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We quit.
Rick Green Sacred honor is the courage to speak truth, to live out your free speech.
Don wildmon We also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character and character.
This is At The Core on American Family Radio.
Walker Wildmon Welcome to At The Core here on American Family Radio. Glad to have you with us on today's edition of the show. Walker Wildmon, Rick Green, we're your host each week on the program. Once again, it's good to be with you today on the show. As a brief reminder, if you want to listen live or watch the video, you can simply go over to afr.net afr.net if you look on the left hand top menu bar, you can click listen live to the audio. On the right hand top menu bar, you can click watch live. And so there's multiple ways for you to listen to the program, keep up with the show, and even watch the video if you so choose.
Acts chapter 19 is where we are this week
Well, let's turn our attention to the scripture and then we'll jump into some of our content for today. Acts chapter 19 is where we are this week. Acts chapter 19. And it happened while Apollos was At Corinth that Paul, having passed through the upper region, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples, he said to them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? So they said to him, we have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit. And he said to them, into what then were you baptized? So they said into Jon's baptism. Then Paul said, john indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on him who would come after him, that is Christ Jesus. when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them. And they spoke with tongues and prophesied. Prophesied. Now, the men were about 12 in all here in Ephesus. So that's Acts chapter 19, verses 1 through 7. A lot of theology there. We could probably do, a good pastor could probably do about an hour on this, on seven verses. But for the sake of time m. And the fact, that I don't claim to be a pastor, the simple, short of it here is that the Holy Spirit with the early church, there was some confusion and some bad teachings or really just lack of teaching on the Holy Spirit and the fact that God had gifted the Holy Spirit with the early church, with the New Testament church. But for some of these new believers that were followers of Jesus, the Holy Spirit was this foreign concept. It was this new concept, for salvation and for sanctification. And so Paul is teaching that, teaching that and also teaching that. Look, let's don't get caught up in who baptized you. The fact of the matter is all believers have the Holy Spirit. That's what's important here. It's not whether John baptized you or whether Paul baptized you. The fact of the matter is, is that we're all baptized in the Holy Spirit. That's what the central tenet of the Christian faith is about in this New Testament church. And so that's what Paul was emphasizing. That's what Paul was teaching as he traversed this region, really helping to establish the early church. That's Acts chapter 19, verses 1 through 7. Well, we're going to have a couple special guests this program. In the next segment we're going to have on a Tupelo police chief John Quaka. He's going to be with us to talk about law enforcement agencies are using these license plate reader flock cameras. There's other brands as well, how they're using them, the proper use and the benefits for law enforcement. And then we'll talk about some of the concerns that citizens have raised over the use of those cameras. And then in the last segment, we'll talk with a filmmaker, Matt Thayer. He's going to be on to talk about, one of the latest films out. Can you hear me now? It's a new documentary exploring the prophetic movement shaping American faith and politics. So we'll talk with Matt in the last segment on that new film. Can you hear me now?
Buc-ees is a newer brand of gas station that's exploding
let's jump into some stories this segment while we have the time. We've got a couple things going on here. anyone that's been to the Buc-ee's ee's gas stations is, I, would say truck stops, but they're technically not truck stops. They're gas stations for non Commercial vehicles that actually don't allow commercial vehicles in there. but they're, it's, it's a, it's an experience that once you've done it, you won't forget it. Let me tell you. These are, the equivalent of the, Chick fil a of gas stations is what I call it. because they're massive. There's hardly a line unless you go to some that are just slam packed. But these Buc-ee's gas stations, those of you who've been to them, you know, you're nodding your head and going, yep, I've been to Buc-ee's Everybody who's been to Buc-ee's ee's knows, what a Buc-ee's gas station is like. And then those who aren't are going, what on earth is this guy talking about? but this is a kind of a newer brand of gas station. I don't know how long they've been around, probably a decade or two, but it's just blowing up. I mean they're throwing up these gas stations left and right. And they have 100, 200 gas pumps. They're massive. I mean they're, they're an entire. You could almost put a zip code, to cover up how big these gas stations are. But the, the owners, very conservative guy, he may be a born again believer, I'll have to do my background on that. But he's 100% politically conservative, ideologically conservative. And so these conservative states are very pro business, very family friendly. They want Buc -ees to come in. Every state wants a Buc-ees. Texas has multiple. Florida's, got two, Alabama's got At least two or three. And any state that can get a Buc Ees wants a Buc-ees. Ees. Well, this, founder and CEO of Buc Ees gas stations, was doing a press conference up in Arkansas in Benton, Arkansas, which I was actually there driving through there last week when they did this grand opening. And he basically said At this press conference, look, guys, all these states want us to come. The Democrat states want us to come. But he said basically, I'm not going because their business environment, their anti family environment is just bad for business. So let's listen to this. This is clip one.
Buc-ee's CEO We're growing, we're building in a lot of places. But when you find a conservative, business friendly state with a phenomenal workforce, it makes a difference. And I'm starting to realize life's too short to try to Build in places that people don't appreciate what you're bringing versus a place like this where people do appreciate what you're building. So that leadership, that concept, that idea of conservative, business friendly, family oriented concept works so much better if it trickles down from the very leadership, from the very top At the governor's office, At the congressman.
