WEBVTT - 8/11/26: China Shuts Down Billionaire, FP Defends Flock, Hidden AI Bailout 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:01.599 Hey, guys, Saga and Crystal here. 0:00:01.680 --> 0:00:05.200 Independent media just played a truly massive role in this election, 0:00:05.360 --> 0:00:07.840 and we are so excited about what that means for 0:00:07.880 --> 0:00:08.720 the future of the show. 0:00:08.880 --> 0:00:10.760 This is the only place where you can find honest 0:00:10.760 --> 0:00:13.239 perspectives from the left and the right that simply does 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:14.680 not exist anywhere else. 0:00:14.760 --> 0:00:17.080 So if that is something that's important to you, please 0:00:17.120 --> 0:00:19.599 go to Breakingpoints dot com. Become a member today and 0:00:19.640 --> 0:00:22.800 you'll get access to our full shows, unedited, ad free, 0:00:22.800 --> 0:00:25.600 and all put together for you every morning in your inbox. 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:27.560 We need your help to build the future of independent 0:00:27.560 --> 0:00:29.920 news media and we hope to see you at Breakingpoints 0:00:29.960 --> 0:00:36.839 dot com. Turning out to China, this story absolutely captivated 0:00:36.880 --> 0:00:39.040 me and is really picking me think a lot about 0:00:39.040 --> 0:00:41.400 their system versus ours. Let's put it up here on 0:00:41.400 --> 0:00:45.040 the screen, see one. So in China, the headline that 0:00:45.080 --> 0:00:48.120 The Wall Street Journal rights is this billionaire becomes China's 0:00:48.200 --> 0:00:53.840 Charles Schwab quote ben Beijing crackdown leaf lea Futu brokerage 0:00:53.880 --> 0:00:57.000 has become a central target in the government's campaign to 0:00:57.040 --> 0:01:00.680 control the flow of Chinese money offshore. So leef Lee 0:01:00.960 --> 0:01:04.559 said his inspiration came from Charles Schwab. Within a decade, 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:07.119 he built a company that spanned all of China, Hong Kong, 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:10.160 Asian markets, and the US. Like his American idol, Lee 0:01:10.240 --> 0:01:13.279 pivoted from simple trading to managing clients well. 0:01:13.160 --> 0:01:15.200 Through mutual funds and advisory services. 0:01:15.440 --> 0:01:19.520 Now Lee's ambition is colliding with Chinese authority. His company, 0:01:19.560 --> 0:01:23.080 Futu Holdings, has become a central target in the state's 0:01:23.080 --> 0:01:27.440 crackdown on the flow of Chinese money offshore. Authorities in 0:01:27.520 --> 0:01:30.720 May handed the NASDAQ listed Futu a two hundred and 0:01:30.800 --> 0:01:35.000 seventy one million dollars penalty for offering brokerage services and 0:01:35.080 --> 0:01:38.399 mutual funds to customers and mainland China without a license, 0:01:38.600 --> 0:01:41.840 and that action included a personal fine for Lee. The 0:01:41.920 --> 0:01:44.839 news obviously sent their per share price down thirty percent 0:01:44.880 --> 0:01:47.760 in a single day and now has a market cap 0:01:47.800 --> 0:01:50.800 of less than fifteen billion. But the quote the fall 0:01:50.920 --> 0:01:53.160 in the share price is knocked hundreds of millions of 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:55.800 dollars off of Lee's network, which is now at roughly 0:01:55.960 --> 0:01:59.200 five point seven What they point to, though, generally, is 0:01:59.240 --> 0:02:02.760 that this regularatory action against this company is a way 0:02:03.080 --> 0:02:07.000 for the previously China's tech elite, As they explained, we're 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:10.000 able to list their companies in Hong Kong and then 0:02:10.080 --> 0:02:14.760 mint fortunes offshore beyond the reach of Chinese authorities. What 0:02:14.840 --> 0:02:17.760 this does is they have completely shut that down any 0:02:17.800 --> 0:02:20.840 foreign flight of capital, and they said that they will 0:02:20.840 --> 0:02:24.000 continue to tax offshore trusts previously, which is a very 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:26.720 popular tool for a lot of these Chinese investors. But 0:02:27.200 --> 0:02:30.239 the reason why that they went after this company specifically, 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:32.840 and like kind of the story of this entire takedown 0:02:33.200 --> 