Meet the Candidates Putting Bullets in Flock Cameras

Por Sophie Hurwitz — Mother Jones Magazine

In a campaign ad released Monday, Seth Bodnar—an Independent candidate running for U.S. Senate in Montana—warns viewers that Flock Safety cameras are tracking Americans “getting groceries,” “going to church,” and “buying ammo for the season.”

He then sets a surveillance camera on a tree stump, pulls a shotgun from his car, and just absolutely blows the thing away.

Trump says he ‘likes’ Flock cameras,” Bodnar wrote in a social media post. “I say ‘Flock off.”

Given America’s deep-seated gun culture—and mounting public frustration over automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras—it makes a kind of sense that Bodnar isn’t the only candidate for national office taking aim at automated police surveillance.

Adam Heimerman, an Independent running for Congress in Tennessee’s 2nd Congressional District, allegedly used a shotgun to shoot four Flock cameras this past July. He couldn’t stand the sight of them on his way to a job as a river guide, he told the Washington Post.

So, while Bodnar (presumably) bought his own camera to shoot, Heimerman (allegedly) did some target practice with four government-owned license plate readers.

“When people act out in a manner that we’re witnessing, things have gotten bad, and they no longer feel like they’re being heard,” Heimerman said at the time. “People are tired of being told to sit down and be quiet and write a letter.”

Heimerman’s chances of winning against Republican incumbent Tim Burchett were already slim before he was hit with four felony counts of vandalism. Bodnar, who was until recently President of the University of Montana, might have a better shot. The most recent poll in his race has him only eight points behind his Republican opponent Kurt Alme—and Bodnar’s anti-surveillance stance might just close that gap.

In his camera-blitzing video, Bodnar points out that Alme has refused to take a position on surveillance. Other Republicans do not seem to have the same reservations. In the past month, the Republican governors of Florida and Texas have backed off of funding ALPRs on their roads, citing privacy concerns; in late August, Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) launched an investigation into Flock Safety for assembling an “unprecedented national surveillance network” without Americans’ consent.

But divisions around the technology are emerging within the Republican Party. While Hawley might take the side of the camera-shooters—and of the Americans who share their surveillance concerns, if not their explosive tactics—President Donald Trump has declared his support for the cameras.

“I sort of like them…because of law enforcement, but some people don’t,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One last week, as the Washington Post reported. “They think it’s an infringement. I like them.”

Fonte: Mother Jones Magazine