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Who Watches the Watchers?
American Thinker ^ | 20 Jul, 2026 | Brian C. Joondeph

Posted on 07/20/2026 5:20:02 AM PDT by MtnClimber

Trust is important. Verification is essential.

More than 2,000 years ago, the Roman poet Juvenal posed a timeless question: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? — “Who will guard the guards themselves?” or “Who watches the watchers?”

The Romans could never have imagined artificial intelligence, facial recognition, or nationwide networks of automated license-plate readers. Yet their question may be even more relevant today than it was three millennia ago.

Recent debate over Flock Safety cameras illustrates why.

The cameras have become an invaluable law enforcement tool. A stolen vehicle that crosses several jurisdictions can now be identified in minutes rather than days. An abducted child can sometimes be located before the child reaches another state.

Investigators can reconstruct a suspect's movements at speeds unimaginable only a generation ago. These advances are remarkable and save lives and solve crimes.

Few Americans would willingly return to the days when solving a crime depended solely on eyewitness accounts or grainy surveillance footage from convenience stores.

Yet reports have surfaced that individual officers allegedly used these systems to monitor former spouses, girlfriends, or acquaintances for purely personal reasons. If true, those actions are not an indictment of the technology or of law enforcement as a whole. They are a reminder of a far older truth: every concentration of power invites the possibility of abuse.

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS: corruption
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1 posted on 07/20/2026 5:20:02 AM PDT by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

Your cell phone surveils you more than a Flock camera.


2 posted on 07/20/2026 5:20:14 AM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

Just another lost freedom. You used to be able to cross this country without being tracked, now you can’t cross the street.


3 posted on 07/20/2026 5:24:58 AM PDT by Resolute Conservative
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To: MtnClimber
We act like this is something new. Its been this way with every level of technology. Everything is pretty much the same way as it was, we just bitch more now because of the internet. Something that 30 years ago would have been taken care of locally is now a national headline, and over some really really basic crap. We are nation of Drama lovers.
4 posted on 07/20/2026 5:40:10 AM PDT by cdnerds (Vapingunderground)
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To: MtnClimber

Problem: States don’t want to solve crimes because it results in racist crime statistics, especially if it involves black victims. They are cherry-picking cases to even the odds. Having the data becomes basically useless.


5 posted on 07/20/2026 5:43:13 AM PDT by AppyPappy (They don't call you a Nazi because they think you are one. They do it to justify violence. )
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To: MtnClimber

“It’s the Phone Cops, man!”


6 posted on 07/20/2026 5:43:13 AM PDT by dfwgator ("I am Charlie Kirk!")
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To: MtnClimber

“Who watches the watchers?”

The watched.

Who gets to hold whom accountable is a question.


7 posted on 07/20/2026 6:19:56 AM PDT by KrisKrinkle (c)
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To: MtnClimber

“Your cell phone surveils you more than a Flock camera.”

Police need a WARRANT for a cell phone search, they only need a password for a Flock search. That may not be much of a different for Trump and other Republicans trying to prevent the destruction of the country (since Comey and others make up shit to get warrants), but it is a BIG DIFFERENCE for the rest of us. Example, young cop is interested in 16 year old daughter so he signs into Flock to track her movements...not good. He could risk everything trying to get a warrant to for her phone...but he won’t.


8 posted on 07/20/2026 6:23:48 AM PDT by BobL (Trusting one's doctor is the #1 health mistake one can make.)
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To: MtnClimber

Excellent article. We must have accountability.

It is lacking in many areas.


9 posted on 07/20/2026 7:02:36 AM PDT by marktwain (----------------------)
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To: MtnClimber
Thank you for posting this excellent article.

I admit I am a little disappointed an article like this gets 8 replies, but...a thread on "Man arrested after surfing naked on top of moving locomotive" gets 64 replies!!!! Well, given my observations below, I guess I shouldn't be surprised...especially since I was one of those 64 replies on that thread...:)

I think that proves that fundamental human nature doesn't change!

Anyway, here was my observation from the locked thread that was a duplicate of yours:

An excellent article from Brian C. Joondeph at American Thinker. He makes an excellent point:

"...Technology doesn’t change human nature. It amplifies it..."

I just finished reading the Bible from cover to cover recently, and although it took me a long time (nearly two years...because I had to scale back my reading speed in an attempt to take it all in...when I read something interesting, I tend to speed up) it made one thing absolutely clear to me:

Fundamental human nature has not changed at all since creation. Many things have changed drastically and nearly unrecognizably. We may have changed social mores on a large scale (ie. Slavery is now widely considered to be a bad thing, even if it is still practiced in a variety of ways)

And Technology has changed dramatically in ways the ancients would never have foreseen. But the one thing that is constant is fundamental human nature.

Reading the Bible drove that home in me, again, and again. And while all the positive traits of human nature are also relatively unchanging, it is the unchanging negative traits of human nature that struck me so decisively. Pride. Greed. Lust. Envy. Gluttony. Wrath. Sloth. Hate. Anger. Jealousy. Deceit. Criminality. Violence. Basically, the Seven Deadly Sins, and more.

And Technology, which has changed our lives in so many ways, has done so in both good ways and bad ways.

As the author accurately states in the article: "...Throughout history, every transformative invention has brought both promise and peril..."

