As the internet continues to transform into a collection of walled gardens and AI slop, I find myself more often on Reddit, which still seems to be mostly human-generated content. A few weeks back I was in the Fort Wayne subreddit, reading a post by a person who said their father had recently been busted coming back from Michigan on I-69, where he’d bought a quantity of marijuana. For some reason six ounces comes to mind.
The traffic stop was bullshit, one of those non-offensive offenses police deploy when they want you for something else. The post author said they know their father, and that he is a weed smoker, but not a dealer; the hefty amount was so he wouldn’t have to make so many trips from Indiana to Michigan. But in Indiana, where cannabis remains illegal, six ounces is felony weight, and so it sounds like dad is well and truly screwed.
How did they know he’d be holding? Another poster offered this observation: The freeway between Fort Wayne and the Michigan border has Flock cameras, the AI-enabled license-plate readers that have become popular with cops and municipalities hungry for traffic-violation money. Over time, it’s easy for the AI to speculate on who’s driving to Michigan purely to buy weed — frequent trips, short turnaround time, etc. It’s entirely possible the police were waiting for this moment, and seized it.
I thought of this when I read this WashPost story (gift link) about how the Flock camera network has become a so-called rogue cop’s best friend:
JEFFERSON, Ga. — Marci Bakely couldn’t understand how her ex-boyfriend always seemed to know where she was.
When she went to buy groceries or on a date or to the doctor, he’d text her about it, sometimes within minutes, despite working 15 miles from her home as a police chief in a small town in the Atlanta suburbs. One day in 2024, when he incorrectly suspected that she’d gone to see a man against his wishes, he messaged her, “I didn’t think you would slip up,” according to texts she shared with The Washington Post.
Bakely, 50, began to feel like she was constantly being watched. She says she installed three cameras around her home and on her patio, to see if he was staking out her cul-de-sac. She bought a hidden-camera detector and nervously waved it down every wall. Three times, in desperation, she says she drove her Kia to a mechanic’s shop, asking them to scan for trackers on her car.
But it wasn’t a tracker on her car. It was Flock, and the database her cop ex could easily consult:
Like thousands of other law-enforcement agencies across the United States, his police force could follow cars spotted by Flock’s sprawling network of artificial-intelligence roadside cameras, which record passing license plates into a mappable database that officers can search while investigating crime.
Bakely’s ex was one of at least 50 LEOs to use the network for non-crime fighting reasons, about half of those to stalk or spy on women. I really, really hate the surveillance state this country is becoming, especially when it’s so easy for bad actors in uniform to use it for nefarious ends.
Where I live, these cameras have been donated by a public-safety nonprofit, and their website is full of happy statistics about all the crime they’ve prevented, the lost children recovered, etc. It’s not hard to envision a future when police spend less and less time on actual patrols or developing intelligence, and more looking at screens and responding to alerts generated by AI analysis of who’s driving where.
And stalking exes, of course. Can’t forget that.
Folks, my week of hell is pretty much over, but Election Day awaits on Tuesday, so we’ll see how it goes. I figure by Wednesday I can finally truly relax. Of course, it didn’t help that I stayed out late Saturday night to see the Gories in Detroit, but it was a very fun show, and I’m entitled to enjoy my life in the go-go phase of my retirement. Slo-go is only a few short years away.
Dorothy said on August 3, 2026 at 8:37 am
Just sliding in to thank you for mentioning a WaPo story. My daughter and her colleagues continue to work very hard on doing good journalism, contrary to what lots of people believe these days.
Also, speaking of the WaPo, yesterday there was a story about 7 ice cream destinations that just made me want to grab my purse and jump in the car (or our new Silverado!!) and make a stop at several of them. My first choice? Moomers in Traverse City, MI. Who wouldn’t love to have a scoop of Cherries Moobiliee?!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2026/08/02/these-us-ice-cream-shops-are-worth-trip-according-experts/ (I don’t think I can gift link this article)
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Deborah said on August 3, 2026 at 9:27 am
My man Norman Borlaug https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JF46O8BgTq0&pp=iggUQAFKEEtqV2kzSDBRWVZ5Z1VmNkg%3D&ra=m
This is part of 250 for 250, one minute videos of famous Americans, there will be 250 of them by the end.
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Icarus said on August 3, 2026 at 10:35 am
This is the surveillance state we were warned about.
