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Watch · Our Take

STOP SPYING ON US

Medea Benjamin · 2 months ago

The short version: Medea Benjamin's "Stop Spying On Us" adds a prominent activist voice to growing bipartisan alarm over Flock's ALPR surveillance dragnet.

Our Take

Medea Benjamin has spent decades putting her body and her voice on the line against government overreach, and in "Stop Spying On Us" she turns that same energy toward a threat that's spread quietly into nearly every American town: automated license plate readers. When someone with her track record of calling out surveillance and militarism starts talking about cameras logging where you go, when you go, and what you drive, it's worth paying attention. This isn't a fringe concern anymore — it's a left-right, civil-liberties-first issue that cuts across the usual political lines.

That's exactly the point we keep hammering on at DeFlock The USA. Flock Safety and similar vendors have built a de facto national tracking network, one intersection at a time, often without public votes, without meaningful retention limits, and without the kind of audit trail that would let ordinary residents know who's looking at their movements and why. Benjamin's video is another reminder that this technology doesn't ask for your consent before it builds a timeline of your daily life — your pharmacy visits, your church, your ex's street, your protest attendance.

We credit Medea Benjamin and her team for putting this in front of a wider audience. If the video has you wondering whether these cameras are already watching your own street, check our camera map to see what's been documented near you, and head to our take-action page for concrete ways to push back at the local level, because city councils are still where most of these fights get won or lost.

This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Medea Benjamin, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.