Weekly Member Update - February 16, 2026
We start this week off with a thank you to the couple hundred souls who showed up at our first Member Meeting of 2026 and our Forum on the Police State: What the Flock? We had an engaged crowd at The Love Center this past Monday to learn about the rapidly expanding surveillance state and the proliferation of Flock cameras and other “automatic license plate readers” (ALPRs) throughout the Nation, including here in the 518. Flocks and other ALPRs are AI-powered cameras that capture and analyze images of all passing vehicles, storing details like your car's location, date, and time of day. They also capture your car's make, model, color, and identifying features such as dents, roof racks, and bumper stickers, often turning these into searchable data points. These cameras collect data on millions of vehicles regardless of whether the driver is suspected of a crime and, while ALPRs are often marketed as an indispensable crime-fighting tool, the use of ALPRs and the massive trove of data they collect has been largely unregulated. As the ACLU has noted, ALPRs are creating an enormous database of information about the movements, habits and routines of all of us, with no limitations on how long that data can be retained and few restrictions on where that data can be shared. If you are like us, once you are made aware of Flocks and other ALPRs, you start to notice them everywhere; in the City of Albany alone, there are Flock cameras deployed at every street entrance to Washington Park, every entrance to the SUNY Albany campus and at dozens of random locations throughout the City, from the heavily traveled intersection of Hackett Boulevard and Holland Avenue, to Henry Johnson Boulevard outside of Roy’s Caribbean, to Central Avenue in front of Destination Kia. Trust us, it’s enough to make you never want to leave your house.
As we discussed at the Forum on Monday, an even more disturbing development in the expanding police state was the deal between Flock Safety Inc. and Amazon’s Ring Camera system to integrate data captured by individual Ring cameras — perhaps yours or your neighbor’s — into Flock’s massive database. Fortunately for those of us who care about personal privacy and the surveillance state, however, Ring had the terrible judgment to air a Super Bowl ad showing how their cameras could be used to find missing dogs by capturing video from throughout the wayward canine’s neighborhood. It turns out that people aren’t stupid and readily deduced that cameras used find missing Fido could also be used to track humans; the Super Bowl ad caused a firestorm of negative publicity for Ring and, by week’s end, Ring had cancelled its deal with Flock. We take this development as just the latest example of how public pressure and protest can yield meaningful results and convince corporations to stop being complicit with the Regime and its mass surveillance efforts, so while Ring and Flock are no longer in bed together, we are far from done in our work against Flock. More to come on this issue.
On the topic of little wins in the arena of oligarchs and their fascist tech enterprises, we were gratified this week to hear that Hudson-Valley Congressman Pat Ryan has agreed to reject contributions from executives at companies that work with ICE, and will donate any prior donations — including the thousands that Ryan has received from Palatir execs — to Hudson-Valley nonprofits serving immigrants. We’re still waiting to hear if Congressman Josh Riley, who represents parts of the Capital Region in NY-19, will follow the lead of Ryan and other Democrats like Colorado Senator John Hickenlooper and renounce the Palantir cash he has received to date. Feel free to contact Congressman Riley and try and get him to do the right thing.
Leila Navidi, The Minnesota Star Tribune/Getty Images
Of course, it is not enough for our elected officials to merely bow to public pressure and reverse an unwise course. As we’ve been saying for months, we need our leaders — particularly those of the Democratic persuasion in Blue States like our own — to actually lead. While the news was replete this week with stories about the supposed retreat of ICE and Border Patrol from the streets of Minnesota, pictures like the one above continue to reflect the day-to-day reality of Minnesotans, and of Americans in localities throughout the Country. For example, on the same day that Talking Thumb Tom Homan announced the end of “Operation Metro Surge” in Minnesota, fourth and fifth graders in suburban New Jersey fled in panic from their school-bus stop as a cadre of ICE agents in tactical gear and masks swarmed. And, this week in Albany, seven ICE vehicles gathered in the City’s West Hill neighborhood until they were driven off by community members responding to an “All Hands” alert from the Capital Region Sanctuary Coalition, just one of several ICE incursions into Capital Region communities over the past week. While we are skeptical that ICE is really leaving Minnesota — ask Angelinos or Chicagoans how the draw downs in those cities are going — we are also cognizant of the fact that any ICE or Border Patrol goons pulled out of Minneapolis will invariably pop up in some other community. So while Minnesota taught us all how to resist a federal invasion, we need elected officials everywhere to learn those those lessons thoroughly and use every lever of their power to protect localities from Regime violence.