Walker Wildmon Well, there you have it. That's Buc-ee's CEO saying, look, life's too short to be trying to build these amazing gas stations in these Democrat strongholds where they don't like our values, they don't like Buc-ee's corporate values. They're, they're anti family, they're, they're anti business, they're high taxes over regulation. He's like, I don't have time for this. I can throw up five Buc-ee's in Texas, where I can put one in Delaware. and so he's, he's like, I'm not even trying that. So, But the point in bringing this up is this is indicative of what the Democrats have done to their states. I mean, that's just a fact. And this isn't the first time we've heard this. We've seen the blue state exodus that has been going on since Cove Hundreds of thousands. By this time, millions of a, combined millions of New Yorkers, Californians and others have fled. And where have they fled? They fled to conservative states. Why? Because they're tired of the high taxes, they're tired of the high crime rates, and they're tired of the stupid politics and the pro abortion, anti family abortion on demand, crime out, out the wazoo, letting the criminals out. All of these things are bad for business, they're bad for the family. And people are getting out. They're tired of it. And this is why. You've seen Texas and Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina. The populations are increasing by hundreds of thousands annually. And this is going to be a big deal when it comes to the 2030 census because 2020 barely missed this. The 2020 census barely missed this mass exodus. So California is going to lose electoral college votes. New York is going to lose electoral college votes. Guess what else they're going to lose? Are you going to lose congressional seats as well? So the 2030 census can't come fast enough. And, and Republicans are going to pick up electoral college votes. I don't know how many yet, five or ten. And they're going to pick up, congressional seats as well because of the mass exodus that occurred since 2020. 2021. And the, Democrats haven't learned a lesson. They're over in California with the highest tax rates ever. They just passed, a tax bill through the legislature last month that put the tax rates At the highest they've ever been. And so you're already, you've already bled hundreds of millions in tax revenue over the last few years in businesses and individuals, probably billions when you total it all up in tax revenue that's fled these states and they're not coming back. Once you do damage like this, good luck getting them back. Meanwhile, you've got conservative states that are eliminating the income tax, eliminating property taxes, and making it welcoming for businesses like Buc-ee's to come in and do business. Why make it hard on people? And so over the long run, this is going to, ultimately lead to what I believe is the downfall of your state's like California. Now, don't get me wrong, there's a lot of wealth tied up in California and New York. They've got a lot of wealth, a lot of generational legacy money there. And, that's going to last them for a while. But At some point, this train track's going to run out of tracks. You're going to run out of track and you. They can't print money. This is what makes California different than, let's say Washington D.C. california can't cut on the printing press, Washington can. Washington can print theoretically endless amounts of money. They can add zeros to the Excel sheet and just keep the train going. But California and New York, on the other hand, they can't do that. States do not have the ability to print money At the Treasury Department. So they have to actually run the government like a business. They have to pay their bills, they have to bring in the revenue. Now they can, they can borrow, they can go into debt, but it's not endless like the federal government because they don't own the Treasury. And so, this is going to be interesting to follow. New York was bailed out. I think New York and California were somewhat bailed out by the Democrat Congress and unfortunately President Trump during the COVID mania, they got billions of dollars during that gravy train.
California is hemorrhaging tax revenue at a rate that is unsustainable
So that, that, that bailed them out in the interim. But they're going to hit a point pretty soon like you're seeing with New York City, where they're just straight up out of money and there's nowhere to get it from unless they go to the state Capitol. in this instance, New York City going to Albany, Georgia. I'm sorry, Albany New York to get the money or, going to Washington D.C. to get a bailout. So that'll be something to watch for during the next Democrat administration, whenever that comes, is how much we bail out as federal taxpayers, New York State and California, because that time will come. You just cannot, cannot bleed the tax base At the rate that these Democrat states have and expect the tax revenue just to keep coming in. It's just absolutely unsustainable. And then I was reading a report today about some of the highest paid government employees in California. Guess what? The highest paid employee In California makes $2 million a year. Yes, there is a government employee in California that makes $2 million a year. And there's, I think over, there's dozens, if not over 100, that make over 600,000 annually in California. These are government employees. There was this audit report that showed the salaries of California government employees. So, they're not concerned about the spending. and, Newsom just keeps putting the clamps down on the tax base. And, people keep fleeing by the tens of thousands. And it's ultimately sad is what it is. It's ultimately sad because here's what happens. You turn a state, into the haves and the have nots. That's what happens. And so your people that are, well, to do that are wealthy, yeah, they're going to be paying more taxes, but they're not going to be missing a meal. And then your, middle class, they're the ones fleeing, by the way the middle class is fleeing. And then all that's left is the haves and the have nots. And then you've got the impoverished class, and then you've got the people on the streets of San Francisco. And so it's a very sad situation from a human standpoint, but we can't forget it. Out of all the, the emotion and all the sadness that, that it brings to the communities to have such wealth leaving California, we cannot forget how they got there. And that's a warning to Texas. With all the California migrants, all the California, transplants, they need to remember not to bring their California values with them to Texas, to Tennessee, into Florida, because. Because the last thing we need is these conservative states turning blue. We'll be back in a few, Friend.
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American Family Radio features special segment on use of license plate readers by police
Walker Wildmon Welcome back to The Core here on American Family Radio. Glad to have you with us in this second segment. I'm Walker Wildmon. Glad to be with you on this program, American Family Radio. The name of the show is At The Core. Well, the Flock Cameras and the Flock Corporation, they're not having to pay for advertising because their name has probably been mentioned in the thousands of times, in different news stories and social media posts over the last few months. but we do have with us a special guest and we're going to break this topic down and bring you kind of the latest on what's going on, with the use of these license plate readers. In with us is, current Tupelo, Police chief John Quaka, also former special agent with the FBI. Chief Quaka. Glad to have you with us.
John Quaka Thank you. I appreciate being here.
