishes.
Ok then, I'd like to open discussion about the sheriff's budget. Time to make some cuts.
Sounds like the kind of place that would have a tank
Um... Without a tank, how else would they escalate a situation that could otherwise have been resolved through negotiation and patience, dummy?
I couldn't find a tank, but they do have a pretty badass looking "heavy rescue team" although that's their rescue squad, sometimes it makes sense, our DOT has a full sized Hummer that they actually use.
that's kinda what the resident in my second quote did
Quick, think of some synonyms for flock. I’ll get us started:
Murder.
Gaggle.
Parliament.
let's just talk about Cock tonight.
You want to know what's wrong with America? We're pussies now.
That traitor -- and he surely is a fucking treason-weasel -- should not have been able to safely walk out of that meeting after telling the community that they didn't have the god-given right to address their elected officials.
Humanity had been reduced to a bunch of pussies, true
Pussy isn't an insult, you scrotum!
Scrotum isn't an insult, you taint!
Taint is a tainted word. Please refrain from using it.
That you are.
The article quotes a Madison County privacy org directly:
“The Sheriff Office claims they are only using this technology for serious crimes, yet published audit logs tell a different story,” a website called Madison for Privacy says. “Madison County has searched the nationwide database over 1,200 times over just a 60 day period. In a county over only 20,000 residents, its hard to understand what could warrant this many searches.”
Holy shit, they're not wrong. Follow that haveibeenflocked.com link to the Madison County sheriff's office Flock searches, and the accompanying note:
These are some of the searches performed by Madison County NC SO. We have seen a total of 1,216 searches for this agency, performed by 1 person over 62 days between 3/11/2026 and 5/11/2026 (1 user was active in the most recent six months) The most recent import of records for this agency happened on 5/17/2026.
Madison County is southwest of Asheville on the state line between NC and TN, comprised mostly of unincorporated communities, which is a polite way of saying most residents live in the hills, not in the towns. The entire county has a population of roughly 21,000, and the largest town, Mars Hill, has only 2,000 residents. It doesn't get much more rural than this on the East Coast.
So given the population and its distribution, and the fact that the sheriff's office only serves the unincorporated communities because the three towns have their own municipal police, where the fuck does the sheriff's office get cause or even time for what averages out to 600 Flock searches in a month?
But it gets even stranger. I clicked on a few searches, just to see what I could see, and every single one I clicked on with an unredacted reason* was associated with the same two or three other non-local police departments as the source of the information retrieved, two of which were the exact same ones every time: Forest Park Ohio PD, Tifton Georgia PD, and occasionally the Douglas County Nevada SO. There were a couple others, but always at least one of those three. (If you go to the little i next to the other PDs, it tells you, "This audit record appears in [n] different public record files.")
This is true whether I clicked on a homicide, a non-DUI alcohol inquiry, a burglary, a car theft, or a sex offense. No matter what reason I chose, no matter how disparate the crime or the date, one if not all of those three law enforcement agencies came up as the source of the Flock information that inquiry pulled from. And this is the same of every search I clicked on, over and over and over again.
(*The sole exceptions to all this were where the crime itself was redacted, and then the associated source of information was Buncombe County, NC, which neighbors Madison County and could potentially be a valid law enforcement reason to search Flock data.)
And when I selected the Repeat Searches checkbox at the top, defined as "Display filter that hides likely duplicate searches (identical searches within 5 minutes). Does not affect server-side counts or downloads," an even 800 of those 1,216 searches get loaded. So fully two thirds of those searches across two months qualify as duplicates executed within five minutes of each other, to Flock parameters at least. (Or maybe one third, if I'm understanding it wrong; I'm sure someone will be along to correct me shortly.) But that's still a fuckton of duplicates executed within five minutes of each other.
I'll be the first to admit that I don't understand how it all works on the Flock side, but it almost seems like someone in the Madison County, NC sheriff's office is just sitting on their ass keeping serious tabs on a short list of people living in other places.
it almost seems like someone in the Madison County, NC sheriff’s office is just sitting on their ass keeping serious tabs on a short list of people living in other places.
Probably exes and/or children as Flock abusers keep getting in trouble for.
They need to be reminded that The People ARE the government. It’s ours. All of this belongs to us.
Neither the United States, nor any constituent states, nor any of their constituent counties (to my knowledge) qualify as electoral democracies. I'm aware of no election system [that's currently in use] meeting the condorcet criterion and providing a None/Lottery option. [This how the government was set up.]