0:02:35.320 is that Chinese authorities, at the end of the day 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:38.200 are like, no, you do not get to offer securities 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:41.040 and tax advantages to a bunch of our rich people 0:02:41.600 --> 0:02:45.240 without suffering the consequences and operating under a license. So 0:02:45.600 --> 0:02:47.960 you know before that this guy was like a global 0:02:48.000 --> 0:02:51.440 celebrity and the Wall Street Journal takedown really of this 0:02:51.639 --> 0:02:54.959 is like, this is the story of there's a lot 0:02:55.000 --> 0:03:00.760 of Chinese billionaires which basically were inspired to recreate, recreate 0:03:01.040 --> 0:03:04.960 many of the rapacious capitalist industries of the United States. Literally, 0:03:04.960 --> 0:03:07.080 the guy says, Charles Schwab was my idol. 0:03:07.240 --> 0:03:07.400 Right. 0:03:08.040 --> 0:03:10.880 They did the same with Google, they did the same 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:13.959 with Uber. I think it's called d d over there. 0:03:14.000 --> 0:03:16.920 Like you know, basically because China would ban our services, 0:03:16.919 --> 0:03:19.560 they would just recreate them. But what the Chinese state 0:03:19.760 --> 0:03:23.400 saw is that those fundamentally were threats to the power 0:03:23.440 --> 0:03:26.520 of the state. And so while they let them grow 0:03:26.600 --> 0:03:29.240 and initially they were happy with a lot of their 0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:33.160 wealth accumulation, they eventually come to see the Jackms and 0:03:33.200 --> 0:03:36.320 Ali Baba's and this Futu and all of these other 0:03:36.600 --> 0:03:40.320 billionaires as tools of like a globalist class which are 0:03:40.360 --> 0:03:43.120 fundamentally loyal to capital and to the rest of the 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:46.280 world into the state. And so what they've done is 0:03:46.280 --> 0:03:48.920 they've come in and cracked down dramatically and sent a 0:03:48.960 --> 0:03:52.160 message to their entire billionaire classes like you work for us, 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:54.560 and whatever we tell you to do, when we tell 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:56.520 you to jump, you're going to say how high? 0:03:56.760 --> 0:03:59.320 I mean? You know, it's complicated, like you know, we 0:03:59.360 --> 0:04:00.400 want freedom, et cetera. 0:04:00.480 --> 0:04:03.480 But like, how can you not admire like this system 0:04:03.480 --> 0:04:08.280 where you've got these filthy rich people. All they're doing 0:04:08.440 --> 0:04:10.720 is just helping, you know, like this company. It seems 0:04:10.760 --> 0:04:12.880 like a big part of their cell was just like, hey, 0:04:12.920 --> 0:04:15.119 if you're rich, let me get your money off into 0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:17.400 a tax haven. And they came there like, oh, that's 0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:20.760 not happening at all and then just shut it down completely, 0:04:21.120 --> 0:04:24.160 and they all snap into line, like that's about preserving 0:04:24.200 --> 0:04:28.000 the primacy of the state. Now, obviously there's an undemocratic state, 0:04:28.279 --> 0:04:31.040 but the tool and the mechanism of that is something 0:04:31.040 --> 0:04:34.040 which you can't help but admire the seriousness which they 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:37.280 take their endeavor of sovereignty. They're like, we run shit. 0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:40.279 The government is a person ultimately that you will be 0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:43.200 accountable to. You do not get to create these private 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:46.600 next seas of wealth which ultimately will challenge our authority, 0:04:46.839 --> 0:04:48.719 and like, that's how it should be in my opinion. 