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'You will not speak on Flock tonight' - County Commissioner refuses to let residents opposing Flock speak at meeting
by /u/marketrent | 116 comments | 2026-06-12T22:34:21+00:00 Central
Comments
| /u/marketrent Excerpts from article by Jason Koebler, ft. video: [...] "How many people are here for public comment dealing with license plate readers AKA Flock?," Michael Garrison, the chairman of the Madison County Board of Commissioners began the public meeting by saying. Nearly everyone in the audience's hand went up. "Probably most everybody. Per our county policy, I'm going to respectfully ask that you guys take a few minutes to converse with each other, designate one person to speak ... we'll move forward with only one person, whoever that happens to be." "What? No. We all want to speak on this," someone in the crowd said; others can be heard trying to object as well. "You will not speak on Flock tonight," he responds. "One person designated. You can pick that person ... if I gave everyone three minutes to say the same thing, which is opposition to Flock, we'd never get done ... I've spoken. I'm not debating this. I am taking advantage of our policy as it is written to streamline this process, you can either do it or not." "You're in a room full of people who care!," a person in the crowd says. "We're not going to engage in this back-and-forth conversation," he responds. "We're going to allow one person. Pick a person or not." [...] It is common practice at city council and county council meetings to allow all residents who have shown up to speak provide public comment, which is one of the reasons that these types of meetings are often many hours long. At the Madison County meeting, these residents were not allowed to speak, which is much different than the practices we've seen at other, similar meetings. |
| /u/FreshEclairs 100% should have just ignored the rule, then had everyone talk individually about some small local pet peeve and also coincidentally flock cameras. |
| /u/marketrent Invoking a discretionary procedure mid-meeting scuttles preparations. |
| /u/chubbysumo sounds like these board members need to be voted out, and have their peter thiel ball gargling reminder every where they fucking go. |
| /u/NUMBerONEisFIRST They did it in Missouri over data centers! All in favor got voted TF out. |
| /u/raerae1991 Same in Utah, over a data center |
| /u/surprise_revalation We are working on it in Kansas. They tried to sneak one in, in the middle of the fucking city right next to our water tower! Fuck em! |
| /u/WeirdSysAdmin Water? Like out the toilet data center? |
| /u/surprise_revalation Huh? We have a water tower in the middle of the city. They are trying to put a data center right next to it, I'm sure to use it for water. The electric and water bills are already ridiculous in this part of the state due to the city giving every new Tom, Dick, and Harry new business free electricity and water for 20 fucking years! They did it with the Hilton. Did it with the Legends Mall, and a defunct water park that decapitated a lawmakers kid! Bout to do it with Mattel and a brand new stadium we are about to build for the Chiefs! Meanwhile, our resident get fucked with no Vaseline! They won't even get the jobs... |
| /u/PhoenixTineldyer It was a reference to the movie Idiocracy. |
| /u/chubbysumo this is happening here too, and the small town is getting a town charter that prevents the same thing from happening again on the ballot, and it looks like its gonna pass. the town board has gotten no peace. |
| /u/Officer_Hotpants Problem is that all these flock cameras will be heavily embedded in the community already by the time elections roll around. But we can't really talk about what needs to happen. |
| /u/NikoliVolkoff unless they all accidentally are hit by cars or painted over by mistake. |
| /u/Rymanjan Fun fact, did you know high powered lasers are like kryptonite to a camera lens? Permanently burns a hole in their field of vision, just like a human eyeball |
| /u/RememberCitadel This is one of those things people really love to repeat without any testing. The actual power level required is going to be strong enough to damage it from more than a few feet away puts it in permit territory, and even then you need to have it perfectly steady for a long period of time and still be reasonably close. We fucked around with our retired security cameras and various lasers at work, blinding them while the laser is on them is easy if you clamp them to a tripod or something. Doing damage with something held in your hand quickly is nearly impossible. |
