Flock Cameras and Bear Encounters – RedState

There’s been a big fuss nationwide about Flock cameras, and I’ve to say I perceive it. People are, of course, free to put cameras on personal property; we have now a few recreation cameras around the place, not because we’re frightened about crooks, but because it’s enjoyable to see what wildlife is cruising through while we’re not paying consideration – or when we’re asleep.

But these Flock cameras, that’s a entire different kettle of fish. When municipalities are placing them up, nicely, yeah, I get the argument that they make it simpler to catch dangerous guys and collect evidence, but is that value all the missteps and the intrusion into everybody’s daily lives as we go about our business?

Well, it’s not that approach right here. Our home borough, the Matanuska-Susitna, has blocked borough use of these issues.

The Matanuska-Susitna Borough is banned from shopping for or utilizing automated license plate readers under an ordinance unanimously permitted by the Mat-Su Assembly this month.

The measure also blocks the borough from spending money on contracts that use such systems or permitting federal or state officers to set up them on borough land or in borough rights of approach.

Automated license plate readers, recognized as ALPRs and widely offered by technology company Flock Safety, turned a nationwide flashpoint this fall because of widespread privateness considerations.

This is the big news for this week, not that there was ever a lot probability of the borough immediately beginning to use these issues. Palmer and Wasilla, possibly. The borough? I’d have guessed no before, and it appears I’d have been appropriate.

The systems use artificial intelligence to create automated, searchable indexes of passing automobiles. They have been linked to experiences of improper and warrantless arrests. Officials with the National Rifle Association have raised considerations that the cameras might be used to monitor gun house owners. The American Civil Liberties Union warns that the cameras facilitate “unprecedented spying.”

The new Mat-Su law is designed to block borough use of the cameras because they will create “a permanent tracking record of everyday citizens without reasonable suspicion or a warrant,” according to a memo hooked up to the ordinance.

And, yes, the NRA’s ideas do carry a vital quantity of weight in this half of Alaska.

Alaska Man rating: 5 moose nuggets not caught in the act.

Now, while we lately had some enjoyable trying at memes for Fat Bear Week, this story forces us to bear in mind how severely we need to take these critters.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has euthanized more bears in the Anchorage space this 12 months than last, including three in just the last week.

Early Tuesday morning, biologists euthanized a brown bear it believes induced a path of destruction in a Rabbit Creek Neighborhood. Biologist Nick Docken said they really feel pretty sure they acquired the proper bear but there might be more than one.

“We knew that we were dealing with multiple bears in this region,” Docken said. “We just were unsure how many bears were taking it to the next level of breaking into sheds, breaking into garages, pushing on front doors of homes. And so that question is still out there.”

Docken said the division acquired a number of experiences of a brown bear in the realm Tuesday evening, but none included the same stage of damaging exercise. He inspired people to continue reporting sightings immediately.

In complete, Fish and Game has killed 20 bears in the Anchorage space in 2026, including 12 black bears and eight brown bears.

Here’s the factor: Bears usually are not the big, fluffy, nosy critters they’re too often represented as. When a bear begins associating people with food, it seldom ends nicely for the bear, and it sometimes ends very badly for a human. This time of 12 months in explicit, the only issues these big homicide machines are involved with are eating, and one of the explanations bears in normal have been so profitable is that they’re prepared to eat something, including people’ rubbish, people’ gardens, and even, sometimes, people.

This is an unlucky factor – but it’s also a unhappy necessity.

No ranking for this one.

Now, let’s discuss about some more nice issues.

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