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:50.880 You can't help but admire the lack of corruption that 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:55.840 this that this indicates, because you could not imagine a 0:04:55.920 --> 0:04:59.200 service that not only was run by a powerful, very 0:04:59.200 --> 0:05:02.760 wealthy person, but then is servicing all of the powerful 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:06.040 wealthy Americans that our government would come. 0:05:05.960 --> 0:05:07.320 In and say, oh no, you can't do that, we're 0:05:07.320 --> 0:05:08.200 shutting this all down. 0:05:08.360 --> 0:05:12.800 Sorry, entire billionaire class would never happen here because of 0:05:12.880 --> 0:05:16.520 our own democratic failures and the way that oligarchy, the 0:05:16.560 --> 0:05:19.080 aligarchy has been allowed to buy our political system, and 0:05:19.120 --> 0:05:21.800 money has been equated with speech. So you look at 0:05:21.839 --> 0:05:24.800 that and you're like, wow, that's possible for you. That 0:05:24.960 --> 0:05:26.960 is wild, regardless of whether you think it's the right 0:05:27.000 --> 0:05:29.279 policy or not. But to your point, it's not just 0:05:29.360 --> 0:05:32.200 that they were moving their money into tax havens. It's 0:05:32.240 --> 0:05:35.080 also that they were investing their money in other global 0:05:35.320 --> 0:05:38.520 companies outside of China. So you know, they were buying 0:05:38.520 --> 0:05:40.720 stocks in American AI companies. A lot of this was 0:05:40.760 --> 0:05:44.040 heavily invested in, you know, the AI American stock boom. 0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:47.320 And so this is also no you can invest you 0:05:47.360 --> 0:05:50.160 can invest in Chinese companies here at home. That's what 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:52.600 you are allowed to do, and we're going to actually 0:05:52.720 --> 0:05:54.840 enforce it and make sure that that is the case. 0:05:55.200 --> 0:05:58.440 They've also instituted policies not just in this regard, but 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:01.080 to make sure that their top graph are not by 0:06:01.120 --> 0:06:05.160 and large going into Wall Street type financial engineering, that 0:06:05.160 --> 0:06:08.440 they are much more focused on STEM and technology, and 0:06:08.480 --> 0:06:10.920 as a result, the number of engineers that they graduate 0:06:11.000 --> 0:06:13.640 every year vastly. 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:14.680 Exceeds I mean it's not even close. 0:06:14.720 --> 0:06:17.880 It's multiples of times more than what we graduate here 0:06:17.960 --> 0:06:20.440 in the United States. And then that also has led 0:06:20.440 --> 0:06:22.000 to Okay, now you've got the best in the bartist 0:06:22.080 --> 0:06:25.320 minds not going in to create some new exotic derivative 0:06:25.440 --> 0:06:29.680 that basically crashes the economy and exploits for people. They're 0:06:29.680 --> 0:06:33.480 going to develop technology, and that's why China on almost 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:37.479 every technological frontier development is leading us. 0:06:37.560 --> 0:06:39.159 I was just saying in humanoid. 0:06:38.800 --> 0:06:40.880 Robotics, they have like ninety eight percent of the market, Like, 0:06:40.920 --> 0:06:43.240 we're not even competing there. The only thing we fit 0:06:43.279 --> 0:06:46.160 focus on is AI, where our frontier labs are a 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:49.479 little bit a little bit ahead of them. But even that, 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:51.839 you ask how long is that going to be the case. 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:54.919 There's nothing that says that we're going to maintain that 0:06:55.040 --> 0:06:55.799 lead forever. 0:06:56.000 --> 0:06:58.160 So it's just a completely. 0:06:57.480 --> 0:06:59.960 Different orientation of their priorities, of their politicist. 0:07:00.520 --> 0:07:04.000 The crackdown is meant to fit funnel Chinese individual investors 0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:07.200 into licensed platforms where the people can trade only on 0:07:07.320 --> 0:07:11.440 China's domestic stock exchanges. Citizens are also permitted to invest overseas, 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:15.000 but mainly through government approved methods that return any profits 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:18.880 in Wand so they're like, look, sure you can invest abroad, 0:07:19.080 --> 0:07:22.320 it will be under a domestically licensed platform. The profit 0:07:22.360 --> 0:07:24.080 has to be delivered in Wan because we don't want 0:07:24.080 --> 0:07:28.320 currency problems. Again, like what they're focused on principally is sovereignty. 