Paris Marx asked why license-plate cameras, rather than Ring doorbells or phone tracking, became the focus of public anger. Koebler says the cameras are conspicuous and the contracts are signed by local governments that people can actually confront.
…packages aren't going to be stolen. They feel like they can know when their pizza is here, things like this. Like people are, people who have ring cameras, I know some people, they're obsessed with them. They're using them all the time. They feel like they are deriving some sort of benefit from it.
I know people who are like on the left who still have their ring camera, you know, even though they would generally be critical of it, right?
Exactly. And it's like, you know, we're surveilled on social media and our phones like all the time, but people feel like they're getting some sort of benefit from, you know, being on Instagram or whatever, or having location services on for different apps and things like that. And I think also it's like you can go tweet at Mark Zuckerberg or complain to Facebook tech support that doesn't exist or whatever. Or you can like say you don't like the NSA spying on you, but there's no like place to really vent that frustration in any way that will have a big difference, or at least where it feels like the average person can do something about it. But with Flock Cameras it is so local, it's like a small town has entered into a contract with this company and you can go to a city council meeting and yell at the mayor or you can yell at the city council member that lives three blocks away from you and say, why is this here? I think it's become like this thing that people feel like they can make a difference on. And so that's happening. I think people don't understand the benefit to them of having this surveillance. I don't think there is one…
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And I feel like in some small towns, there can also be a bit more of like the kind of you know, libertarian kind of, you know, I'm taking care of myself, you know, we're looking after one another. You know, why do I then need this, you know, this foreign…
Yeah, I mean, it really is a range. And I mean, I more than 100 towns have canceled their flock contracts. Like, this is a real backlash that has had a real effect. Like, that is, I mean, and some of the towns that have cut their contracts are really big. They're not towns, they're huge cities.…
when you said using a shotgun to shoot a flock camera, I said, okay, that sounds very American. And then when you said taking one and like throwing it into feeding it to a gator. Exactly. I was like, okay, yeah, that's Florida. Yeah, yeah,
