Darth Vader shows up at city council meeting to talk Flock cameras
The short version: A Darth Vader cosplayer's Flock camera joke at San Diego City Council lands harder than most testimony because the surveillance state really is that on-the-nose.
Our Take
Credit to KHOU 11 for airing this clip, because sometimes satire does what a hundred policy memos can't: it makes the absurdity land in ten seconds flat. A guy in a Darth Vader costume telling city council "the emperor is a fan of Flock" is a joke, but it's also just... accurate. An automated network that logs where you drive, when, and how often, with no warrant and often minimal oversight, is exactly the kind of tool an empire would want. The costume is funny. The underlying point is not.
What's notable is that this bit landed at a city council meeting at all, which means someone in San Diego is still fighting over whether these cameras belong on their streets. That fight is happening in city after city, and it keeps happening because Flock's rollout has outpaced the public debate that should have come first. Councils approve contracts, cameras go up, and only later do residents start asking who's actually looking at the data and for how long.
If you want to know whether your own neighborhood has quietly joined the empire's camera network, check our map. And if you'd rather not wait for a stormtrooper joke to make your city council pay attention, there are real steps you can take now at take action.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of KHOU 11, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.