We're Flocked!
Six thousand towns and counting ...
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The surge in surveillance state technology, from airports to data centers, from capturing every email, text message and phone call to the nearly ubiquitous automated license plate readers (as if that's all they do) is nothing more than the swelling of the surveillance state. This song seeks to educate and push back.
We're Flocked!
[Verse 1]
There's a pole on Main Street wasn't there before
Solar panel eye above the hardware store
Says it's just for stolen cars, says it's just routine
But it's reading every plate that this town's ever seen
Camera doesn't blink, doesn't clock out, doesn't sleep
Building up a file on the roads you keep Where you had your coffee, where you dropped your kid
Nobody asked you, nobody ever did
[Pre-Chorus]
No warrant in the mail, no judge to sign Just a network watching, drawing every line
Connecting every dot from here to who-knows-where
[Chorus] Well we're flocked, we're flocked, watch it multiply
Six thousand towns and a thousand eyes
They said it's just for plates, now it's your face they've got
Sold as safety, feels a lot like a trap We're flocked, we're flocked, and it never forgets
Every mile you drove, boy, it's on the books
We're flocked, we're flocked
[Verse 2]
Cop got busted trackin' his ex-wife's car
Used the county network like a private eye's guitar
"Wasn't built for that," well, tell that to the file It'll do what someone lets it, that's the whole damn style
Ticket in the mail says "captured holding phone"
Wasn't pulled over, judged from a camera pole
They swore it wouldn't creep, they swore it'd stay contained
Funny how the leash keeps letting out more chain
[Pre-Chorus]
No warrant in the mail, no judge to sign Just a network watching, drawing every line
Connecting every dot from here to who-knows-where
[Chorus]
Well we're flocked, we're flocked, watch it multiply
Six thousand towns and a thousand eyes
They said it's just for plates, now it's your face they've got
Sold as safety, feels a lot like a trap We're flocked, we're flocked, and it never forgets
Every mile you drove, boy, it's on the books
We're flocked, we're flocked
[Bridge]
Fifty towns already tore the cameras down
Said "not in my backyard," said "not in my town"
Left and right, don't matter, everybody's had enough
Freedom on a public road shouldn't be this tough...
Innocent till proven — that's how it used to go Now the algorithm's judge and the algorithm's slow
To ever say it's sorry when it gets it wrong
You're just a wrongful stop, you're just a cautionary song
[Final Chorus]
Well we're flocked, we're flocked, watch it multiply
Six thousand towns and a thousand eyes
They said it's just for plates, now it's your face they've got
Sold as safety, feels a lot like a trap
We're flocked, we're flocked, and it never forgets
Every mile you drove, boy, it's on the books
Take the poles down, take the poles down
We're flocked, we're flocked
[Outro]
Flocked... flocked... six thousand towns and counting
Flocked... flocked... watch it, watch it, watch it...
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