Walker Wildmon Well, I thought we could bring in a lot of different people, but you're here based in our hometown police chief over Tupelo. And the Tupelo Police department has utilized some of this technology as well. So I thought be good to have you in and I know y' all have done some social media on this, just trying to inform the public on, on the use of these cameras. But let's instead of jumping into the weeds too quickly for our audience who isn't as familiar with the technology and the license plate reader technology more broadly, just give our audience, kind of a background on the use of this technology because reading license plates isn't A new thing. This has been going on for probably a couple of decades. But anyway, give us a little background around how agencies use this technology.
John Quaka Yeah, so that's a very good question. So when I came here four and a half years ago, one of the things we wanted to do was upgrade the technology of the department. Every industry in the country upgrades their technology, but for some reason, people in America don't want the police to use the technology. And this is just one of the tools we use to reduce crime in the city of Tupelo and in our region in the state of Mississippi. We have 33 license plate readers throughout our town. Our town is roughly 51 square miles, over 400 roads. So in the broad perspective, not a lot of cameras per the size of our town, but it's been very effective. It helps us catch, individuals who may have stolen cars, who may be responsible for murders, who have general warrants out by us or other departments, and it is actually assisted in a kidnapping case.
Walker Wildmon Yeah, I've read and I've heard stories from other law enforcement about how crimes are solved pretty regularly with the use of these license plate readers.
Tupelo PD says most agencies are regulating who has access to flock cameras
let's talk about the, I want to mention the innovation you mentioned, upgrading systems. I got to give it to both Flock and the other providers out there that are producing this technology because it's a step up from the traditional license plate readers that have to be hardwired, probably mounted on red light post, et cetera. These are mostly, it appears to be wireless, run off solar and batteries and connected to LTE networks.
John Quaka That's correct.
Walker Wildmon you're not having to utilize thousands of dollars in infrastructure and running electrical and all that. I mean, you can pop these things up wherever you, wherever you need to, right?
John Quaka That's right, yes. Very, very mobile.
Walker Wildmon Yeah, for sure. so that's the folks, that's what's going on here. And this is, from a technological standpoint and from an innovation standpoint, it's a pretty smart setup and that's why so many agencies are using them. But let's get into some of the concerns that residents have or voters or citizens, et cetera. There's all kinds of news stories on this stuff and I'm going to mention, I'm going to mention this is probably the worst of the worst examples of the use or the improper use. There's, I've only, I've only found a couple stories of like a law enforcement officer misusing the Flock. And that mostly gets down to just improper access controls. But this Story out of Texas. This is in a small, I think a suburb of Austin. Pluggersville. Plugerville, Bobby meant. Bobby shook his head. This morning when I said the city name. Anyway, this is right outside of Austin, Texas. But their city council was kind of investigating. Hey, what's. What's the drama with these Flock cameras? And their audit found that the city council had given authorization for up to 83 agencies to access their cameras or their data. which means a neighboring police department, sheriff's office, or maybe a state agency could log in and access per the city council's authorization. But the audit or the review found that over 400 agencies had accessed that city's flock system and their data. So how do you respond to that? And what are some ways to prevent misuse like this?
John Quaka So any system can be misused, and that's just the nature of the game. So, Tuple opd, we do our best to hold everyone accountable. When you log into our system and you're going to request, say, to run a license plate number, you have to give a reason. There's just no carte blanche. Do whatever you want. Take a look At it. You've got to give a reason. We limit our access. So Tupelo pd, Only certain individuals have access to the system. Now, we are in a unique situation. We host a regional narcotics unit. We're the host agency. We work with 13 other agencies. We have allowed those agencies to access our system because we work together on drug cases. And as we all know, drug cases are not limited to a specific jurisdiction. They cross jurisdictional borders every day.
Walker Wildmon Sure.
John Quaka So we do allow other agencies, but it's 13 of them. It's not 80 or 90 of them. Right.
Walker Wildmon And that's controlled either by the chief and his office, or in some cities, the city council might have regulatory authority over that. but the point is, is that most agencies are conscientiously regulating who has access to their flock cameras, correct?
John Quaka Yes. Not only do we regulate who has access, we audit it. We created a position within our police department just to manage this. In our real time command center, we created a position known as captain of technology. And that's what he does. That's his only job. So we keep our finger on it. Very close.
Walker Wildmon Yeah, that's good to know. this technology folks isn't going away. So anybody who thinks they're going to protest this technology away, it's just not going to happen. this is At this point probably a billion dollar industry, if not multi billion dollar industry. As far as the Technological advancements in law enforcement. You've got the federal government leaning into this, and then local and state agencies as well.
Um, let's talk about, uh, this Fourth Amendment and privacy
let's talk about, this Fourth Amendment and privacy, because this stuff gets thrown around. And I just want to tell folks how I feel about this. First off, I am. I don't like the big brother. You know, everybody knows where everybody is. I don't like that from a high level, just principle standpoint. But as far as how this applies in this instance, there is no. I want my audience to know. There is no, quote, right to privacy, in the Constitution. There's the Fourth Amendment. What has to do. And you're better At this than I am. Search and seizure, which is why you have to get a warrant. You can't just go up in somebody's house with rare exceptions.
There's a myth that there's a right to privacy on public roadways
You can't, but talk about that, kind of dispel this myth that there's a right to privacy on the public roadways. Like that's a constitutional right. Because some people would say that is. They think that is.
John Quaka And they do. They have told me that. So let's just start from the beginning. The Fourth Amendment prohibits unreasonable searches. It does not prohibit reasonable searches.
Walker Wildmon Okay.
