Flock Doesn’t Like Being Watched

Just as Gavin Newsom and other “COVID” tyrants didn’t abide by their own “guidelines,” Flock camera installers don’t like being watched, either.

A guy named Brendan Keefe who works as a journalist for InvestigateTV  got a tip from his daughter that someone was putting up a Flock camera near his home in Atlanta, GA. He went to the location to watch and record what was going on, just like the Flock cameras watch and record us. When the Flock installer got in his Flockmobile, Keefe followed, to see where he went next and to watch what he did next – just like the Flock cameras do to us. Apparently, what’s good for the goose is not good for the gander. The worker who was putting up the Flock camera called the cops on Keefe, who was treated to a Hut! Hut! Hut! for doing what Flock does. The cops rolled up on him and detained him for nearly 20 minutes, despite Keefe’s not having done anything illegal.

Just like Flock says it’s not doing..

InvestigateTV acquired the Flock worker’s 911 emergency call. “I work with Flock Safety. And I called originally because I’m getting followed . . . I was getting harassed, pretty much. Taking videos and pictures. And now, the same vehicle that pulled over where I was working at has been following me.”

Italics added.

The insolence astounds.

Isn’t “taking videos and pictures” exactly what Flock cameras do? Lots of people feel “harassed, pretty much” knowing that Flock cameras are “taking videos and pictures” of them almost literally everywhere they go – and (the word causes the bile to rise) sharing these videos and pictures with the very Hut! Hut! Hut! crew that Hut! Hut! Hutted! Keefe.

The Flock worker “described Keefe’s car and, later, Keefe himself, down to his hat and high-visibility vest.” Just like Flock cameras do – to millions of us, every day, all over the country. Currently, there are estimated to be around 120,000 of the Flock cameras up and taking videos and pictures of us. The argument Flock trots out is that in public spaces, there is no right to privacy but that is entirely beside the point.

The point is that it’s creepy.

Pathologically creepy. We are not talking about just been seen by other people who happen to be in the same public space as you are. We are talking about purposely watching and recording what everyone is doing when they are out in public. It is authoritarian voyeurism; the institutionalization of pathological creepiness.

It is creepy enough when a neighbor – or some random stranger – is obsessively interested in watching you. A long time ago, this sort of person was satirized in the TV sitcom Bewitched. The neighbor lady – Mrs. Kravitz – was a busybody constantly watching her neighbors. Her husband understood how creepy this was. Everyone understood how creepy it was. It was funny, back then, because everyone agreed it was creepy. 

It is far creepier when it’s not just a nosy neighbor but a creepy privately owned company in cahoots with the Hut Hut! Hutters! – that is to say, the state’s enforcers.

Some people will say that (sigh) if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear. This assumes all laws are good laws and that bad people will never go after good people who disobey bad laws. Like they didn’t during “COVID,” if anyone remembers. Imagine how much harder it would have been to “get away” with not “masking up” or ignoring “lockdown” orders if the moment you left your house, a Flock (or some other) camera snapped pictures and videos of your bucking the “rules.”

Perhaps the creepiest part of these Flock and other cameras is that they are privately controlled. The tyrannies of the past were all state tyrannies. The private sector was its philosophical antithesis, which is why the worst state tyrannies  – such as the old Soviet Union and its East European vassal states, such as the former East Germany – eliminated it altogether. Mussolini famously said: “All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.” This Flock camera business is the privatization of tyranny.

For profit, too. That (along with instilling obedience to the state) is part of the whole point of the thing.

The state spends money enforcing tyranny. Prisons cost money. Even shooting people and dumping them into a mass grave costs money. It is a big part of the reason why the old Soviet Union went bankrupt. So why not privatize tyranny? Hand it off to private, for profit companies such as Flock and let them make a fortune tyrannizing the population and – this is the best part – let the government wash its hands and claim they’re clean while enjoying the enhanced control over the sheep?

Is it an accident that “Flock” is the name of this company?

One of the Hut! Hut! Hutters! sent to investigate what Keefe was investigating noted that Keefe was just “trying to catch this person on video setting up the Flock cameras, but it was not to where you know so close as to break any laws or give the appearance he was stalking him, or anything like that. Yeah, he was following him, but he was not chasing him.”

In other words, he wasn’t doing anything illegal – just maybe (to the Flock guy) a little creepy. Hilariously, the Flock worker expressed “concern about being identified.” One of the Hut! Hut! Hutters! also said the worked was “concerned about privacy.” Keefe pointed out the incongruity to the Hut! Hut! Hutter! “So just to be clear, he’s entitled to his privacy in a public place? Isn’t that the whole argument that people are criticizing Flock for?”

Well, it’s part of it.

If all the Flock cameras were doing was watching, then it’d be more Kravitz-like. Still creepy as a funny uncle but not tyrannical. The tyrannical part is that it’s much more than just voyeurism. It’s the authoritarian other part.

The cameras are being erected everywhere to catch us for everything. Not for stealing, not for beating people up – although those are the excuses given to the soft-headed sheep who believe them – but for every act of mere disobedience, in order to assure complete obedience based on the knowledge of certain consequences for any such. No more “getting away” with anything. Not without paying for it – literally. Not wearing a seat belt? “Speeding”? The fine is in the mail almost as soon as you passed by the Flock camera that noted the “violation.” Those are penny ante things, of course. The worse things will follow inevitably.

That’s why Flock and these other creepy cameras are so dangerous. Maybe Garrett Langley – the CEO of Flock Safety – doesn’t think so. Maybe we ought to install cameras in his bathroom, so we can watch what he does in there. Maybe we ought to have eyes on his kids, too. Nothing creepy about that, right?

“We do not object to members of the public or press photographing Flock cameras or personnel in public,” Flock said in a statement. “Employees and contractors working in the field are expected to prioritize their safety and may contact law enforcement when they believe they are being threatened, harassed, followed, or otherwise face a safety concern.”

Italics added.

Well, who the hell do we call when we believe we are being “threatened, harassed, followed, or otherwise face a safety concern?”

Smash the cameras, yes. But far more important is smashing the Kravitzes among us.

. . .

If you like what you’ve found here please consider supporting EPautos. 

We depend on you to keep the wheels turning! 

Our donate button is here. 

 If you prefer not to use PayPal, our mailing address is: EPautos 721 Hummingbird Lane SE Copper Hill, VA 24079

PS: Get an EPautos magnet or sticker or coaster in return for a $25 or more one-time donation or a $10 or more monthly recurring donation. (Please be sure to tell us you want a magnet or sticker or coaster – and also, provide an address, so we know where to mail the thing!) If you’d like a Baaaaa hat or other EPautos gear, see here!