| /u/jinjuwaka Should be sued. They're not allowed to tell the public what they can or cannot speak about in meetings like this. It's literally what the 1st amendment is there for. When you work for a government, your time is the peoples' to waste. |
| /u/chubbysumo this costs money, and will likely happen, but takes time. and yes, they can 100% limit the topics of conversations at meetings to be about stuff on the agenda, but they cannot simply refuse to talk about the changes they are making to cater to a billion dollar company with public stuff. |
| /u/dsj79 That's not how they did it in France 🤷🏼♂️ |
| /u/Feroshnikop They hadn't been just ignoring their right to vote for 50yrs though, they never had a vote and were overthrowing a feudal system. America has had the power to simply not pick demented losers to lead them this whole time, they just don't even care enough to go cast a vote. They certainly won't care enough to go throw an actual revolution. America is more likely to vote themselves into a feudal system than to overthrow anything. |
| /u/Alarming-Desk-3861 Yeah let's blame the average citizen & not the rampant voter intimidation and election interference |
| /u/dsj79 You think Americans have a right to vote? If that were true, the politicians would not be able to select their own voters. Or put rules on who can or cannot vote. |
| /u/GildedAgeV2 Yes, and that involved years of starvation and brutal killings. It IS how Hungary got rid of Orban. I know which model I'd prefer. |
| /u/31LIVEEVIL13 There's the easy way where they lose power democratically and go to prison. Then there is the hard way where the elections are plainly rigged and sabotaged or ruled invalid, and the president picked by the supreme court or some such shenanigans. In which case, the only thing you can safely say is that "there will be blood." |
| /u/PyroDesu There's always the Ceaușescu solution... |
| /u/Spokker One of them is facing a recall after it was found out that he visited Flock headquarters and Flock paid for his trip, but he's in the middle of an appeal. https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/oakland-co unty/2026/05/06/oakland-county-commissioner-dave-woodwar d-files-appeal-of-recall-royal-oak-democrat/89968213007/ Oakland County Commission Chairman Dave Woodward has appealed an attempt to recall him in a November election Recall petition language was approved late last month for the group I Am Oakland County over Woodward's handling of a commission vote earlier in the month to get a fleet of drones for the Oakland County Sheriff's Office. |
| /u/Deadleggg Better to just throw them out. |
| /u/carlitospig Yep, someone on that council (maybe all?) were likely given a 'gift' to implement Flock. All these cities seem awfully coordinated, which has literally never happened in American history. Even getting police equipment doesn't happen as fast as this is happening. |
| /u/chubbysumo it is coordinated. They tried speeding thru a datacenter here too. The town board that voted to change the zoning laws and give them free land is being pushed to resign in full, and the citizens are pushing a city charter that puts in place a method for recalls and accountability that cannot be avoided or voted down by the town council, and it looks like its gonna pass the vote. The town council, 2 of the 3 have basically gone awol and stopped showing up at meetings because they just get angry people shouting at them to undo the changes and tell them what they got in return for trying to give google 400 acres of nearly tax free land. the 3rd one apologized but has not revealed what they got, tho, they did post the full contents of the NDA they agreed to, and the MN open meetings act revealed all the emails sent between the lawfirm representing google, and the town board, and showed that the lawyers were basically walking them thru how to do it. Google is trying to get 400 acres for free, as well as nearly free water and electricity, which would jack up the rates for everyone else around here. |
| /u/Beard_o_Bees 'We know what you're going to say, and it runs against our personal financial best interests - so ONE person, 3 minutes is what you get!' |
| /u/GHouserVO Quick way around that in this situation: *"Anyone in here happen to work in cybersecurity? Cool! You guys decide who wants to speak and hit them with both barrels. Folks! These guys know more about privacy issues, and probably more about the tech and how it can and will be abused than most of us. If you have a specific issue, ping them before they speak."* There's nothing that folks in township politics hate more than someone who opposes them that happens to have expertise in the topic being discussed. |
| /u/No_Internal9345 pitch forks and torches |
