No Federal, State, or Municipal Agency Should Be Monitoring the Whereabouts of Law-Abiding Residents.
The Fourth Amendment Restoration Act has been introduced in the West Virginia Legislature for two straight years, although it has failed to reach the Governor’s desk. Anders stated in a statement posted to the Freedom Caucus’s X account that mass surveillance has no place in a free society. That needs to be changed.
Flock Safety and similar automated license plate readers are being demanded to be removed from all West Virginia municipalities by the West Virginia Freedom Caucus.
“The Constitution will not be rendered obsolete as a result of technological progress,” Anders emphasized.
By resurrecting the Fourth Amendment Restoration Act, a bill that has previously failed, the Freedom Caucus intends to prohibit all forms of monitoring technology.
The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in state-run surveillance systems would be outlawed by the measure. Facial recognition software, drones used for surveillance, license plate readers, and other similar technologies would be outlawed.
It is being reported that the politicians from West Virginia are part of a “movement to ban Flock cameras.” We should not assume that West Virginia lawmakers intend to outlaw a particular kind of surveillance camera until we have seen the final version of the bill, waited for a vote, and received the governor’s signature.
It is technocracy that should be outlawed. Seriously, every single thing. To illustrate the point, it would be analogous to declaring an impending ban on the Brownshirt s right before the Black-shirts were about to be deployed by the Nazis if we were to outlaw stationary surveillance cameras but not the new type of surveillance drones.
Unfortunately, I really doubt that the governor would sign an all-inclusive anti-surveillance bill. The real test will be when President Trump punishes these West Virginia lawmakers for their support of transforming America into a lockdown technocratic surveillance state. Trump is fully committed to this goal and is offering financial incentives to support it. A strong anti-surveillance law in West Virginia needs Trump’s threat to unseat the governor and GOP legislative leaders. The Thomas Massie approach, in a nutshell, is what they may expect. Also, if any state outlaws surveillance cameras, Trump has the power to revoke highway funding to that state.
If state politicians oppose Trump’s plans to blanket the United States with artificial intelligence data centers and surveillance cameras, we can expect him to try to employ the same bullying tactics he used to neutralize the so-called Freedom Caucus in the United States House of Representatives.
If West Virginia is left to its own devices on this matter, I am convinced that they will give in. A weaker version of the measure is possible, or it will not be signed into law at all. The movement is becoming too large for anyone, including Trump, to halt if at least a dozen additional states follow West Virginia’s example and pass legislation banning surveillance cameras.
In light of the growing techno-fascist beast system in the United States, where the government works with Big Tech to digitally monitor and control its citizens, it is heartening to see at least one state taking a stand and recognizing the importance of protecting citizen privacy.