John Quaka The courts have said there are three areas that are highly, highly private. That is your private residence, your private conversation, and your curtilage. We are talking about vehicles that by law have to display a license plate on a public road. These are not set up, on your driveway, where we're monitoring you as you enter and leave your driveway. These are public roads. And I said we have 33. So we've got them on the main roads. We have to be strategic where we place them. a lot of people still, they don't agree with that. But that has been set by case law, federal case law, Supreme Court. Even though, even. And this is hypothetical, even if we say it is a violation of the Fourth Amendment, There are seven exceptions to the warrant clause, and one of them is plain view. There is no way you could say this is not plain view.
Walker Wildmon Right. On public roads.
John Quaka That's right.
Walker Wildmon Right.
Sen John Kennedy Yeah.
Walker Wildmon Because, and as I'm thinking through these arguments, I try to be reasonable. Anybody can stand on a public road or sidewalk and watch cars and take notes on who's driving by. And now they would have to have access to the plate information, which is in the state database. But nonetheless, anybody can stand and keep note of who's driving down the road. So I just want our audience to know there's nothing special or private about driving down Public roads. which is what you noted as well.
Tupelo Police Department uses license plate readers to catch bad guys
But let's talk about the use cases, the legitimate use cases, because these are the stories that probably don't get picked up as much just because it's so frequent that you have bad guys being caught using these types of technologies. But what are some. You've mentioned a few on the front end. But what are some use cases that you, the Tupelo Police Department or even other agencies are, being able to utilize these license plate readers and actually catch bad guys that otherwise would have either taken longer to catch or they would have just not been caught At all?
John Quaka Yeah. So we had one recent. We had one in June. Not a criminal act. We had a dementia patient missing from another jurisdiction. They placed the license plate number of this dementia patient on a hot list. It hit on one of our LPRs. We get notification within about 15 seconds. We were able to help dispatch officers from another agency to the location and that dementia patient was recovered.
Walker Wildmon Wow.
John Quaka Also, last year there was a kidnapping in the northwest part of the state. That license plate also put on a hot list. It hit on one of ours within 15 seconds. We get it, we stop the car. We help recover the individual that was kidnapped who was not in the car At the time.
Walker Wildmon Sure.
John Quaka but we did stop the individual that was responsible for it.
Walker Wildmon Wow.
John Quaka So those are big wins now. Those are all really, really reactive. We're getting an alert and we're responding to them. I want to give you an example of proactivity. about nine months ago on the west side of Tupelo, we were being hit very hard by a car burglar and he was responsible for about 40 of them. And it was an odd time of day. It was always between 5am and 6am and that's just not a normal time. Someone would break into someone's car because the sun's starting to come up. So we went back over a 30 day period to look At who was hitting our LPRS between 4:30am and 6:30am M and got a list of about 10. And then we start weeding them out and we got down to three. That really interest us. And then we got a break. And we actually got a picture from a ring camera of the car that was committing the burglaries. And it matched the car of one of the cars that was hitting our LPRs. We were able to identify that individual. We were then able to establish probable cause and put a court ordered tracker on that car which then confirmed he was the car burglar. Which led to more probable cause for a search warrant At his house. And we recovered the items that had been stolen.
Walker Wildmon Wow, that's pretty advanced. And, of course, a lot of that's happening on the front end the public doesn't know about until after the fact. But even to that point, communicating all of this to the public in a way that they can consume it and think reasonably. I hate it for you guys, but y' all don't always have that opportunity.
John Quaka We don't.
Walker Wildmon I mean, people are reading headlines, they might get a paragraph into the story. Unless they do some deep research where they can get these pros and cons out there. I did look up kind of what Flock's, privacy policy is, what some of their terms of use are. And folks, At the end of the day, what this boils down to, Flock and any of these other providers, they're building and selling the technology. they're not. At least Flock is not. they've got strict controls that whoever the purchaser of the technology is, in this instance, Tupelo Police department, they're the customer. They have full control over the technology, who has access to it, how it's used. It's almost like a. Think of it like a computer, for example. They're selling the computer. Intel Mac, they're selling the computer. Whatever the customer does with it, that's up to the customer. Let me ask you this. Once again. We're talking to Tupelo Police Chief John kwaka, who has 30 plus of these cameras within a pretty large, city, limit area jurisdiction. Are there things that you've run across just using the technology over the last few years where it would be. You could see it helpful if the local government, city council, et cetera, did have some type of code, enforcement or ordinance or, regulation, anything to provide barriers and guardrails to the technology like this.
John Quaka I don't know that there's anything the city council could enact that we're not doing. We're very transparent about what we do. I will give data to the city council anytime they ask for it. We're our hardest critics, and I don't want this system to be abused. We audit it frequently and we will take strong action to correct any misuse of it that we might find.
Walker Wildmon Yeah, that's good. That's good. well, there you have it, folks. That's, Tupelo Police Chief John Quaka. He's been with us for the last 10 or 15 minutes. this is going to have to be talked about more. because the people see what's going on in these other countries like China, which obviously don't have a constitution or individual liberties like we do. but that's the instinctive reaction is we don't want things to be abused by the government or bad actors. but At the same time, law enforcement has to have the tools At their disposal, the legal tools to be able to carry out their job and do it effectively. And it's another one of those uses where if you're the one benefiting from it, if it's your family member that has dementia, that's lost, or your child's been kidnapped or adult, and this technology is used, you're all in favor of it.
John Quaka That's right.
Walker Wildmon So, the fact of the matter is this boils down to local municipalities and local governments having checks and balances in place and, using this technology properly and of course, within the full, confines of the law, state, local and federal. So we appreciate you coming in and, bringing us the lowdown on this.
John Quaka Thank you, Walker.