And that Promise has been amplified...as has the Peril.

I have long held close the belief that there is a duality in nearly everything, that is, for every good thing, there is a potential bad thing associated.

For example, a hammer can be used to build a beautiful home, or it can be used to bash in the head of another human being. And that dynamic of duality is true for just about everything.

In this case, the author uses the following example of Flock cameras, and expands upon with various valid references to AI. The author states the following with respect to risks and technology like AI: "...The risks posed by powerful technologies generally fall into three categories: malicious misuse, human error, and technological flaws..."

I think that is a fine place to start when assessing the risks of technology in the hands of unchanging human nature. We do not wish to crush the "good" that may be done by those who possess and are driven by the positive and unchanging aspects of human nature, but we don't want to ignore things like malicious misuse, human error, and technological flaws when assessing the risks that may accompany those good things. We must keep those risks in mind, and be mindful we don't unnecessarily allow those risks to strangle the good things that are possible as they lay forming in a cradle.

It is a balancing act, and we must be judicious.

10 posted on 07/20/2026 7:40:46 AM PDT by rlmorel (Factio Communistica Sinensis Delenda Est)
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To: MtnClimber
"every concentration of power invites the possibility of abuse"

Yes, and directly proportionally.

For example: the concentration of power in Washington and the possibility of abuse.

11 posted on 07/20/2026 7:43:28 AM PDT by Savage Beast (When the student is ready, the teacher appears. When the people are ready, the hero appears.)
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To: MtnClimber

Yes, as Tom Homan explained yesterday to idiot Margaret Brennan as to why ICE agents do not have cameras.

Brennan: You’ve seen that on video, because we haven’t? Because in the videos that we’ve seen, there aren’t (any emergency lights on ICE Vehicles).

Homan: As far as the cameras, Margaret, you know, everybody in ICE would have a camera now if the government wasn’t shut down by Democratic members of Congress. There was money in that bill that they held up. I think it was $120 million to equip all ICE officers with cameras. But because the government shut down, we’re behind on that. But the cameras have been purchased.”

There was funding for the cameras after reconciliation and the cameras are being deployed nation wide, not a moment too soon.


12 posted on 07/20/2026 8:04:58 AM PDT by Bon of Babble (You Say You Want a Revolution?)
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To: MtnClimber

“I could use some monitoring”


13 posted on 07/20/2026 8:05:47 AM PDT by NonValueAdded (First, I was a clinger, then deplorable, now I'm garbage. Feel the love? )
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To: MtnClimber; rlmorel
Oracle's Larry Ellison Predicted ‘Citizens Will Be
On Their Best Behavior’ Amid Constant Recording.

Fortune Magazine, September 28, 2025

A Cashless Society using Digital ID 🆔, Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), Chinese Social Media Credit Score Systems and Cellphone 📱 Tracking to Control 🛂 the World's Population through Data Collection and Geofencing.




All pictures are posted for Educational Purposes
Under Fair Use




90-second video well-worth watching

This IS the Future of the World 🌍🌏🌎

Click the Twitter link below 👇👇👇 to open X and watch the video:


Geofencing: "Think of it as an Invisible Fence around you... that will be related to your Face Recognition, Digital Identity, and Access Control "

Big Tech whistleblower Aman Jabbi exposes the Digital Prison being constructed all around us in this clip from The Agenda: Their… pic.twitter.com/wrtYxorf4R— Oracle Films (@OracleFilmsUK) July 12, 2025


UNITED NATIONS
AGENDA 2030

14 posted on 07/20/2026 8:20:45 AM PDT by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the Days of Lot; They Did Eat, They Drank, They Bought, They Sold ......)
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To: dfwgator
Dr. Johnny Fever knew; even way back then....



All pictures are posted for Educational Purposes
Under Fair Use

15 posted on 07/20/2026 8:33:50 AM PDT by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the Days of Lot; They Did Eat, They Drank, They Bought, They Sold ......)
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To: SaveFerris

“Don’t use my name!”


16 posted on 07/20/2026 8:34:23 AM PDT by dfwgator ("I am Charlie Kirk!")
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To: RushIsMyTeddyBear; metmom; SkyPilot; tuffydoodle; tang-soo; righttackle44; delchiante; ...

Ping to Thread 🧵🧵🧵

God bless ✝️✝️✝️


17 posted on 07/20/2026 8:38:58 AM PDT by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the Days of Lot; They Did Eat, They Drank, They Bought, They Sold ......)
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To: MtnClimber

Bkmk


18 posted on 07/20/2026 8:41:10 AM PDT by sauropod (Make sure Satan has to climb over a lot of Scripture to get to you. John MacArthur Ne supra crepidam)
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To: dfwgator
Vee are Vatching You, Global Citizen

Digital ID / Digital Surveillance, Digital Tracking
Please Keep Your Phone Turned ON

Carry On as if Things are Normal.
Thank You For Your Cooperation.



19 posted on 07/20/2026 8:45:16 AM PDT by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the Days of Lot; They Did Eat, They Drank, They Bought, They Sold ......)
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To: SaveFerris

In America television watches you.


20 posted on 07/20/2026 8:46:46 AM PDT by dfwgator ("I am Charlie Kirk!")
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