'No Kings' protest begin nationwide with flagship rally in Minnesota
Source: NBC News Politics · Bias: Center Left
Summary
Throngs of protesters gathered Saturday in cities across the country as demonstrators launched a third round of "No Kings" protests against the Trump administration's policies, with the flagship rally in St.
'No Kings' protest begin nationwide with flagship rally in Minnesota
Center Left
Throngs of protesters gathered Saturday in cities across the country as demonstrators launched a third round of "No Kings" protests against the Trump administration's policies, with the flagship rally in St.
Resistance is mounting across the United States against the increasing use of surveillance tech company Flock Safety’s cameras, with a growing number of cities canceling contracts as the artificial intelligence-powered license plate readers are quietly being installed in thousands of locations nationwide.State and local police departments first used the Atlanta-based company’s automated license plate reader (ALPR) systems for standard law enforcement purposes, but they are now being employed for a much broader range of uses, including immigration-related searches and other actions supporting US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during the Trump administration’s deadly anti-immigrant crackdown.“We have cameras that are used for everything from illegal dumping to drug houses to hotels that are just big problems,” Flock Safety engineer Kevin Cox told prospective customers during a demonstration of the company’s Condor Camera, according to a Thursday report in The Washington Times.“There are endless, endless uses for what we can do with these things,” Cox added.Those uses include spying on constitutionally protected protest activity and enforcing abortion bans by tracking pregnant people’s travel across states—even ones in which the medical procedure is legal.The ACLU—which recently launched a “Get the Flock Out” campaign to “fight creepy ALPR cameras”—says there are currently between 80,000 and 100,000 Flock devices installed nationwide that conduct more than 20 billion scans per month. More than 5,000 law enforcement agencies use the cameras, and some of them keep their locations a secret.“Flock’s ALPR cameras aren’t like your normal traffic cameras,” the ACLU explained. “This surveillance technology records and tracks every car that comes into view, and then an AI algorithm catalogs the make, model, color, license plate number, bumper stickers, and even scratches. This personal information is then uploaded into a nationwide database that any law enforcement agency with a Flock contract can search—with few regulations or oversight on how they use what they find.”The backlash against creeping state surveillance has even transcended the partisan divide.“I think our country is in a kind of uniquely anti-surveillance environment right now, which is to say that, in a time where it seems there is nothing that is not partisan, opposition to government surveillance is nonpartisan,” ACLU privacy and surveillance attorney Chad Marlow told The Washington Times on Thursday.There is growing action—both legal and otherwise—to end the use of ALPRs across the country.According to the public information project Ban Flock Cameras, 82 Flock contracts were terminated across 28 states between August 2021 and May 2026, with 39 of those cancellations occurring in the first five months of 2026 alone.Even Amazon-owned Ring announced earlier this year that it would stop doing business with Flock Safety.Susie O’Hara, a member of Santa Cruz, California’s nominally nonpartisan City Council, told WBUR earlier this year that she grew increasingly concerned about local use of eight Flock cameras last year after learning that police were sharing data gleaned from the cameras with the company’s national network without city officials’ knowledge, a violation of state laws banning the practice.O’Hara became increasingly convinced that Santa Cruz should cancel its Flock contract after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Good, a US citizen, in Minneapolis in January.“I have goose bumps on my arms thinking about the absolute chaos that was happening in Minneapolis,” she said. “And just the absolute insanity of what we were seeing... It was totally clear to me that we should in no way consciously be in this system at all—just no way.”Less than a week after Good’s killing, the Santa Cruz City Council voted to terminate the city’s Flock contract, becoming the first municipality in California to do so.“For us, the threat to our civil liberties was greater than any benefit we could get from the flawed product,” Santa Cruz Mayor Fred Keeley told KQED at the time.Chad Kemp, who represents District 32 on the nonpartisan Dane County Board of Supervisors in Wisconsin—which in April voted to stop funding two dozen cameras leased from Flock—told The Washington Times that “there’s a public safety issue here, but there is also a privacy issue.”“There are serious concerns about individuals who can be monitored without their knowledge, or if it is even constitutional or ethical to track people without a warrant,” he added.At the national level, US Reps. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) last year launched an investigation into the use of Flock cameras to track pregnant people across state lines for abortion care and to conduct unauthorized immigration enforcement operations.Krishnamoorthi and Sen.