0:07:28.840 --> 0:07:30.560 That's at the end of the day, Like, that's what 0:07:30.720 --> 0:07:32.920 our biggest problem is here. Like if we have the 0:07:33.240 --> 0:07:36.480 biggest tension that we've always had, this is between the 0:07:36.560 --> 0:07:41.080 capital billionaire globalist class, which cares much more about making 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:44.040 money than about their own citizens. That has always been 0:07:44.080 --> 0:07:47.960 our dance with democracy and with capitalism. Part of what 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:50.760 we've seen over the last twenty five years is many 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:54.680 of these people believe of themselves as transnational entities of 0:07:54.720 --> 0:07:57.760 which their only job is to preserve shareholder value, and 0:07:57.800 --> 0:08:00.680 they don't give two shits about the American world. And 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:03.120 the only person that that American worker can look to 0:08:03.480 --> 0:08:05.880 is their government to make sure that those people are 0:08:06.000 --> 0:08:08.400 kept in check and to make sure that some of 0:08:08.440 --> 0:08:12.480 this extraordinary profit will also have ancillary benefit to the 0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:15.320 median American beyond your four oh one k going up 0:08:15.320 --> 0:08:17.560 when fifty percent of the country doesn't have four oh 0:08:17.600 --> 0:08:20.440 one k. Compare it then to our system, which kind 0:08:20.440 --> 0:08:23.040 of looks like the old Chinese system. Let's put C 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:24.600 two up here on the screen. 0:08:24.760 --> 0:08:27.320 Here's Trump. This is the latest story from Trump. 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:28.640 Quote. 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:32.880 The curious case of Guran Bobby Zoo shows the ease 0:08:33.000 --> 0:08:37.200 with which investors with shady backgrounds and unknown motivations can 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:40.960 funnel money to the president. They say Trump Crypto took 0:08:41.160 --> 0:08:46.000 one hundred million dollars with businessman from a businessman with 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:50.040 red flags, and they specifically point to this photo at 0:08:50.040 --> 0:08:52.520 the World Cup where you have Zach Witcoff, who's the 0:08:52.520 --> 0:08:54.599 son of Steve Witcoff, in a private suite at the 0:08:54.600 --> 0:08:58.600 World Cup with this investor, Bobby Zoo two years earlier. 0:08:58.600 --> 0:08:59.640 Apparently, Quote was. 0:08:59.559 --> 0:09:03.199 A fail build hardwood flooring retailer in Britain who had 0:09:03.200 --> 0:09:07.040 come under investigation for money laundering and presided over the 0:09:07.080 --> 0:09:10.600 collapse of a small crypto startup. Out of nowhere, he 0:09:10.640 --> 0:09:13.400 became one of the biggest buyers of tokens from World 0:09:13.400 --> 0:09:17.520 Liberty Financial, dropping a total of one hundred million dollars 0:09:17.559 --> 0:09:20.920 to a firm called Aqua. I kept it quiet for months, 0:09:20.960 --> 0:09:24.120 other than briefly speaking as mister Bobby on an audio 0:09:24.120 --> 0:09:27.920 stream on x. However, as they dig into the curious 0:09:27.960 --> 0:09:30.640 case of Zoo, illustrates the ease with which buyers from 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:34.600 unknown backgrounds motivations can use the anonymity of crypto to 0:09:34.800 --> 0:09:39.040 shower mister Trump with money. The President's recent financial disclosure 0:09:39.080 --> 0:09:43.000 form shows he collected one point four billion from crypto 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:47.600 businesses last year, the majority of it from anonymous sources. 