It’s a shame we’ve run out of frontiers and undiscovered lands where young people can expend their energy in a constructive manner. Now they must conjure up first-world windmills at which to tilt, with varying degrees of silliness.
Generally speaking, leftists choose to champion the utterly indefensible. Mass illegal immigration, gender lunacy indoctrination beginning in infancy, institutional racism, men in women’s sports, abolishing law enforcement and prisons, and of course, straight-up socialism and communism are just a few of their incomprehensible present-day fetishes.
Now they have a new cause, and truth be told, I even have one or two conservative friends who agree with it. Most people don’t, though, and can easily explain why.
The cause is the alleged privacy threat posed by Flock cameras, also known as automated license plate readers (ALPRs). But let us dispense with that notion right away: The truth is that no one who is out in public has a reasonable expectation of privacy. You just don’t. If I can see you, then there you are!
The U.S. Supreme Court has definitively come down on this side. In the 1983 case United States v. Knotts, the Court found that “a person traveling in an automobile on public thoroughfares has no reasonable expectation of privacy in his movements from one place to another.” It is not a Fourth Amendment-restricted search. Subsequent cases have placed limitations on cell-phone tracking data and extensive digital surveillance without a warrant, but the core principle that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in activities or items knowingly exposed to public view in public spaces remains untouched.
Even in the most paranoid scenario, where sinister government forces are targeting an innocent civilian, the quarrel is with the stored data. The camera that is minding its own business, helping cops catch car thieves and criminals, locate wandering dementia patients, and rescue Amber Alert victims, is not the problem.
No matter! Here comes The Guardian with a push piece promoting — er, reporting on — the "growing vigilante movement to knock out Flock surveillance cameras."
The article chronicles the adventures of "NoMark," as he calls himself, who "spoke to the Guardian under condition of anonymity to discuss potentially illegal acts." It's all very cloak-and-dagger, you see. Very heroic, courageous, and righteous vigilanteism. Romantic stuff!
NoMark, as he’s known on Instagram, had already gained an online following of hundreds of thousands for posting videos of himself wearing a black mask and taking on small-time vigilante missions: breaking up fights outside a bar and breaking into a refinery he believed was “polluting the city real bad”. The Minnesota Star Tribune dubbed him “Minneapolis’ Batman”.
And if Minneapolis weren't determined to beclown itself on a national basis almost daily, it might even be cool to be called "Minneapolis' Batman."
The article goes on to describe the virtuous lad's criminal property destruction heroics in breathy prose:
Across the street from a Taco Bell, NoMark couldn’t stop thinking about whether he would get caught, and the adrenaline felt paralyzing – even though this felt “on brand” for his online persona, which has won him more than 700,000 followers on Instagram and TikTok. After a few minutes of not spotting any cars on the road, he climbed a few feet up the pole, taped up the camera to block its lens and snipped the wires that powered the whole operation. Then he ended his phone’s recording and fled.
Nowadays, NoMark is much calmer on these excursions, and it only takes him a few minutes to get the job done after having taken down more than a dozen cameras, he says. But he still assumes the police are looking for him. Even if he does get arrested, he’s hopeful the charges won’t be too severe – and more important, he “just wants to send a message”.
The writer also dutifully quotes Flock officials, to be sure, but it's not hard to tell which side she's on. Let's just say that there are links aplenty — to follow the valiant NoMark on his social media accounts, to contribute to the defense fund of a brother criminal who got caught, to learn more about how you, too, can destroy private property, to a crowd-sourced map of cameras to target, to an anti-camera organization, and even to learn more about the upcoming "week of action" against what most sane people recognize as nothing more than an extremely useful and effective law enforcement tool.
Like all law enforcement tools, Flock cameras could be used nefariously, but that's already illegal. In the meantime, they are an exceptional force multiplier for law enforcement, saving taxpayers money, catching bad guys, and helping to do many kinds of good. No wonder the lefty kids fear and target them.
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