Washington, D.C.’s annual A Capitol Fourth concert will go on as planned Friday evening despite oppressive temperatures expected to climb into the triple digits, though officials are adjusting event logistics and urging attendees to take precautions as a dangerous heat wave settles over the nation’s capital. The U.S. Capitol Police announced Friday morning that the […]
Matt Sledge, who was at the sentencing for the Prairieland defendants, and Mark Bray, author of “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook,” on the timeworn government strategies to stifle dissent.
The post Trump’s Communist Boogeyman Playbook: Charging Protesters as Terrorists appeared first on The Intercept.
A crowd of people gathered at the Great American State Fair on Thursday stopped to gaze up at the sky as several fighter jets streaked over the National Mall. Blake Boggs crouched down to his young son’s stroller and pointed up. “You don’t get to see the Thunderbirds anywhere,” he told The Hill. Despite the…
Superfans and sleuths appear to have their hunches confirmed on Friday, as dozens of black cars dropped off elegantly dressed guests outside of Madison Square Garden in New York City. The wedding bash is expected to last into Saturday morning.
A protester set himself ablaze outside the United Nations headquarters in Manhattan on Thursday evening.
The post Protester Sets Himself on Fire Outside UN Headquarters in New York City appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
World Cup watch parties in Santa Clara and the San Francisco Bay Area brought fans together for the United States vs. Bosnia-Herzegovina match, where the U.S. earned a 2-0 win to reach the Round of 16.
It has been one of the most popular days thus far at President Donald Trump's state fair, but now it's over. Washington, D.C., has reached a level of heat that it is becoming dangerous, and organizers of the fair decided to shut things down until this evening after 5 p.m., the digital signs read. The timeline raised questions from some folks who know the hottest time of day is likely around 5 p.m. "However, it’s going to be hotter at 5pm," said White House correspondent Wid Lyman. The hourly forecast shows temperatures will begin to fall around 7 p.m."It is miserably hot and humid today, genuinely feels like a sauna when you step outside," Fox congressional correspondent Bill Melugin wrote on X.July 3 is the federal holiday being observed for Independence Day, so many people in the area have off work, making it a perfect day for activities. After lackluster crowds, thousands came to the fair on Friday, only to be told it had to be shut down. Friday was also the day that some of the Trump heirs attended. First son Donald Trump Jr. was on hand with his new wife and Tiffany Trump was also there with her husband. Tourists were angry about it, saying they'd never heard of something as absurd as closing a state fair due to heat. "I've never heard of the fair closing bc it's hot and I live in SW MO where they do the fair mid August," said one person. One reason for heat fears is that the biggest attraction, the Ferris wheel, has gondola seats that are largely enclosed, and it isn't air-conditioned. There are also restrictions about what can be brought into the fair, including water bottles. Only clear bottles can be brought inside. Still, those who have spent the week mocking another of Trump's 250 failures were filled with jokes. "All 21 people at Trump’s state fair please go to the nearest exist the fair is closing," quipped democratic strategist Adam Parkhomenko. "Hearing that the "Great American State Fair" may be closing until July 5. Supposedly, an announcement on site," joked Joel Siegel of Spectrum News. As one former Washington, D.C. resident explained, "As a former D.C.-er, let me explain a few things: D.C. is built on a swamp. Humidity even in the 70's F is unpleasant. In the 90's, you feel as if you are being melted into a puddle. In the 100's? Your brain capacity will be low. Is it as bad as Arkansas? Not quite, but it's sticky dehydration. Other than the D.C. National Zoo, which is built inside a small, steam-oven like canyon (but at least has some shade trees), the Mall in D.C. is the hottest spot in the city. It is a long, open trek, getting from 1 building to another. On the 4th, many buildings will be closed by Trump's fools."