| /u/Negativety101 Nah. Have the one person person talk about it. Then have everyone else talk about making plans to replace the County Commisioner. And lower his salary. And revoke his benefits. And change the title to "Dickhead" for the rest of the current commisionars term. |
| /u/ProofJournalist Guys, if you really want to say "fuck you" we don't need any of this passive-aggressive bullshit. They should have just smiled, nodded... and then proceeded to have everyone talk about Flock anyway. When there are that many people all in agreement, how are they actually going to stop them? |
| /u/Horrific_Necktie By arresting them. Happens often. |
| /u/DuntadaMan Honestly I would probably have a blast getting arrested with like 50 other people. |
| /u/TheSteelPhantom Getting arrested for speaking your mind about government issues at a government meeting? Sign me the fuck up for that 1st Amendment violation lawsuit! Lawyers would be lining up out the goddamn door to take that case pro bono. |
| /u/Yuzumi Have everyone talk about how they are going to remove him from office for refusing to listen to his constituents. Probably add something about looking into how much he is paid to support the surveillance state. |
| /u/loganwachter Should've walked out as a town and cut the fuckin things down. |
| /u/DuntadaMan Especially since you know they will immediately talk about how they are going through with the flock cameras because there was no complaints |
| /u/XenoZoomie The contact info for this group of hoodlums https://www.madisoncountync.gov/commissioners.html |
| /u/SpitsWorthaGlitter Literally seg-way random stuff into a talk about Flock, like a youtuber about to do an ad-read. |
| /u/0u7c457 Just for future reference its segue. |
| /u/skyfishgoo my parrot has been repeating the word "FLOCK" over and over again, and i just want to know what you lot are going to do about it. |
| /u/ecmcn "Unlike my fellow citizens I'm not here to talk about Flock. I want to talk about how you don't want us to talk about Flock..." (then end with "ps Flock sucks") |
| /u/Suspicious-Spell-130 I'd like to talk about all the geese, and while we're on the subject of flocks... |
| /u/lFightForTheUsers I'd just go up to the mic and boo them for 3 minutes. We all know damn well why we're all here. |
| /u/Many-Wasabi9141 Talk about something like petty crime/break ins/muggings that have happened and include how the flock cameras were supposed to stop all that but there have been no changes. |
| /u/Columbus43219 nah, this guy has his goons from local PD or Sheriff ready to go and start arresting people. |
| /u/DocBiggie Then let him arrest everyone. |
| /u/ProofJournalist I think the problem with modern activism is the fear of actually doing anything meaningful. The activists of the civil rights era understood that sometimes you have to let them arrest you over bullshit if you want to win. It's all a game of chicken. |
| /u/GabuEx "There are so many people here who hate Flock cameras that we'd get nothing done if we let all of them speak." That uhhhhhhhhhhhh sounds like you know what you need to know about it, yeah? |
| /u/Karl_Hungus_42069 He already took their bribe, sorry """""CONtriBUTION"""", theres nothing else to really talk about, is there? Look, hes just trying to make an honest living and sell out each and every person in town for some money. What even needs to be debated? |
| /u/Electronic_Wait_7249 Huh. I wonder if Flock paid for this privilege. |
| /u/DringleDringle Speak anyway. Do not leave. |
| /u/AshleyAshes1984 "Oh no, I'm here to speak about the speed bumps. ...SO ABOUT THE FLOCK CAMERAS." |
| /u/Mixels Yep. Get yourself arrested, then sue the elected official who ordered your arrest. Name them and the officer who follow d the arrest order personally and in their individual capacities in the suit. |
| /u/Hesitation-Marx And then use discovery to open up their accounts and take a big sniff. |
| /u/A_Rabid_Pie "I'm here to speak about my first amendment right to speak freely and petition the government for redress of grievances, those grievances being Flock cameras." |
| /u/ARedditorCalledQuest Yeah it sounds like there's an awful lot of them... |
| /u/OldFroyo6294 Sadly the people in charge would |
| /u/Jay__Riemenschneider The Battle of Athens The Battle of Athens (sometimes called the McMinn County War) was a citizen rebellion in Athens and Etowah, Tennessee, United States, against the corrupt local government, which took place on August 1 and 2, 1946. The citizens, including around 50 to 200 World War II veterans, accused the local officials of predatory policing, police brutality, political corruption, and voter intimidation. |
| /u/Dry-Fill-8343 Sounds like they need a recall |