Walker Wildmon Thanks, John
American Family Radio celebrates America's 250th birthday with special content
That's Tupelo police chief John Quacca, former special agent with the FBI as well. And, that's how these license plate readers, these LPRs, are being used. There's multiple brands on the market. Flock's just making the headlines. but there's other brands out there as well that manufacture and sell these, license plate readers. So there you have it, folks. That's the latest on the, social media and, the media drama about the flight cameras. So we'll keep covering stories like this, bringing you, the truth about what's going on. So thank you for joining us. We still have one segment left. Stick around.
America's 250th birthday. It's a great excuse to have some extra cake and ice cream, but we can help your celebration go well beyond that. Show your patriotism with America. 250 apparel that will become a memento of this special year. We also have special episodes on AFA stream to help underscore that America is a Christian nation and help you find God in the constitution. Find all of this and more in one place. Afa.net topics250 this is At the core on American family radio with your host Walker Wildmon.
Matt Thayer is the director and filmmaker of a new documentary
Walker Wildmon Welcome back to The Core here on American family radio. Glad to have you with us. Well, as I alluded to earlier in the program, we've got a special guest with us now, Matt Thayer. He's a director and filmmaker of can you hear me now? It's a new documentary. It explores the prophetic movement that is shaping American faith and politics. And he's with us to talk about this film. He's actually in Dallas where they had a, a premiere, if you will, or a viewing there in Dallas with over 300 individuals. Matt, welcome to the program.
Matt Thayer Hey Walker, thanks so much. Glad to be here.
Walker Wildmon Yeah, absolutely. We're glad to talk about this and the role of Christian, voices in American politics and American culture before we jump into the film.
Give us a little background on how you ended up in the filmmaking business
Can, you hear me now is the name of it, which is coming out very soon with an exclusive on Salem, and then it'll be out on all the major platforms later in the fall. But give us a little background on yourself and how you ended up into the filmmaking business.
Matt Thayer Well, the story, starts when I was 13 years old and I watched Aladdin, in the theaters and all of a sudden the credits started rolling and I kind of connected with my 13 year old brain that these were adults, with job titles. And I was like, wow, you can do this, this is amazing. So I started doing animation. I started learning all I could in animation. I was homeschooled my whole life. So I had a lot of time for self actualization. The library got every single book that I could find on Disney and animation and everything, started studying that. But then, I couldn't tell you, this then, like I can now. But, I was less interested in making the characters move as I was interested in who they were, what the world they lived in, the story. And so I was always kind of a director. And then I set that aside because, you know, I thought that, well, that was just a child pipe dream. And somewhere in the mid 2000s, my life kind of fell apart based on some, you know, personal decisions that I made that were bad and everything else. And I was laying there on the ground and I was like, lord, what am I supposed to do? And he's like, well, you know that thing that you, that I've put in your heart that you've always wanted to do, but you've never done you could do that. and At the time I had some kids. I, made my second marriage and we, had a gaggle of kids. Father Abraham comes to mind, when I talk about the amount of kids that I have. And they all wanted to be in short films. And so we took them out to the park, started making short films and started, winning some film festivals. And then Started doing a lot of corporate and commercial work and then was, asked to start doing documentaries back in 2020. during Cove there was a producer friend of mine that had some access to Lara Trump. And so we, made the Trump I Know, which is on Amazon right now. and, that was my first feature film. And since then, I've made seven in the last six years. So this is the seventh documentary. Got actually two documentaries coming out in September, and this is one of them.
The film explores how the prophetic works, how it lines up with science
Walker Wildmon Well, tell us about. Can you hear me now? Tell us a little bit about the origin of this and what you guys are looking At here.
Matt Thayer Well, the origin of it was, really kind of around the prophetic movement in 2020, where there was a lot of people that came out saying that Trump was going to win in 2020. and then when Biden was crowned victorious by the media, there was a lot of the prophetic voices that backed off from that word and, you know, said, oh, I'm sorry, we got it wrong, all of that. But then there were several prophets that doubled down and said, no, he actually did win, and this was stolen. And so that's kind of an interesting conversation. As somebody that grew up, aware of the prophetic, always grew up in churches that believed that God spoke. you know, kind of going like, well, you know, is this a delay? What's going on here? And so we began to explore it from that standpoint. And then when we, wanted to broaden this out to a broader conversation around Christians being involved in politics and kind of confronting the, you know, the misinformation that's been out there about church and separation of church and state and Christian nationalism. We reached out to tpusa, to, you know, get an interview with Charlie Kirk, because we thought, well, you know, having somebody in the documentary like that might make it a little bit more mass appeal. we sat down with Charlie Kirk, ironically, two weeks before he passed. And so making a documentary where God's speaking, we're talking about God speaking. All of a sudden, two weeks later, when I'm getting the alerts that Charlie Kirk has died, after I've just interviewed him, I'm going, all right, Lord, what are you saying with this? And so, it's a really special documentary that's not only interview featuring one of the last unseen interviews with Charlie Kirk, but it's also really exploring how the prophetic works, the origins of the prophetic, how it lines up with science, how it lines up with history. But Then also what do we do with it? Right. Because when God speaks, things are created. And, so, you know, he has a purpose behind what he's saying. And I believe that he has a purpose in, activating his people to be a part of the conversation.
Walker Wildmon Some, I've heard people refer to my grandfather, my late grandfather, Don Wildmon, as a, quote, modern prophet. And not that my grandfather or anyone who is referred to as a modern prophet, has the ability to basically reopen the canon and add to the scriptures. I think that's unbiblical. but the question is, and this is what your documentary, explores is the question is, does the Lord speak through believers today, which clearly God can speak through the modern church, and does he give them wisdom and insight, so that they can share that with others? That's pretty much a layman's explanation. And then, I know I just tried to like, summarize your film in three seconds, but, is that the direction you're going here? Yes or no? Or if not, which direction are you going here with the film?
