A Weird Duality

Every July 4th, Americans celebrate that Americans rebelled against the authoritah of Great Britain. The “Redcoats” – enforcers of British authoritah – have for generations been depicted as tyrants Americans rightfully rebelled against. Here we are 250 years later – and Americans are tyrannized by an authoritah far more all encompassing and private.

These Flock and Axon cameras, I mean. All of a sudden (there were essentially none as recently as 2024) they are everywhere, just about. Even in rural, one-stoplight counties such as the one where I live in SW Virginia. The local government used the money it extracted from the locals via property taxes on what for that reason isn’t really their property (how can you be the owner of a thing that you’re obliged to make perpetual payments on in order to avoid having it forcibly taken from you?) and used to pay Flock – a private company – to put up three Flock cameras in my one stoplight county. Nothing the British authoritah did during the colonial era is as effronterous as this. It at least had the decency to do its own dirty work. There wasn’t at that time this despicable collusion between the state – authoritah – and private businesses that has become standard operating procedure in this country.

I trace it back to the legalizing of collusion between the state and the car insurance mafia. People – some people – cheered when the state made it a legal requirement to hand over money to a private, for-profit operation, thereby assuring lots of profit. They were gulled by the facile argument that forcing people to hand over money to the insurance mafia would assure all drivers had insurance coverage and as a result, they’d no longer have to worry about getting hit by a driver without insurance. It’s an idea as childish as the one about how making it illegal for anyone to own a gun will prevent criminals from having guns. Well, enough people fell for it – because enough people are childish enough to believe it – and now everyone is paying exorbitantly for “coverage” and there are still lots of drivers out there who do not have it.

Well, having set the precedent, here we are. It passes as normal for the state to hand over the money it extracts from you to private companies such as Flock and Axon, to put up creepy cameras that track our movements at our expense.

Some Americans have had enough and are doing what Americans once celebrated. They are rebelling. They are dealing with Flock and Axon cameras the way Americans once dealt with the Redcoats. It is a justifiable rebellion. These cameras have got to go. Something else that has got to go is this business of private companies such as Flock leveraging the state (and vice versa) to oppress us at our own expense. Flock and Axon have no right to watch us, track us and then “partner” with the state, to monetize, mulct and hassle us. The state has no right to use private entities to get around the legal obstacles – such as the Bill of Rights – that limit the authoritah of the state. What the state may not do, private entities ought not to be permitted to do on behalf of the state.

We, as Americans, have the right to resist this. That means doing whatever we have to do to keep private companies from watching (and recording and tracking)  us in public, in “partnership” with the state. Let the state do its own dirty work, openly and accountably. Let smug little creeps such as Garrett Langley – the CEO of Flock – go straight to Hell. Maybe we ought to go to his home and erect an array of creepy cameras to watch every move he and his family make. Maybe he needs some camera in his cars, too – the live feed going straight to our screens.

How ’bout it, Garrett?

Meanwhile, whatever it takes to put the brakes on this. We have the right – the duty – to rebel. If we are supposed to cheer the men who dumped tea into Boston Harbor 250 years ago how can we not cheer the men who Sawzall and bug-spray these got-damned Flock and Axon cameras? How are they, to put it plainly, not also patriots fighting against a tyranny even more oppressive than being expected to pay a small tax for a stamp?

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