| /u/ArnoldTheSchwartz They really believe they are the authority on what can and can not be said. Someone should have stood up and told him to resign immediately if he's refusing to do their job. These clowns have no fear... of losing their positions through diplomatic means |
| /u/flummox1234 At that point you pick someone and have them say point blank. Remove the flock cameras or you will be voted out in the next election. The people have spoken. |
| /u/mazzicc There should have suddenly been a room full of people there for public comment about the city council blocking public comment. |
| /u/cjwi There was a time when you'd get tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail for talking to a room full of angry townspeople like that |
| /u/unterterra Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment ... the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. |
| /u/BrightNooblar Everyone pick a specific flock camera near them and speak about it. The zaniness of the meeting will help it go viral and help the commission look extra stupid. |
| /u/ProlapsedShamus The answer to that guy is, "fuck you, my employees don't boss me around." All of these elected assholes forget that. They haven't been crowned nobility because they won a billionaire fueles popularity contest. They are signing up to be servants. |
| /u/Rand0mtask "no, you work for us, asshole" |
| /u/muklan Oh. Im not here to speak on the flock cameras, im here to speak on the value of privacy. Guy behind me? He wants to talk about government overreach. Lady behind him wants to talk about how easy it is to recall a politician..... |
| /u/Fen_ Lady behind him wants to talk about how easy it is to recall a politician The answer is "not very". |
| /u/ArcFurnace Yes, that's what she's complaining about. |
| /u/Capt_Murphy_ But also would never happen unless everyone prepared all together, which I'm sure most at these meetings do not. |
| /u/gizamo Tbf, there was no way to prepare for a government official at a hearing to completely prevent people from speaking like that. I've been to hundreds of meetings, and I've never seen the public shut down like this. But, it also happened in Box Elder with the data center shitshow. It must be a new MAGA Republican tactic. Next they'll call us Chinese and say foreigners can't speak. |
| /u/Capt_Murphy_ Damn, well good on you for being so active. This is definitely a concerning trend that should end as quickly as it's started. |
| /u/FX114 Which just makes the idea of them coordinating one speaker even more ridiculous. |
| /u/CaptainIncredible Oh and bribery? Is someone bribing a local politician? |
| /u/Limp_Distribution Authoritarianism at every level |
| /u/marketrent "policy as it is written to streamline this process" |
| /u/untoldmillions "policy as it is written to streamline this process" because streamlining and getting the chairman home before bedtime is way more important than petitioning your government as allowed for by the first amendment of the constitution. /s |
| /u/Tormentedone007 Maybe we need to know where his home is. |
| /u/joelfarris No need, the dude's right there. Grab him by his ear like grandma used to do and lead him out the door. Fired. |
| /u/bballstarz501 A lot of these elected officials expected cushy jobs and unfortunately for the current elected city council members around the country, we are headed the opposite direction at the local politics level. There are so many things that could be done here by these council members to ease the issue if they cared at all. Shocking that yelling at people that they don't get to voice their concerns with zero follow up or avenue offered for how they can be heard doesn't yield favorable results. Who could have guessed? |
| /u/Reasonable-Job4205 Yea idk why this lunatic thinks his bedtime is more important than literall first amendment use |
| /u/Gasnia Because there is no one to punish him for doing it. |
| /u/BaronMostaza Kind of like that right to a speedy trial where you can get it if you plead guilty to the charges you may or may not be guilty of instead of the highly inflated bullshit charges that only come into play if you make use of your constitutional rights to an actual trial |
| /u/the_amazing_skronus County Commissioners approve all county purchases. Someone got a kick back |
| /u/Foe117 Beholden to corporate interests, not yours |
| /u/Old-Bat-7384 The core of this brand of fascism. Corporate interest dictating public policy, overriding and/or erasing representation. |
