[toomanyrichies]

"Thankfully, we live in a beautifully democratic and capitalistic society where we can fight in court."

Of course he's "thankful" for that, since in our "beautifully democratic and capitalistic" society, Flock can use their $658 million of VC funding [1] to wage lawfare against the have-nots with their armies of lobbyists and lawyers. [2]

1. https://websets.exa.ai/websets/directory/flock-safety-fundin...

2. https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/clients/lobbyis...

[ahartmetz]

Felony contempt of business model? Weak. Today, companies sue for terrorist contempt of business model!

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/06/felony-contempt-busine...

[bccdee]

It's pretty funny—the only think Deflock does is map out the locations of Flock cameras.

When Flock decides to track people's activities, they're "following the law" and "open to reasonable debate," but when people decide they want to track Flock's activities right back, that makes them terrorists.

[JKCalhoun]

I identified three in my neighborhood—added them to the map.

Watch out, I'm a mad man!

;-)

[notyourwork]

Do as I say, not as I do. It’s a standard operating model for hypocrites.

[paxys]

It isn't even just about money. It's more apparent than ever that freedom, democracy, justice, human rights in this country are increasily reserved for those with the right political alignments.

[overfeed]

The messed up thing is that despite what they think, these dudes will not thrive in the chaotic world they are trying to bring forth.

[otikik]

No, just the right amount of wealth.

Which also tends to lean on a political set. But poor people will be deprived of their liberties be them left or right. For those useful to power it will take just a little bit longer to notice.

[tkel]

Same as it's ever been. When the founders of this country cried about freedom, they meant for themselves to not pay taxes that would cover their debts, not freedom for their slaves or lower-class Americans. After all if you are at the top, then you are literally free to do as you wish

[queenkjuul]

Always was, you're just no longer in the in-group (which used to be slightly less partisan-motivated but equally racially and class motivated)

[therobots927]

It’s not so much about political alignment as much as it’s about your bank account.

[toss1]

Moments later (~1:13) he also said "we aren't forcing Flock on anyone"

False, he is forcing Flock on EVERYONE

No one has permitted themselves to be surveilled. And no, under the radar agreements with local cops and govts do NOT constitute my permission to be surveilled. If they want to go in with fully informed referendums in each community, then I'd accept it. But that is not Flock's business model.

[mlyle]

> If they want to go in with fully informed referendums in each community, then I'd accept it.

I might accept it for this specific case. But, in general, just because the majority wants to do something doesn't mean it's legitimate to force everyone to accept it.

[try_the_bass]

> False, he is forcing Flock on EVERYONE

> No one has permitted themselves to be surveilled

As much as I dislike Flock, this is bad logic. There's no such thing as opting out of surveillance in public spaces. Public spaces are defined by being public, in that everyone (even governments/corporations!) is free to observe everyone else in that same setting.

So in reality, everyone has permitted themselves to be surveilled, purely through the act of being in public.

This idea that there's some kind of difference between me watching you in public and Flock watching you in public is, quite frankly, bogus.

[markhahn]

neither democracy nor being a market economy implies the American state of litigiousness.

it's always interesting to hear the silent part out loud. in this case, he's saying "I can get what I want because I can game the courts".

[ToucanLoucan]

The rich are increasingly uninterested in keeping up appearances.

And really, why should they? We've learned now that there was actually a worldwide network of child rapists purchasing girls from other wealthy child traffickers in positions of power in seemingly every Western nation, and the consensus thus far is to do exactly nothing about it.

Laws are for the poors.

[mullingitover]

> "Thankfully, we live in a beautifully democratic and capitalistic society where we can fight in court."

Probably not great for investor relations for him to be hyping up the democracy angle. They get a big chunk of their funding from Andreesen Horowitz.

[direwolf20]

He knows what he's doing. He doesn't support democracy, just plays it on TV.

[NuclearPM]

Thank you for pointing this out.

Capitalism is great… when it has limits.

Why they supported the fascist:

https://a16z.com/podcast/trump-is-about-to-change-everything...

[yoyohello13]

We still live in a 'Might makes right' society. The only thing that has changed since Medieval times is 'Might' means 'Money'.

[margalabargala]

To be fair this is at least an improvement over Medieval times when 'Might' meant 'ancestry'.

[_DeadFred_]

I still argue that our current capitalist system is nothing more than an extension of the Norman system. Only capitalist executives see even less of the humanity of their ‘customers’ and the damage from their policies/maximal extraction than medieval lords saw in the serfs of the village that their policies/maximal extraction impacted.

[pclmulqdq]

Has anyone filed a CCPA-related lawsuit against Flock for retention and sharing of this data? How about a civil action for stalking? I assume it will just take one creative individual to find the right tort and then Flock will be buried under lawsuits.

Too many people are focused on the criminal aspects of this (4th amendment) and government surveillance. The fact that this is a corporation may give you more options.

[greenavocado]

"Thankfully, we live in a beautifully democratic and capitalistic society where we can fight in court [(...) where we can bankrupt the opposition even if we can't win the case.]"

[platevoltage]

One would wonder what capitalism has to do with having a court system.

[expedition32]

Yeah the whole "justice is blind" turns out to be propaganda that allows the poors to cope.

[joriJordan]

Great. Less runway for hires and product development.

The rich aren't the only ones who can "flood the field".

File all the lawsuits, Flock. Let's get some discovery going. Who is the CEO cozied up with?