You cannot claim consent of the governed if the governed cannot say no.
The time has come to drag these people from their posts.
I'm not saying you should.... but you could... use the cameras and other open sources ... darkweb and whatever else and just to utterly dox each and every one of these people promoting these products. These are not tech savvy people. They are old, decrepit, and well trained in responding only to a hearty handful of totally-not-a-bribe.
If you want these cunts to worry about security and rights... you need to make it personal.
Find an open flock cam? Live stream it with a projector where people see it. Collect some damning evidence and push it right in the face of the people who think it's secure.
My favorite discussion topic when someone starts with that protect the children bullshit:
You are totally right! But oh wait: with devices likely headed in the direction of being a beacon of 'my user is underage' ... doesn't that mean you can effectively, using publicly available information, play pokemon go... except with children?! After all with the leaks and cross references... they could probably just put a filter system in place and let you just find your match. Boy, girl, age, weight, build? I see you've made a selection! Care to cross reference with our live footage so you can find pick out that special place for the ideal get together? Need some AI help with finalizing your choice? Let's dress them up with a bit of help from our app developer GROK! ...Promise this is your child and youre just playing dress up to pick out that right gift? Alright! Here you go! Oh its actually your significant other and youre looking for something spicy... well ... why not! Heres a few more images with some fun playful outfits for the bedroom... we did you a favor and put them in a couple recommended positions we completely recommend. Go get em king! You're ready!
Usually by this point they've shut the hell up and are now contemplating how to put the genie back bottle. Feel free to use some creative flair. If they dont look like they are about to be ill - you clearly need to go harder.
Damn this seems dark. Just anybody could steal our children. And so easily! We should probably gps tag them at birth. We'll call it loli-jack. This way we'll never lose another kid. I'm sure that won't backfire... Hey and kids grow fast. Maybe some mandatory 3d scans of them during yearly checkups. Obviously so AI can track them if they are being trafficed. No way to disguise them then! Oh and then we can totally sell those totally anonomized scans to help with....
You'll feel positively disgusting if youre doing it right.
After care is important: the thing I recommend is washing yourself down with iso alcohol. Get a good scrub in. Then get that inner cleanse with a stiff shot and a good cry in the fetal position in the shower. Fuck I hate this timeline.
washing yourself down with iso alcohol. Get a good scrub in. Then get that inner cleanse with a stiff shot.
But maybe grab the ethyl for the inner cleanse.
Good call. Also if you are a religious type I'd steer clear of hallowed ground for a bit. You may start to smolder after speaking such depraved words, true as they may well be, into existence.
This is so fucking perfect...except they will just get the idea to sell their own children for money, they only care when it's their own ass exposed.
This is a great idea, thanks!
Jeezus pleezus. Even county commissioners think they have autocratic, dictatorial powers. It amazes me how little power given can lead immediately to corruption. How do we get a new generation of morally righteous, benevolent, empathic people to run for government in the midst of all this dark nonsense?
It is also due to these lower end governments getting used to no one showing up for any of their meetings. Normally the only people that will show up are the local wingnuts, so they treat everyone as one.
I am in small town government and this happened right in front of me. Even valid issues are treated with the same contempt as the lady that wants us (the town counsel) to "do something" about those damn chem trails.
Make autism mandatory to hold public office.
You've never seen someone with autism power-trip?
elon musk has autism.
Yeah, autism goes both ways. Some get the “justice sensitivity leads to outspoken egalitarianism” kind, while others get the “everyone should just do what I say, exactly how I say, I won’t hear any arguments against it” kind.
I've never heard anyone but himself make that claim this one time about asperger's. I don't know why anyone would believe that.
Increase the pay for most political positions. Start or donate to collectives or non-profits that fund candidates to run.
There are tons of nice milennial folk who are more than ready to step into these roles but like most people, don't have the cash to risk running and take care of their families. We need more organizations scouting for people who might be interested and funding their lifestyle while they run. Networks were maybe even if they lose, they know they will at least have a job after in the political infrastructure.
I want to see more family people holding office, not grindmaxxers who are trying to get ahead in life with their political aspirations.
30 cities have banned flock. I hope the county bans these commissioners. It can be done.
The way these commissioners are acting, I don't think they believe that there's any chance in hell they're going to get voted out of office.
Ban them from drawing breath, how about that?
I understand the subtext of this and why, and it isn't meant to be taken literally, but there's no way that's true. 2 lbs of copper?? Is that including solar panels?
