Do Americans really want this crap? I can’t believe that we don’t hold our governments accountable.
Reminder that the flock cameras are easily hacked and ICE are as comically insufficient as they are unnecessary.
Is it “hacking” when they are broadcasting on public open internet?
ICE are morons but armed and pathetic, which means they will shoot you if you hurt their feelings
If I see ICE in my neighborhood I’ll have my camera out and my pew pew in my belt
In other news (well, from April): https://post.parliament.uk/facial-recognition-technology-in-policing
How does an American hold their government accountable? They vote but what can be done between elections?
They vote but what can be done between elections?
Lots of things can happen at the local level.
Example. Municipalities are banning Flock cameras locally. It’s small but rapidly gaining ground. The ore momentum it gets, the easier for others to join in. There’s even a national bill now b/c so many ppl hate these. Bipartisan support. Aims to block ALPR nationwide except for a few uses like highway tolling. The bill is not perfect. But do not fall into the trap of thinking not perfect means useless.
Most ppl don’t want to live in a surveilence state. It feels hopeless but we have ways to push back. It won’t happen overnight. But over time we can make a diff.
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They don’t. In America politicians choose their voters, not the other way around…
One thing that makes this all difficult is the size and fragmentation of America. American states are the size of European countries and separated by subculture and geography. Organizing a state to hold its state government accountable might be doable in some states, but holding the federal government accountable is fifty times harder at least. Then there’s coordinating messaging and organizing across states. I’m not saying it can’t be done, but it’s no small feat. The will of the American people moves in slower, more inexorable tides.
This is the missing piece most people don’t get. If any one European power has access to an entire continent of resources they would be pretty well off. This is American Exceptionalism in a nutshell.
Of course it wasn’t actually our continent. We had to engage in a lot of genocide to acquire the land. The strangest part is that there was so much land we could have easily lived in peace. So it really was a conscious decision to go around and exterminate all the tribes.
Between genocide and the slave trade the US was absolutely abysmal when it came to human rights. Something that has never changed. The only reason ithe US was so successful was again because of so much space.
Not only does the size of America make organizing to influence the federal government hard it also acts as a buffer for the decline that is being engineered by the wealthy class. There is plenty to go around, but it is never enough for them. If our country was smaller people would feel these shit policies much quicker and react.
Yeah, well, nobody started shooting the fuckers before they could get spooled up
