Flock Off! Rebel Clown Army At SJC BOCC
The short version: Clowns crashed a St. Johns County budget hearing to mock Flock Safety spending, proving ridicule can be as effective as rhetoric in surveillance fights.
Our Take
Credit where it's due: HonorYourOath Civil Rights Investigations captured something local news rarely bothers to cover — ordinary residents using absurdity to puncture the self-serious tone county commissioners rely on to rubber-stamp surveillance contracts. When activists show up to a budget hearing in clown makeup to talk about ALPR spending, that's not just a stunt. It's a pointed statement that the emperor has no clothes, and that six-figure line items for license plate readers deserve mockery as much as scrutiny.
Budget hearings are where this stuff actually dies or survives — not in press releases, not in corporate PR about 'solving crime.' Commissioners vote on renewing Flock contracts in rooms with a handful of attendees, and silence gets read as consent. A clown army forces the room to actually look at what's being funded: a sprawling, largely unaccountable camera network logging the movements of every driver in the county, clown costume or not.
St. Johns County isn't unique — this budget fight is happening in counties all over the country, mostly without cameras rolling or anyone in face paint to make people pay attention. Check our map to see what's already deployed near you, and if your own commission has a Flock line item coming up for renewal, our take-action page has the tools to show up — clown suit optional.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of HonorYourOath Civil Rights Investigations, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.