Matt Thayer Yeah, absolutely. It was, you know, it kind of built on my own story and skepticism around, politics and prophetic, and, you know, just m asking a lot of questions that I had. And one of the things that Charlie Kirk said that I thought was really, really moving in the documentary was that a word from a prophet is not an excuse for apathy or an action, and really kind, of exploring the prophetic, not from the standpoint of future telling, but the standpoint of direction. You know, it's like, this is the ways that God is saying that we should go and we should walk in it. And in that way I thought, you know, Charlie Kirk was actually kind of operating in a little bit of that, in the sense that he was saying, hey, guys, we're going in the wrong way. We need to go in the other way. And when you demystify the prophetic, I like to say it this way. Ah, we all know children, anybody that's been a grandparent or parent, has come across a child that has a really good way to argue, they can make a point. And you're like, wow, they should be lawyers. And so there's this talent that's given to people for argumentation and debate. And then they go to school, they learn how to do it better, and then they use, hopefully that, that talent for the benefit of humanity. But then we also all know lawyers that have used their talents and abilities, for their own, self Serving. Right. And so, you know, Better Call Saul, we've all seen that series. And you know, you would think of these bus stop lawyers that are just ambulance chasers. Right. Well, they're not really actually using their talents for the benefit of humanity. So if you look At profits, ah, as somebody who has just had, has a, just a, you know, they have an ability. They have, they have a talent that's been given to them to see into the unseen realm. Well, that can be used for good or for bad. And, the Bible very clearly says that a false prophet is somebody that's pointing in the wrong direction, pointing towards another God. You know, in today's world, we could, we could say that they were using it to build their own social media platforms, all of that. Right. And. But a true prophet is pointing to Jesus, on this side of the cross. And that's how you kind of mark the true prophet, right, as somebody that's actually pointing to Christ. Not necessarily, because that's the thing that in Deuteronomy 13, what I thought was really interesting is that a prophet who is false prophet who's pointing in the wrong direction can actually say things that come to pass. So if you look At Balaam, Balaam is the false prophet of false prophets. But if you read in numbers and you know the biblical text, he actually was very accurate. Yet you have Jonah, who is called a prophet by Jesus, and he doesn't have a complete, he doesn't have a fulfilled word recorded in the Bible. So accuracy is not necessarily the hallmark of what is true or false. It's the direction in which you're pointing it.
Walker Wildmon Amen. And does it sync up with scripture?
Matt Thayer Exactly.
Walker Wildmon That's good stuff.
Matt Thayer is the producer of this latest film
Hey, once again we're talking to Matt Thayer. He's an award winning filmmaker. He's also producer of this latest film. Can you hear me now? Some of the great, folks interviewed. I just looked earlier. obviously the late Charlie Cross Kirk was interviewed. our good friend Bill Federer was interviewed. Kelly Shackelford over At First Liberty is a name on the film as well. Matt, what are some other, folks that we might recognize in the film? And then after that we'll get into how folks can watch it.
Walker: Pre-orders for Christian film available now on Salem now
Matt Thayer Well, Hank, Kuneman's in the film. he's a frequent quest on Flashpoint. then also Amanda Grace, Johnny, Enlow. I know Johnny Enlow personally. what I love about Johnny is he doesn't ever or claim, the title of prophet. He just kind of operates in that. But one of the stories that he tells in the film is how his words actually were instrumental in transforming the nation of Peru. And so if it can actually transform a nation like that, why couldn't it transform our country?
Walker Wildmon Amen. Absolutely. hey, how are folks going to be able to watch this? Because I know we've got thousands of listeners now around the country and they love a good, family friendly, faith friendly film. So tell our folks how they can check this out.
Matt Thayer Yeah, we're partnering with Salem now right now, for a four week exclusive during the month of September. So on. so right now pre orders are available. You can either go to SalemNow.com or you can go to canyouhearmenowfilm.com that's canyou hearmenowfilm.com and for those of you that want to pre order, you get a free DVD with the transaction. So it's a really great way to enjoy the film digitally, but then also get that hard copy that you can share with your friends and family or maybe a pastor that you feel like needs to hear the message. And so you can go to canyouhearmenowfilm.com to get that pre order today and you'll get that free dvd. And then in, about four to five weeks, early in October, we're going to be releasing it onto major streamers. So you're going to be able to find it on Amazon, you're going to find it on Apple, Google, all of that.
Walker Wildmon Excellent, excellent. We've been talking to Matt Thayer, he's a filmmaker, also producer and director of this latest film. Can you hear me now? Hey Matt. God, bless you brother. Appre. Appreciate your work and we look forward to checking this film out.
Matt Thayer Thank you Walker. Thanks for taking the time today.
Walker Wildmon Yeah, absolutely. There you have it folks. the URL that he gave out by the way, is canyouhearmenowfilm.com we'll link to this in the show notes. Canyouhearmenowfilm.com you can check that out. It's coming out on Salem now, on September 10, on Salem now. And then of course you can check out their website and watch the trailer now and then after that, in October. Plus it'll be available on all the major film and video streaming platforms. So check that out. Can you hear me now is the name of that film. And that was Charlie Kirk's last, interview he did that was yet released. And he's in that film as well as a participant along with others, very reputable voices that you would recognize in that film. Well, one story before we wrap up the show here in a few minutes.