| /u/JustDiscoveredSex Fascism integrates corporations into the state apparatus rather than allowing them to operate as free-market entities. Operating under the economic theory of corporatism, fascist states organize the economy into state-run or state-sanctioned syndicates. Under this system, private property and profits are generally preserved, but businesses are stripped of their autonomy and made subservient to national and state goals |
| /u/AlienInUnderpants Can't speak about Flock cameras? OK then, we'll just cut them down without discussion. |
| /u/dragonlax First amendment, never heard of it |
| /u/ohno1tsjoe I believe the 2nd applies as well. Tyranny |
| /u/bkilian93 Im not a 2nd amendment type of dude, but those flock cameras have me second guessing my rights... |
| /u/joelfarris That's, umm, probably a Fourth guessing. |
| /u/DeekALeek Well, I got a Fifth of 'I ain't saying shit' fermenting in a bottle. |
| /u/dirty_cuban Oh don't worry because the 2nd amendment is fake. Plenty of people have been killed by government agents for simply being in the vicinity of their firearm in their home, their car, and out in public. And it's all legal because the cop always "feared for their lives". If the government can exterminate you for having a gun, do you really have a right to have one? |
| /u/WatchThatLastSteph We are not granted rights. We must seize them. |
| /u/r0d3nka "But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security." |
| /u/kitchen_appliance_7 True, and by that logic, all the other civil rights are fake too. |
| /u/moonhexx Well, they are. I've been arrested and questioned for giving the finger to a cop when I was 18. I knew my rights and he had to let me go. Well after they searched me of course. |
| /u/Numnum30s Just outright no voice whatsoever. How has it come to this? |
| /u/Oilpaintcha This used to be the time for tarring and feathering |
| /u/CaffeineAndGrain I also remember a certain French device used for corrupt leaders. I'd remember the name if I hadn't lost my head |
| /u/TripleFreeErr This seems to happen on alot of councils. Flock must be coaching those they bribe |
| /u/Karl_Hungus_42069 Thats what I was wondering, this isnt the same story as the last one is it?? These Flock stories are egregious as fuck These council members obviously and blatantly take a bribe to sell out every single person living in their town/city, and then when everyone shows up to say "wtf?!?!?" they tell the entire town to fuck off. The fucking balls. There was literally a story today on GMA about a Florida man who was arrested because cops put surveillance video of a pedophile into an AI recognition system, and the system tagged the wrong guy, he was arrested, and it took months to get it off his record. I'd be really mad if a council member profited off doing that to me |
| /u/the_real_deal_feel Democracy in action. |
| /u/BadWolfCubed "This is democracy manifest!" |
| /u/XeroTerragoth Get an IR LED for your license plate. No one wil know because you can't see the light from it, but they will show up as a massive lens flare on a flock camera at night. Not sure how legal that is lol so maybe make sure its not illegal first... but I know this works on most security cameras because they sell hats and headbands for the same purpose. |
| /u/SwimmingThroughHoney Flock does WAY more than just look at license plates. From their own website, they say they also "captures and organizes vehicles into categories based on": Resident or non-resident vehicle Type of plate (standard v. temporary) Damage or alterations (i.e. broken taillight, after-market wheels) They've also made public claims about include other vehicle attributes in that like bumper stickers mismatching colors, and dents. They also track the direction of travel of the vehicle. Then they also have audio hardware so it's also listening. And it's not just limited to vehicles since, because it's a camera, it's also capturing people, pets, etc. Flock claims that law enforcement can then search through any footage using natural language (stuff like "anyone wearing a red shirt", etc). |
| /u/Interesting_Remote18 You're missing out a vehicles unique MAC address for wifi/5g/bluetooth. |
| /u/virtikle_two lmao. It also grabs your mac from bluetooth, phone, cars, wifi devices, any other bluetooth device that's broadcasting. They know exactly who you are and what you have. This isn't necessarily unique to flock, but the fact that it's all in relational ai-combed database is. Don't worry flock gets rid of the data in 30 days* *I'm sure nobody else has a contract to keep that data longer that would be awful. |
| /u/cspinelive Flock uses other visual indicators besides the plate to identify individual vehicles. |
| /u/Da_Spooky_Ghost PA has it written into law that any devices that obscures license plate readers is illegal so sadly this would fall under that.... |
| /u/FormerLifeFreak And do they enforce that law? |