0:09:47.960 --> 0:09:51.520 It is not even clear how closely they scrutinized his 0:09:51.760 --> 0:09:55.600 past and a money laundering investigation in England with publicly 0:09:55.840 --> 0:10:00.000 available information, as reportions of Joao's troubled business history were 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:03.600 public record at the time that they decided to accept 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:06.400 his money. Now look to be clear, like he did 0:10:06.440 --> 0:10:08.960 give the money. He did not respond to a request 0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:12.280 for comment. We don't know about pay for play. I'm 0:10:12.280 --> 0:10:14.400 not really sure why anybody gives somebody one hundred million 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:16.600 dollars as a president of the United States for no reason, 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:20.040 just my opinion whenever it comes to businesses. I just 0:10:20.080 --> 0:10:24.520 saw today. You know how Trump's company is selling the 0:10:25.080 --> 0:10:28.320 one hundred thousand dollars a month for first access to 0:10:28.360 --> 0:10:31.960 his true social market moving posts. They have ten customers already, 0:10:32.000 --> 0:10:34.400 so ten times one hundred thousand a month. That's a 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:38.840 healthy little profit line that you've created there purely off 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:42.320 of your own information and tool of power. You know, 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:44.440 in the state, like this is what China was like 0:10:44.520 --> 0:10:46.840 in the nineteen nineties, and it's like we've seen a 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:49.320 reverse of what that system is looking. 0:10:49.080 --> 0:10:51.720 At in this dude, No one knows where this money 0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:56.920 came from. Literally, he left a wrap sheet of failed businesses, 0:10:57.520 --> 0:11:01.880 was basically deported from the UK because his visa had expired, 0:11:01.920 --> 0:11:04.280 and then he had this sort of money laundering allegations 0:11:04.280 --> 0:11:05.800 hanging over his head and they were leg and no, 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:08.679 you got to go. He turns back up in Dubai 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:12.160 and suddenly out of nowhere, and we have no idea 0:11:12.200 --> 0:11:14.200 where the money comes from. Is flush with this one 0:11:14.280 --> 0:11:18.480 hundred million dollars to give to World Liberty Financial And 0:11:18.520 --> 0:11:21.319 of course Trump and the sons and the wick Coughs 0:11:21.320 --> 0:11:24.160 who are also involved in this, they don't ask a 0:11:24.160 --> 0:11:27.640 single question this thank you for the money, sir, amazing 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:31.160 doing business with you and keeping it moving right along. 0:11:31.280 --> 0:11:33.920 And as a public, we have no idea what this 0:11:34.000 --> 0:11:36.880 man expects to get from that one hundred million dollars 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:39.760 or whoever he is representing, whoever he is the front 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:44.079 person for. We have no idea what strings this money 0:11:44.120 --> 0:11:48.480 is coming with. And this is just another day under 0:11:48.559 --> 0:11:49.920 the Trump regime, this. 0:11:49.880 --> 0:11:50.640 Sort of story. 0:11:50.679 --> 0:11:52.400 You could literally tell this. 0:11:52.440 --> 0:11:56.439 Story every day of the week of some utterly shameless 0:11:56.600 --> 0:12:00.360 level corrupt skeazy deal, and much of it to do 0:12:00.440 --> 0:12:03.640 with Crypto in terms of the massive amount of increase 0:12:03.679 --> 0:12:07.320 in wealth, the billions that he has been able to accumulate, 0:12:07.640 --> 0:12:10.600 Justin's coming back into power in Trump two point zero, 0:12:10.920 --> 0:12:14.160 so very extraordinary. There's another story we wanted to highlight here, 0:12:14.360 --> 0:12:17.840 which is wild, so we covered before Dear to our hearts, 0:12:18.600 --> 0:12:22.960 Jared Kushner and Avanka were on the yacht you can't 0:12:22.960 --> 0:12:25.360 even tell this story without just sounding anti Semitic, on 0:12:25.440 --> 0:12:32.280 a Rothschild yacht and discovered, like their Christopher Columbus, this island, 0:12:32.640 --> 0:12:35.240 Albanian island that oh my god, it would make Avonka's 0:12:35.320 --> 0:12:38.079 dreams come true to develop into some sort of luxury property. 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:40.679 And talking about this thing, we played the video before, well, 0:12:40.679 --> 0:12:44.320 the people of Albani were like, no, this is our island. 