{"id":18038,"date":"2026-07-16T09:02:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T16:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/?p=18038"},"modified":"2026-07-16T09:02:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T16:02:17","slug":"redditors-are-celebrating-the-cutting-down-of-flock-surveillance-towers-with-based-memes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/2026\/07\/16\/redditors-are-celebrating-the-cutting-down-of-flock-surveillance-towers-with-based-memes\/","title":{"rendered":"Redditors Are Celebrating the Cutting Down of Flock Surveillance Towers With Based Memes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Good to see a lot of people aren’t happy about Flock surveillance ALPR and people tracking cameras, but being identified on Reddit and posting about this isn’t smart if you’re participating in the vandalism. And soon Reddit is going to require you be signed in, and they already block a lot of VPN IP addresses. You can access the Reddit group anonymously here: https:\/\/redlib.catsarch.com\/r\/FlockSurveillance<\/a>, through a Redlib privacy proxy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/futurism.com\/future-society\/redditors-flock-surveillance-alpr-vandalism-memes<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n
“Even a single grain of rice can tip the scales.”<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

By Joe Wilkins<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
u\/skips_funny_af via Reddit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The United States is having something of a national referendum on mass surveillance as of late. Embodied most infamously by video surveillance company Flock Safety, Americans from all walks of life are waging war against the proliferation of the company\u2019s automatic license plate readers (ALPR), which the ACLU warns<\/a> now number in the tens of thousands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plenty of communities are organizing campaigns to out-muscle municipal leaders or their cheerleaders on the local police force, and by-and-large, they\u2019re working. Whether in rural towns or sprawling cities, activists who can mobilize citizens to flood council meetings and hold picket signs are finding success<\/a>. Perhaps most prominently, the Los Angeles Police Department<\/a> recently allowed its three-year contract with Flock to expire, citing democratic pushback as a significant pressure point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s also another, less-legal side to the anti-Flock sentiment: a rising tide of vandalism. Not content to wait for local officials to strike down ALPR contracts, concerned citizens are taking matters into their own hands by disabling or cutting down<\/a> Flock camera towers wherever they\u2019re found. But what started as a collection of separate individuals is now rising to the level of a viral phenomenon, as privacy-minded Redditors take to the web to celebrate those who are fighting back with an outpouring of ironic memes and hype reels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ground zero for this community appears to be the subreddit r\/FlockSurveillance. The forum hosts some 422,000 \u201cactivists,\u201d who flood the channel with over 11,000 contributions per week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the top posts on the subreddit are memes celebrating Flock vandalism: there are crude Photoshop jobs re-imagining covers of the Berenstain Bears<\/a> as anti-Flock activists<\/a>, hand-drawn signs encouraging copper thieves<\/a> to cash in on Flock innards, and an ALPR-themed redesign<\/a> of the Gadsden flag, to name a few.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who\u2019ve been caught and charged with vandalizing ALPRs become digital folk heroes on the subreddit. When news broke<\/a> that US Air Force engineer Jeffrey Sovern had been charged in connection to the destruction of 13 Flock devices, redditors flooded the post with praise, sharing links<\/a> to his legal defense fund and encouraging others to donate. (Sovern\u2019s GoFundMe now stands at over $40,000, compared to around $15,440 in early July.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI donated to him because those charges are bulls***,\u201d one redditor replied<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to memes, the subreddit has become a destination for serious discussion around ALPRs and surveillance in general. One developer used the forum as a launch pad<\/a> for their app FlockHopper, a navigation app that helps travelers avoid ALRPs. Others use it to share important developments<\/a> relevant to the anti-Flock crowd, to get advice on Freedom of Information Act requests<\/a>, and to dispel misinformation<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs entertaining a trend as it is, will a few Redditors knocking a few poles over really make a difference?\u201d one redditor asked the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven a single grain of rice can tip the scales,\u201d a user replied.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good to see a lot of people aren’t happy about Flock surveillance ALPR and people tracking cameras, but being identified on Reddit and posting about this isn’t smart if you’re participating in the vandalism. And soon Reddit is going to require you be signed in, and they already block a lot of VPN IP addresses. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech","category-world"],"blocksy_meta":[],"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Jason","author_link":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/author\/jturning\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18038"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18039,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18038\/revisions\/18039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}