Cops Used Flock to Track a Man Across State Lines for a Pretextual Weed Search

This is the big problem with mass surveillance as a whole. With enough time, they'll find some pretext to bring you in, even if the original crime they want you for is weak.

This will ruin lives, even if they're eventually let go. Jobs lost, evicted from homes, cars towed, pets surrendered and put down.

Lives will be completely derailed, police and judges will not be held accountable. The wrongful arrestees will still be in debt to the local jail and court for various fees they racked up. Trust in the justice system will continue to degrade and more and more violence will be used against people to maintain order.

We hold police to high standards for search/arrest because they have the monopoly on violence. Even if they're wrong, you can't shoot back. Even if they're slamming your loved ones into the pavement, breaking their teeth, you cannot kick the cop in the head or else they have permission to murder you both.

Mass surveillance is a loophole to this contract.

Also Flock, in the past week:

All of Winona Police Department's Flock cameras cut down and stolen

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49171656

241 comments

How Cops Are Trying to Hide Their Use of Flock

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49172076

9 comments

Flock's CEO Faced Me After Its Cameras Led to My Wrongful Stop

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49156650

118 comments

Flock – Chilling Effects: Long Island's Emerging Open-Air Prison

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49148541

38 comments

Leaked Flock Guide Shows How It Teaches Cops to Promote Its Tech

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49158837

17 comments

I'm surprised Trump hasn't federally legalized marijuana as a last-ditch effort to boost his popularity. He's good at embracing popular left-wing policy measures when he needs a boost; stimulus checks worked well for this purpose during his 2016-2020 term.

I am misunderstanding the article, if "The searches came to light in a Wisconsin criminal complaint against Edward Abrams-Phillips, who was wanted for bail jumping on domestic violence charges." he was wanted, why do they need a pretext for the stop?

Also see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-crime