After Town Bans Flock, Councilmember Crashes Out, Proposes Internet, Phone Ban

arikrahman

I was expecting the headline to be sensational but a crash out was exactly what happened. The bad faith non-sequiturs is the cherry on top.

fred_is_fred

Does Texas have open records law for politicians? He's taking this personally, which means he has a personal stake in the outcome.

dogleash

Doesn't he know you have to be tech-coded to have unhinged takes on the necessity and inevitability of ubiquitous intrusive surveillance and be taken seriously?

wagwang

:) he's not wrong, it is all surveillance

VoidWhisperer

Since these town council members are elected, I hope this guy has no aspirations of getting elected again, because he basically just showed everyone in his town that he can't be reasonable - that it is either none (no electronics at all) or all (privacy invading stuff like Flock)

kube-system

Sounds like it is the ripe time for others to respond earnestly with a GDPR-like proposal for all internet and phone providers :)

curiouser2

https://archive.is/WGZoe

0xbadcafebee

Do they not get that surveillance doesn't actually make anything safe? It makes it so you can prosecute after the crime has already been committed. It's not like thieves will go "I was going to rob this 7-11, but damn, they have security cameras inside!" The cameras are there to intimidate. Criminals aren't intimidated by prison time.

beepbooptheory

Just wanna say I am happy 404media is, presumably, not banned here anymore!

382hi

archived: https://nonogra.ph/after-town-bans-flock-councilmember-crash...

everyone

I think going on the internet should require an internet driving license. The test to get one would include displaying the ability to tell reality from fantasy.

jayd16

How useful could it be if the poles are vandalized regularly?

intrikate

"...Flowers said, "I believe personally that guilty people act defensively. If you don't have anything to hide, then it shouldn't be a problem." Oh boy, back to this crap again. If that's true, for you to be acting this defensively sure is sending some signal.

Bjartr

The link under "would be introducing measures"[1] has the full statement from the councilmember where he describes the proposals he will be bringing: > A Modest Proposal for Digital Device Prohibition: A total ban on all cellular and GPS-capable devices for all operations within city limits. > A Modest Proposal for Total Surveillance Abolition (Residential & Commercial): A total ban on all outward-facing cameras > A Modest Proposal for Total Municipal and Commercial Decommissioning: A total termination of all internet services and electronic record-keeping For those that didn't catch the reference, he's alluding to the 1729 publication by Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver's Travels >A Modest Proposal For preventing the children of poor people in Ireland, from being a burden on their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the publick. Which was a satirical work suggesting that the Irish poor's financial woes could be addressed by eating children, thus feeding people while reducing resource demand. [1] https://www.banderabulletin.com/article/3093,council-votes-t...

1vuio0pswjnm7

Flowers would make a great HN commenter Classic "all-or-nothing", "black and white" argument style It's either one extreme or another If the town wants to ban Flock cameras then surely it also wants to ban all outward-facing cameras, GPS-capable devices, cellular network devices, internet service and electronic record-keeping There is no option to go back to a few years ago before Flock cameras were installed. Nope, the town must go back to "1880, paper ledgers and cash only" Totally absurd

casey2

It's very odd that many town council in the US view their citizens as resources to exploit rather than fellow town members and friends. They should not have such a single minded focus on growth metrics. Leave corporate work to the corporations leave social work to the governments. That's how China does things, e.g. 12345