0:12:44.360 --> 0:12:47.079 We don't want you there. And as part of this 0:12:47.320 --> 0:12:51.640 island deal, they are also buying buying property on this 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:56.360 nearby peninsula. And now we're finding out more about the 0:12:56.720 --> 0:13:01.360 incredibly sketchy, to say the least, characters who are involved 0:13:01.480 --> 0:13:05.120 in this transaction that Kushner quote unquote bought this land 0:13:05.160 --> 0:13:06.839 for from put this up in the scream from the 0:13:06.880 --> 0:13:11.400 Wall Street Journal. Okay, the suspected gangster causing headaches for 0:13:11.480 --> 0:13:14.720 Kushner's Albania deal. I won't go through all of the 0:13:14.720 --> 0:13:18.199 insid outs here, but the TLDR is this dude, our Torchi, 0:13:18.280 --> 0:13:23.520 who is accused of not only being a money launderer, 0:13:23.600 --> 0:13:28.560 not only of having created forged fake documents to claim 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:31.200 that he owns this peninsula land that the local say 0:13:31.240 --> 0:13:33.319 he does not actually own, and this is apparently common 0:13:33.320 --> 0:13:36.119 problem by the way, in Albania. He also is accused 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:40.960 drunk trafficker and human smuggler. Okay, that's who Kushner is 0:13:41.240 --> 0:13:46.560 quote unquote buying this Albanian property for so you know, 0:13:46.800 --> 0:13:51.240 just the sketchiest most corrupt dealings you can possibly imagine, 0:13:51.240 --> 0:13:53.280 whether it's here, whether it's in the Middle East, whether 0:13:53.280 --> 0:13:55.600 it's through Crypto, whether it's through Trump. 0:13:55.320 --> 0:13:58.319 And the pardon the. 0:13:57.720 --> 0:14:01.000 Pardon for sale shop that he is set up in 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:05.200 his second administration. The list goes on and on, but 0:14:05.440 --> 0:14:08.640 no surprise that you've got this kind of incredibly sketchy 0:14:08.800 --> 0:14:12.120 gangster who is deeply enmeshed in this Albanian situation. 0:14:12.160 --> 0:14:14.559 As you said, my favorite part of the story, by 0:14:14.559 --> 0:14:16.800 the way, is what you highlighted is that one chunk 0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:19.280 of land was secured by one of shay Who's lawyers 0:14:19.280 --> 0:14:23.560 in seven by presenting property officials with a mistranslated Ottoman 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:28.120 era land record while translating from Ottoman Turkish and archivist 0:14:28.280 --> 0:14:32.760 substituted the original owner and inserted his name instead. Court 0:14:32.960 --> 0:14:37.119 later found that is apparently how property is disputed in Albania, 0:14:37.160 --> 0:14:40.640 which is incredible, incredible, All right, Let's get to the 0:14:40.680 --> 0:14:46.440 next one, turning down to flock cameras, which in my opinion, 0:14:46.600 --> 0:14:49.880 is the new data center issue. Every locality in the 0:14:49.960 --> 0:14:53.840 nation having a discussion around these privacy invasion and the 0:14:53.920 --> 0:14:57.520 ubiquity of these cameras everywhere, and they're pairing with police 0:14:57.760 --> 0:15:02.560 powers now becoming a matter significant political controversy all the 0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:05.160 way up to the federal level. Of course, that's going 0:15:05.200 --> 0:15:08.040 to invite certain people to defend them, one of them 0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:09.640 being Barry Weise's Free Press. 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:10.640 Let's take a listen. 0:15:11.080 --> 0:15:13.720 Do you ever feel like your block That's the panic 0:15:13.760 --> 0:15:16.240 behind a new fear sweeping across America. 0:15:16.280 --> 0:15:18.280 People are freaked out about. 