Please do not forget to attend the forum tonight if you are able. It will be held at Lyon Chapel on OKWU campus at 6PM.
Topics to notice:
- Why are we having a huge public forum after these devices were already installed? Why were they uninterested in getting your public support BEFORE trying to install all these? Will they take questions from the floor or will they be only prescreened questions? Will anyone on the panel hold a view on Flock other than the Police Department’s position? Will they give you a map showing the precise location of every single device?
- Will they mention ODOT has already told them they’re illegal on ODOT right of ways? Will they tell you this is why they’ve already been forced to move some of them? If they’re illegal on ODOT right of ways, why do they insist on still having them elsewhere in your neighborhood? More info here: http://bit.ly/3E7uQDu
- Will they call them license plate readers all night long or will they tell you that the compute applied to the data once loaded into the nationwide centralized cloud database affords the opportunity to do near limitless artificial intelligence on the images? More context here: https://bit.ly/4hfgSxD
- Will they tell you Flock is being sued in multiple jurisdictions because of the insidious aspects of this technology? More info here: https://bit.ly/40mtbkW
- Can they prove with complete certainty that the data they’re going to share with thousands of other jurisdictions will not be downloaded, screenshot, stored, photo taken of physical screen, intercepted in transit, or replicated into permanent national security storage? Can they prove this data will never be used by federal officials to persecute people with unsatisfactory political views as occurred with January 6, 2021 protesters? More context here: https://bit.ly/3PEhJfA
Overall, it will be more insightful for you to pay attention to what you aren’t told tonight than what you are told. Be prepared to hear an absolute barrage of heart wrenching anecdotal stories of real tragedies and how Flock is allegedly the only way anyone can do basic police work anymore.
Something to remember is that the road to hell is ALWAYS paved with good intentions. In history, almost no one on front lines—including our own local law enforcement who I find to all be honorable people—ever set out to intentionally advance tyrannical abuses of power.
History is fraught with examples that grew slowly and methodically where every single step along the way sounded reasonable and justified to the average person.
The frog is boiled extremely slowly in the pot to keep him from jumping out. The heat is never turned to a boil instantly.
Thank you for all of your continued focus on this.
See you tonight,
Josh