ORLANDO, Fla. - James Fishback, a Republican candidate for Florida governor, held a rally that attracted dozens of young supporters on Tuesday afternoon.
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“It doesn’t matter what you look like, who you vote for or how you pray,” Fishback said to a crowd of young supporters. “You will become prey. You will become sheep. You will become victims of the flock surveillance system. It’s called flock for a reason because they treat us like animals.”
Fishback and his campaign handed out black paper signs for supporters to hold during his rally that said “Block Flock Now.” He also displayed a map that identifies multiple locations flock cameras can be found at around Florida.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union, flock cameras are primarily manufactured by Flock Safety and are advanced motion-activated license plate readers used by law enforcement and private communities.
Police and community organizations use the cameras to recover stolen vehicles, locate missing persons, and identify getaway cars according to the ACLU.
Some Statistics Provided by the ACLU Regarding Flock Cameras:
- 80,000 – 100,000 Flock cameras are currently installed in both urban and rural areas on highways, in neighborhoods, and outside your local hardware store.
- < 1% of cars scanned by ALPRs are connected to any crime or wrongdoing.
- 1-in-10 license plates scanned by Flock license plate readers misread the state.
The ACLU also reported that flock cameras now operate as a massive, connected network where agencies can optionally share their captured data with thousands of other departments nationwide. The organization argues the devices enable mass, warrantless surveillance of everyday citizens, and that the data can be misused or accessed by federal immigration agencies (such as ICE) to track people without probable cause.
READ: ACLU - Fight Creepy ALPR Cameras
“We’re meant to be a free nation and flock cameras put that at risk,” said David Watts, a 19-year-old North Florida native who supports Fishback and attended Tuesday’s rally. “I think flock cameras are a national security threat.”
Watts is part of Generation Z, the age group largely supporting Fishback according to the Federal News Network. The network claims that Fishback “dominates” Gen Z polling, particularly with disaffected and antagonistic factions within the generation of individuals ages 14-29.
Watts thinks that Fishback’s message resonates with younger voters despite some inflammatory comments he’s made about his opponents because he’s willing to speak his mind.
“When you see James Fishback, and then you meet him, [you realize] this guy is real he’s like a real human being and not a robot,” Watts said. “So many of these top politicians are bought out. James Fishback doesn’t do that, he only appeases to the voters and I think that’s why so many people like him.”
READ: James Fishback Dominates Gen Z Poling: Is it Enough to Win Florida Governor Race?
Fishback was criticized by Florida Attorney General, James Uthmeier, for comments he made against one of his Republican opponents, Congressman Byron Donalds according to Florida Politics.
Fishback called Donalds a “slave” as a line of attack in the Governor’s race.
“I think somebody that’s going to call a Black candidate a slave clearly has some intentionality there. I think it’s gross,” Uthmeier said in a June press conference. “I don’t think there’s any room for that in Republican politics. It’s certainly not my brand of politics.”
Fishback doubled down when challenged on the word “slave,” calling Donalds a “tether” with “no right to be complaining about me calling him a slave when he has absolutely no direct descendant of slavery in his family,” according to Florida Politics.
Fishback currently sits second trailing Donalds by 28 points in a poll taken on July 15 by FiftyPlusOne.
“They [American Founding Fathers] did not declare independence to lose our privacy and liberty to this [pointing to the DeFlock.org map of Florida],” said Fishback. “We will not be spied on, we will not be subject to unreasonable searches and seizures, and that is exactly what the flock surveillance state has become.”
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