0:15:18.000 --> 0:15:21.840 Surveillance from our employers, our nannycams, and our phones watching 0:15:21.880 --> 0:15:24.280 our every move and right now, this anxiety is being 0:15:24.320 --> 0:15:26.800 taken out of electric saws, in cans of spray paint 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:29.560 on tools used by law enforcement to keep us all safe. 0:15:29.560 --> 0:15:33.280 The target block safety cameras. In Upstate New York, someone 0:15:33.280 --> 0:15:35.960 cut down a flock safety camera with an electric saw. 0:15:36.120 --> 0:15:39.560 In Oakland, California, another was covered in King Tan In Idaho, 0:15:39.680 --> 0:15:42.360 someone rammed one with their truck. And in good Old Florida, 0:15:42.440 --> 0:15:44.360 a man just sits in his lawn chair with a 0:15:44.400 --> 0:15:47.680 cardboard held up for the less. Since January, roughly twenty 0:15:47.680 --> 0:15:50.320 three cities have handled their contracts or shut off their 0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:53.040 block camera over a fourth amendumal Din service. There's even 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:56.440 an open source intelligence website deflock that's finding these cameras 0:15:56.440 --> 0:15:58.320 so people know exactly where to vandalize them. 0:15:58.360 --> 0:15:59.960 There's what's actually under attack. 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:03.120 In twenty twenty five alone, this system help lowly ten 0:16:03.160 --> 0:16:06.080 thousand missing lays off about twenty seven people a day, 0:16:06.240 --> 0:16:09.760 or about one every hour. Over forty percent of agencies 0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:12.600 that block help recover over half of the stolen vehicles 0:16:12.600 --> 0:16:15.360 in their jurisdiction. And Indiana, an infant abducted at a 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:18.160 shopping center was found in under two hours. In Ohio, 0:16:18.240 --> 0:16:20.720 a missing girl was located in under thirty minutes, and 0:16:20.840 --> 0:16:23.160 this is the tool that people are treating like the enemy. 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:25.760 It is fair to have concerns about how companies use 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:28.080 and track our data, but that's not what these cameras 0:16:28.120 --> 0:16:28.440 are for. 0:16:28.600 --> 0:16:30.240 To be blunt, they're not interested in. 0:16:30.200 --> 0:16:32.720 You unless you're a kidnapper, a thief, or someone who 0:16:32.720 --> 0:16:33.640 intends to do harm. 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:36.520 They're not interested in you unless what does it do 0:16:36.520 --> 0:16:39.240 you need to comply? If you've got nothing to hide, 0:16:39.280 --> 0:16:40.120 then why do you worry? 0:16:40.440 --> 0:16:43.960 This is a vintage of privacy arguments from like the 0:16:44.120 --> 0:16:47.120 War on Terror era, but this is where it actually 0:16:47.160 --> 0:16:49.680 bears investigation. It's like, okay, are these claims even true. 0:16:49.760 --> 0:16:51.720 Let's put the next one up here on the screen. 0:16:51.760 --> 0:16:54.040 And we've gone through some of this before. One in 0:16:54.200 --> 0:16:57.760 three alerts wrong, high error rates and data concerns for 0:16:58.000 --> 0:17:02.440 cities to drop flock, a thirty two percent LAPD false 0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:05.760 positive rate, and immigration data fears have pushed eighty two 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:09.919 contracts across twenty eight states to collapse. They say that 0:17:09.960 --> 0:17:13.280 an LAPD audit reveals that FLOCK safety cameras produced a 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:16.280 thirty two point three percent false positive stolen vehicle alert 0:17:16.320 --> 0:17:20.320 rate and at least eighty two municipalities have canceled them. 0:17:20.440 --> 0:17:23.439 More than five thousand cities now currently have flock cameras, 0:17:23.520 --> 0:17:25.040 which are scanning license plates. 0:17:25.320 --> 0:17:27.440 Again, most residents never voted for it. 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:31.600 Thirty localities apparently just deactivated them since early twenty twenty five, 0:17:31.640 --> 0:17:33.720 and that number continues to grow. But I feel like 0:17:33.760 --> 0:17:37.239 that LAPD in particular, being one of the largest, what 0:17:37.280 --> 0:17:39.520 is the second largest city in the nation, being one 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:41.400 of those who is going to come out and say, hey, 0:17:41.720 --> 0:17:43.800 purely based on business reasons, I'm not going to put 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:46.440 morality in the LAPD. I don't think those two things 0:17:46.680 --> 0:17:49.520 to go together. They're not like worried about privacy or 0:17:49.560 --> 0:17:52.320 any of that. For them, it's pure business. They're like, 0:17:52.320 --> 0:17:54.160 oh yeah, we've used it and it got a false 0:17:54.200 --> 0:17:56.600 positive rate for stolen vehicle. We've covered some of the 0:17:56.640 --> 0:17:59.879 stories here, terrifying incidents of people being pulled over and 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:03.400 finding themselves like either held at gunpoint or others being 0:18:03.440 --> 0:18:06.160 accused of false posits or of having a stolen vehicle. 