Republican Senatorial Committee not spending money in Texas to help Ken Paxton
this, unraveling of the Democrat Party is just continuing to take place before our very eyes. but also the Republican Party has their own challenges. in Texas, the Republican Senatorial Committee that raises all the money for the Republican Senate candidates, is not spending any money in Texas to help Ken Paxton win the Senate race there. This was a very shocking tell by Senator Kennedy from Louisiana on how much money, which is zero, the Republicans are planning to spend in Texas. Clip 2 let's listen.
Shannon Bream It, didn't sound from his answer that the President made any commitments, either himself or through his, super pac to write checks for Paxton, At least right now. does Senate Leadership Fund or anything NRC have any plans for TV ads, you know, to support him because he's down in spending there?
Sen John Kennedy Well, I listened to your interview. It was very good, by the way, with, the Attorney General. Look, there's no sense bubble wrapping it. We've got a race in Texas, and the Attorney General is going to have to do two things. He's going to have to point out the deficiencies of Mr. Talarico. he really is a, Lululin, and he's a little bit of a weenie. But At the same time, Mr. Paxton is going to have to talk about what he's going to do. A positive platform for the United States Senate. You can't win an election by saying, the other guy is worse than me. Money is an issue. Mr. Talarico has been raising bucket loads of money from California, Hollywood, all the beautiful people who partied with Harvey Weinstein. we don't have, we in the Senate don't have the money budgeted for Texas. We need help for the president from the president. President says he has $850 million in his campaign accounts. that's a lot of jack. I'm hoping that the President's going to spend 100 or 200 million in Texas, but he hasn't committed to it yet. but in the meantime, you know, we've got a race, and I'm not going to play act and say that we don't.
Senator Kennedy says Senate Republicans don't have any money for Texas
Walker Wildmon All right, well, hey, folks, here's the, two things, and we're going to get to the bottom of this, and we're going to bring it to you, and you're probably going to be pretty upset about it, At a later show when I have more time for this. But there is Senator Kennedy from Louisiana on Fox News telling us the conservative voting bloc, that they don't have any money for Texas. They don't have the Senate, the National Senatorial Republican Committee, which is basically the political arm of the Senate Republicans that funds all the campaigns. They have effectively $0 allocated for Texas. That is shocking. And all these talking heads and all these pollsters are talking about, oh, Texas, Texas is going to go blue, Talarico is going to beat Paxton, and the Senate Republicans have no money allocated for Texas. What on earth have they been doing? What I'm going to do some research on between now and Wednesday is how much money these Senate Republicans found to campaign for Darlene Graham in South Carolina against Ralph Norman. How much money they've used to support these other establishment candidates around the country. All this money that these Senate Republicans got for their campaigns. But we've got zero dollars for poor Ken Paxton in Texas. That is a shocker. We'll see you next time.
The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
American Family Radio thanks its sponsor, Preborn
Walker Wildmon We would like to take a moment to thank our sponsor, PreBorn. When a mother meets her baby on ultrasound and hears their heartbeat, it's a divine connection and the majority of the time she will choose life. But they can't do it without your help. Preborn needs us, the pro life community, to come alongside them. One ultrasound is just $28. To donate, dial pound250 and say the keyword baby or visit preborn.com afr. We inform religious freedom is about people of faith being able to live out their faith, live out their convictions no matter where they are.
We quit.
Rick Green Sacred honor is the courage to speak truth, to live out your free speech.
Don wildmon We also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character and character.
This is At The Core on American Family Radio.
Walker Wildmon Welcome to At The Core here on American Family Radio. Glad to have you with us on today's edition of the show. Walker Wildmon, Rick Green, we're your host each week on the program. Once again, it's good to be with you today on the show. As a brief reminder, if you want to listen live or watch the video, you can simply go over to afr.net afr.net if you look on the left hand top menu bar, you can click listen live to the audio. On the right hand top menu bar, you can click watch live. And so there's multiple ways for you to listen to the program, keep up with the show, and even watch the video if you so choose.
Acts chapter 19 is where we are this week
Well, let's turn our attention to the scripture and then we'll jump into some of our content for today. Acts chapter 19 is where we are this week. Acts chapter 19. And it happened while Apollos was At Corinth that Paul, having passed through the upper region, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples, he said to them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? So they said to him, we have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit. And he said to them, into what then were you baptized? So they said into Jon's baptism. Then Paul said, john indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on him who would come after him, that is Christ Jesus. when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them. And they spoke with tongues and prophesied. Prophesied. Now, the men were about 12 in all here in Ephesus. So that's Acts chapter 19, verses 1 through 7. A lot of theology there. We could probably do, a good pastor could probably do about an hour on this, on seven verses. But for the sake of time m. And the fact, that I don't claim to be a pastor, the simple, short of it here is that the Holy Spirit with the early church, there was some confusion and some bad teachings or really just lack of teaching on the Holy Spirit and the fact that God had gifted the Holy Spirit with the early church, with the New Testament church. But for some of these new believers that were followers of Jesus, the Holy Spirit was this foreign concept. It was this new concept, for salvation and for sanctification. And so Paul is teaching that, teaching that and also teaching that. Look, let's don't get caught up in who baptized you. The fact of the matter is all believers have the Holy Spirit. That's what's important here. It's not whether John baptized you or whether Paul baptized you. The fact of the matter is, is that we're all baptized in the Holy Spirit. That's what the central tenet of the Christian faith is about in this New Testament church. And so that's what Paul was emphasizing. That's what Paul was teaching as he traversed this region, really helping to establish the early church. That's Acts chapter 19, verses 1 through 7. Well, we're going to have a couple special guests this program. In the next segment we're going to have on a Tupelo police chief John Quaka. He's going to be with us to talk about law enforcement agencies are using these license plate reader flock cameras. There's other brands as well, how they're using them, the proper use and the benefits for law enforcement. And then we'll talk about some of the concerns that citizens have raised over the use of those cameras. And then in the last segment, we'll talk with a filmmaker, Matt Thayer. He's going to be on to talk about, one of the latest films out. Can you hear me now? It's a new documentary exploring the prophetic movement shaping American faith and politics. So we'll talk with Matt in the last segment on that new film. Can you hear me now?