Some leaders get it. In Boston, progressive Mayor Michelle Wu issued a far-reaching and comprehensive Executive Order To Protect Bostonians From Unconstitutional and Violent Federal Operations; among other provisions, Mayor Wu’s Order confirms that the Boston Police will investigate all crimes committed in Boston — including those committed by federal agents — and bars federal immigration agents from using City buildings, parking lots, and parks for their operations. In New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani has similarly barred federal agents from entering upon City property, including parking garages, parking lots, schools, shelters, hospitals, and other public spaces, without a judicial warrant. Notably, at the interfaith breakfast where Mayor Mamdani announced his executive action, the Mayor provided faith leaders with tens of thousands of “Know Your Rights” flyers and booklets written in 10 different languages to distribute to their congregations. Mayor Mamdani’s distribution of KYR materials mirrors actions taken by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who recently announced that personnel from the Attorney General’s Office would be deployed as Constitutional Observers to monitor and document ICE activity in New York State. Out west, newly inaugurated Buffalo Mayor Sean Ryan issued his own Executive Order prohibiting City resources from being used for immigration enforcement and barring ICE activity on City property without prior judicial authorization. From New Mexico to Montgomery County Maryland to Los Angeles to Colorado to New Jersey and Virginia, elected officials all over the Country have finally begun to step up and take action to protect their constituents from the Regime’s unrestrained gestapo tactics.
Unfortunately, local elected officials have not been as quick to act. Albany Mayor Dr. Dorcey Applyrs seems to have different priorities and, rather than support the robust NY4All Act, Governor Hochul has offered a temporary and watered-down version. A week ago, the Albany County Legislature seemed poised to both take long-awaited action against airlines that perform deportation flights, and to temporarily prohibit County officials from cooperating with federal immigration activity. These proposals did not go far enough , in our view, but, at the end of the day, the County Legislature failed to enact either proposal at its February 9 meeting and sent them both off for further Committee deliberation and an uncertain future. Here’s hoping that, when the Legislature next considers these proposals, they will eliminate the provision that offers absolution to Avelo Airlines for its past participation in deportation flights. Likewise, the Legislature should affirmatively prohibit ICE/CBP activity on County property and remove the nonsensical December 2026 expiration date on its anti-ICE cooperation resolution. As is the case with the half-loaf state legislation proposed by Governor Hochul, the County Legislature’s addition of an expiration date to its ban on cooperation with ICE presumes a future where ICE and Border Patrol have been “reformed” and can be trusted by the American people. We do not believe that this rosy future exists in a present-day reality where ICE terrorizes American communities with impunity. Indeed, there is reason to believe that local cooperation with ICE and Border Patrol serves only to infect local law enforcement with the lawlessness, cruelty and unaccountability that are the hallmarks of ICE and CBP. So we are hoping that the Albany County Legislature amends its proposed resolution in a meaningful way to permanently bar local coordination with ICE and CBP; perhaps they can even set a positive example for their intractable neighbors across the River.
Thanks to stalwart defiance and organizational guile of the People of Minneapolis, Chicago, Los Angeles and elsewhere, the past several months have seen a dramatic shift in public opinion against the Regime and its ICE/CBP stormtroopers. This affords opposition politicians who actually have a spine with an opportunity to not just conform their actions to what the polls say people believe, but to actually shape public opinion going forward. Instead of staking out “moderate” positions on issues like law enforcement and immigration that accept the premises of Republican messaging on these issues, bold Democratic leaders should instead lead their communities in the fight against the Regime and at the same time offer a new vision to carry forward for when the Regime has been vanquished. We’re thankful that some seem to get it, but time is fast running out for the tepid centrists who just want to go back to the world as it was before the Orange King. That world is gone forever, and nothing short of bold and principled leadership will suffice going forward.
A couple odds and ends:
Many of you are already aware of the Republicans’ vile “SAVE America Act” which passed the House last week and, if adopted by the Senate, would impose far-reaching voter suppression measures across the Country. If you still need to get up to speed on how the SAVE America Act would disenfranchise millions of voters, we recommend the work of Mother Jones and The Contrarian.
If you want to offer official public comment on the Orange King’s destruction of the East Wing of the White House for a gilded ballroom, you have until March 4 to weigh in.
Finally, on March 28, we will take to the streets and march shoulder-to-shoulder against ICE and the expanding police state, and to demand justice and accountability for our communities. Sponsored by the Greater Capital Region Coalition of Indivisible Groups, the next iteration of No Kings will include a street march, sidewalk protest and car caravan along Albany’s busy Central Avenue corridor. So mark your calendars for March 28 beginning at 1PM and stay tuned to our website and this weekly Newsletter for more information as it develops!