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:09.280 We covered previously the guy who drives cars like for 0:18:09.359 --> 0:18:12.679 a living for dealership plates. He got surrounded by police 0:18:12.720 --> 0:18:15.160 on some sort of a false incident, and I think 0:18:15.200 --> 0:18:17.760 there's just like a bigger question like she talks about like, oh, 0:18:17.840 --> 0:18:20.080 these companies are not interested in you, but they do 0:18:20.160 --> 0:18:23.040 have all of the data, so they are interested. And 0:18:23.080 --> 0:18:25.000 also it's not the government that has a data, it's 0:18:25.040 --> 0:18:27.639 the private company themselves. They claim, you know that they 0:18:27.640 --> 0:18:30.119 have to abide by X, Y and Z privacy record. 0:18:30.200 --> 0:18:32.000 Is there an audit of it? Like what are the 0:18:32.040 --> 0:18:35.560 internal controls? What exactly what you know? 0:18:35.680 --> 0:18:38.640 Recourse do I have as a citizen to make sure 0:18:38.640 --> 0:18:40.719 that that is not being improperly used? 0:18:40.960 --> 0:18:42.240 And this is everywhere. 0:18:42.400 --> 0:18:45.560 She also says deflock is an organization for people to 0:18:45.600 --> 0:18:49.520 analyze that. Again, by that definition, ways is a terrorist 0:18:49.600 --> 0:18:53.480 tool because I know where every cop is on I ninety. 0:18:53.160 --> 0:18:54.040 Five that framing R. 0:18:54.560 --> 0:18:55.720 That's what I thought, right, So. 0:18:55.720 --> 0:18:58.120 Like they're like, oh, by just knowing where it is, 0:18:58.520 --> 0:19:01.000 that in and of itself is a tool of vandalism. 0:19:01.040 --> 0:19:02.760 I'm sure cops hate it when we mark them on 0:19:02.800 --> 0:19:04.440 ways we do because we don't have a speeding ticket. 0:19:04.480 --> 0:19:05.920 That doesn't make you a terrorist. 0:19:05.760 --> 0:19:06.240 Right right? 0:19:06.320 --> 0:19:10.720 Yeah, of course, And all of this has required obfuscation 0:19:11.440 --> 0:19:14.320 in hiding from people what is actually happening in their 0:19:14.359 --> 0:19:15.240 own towns. 0:19:15.520 --> 0:19:17.000 So they do see deflock. 0:19:17.200 --> 0:19:19.440 As you know, the CEO of a company who later 0:19:19.520 --> 0:19:24.080 apologized called it a terroristic organization because it is providing 0:19:24.119 --> 0:19:27.600 people with just transparency and information about what is happening 0:19:27.640 --> 0:19:29.720 so that they can politically organize. 0:19:29.240 --> 0:19:30.720 And act on it. 0:19:30.720 --> 0:19:34.880 It is so dishonest in her little you know, vertical 0:19:34.960 --> 0:19:39.480 video to not talk about any of the instances of 0:19:39.600 --> 0:19:42.320 misuse that have been documented. I'm not even talking about 0:19:42.320 --> 0:19:44.280 the false positives or police really think they got the 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:45.760 bad guy and then they come and will show you 0:19:45.800 --> 0:19:48.399 one in a minute and create very dangerous situations. 0:19:48.440 --> 0:19:49.520 By the way, not to mention. 0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:51.520 This as a waste of police resources because they're going 0:19:51.560 --> 0:19:53.760 after the wrong person. Meanwhile, the person whoever they're trying 0:19:53.800 --> 0:19:56.480 to get is getting off scott free. I'm talking about 0:19:56.480 --> 0:19:59.560 the fifty police officers who've been charged with abuse of 0:19:59.560 --> 0:20:03.639 this system using this to stock. Tell me that Flock 0:20:03.720 --> 0:20:06.200 is not interested in you unless you're a kidnapper or thief, etc. 0:20:06.880 --> 0:20:09.159 Tell that to the woman who was stalked by her 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:12.880 abusive ex, whose child was also stalked by the abusive 0:20:13.080 --> 0:20:15.880