Ex-CIA governor of Virginia, Abigail Spanberger is not just the typical inoffensive democratic governor who aligns with most Democrats in her beliefs. She encourages mass surveillance at home through her public pro-Flock cameras stance, and staunchly believes in funding Israel’s genocide in Gaza by calling for the donation of munitions, missles, and Virginia’s tax dollars to the advancement of the Israeli militant effort.
At home, in Virginia – Spanberger’s willingness to use AI to watch and auto-police civilians becomes readily apparent, which, to me, feels pretty dystopian. Spanberger is openly pro-Flock and she calls for improvements to be made to the system, but ultimately is interested in moving towards a surveillance state where AI can watch and detect everything happening in our streets.
As reported by WTOP News, Spanberger said about Flock Cameras: “I will stand up for our Fourth Amendment rights consistently and continuously, but it’s also a question of what is this tool? How is it used responsibly? Certainly there’s a lot of, I think, discussion that I’ll be having around how much is the information shared, how broadly. Right now, there’s a variety of different types of reciprocal agreements; what are the provisions necessary for making certain types of queries in the system?”
On a less offensive note, but a law nonetheless that shows Spanberger’s propensity to sign surveillance measures, Spanberger signed SB84 into law (LIS): automatic AI license policing plate readers that are being put in place across Virginia in school crossing zones, highway work zones, and high-risk speed corridors for purposes of recording pedestrian crossing and stop sign violations. I actually don’t think this bill is particularly bad (besides the use of AI here, there’s a way better solution that will protect individual privacy better that could be done with advanced coding instead of outsourced AI systems that could have all kinds of data leaks or oversights), but it needs to be only limited to school crossing zones-highway work zones. “High-risk speed corridors” just provide counties a consistent stream of income – so if they’re anything like Harrisonburg, they’ll drag out the construction project so the city can make as much money as they can from the automatic billing system (this is a problem that has been readily apparent to anybody in cities with these auto-billing cameras, and is deserving of an article in itself).
Spanberger maintains her connection with Israel through her experience in the CIA, working in tandem with Israeli intelligence & highlighting her backing of Israeli military motions in Congress. She spoke at a meeting with hundreds of Virginian Jewish leaders in February of this year, pledging that they had a partner in her administration. “I remain a strong supporter of the relationship between the United States and Israel, and that support comes from a background in the intelligence community, where I understand that Israel is our strongest security partner in the region,” (Jewish Peninsula).
In 2023, as a democratic representative while speaking on the conflict in Israel, Spanberger said “They need additional munitions and Iron Dome support… The fact that we cannot take that vote today is horrible” (WUSA9). These opinions are supported by her lawmaking while she was in Congress: the signing of H.R.8034 supporting US military operations in Israel, providing military backing, training, and procuring “advanced weapon systems.” Spanberger as a congresswoman, was also very vocal about supporting Israel with our tax dollars, opting to pass a bill that would loop them in with sending aid to Ukraine and Taiwan (ABC news).