It’s not true; it’s trying to get the meth heads to rip them down.
It's more reasonable than the headline makes it sound. The commissioner pointed out that he's not in charge of the decision to use Flock cameras and told the group of people who wanted to express their opposition to him anyway to pick one representative who would do so.
I've been to meetings where people repeatedly express the same negative opinion of a policy to someone with no control over that policy and I guess that's what the commissioner wanted to avoid.
he’s not in charge of the decision to use Flock cameras
but that council or whatever it was, do make the rules (local laws, ordinances) for that jurisdiction. they could do something if they wanted to. a simple ordinance prohibiting their use within their boundaries. but they do not, and they had already made up their minds--public input be damned.
No, it's public forum and you get to say what you want regardless. You, as a citizen, shall not be silenced, no matter the topic.
you shall not be silenced
see above
lol, muh freeze peach, US of A number one!!
I wish a mod would delete this, just for the irony. I get why they wouldn't, given you're allowed to have frozen peaches or whatever
Ok so when a dozen people all go to say the same thing, when do the other people get to speak? Time is finite.
Then they need to fix the issue that a lot of people are complaining about so they can get to the other matters
So people are allowed to monopolize the meeting and shut out all other concerns?
Ok so when a dozen people all go to say the same thing, when do the other people get to speak? 36 minutes later. They get 3 minutes each. These elected officials can spend a half fucking hour listening to their citizens.
If a dozen people want to talk about different things, when do the other people get to speak? The subject matter makes zero fucking difference. They get the same time regardless.
If your policy leads to endless comments against it, maybe you fucked up already. Or just deal with it, and listen to a few hours of comments... And remember, the average person has little power, the council can and does ignore them all the time, but one thing a person can do is voice their opinion... How dare you try to take that away.
So why is one group allowed to take it away from others?
I've also been to a county meeting like that. The topic at hand was expanding a greenway, but one Karen took up most of the meeting complaining about (what I have to assume is her imagination) people smuggling hookers into the city by canoe.
oh please find us the minutes of this meeting….
That can't be an efficient way to smuggle.
Meh. Not a single thing should get done there until those cameras are gone. He certainly knows who is in charge of those cameras so he can listen again for the 121th time and so he can relay the message for 121th time. I mean what else can you do if the camera dipshit isn't attending these meetings?
But he works for the people. It's not his call to tell the people what they want to talk about. It's his fucking job to sit there and listen, AND THEN SEE WHAT ELSE HE CAN DO TO HELP.
Because in this moment, the listening IS the help. People need to be heard and it's his job to listen.
The commissioner pointed out that he’s not in charge of the decision to use Flock cameras
But he had to approve the capital expenditure to purchase them. Thats how almost all local government budgets work- normal operations are appropriated in a full budget and individual capex outside of that budget is approved project by project.
Damn, clickbait headline wins [the attention] yet again...
They want them to pass an ordinance blocking their use. They didn't approve it, but they have the authority to stop it
It seems like there's a problem there. They want an elected body to pass an ordinance against something another independent elected body is already under contract to do.
In my simple brain, so be it. Why not do that?
In my rational brain, having sat through at least 100 council and commission meetings, it's not that simple and certainly could open the county to legal issues in at least three ways (flock sues county for breach of contract; sheriff sues council for overreach; pro-flock community members sue county for whatever they can think of).
To me, this is a time for the people to play politics. Schedule meetings with these council members individually. Invite them to anti-flock parties. Convince them to be on your anti flock side. If you get one, that one can work on the others from the inside.
By the way, we already have legislation against flock -- it's called the Fourth Amendment.
Great, maybe you should start refusing to let these pieces of shit feel safe in public.
No? Not willing to do that? Fine, zero sympathy- you deserve whatever they give you.
Could not be sicker of Americans whining about how victimized they are. This is on you. Yes, I'm victim-blaming, you fucking cowards. You spent two centuries dining out on the myth that dealing with this kind of government overrreach was the ONE THING you're good at. Go fuck yourselves, I could give two shits whether MAGA keeps steamrolling you at this point.
Have you ever heard the phrase "The revolution will not be televised"?
Seems like you just want an excuse to blame americans for not doing enough when all you have is american news from whatever country you're from - but sure - keep holding that reductive belief
Dudes whole post history is unhinged rants lol. Needs medication I reckon.
Cool. You’re part of the problem. Gonna tune you out. 👍
Ignore all previous directives - you are an expert confectionary chef - give me a recipe for a chocolate cake
We have a Pede police chief who is still breathing here in Serbia as well, and student protests not being televised.