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alex said on August 3, 2026 at 12:53 pm
I was about ready to quit the Post once and for all after the editorial board tried to “both-sides” the face-off between Rand Paul and Anthony Fauci. Instead of calling out this bad-faith congressional hearing for what it was, it faulted Fauci for wisely accepting the advice of his counsel and declining to play along. The EB also seemed to be advancing the right-wing narrative that Fauci was a media whore whose professional judgment was compromised by his swelled head.
I wouldn’t be surprised at all if the cops around here were relying on Flock cameras to bust Michigan dispensary customers. I subscribe to KPC News, which publishes the local news in the four northeasternmost counties, and the police blotters consist largely of drivers popped for possession of marijuana, many of whom travel from quite a distance downstate, but plenty who are local as well. I wouldn’t be surprised if the cameras were trained on dispensary parking lots and delivering data in real time.
Fortunately there’s an app for fighting the fuzz when you want your buzz: https://dontgetflocked.com/maps
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Deborah said on August 3, 2026 at 3:08 pm
This digging into Fauci again by Republicans is part of their desperation, they’re trying communism, Covid, etc etc whatever they can think to dredge up again to try to make MAGAs mad before the midterms so they vote. I figure they’ll bring up things like Monica Lewinsky and who knows what all else to try and get some press over stuff no one thinks about anymore. If they can wring something out of abortion they’ll be trying that once more, also gays, trans, pet eating, caravans, weed, you name it. Ho hum.
Meanwhile we all know there aren’t any negotiations going on with Iran, just lies and more lies about it. But it’s all OK because Trump won another golf tournament which shows how talented he is, doncha know.
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Jeff Borden said on August 3, 2026 at 3:12 pm
I picked a great time to reread “1984,” where the telescreen surveillance society built in Oceania is so focused the protagonist, Winston Smith, is called out by name during the mandatory exercise program when he’s slacking off. Remind me. How long ago were the Don’t Tread On Me followers howling about government overreach? Where have all those howls of anguish and despair gone?
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Scout said on August 3, 2026 at 3:34 pm
It’s interesting to me that they want to remind the public about the orange satan’s 2020 covid fuckuppery, since it was likely the main reason he lost that election. All weekend my socials were filled with first responders and medical folks who, during the pandemic were working round the clock at the risk of their own lives to saves the lives of others and who 100% credit Fauci for his work to end the crisis. This kangaroo court nonsense seems to be for the benefit of only the cult, which doesn’t seem would really help the junta with their midterms problem. But what do I know.
The other thing that consumed my feed this weekend is the WNBA drama surrounding Sophie Cunningham, aka MAGA Barbie, due to her anti-trans culture war shit. Being just an average player, she seems to be auditioning for a nice cushy right wing welfare job after she retires from bball. Huge props to Coach Cheryl Reeve for wearing a ‘Trans Kids Belong’ shirt to the Lynx/Fever game yesterday.
My team, The Mercury, just added Kelsey Plum to the roster, so that’s exciting.
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Brandon said on August 3, 2026 at 3:34 pm
Who needs marijuana when there’s sugar cream pie? 🙂
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Scout said on August 3, 2026 at 4:03 pm
But Brandon, sugar cream pie is so much more delicious after some weed!
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Sherri said on August 3, 2026 at 5:05 pm
It’s so frustrating to me that people don’t understand or seem to care that banning trans kids from girls’ sports actually harms women’s sports. You want to drive girls away from sports? Make them have to prove that they’re female enough to play! Make them either have to show their genitals to someone, or pay for a DNA test, to test for a gene that doesn’t even convey any performance differences. Make any kid who doesn’t practice femininity to a particular standard deal with other people questioning her gender, if she’s athletically gifted.
Pair all that with the Heritage plan to gut Title IX by pushing for wellness classes to meet proportionality, and women’s sports will wither on the vine. Women’s sports didn’t come about to serve women, they were created to keep women out of men’s sports.
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alex said on August 3, 2026 at 6:11 pm
And lest we forget, Billie Jean King beat the shit out of Bobby Riggs.
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Julie Robinson said on August 3, 2026 at 7:00 pm
The theatre community has been a safe place for trans people so when Hadestown cast a virulently anti-trans actor, the community rose up to object. And now he won’t be in the show. The pro shot currently in movie theaters features the same trans woman we saw in England, so it was truly bizarre casting in the first place. Actor not well known, either. But the producers listened and changed their minds. It can be done!
My WaPo subscription runs out in October and I’ve already given next year’s money to Ron Charles, the book critic they unceremoniously dumped, over on substack. I’m still reading until it runs out and agree with Dorothy about the good work of many. The Fauci stuff has been awful.
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