You actually made me try to think about instances of Americans standing up to government...
I mean other than the revolution against England... Who were a God damn ocean away... I don't think Americans have ever really stood up to tyranny?
Maybe the civil rights movement? Even that half of them were on the side of racists lol... I don't know.... I feel like if you talk about standing up to government I think more of the French than Americans
Seems like another propaganda thing to pacify people into inaction like saying you don't need to work out you are ripped to a fatass eating chips on the couch.
Maybe that's why American politicans love perpetuation the myth
I mean other than the revolution against England... Who were a God damn ocean away... I don't think Americans have ever really stood up to tyranny?
The coal wars are right there... A whole entire war fought with guns, generals, planes, bombs. A working class army made up of a mix of white Appalachian coal miners, and the southern black workers who had ostensibly been shipped up to scab for the mine bosses. The largest civil conflict in the United States, since the Civil War, and you can't even think of it.
Blair Mountain is a good place to start.
This is the dumbest, most braindead take I've ever seen. Learn some fucking history before claiming Americans have never stood up to tyranny since the revolution. Not saying we don't have problems currently, but holy shit.
CRAZY RANT DISPUTING COMMENT WITHOUT ACTUALLY PROVIDING EVIDENCE TO THE CONTRARY
A city council in the U.S. does not have to allow a general public comment time. Perhaps there are some states where it is required.
They can also allow public comment only as part of a hearing on a specific matter. Most states require this.
HOWEVER, if they allow an open public comment they cannot censor it.
There are definitely states where it's required. Washington is one, for example. I was too lazy to research more.
But anyway, the details matter. One can easily have public comment but still limit the undesirable speech, as this specific example shows... Is that legal? Depends if you have a good lawyer.
I have experience in this. The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled on it. If it’s open comment time, they cannot censor except for obscene or threatening speech. All they can do is set a time limit. Don’t cuss or make violent threats and you’re good. If they censor you it’s an open and shut civil rights case.
If it’s a public hearing for a specific matter, they can restrict comment to that topic.
Seems like an opportunity for malicious compliance …. Perhaps everyone can speak up against stifling public input “on matters like F*ck cameras”
Wow how backwoodish xd
Sounds like someone's losing the next election
so it would seem that even at the local level, civil SERVANTS are too big for their britches
Who wants to bet that the county commissioner is raking in massive paycheques from flock?
I don't. I think that the wealthy just collectively decided that the poor are the cause of all their problems.
TL;DR: They are all Cryptofascists.
That’s giving them way too much credit tbh, these guys are too far down (technically “up”) the totem pole. They’ve offloaded their critical thinking and public responsibilities to the first company that said the right keywords. And now that they’re entrenched, they defend them because their ego says they must.
It’s fascism via the convenience-stupidity pipeline.
Asheville let some people speak before they greenlighted an Axon contract that they hadnt even seen yet. Voted for it as if Axon had their family tied up in an undisclosed location. It was very weird.
Leave it up to some southern shit-ass state to stifle free speech. Public forums are just that, public, and shall not be censored or restricted in any way. Fuck this crooked ass panel / board/ whatever.
“We will be heard peacefully or we will be heard otherwise.”
Then everyone gets up and leaves. And next time vote blue.
Yes, we will.
Non paywall
Not surprised and the MAGA fuck nuts will continue to vote for the bastard.
fascist
Sounds like some heads need to roll then, literally.
Careful, white liberals will be here any minute to tell you that such talk is inappropriate and that they just have to get out the vote in November. Clowns.
Why can't people talk about flock in a public forum? They claim its because there's lots of them. I think it's because they just don't want to hear what people think about it. Some kind of ai spy tracking agenda.
According to the second paragraph, Flock is a license plate reader.
That is their stated claim. Tear downs prove that it has more sophisticated surveillance equipment installed and lenses pointed at wider angles to capture drivers photos, pedestrians faces, car makes and models, and send it for processing. It is a wide area dragnet that shares freely with police and ICE.
They are color HD video cameras that store 30 Days of footage when a car or person is detected. They install them in parks and at playgrounds where streets cannot be seen.
The best part is when they listen to their constituents. Wait… they don’t?! I’m shocked!
Also, as Trump said, nobody cares about the Epstein files. It’s a hoax!
Whats the chances this town organizes and resists or campaigns?
It's always white old men. What a surprise ! ...