Buc-ees is a newer brand of gas station that's exploding
let's jump into some stories this segment while we have the time. We've got a couple things going on here. anyone that's been to the Buc-ee's ee's gas stations is, I, would say truck stops, but they're technically not truck stops. They're gas stations for non Commercial vehicles that actually don't allow commercial vehicles in there. but they're, it's, it's a, it's an experience that once you've done it, you won't forget it. Let me tell you. These are, the equivalent of the, Chick fil a of gas stations is what I call it. because they're massive. There's hardly a line unless you go to some that are just slam packed. But these Buc-ee's gas stations, those of you who've been to them, you know, you're nodding your head and going, yep, I've been to Buc-ee's Everybody who's been to Buc-ee's ee's knows, what a Buc-ee's gas station is like. And then those who aren't are going, what on earth is this guy talking about? but this is a kind of a newer brand of gas station. I don't know how long they've been around, probably a decade or two, but it's just blowing up. I mean they're throwing up these gas stations left and right. And they have 100, 200 gas pumps. They're massive. I mean they're, they're an entire. You could almost put a zip code, to cover up how big these gas stations are. But the, the owners, very conservative guy, he may be a born again believer, I'll have to do my background on that. But he's 100% politically conservative, ideologically conservative. And so these conservative states are very pro business, very family friendly. They want Buc -ees to come in. Every state wants a Buc-ees. Texas has multiple. Florida's, got two, Alabama's got At least two or three. And any state that can get a Buc Ees wants a Buc-ees. Ees. Well, this, founder and CEO of Buc Ees gas stations, was doing a press conference up in Arkansas in Benton, Arkansas, which I was actually there driving through there last week when they did this grand opening. And he basically said At this press conference, look, guys, all these states want us to come. The Democrat states want us to come. But he said basically, I'm not going because their business environment, their anti family environment is just bad for business. So let's listen to this. This is clip one.
Buc-ee's CEO We're growing, we're building in a lot of places. But when you find a conservative, business friendly state with a phenomenal workforce, it makes a difference. And I'm starting to realize life's too short to try to Build in places that people don't appreciate what you're bringing versus a place like this where people do appreciate what you're building. So that leadership, that concept, that idea of conservative, business friendly, family oriented concept works so much better if it trickles down from the very leadership, from the very top At the governor's office, At the congressman.
Walker Wildmon Well, there you have it. That's Buc-ee's CEO saying, look, life's too short to be trying to build these amazing gas stations in these Democrat strongholds where they don't like our values, they don't like Buc-ee's corporate values. They're, they're anti family, they're, they're anti business, they're high taxes over regulation. He's like, I don't have time for this. I can throw up five Buc-ee's in Texas, where I can put one in Delaware. and so he's, he's like, I'm not even trying that. So, But the point in bringing this up is this is indicative of what the Democrats have done to their states. I mean, that's just a fact. And this isn't the first time we've heard this. We've seen the blue state exodus that has been going on since Cove Hundreds of thousands. By this time, millions of a, combined millions of New Yorkers, Californians and others have fled. And where have they fled? They fled to conservative states. Why? Because they're tired of the high taxes, they're tired of the high crime rates, and they're tired of the stupid politics and the pro abortion, anti family abortion on demand, crime out, out the wazoo, letting the criminals out. All of these things are bad for business, they're bad for the family. And people are getting out. They're tired of it. And this is why. You've seen Texas and Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina. The populations are increasing by hundreds of thousands annually. And this is going to be a big deal when it comes to the 2030 census because 2020 barely missed this. The 2020 census barely missed this mass exodus. So California is going to lose electoral college votes. New York is going to lose electoral college votes. Guess what else they're going to lose? Are you going to lose congressional seats as well? So the 2030 census can't come fast enough. And, and Republicans are going to pick up electoral college votes. I don't know how many yet, five or ten. And they're going to pick up, congressional seats as well because of the mass exodus that occurred since 2020. 2021. And the, Democrats haven't learned a lesson. They're over in California with the highest tax rates ever. They just passed, a tax bill through the legislature last month that put the tax rates At the highest they've ever been. And so you're already, you've already bled hundreds of millions in tax revenue over the last few years in businesses and individuals, probably billions when you total it all up in tax revenue that's fled these states and they're not coming back. Once you do damage like this, good luck getting them back. Meanwhile, you've got conservative states that are eliminating the income tax, eliminating property taxes, and making it welcoming for businesses like Buc-ee's to come in and do business. Why make it hard on people? And so over the long run, this is going to, ultimately lead to what I believe is the downfall of your state's like California. Now, don't get me wrong, there's a lot of wealth tied up in California and New York. They've got a lot of wealth, a lot of generational legacy money there. And, that's going to last them for a while. But At some point, this train track's going to run out of tracks. You're going to run out of track and you. They can't print money. This is what makes California different than, let's say Washington D.C. california can't cut on the printing press, Washington can. Washington can print theoretically endless amounts of money. They can add zeros to the Excel sheet and just keep the train going. But California and New York, on the other hand, they can't do that. States do not have the ability to print money At the Treasury Department. So they have to actually run the government like a business. They have to pay their bills, they have to bring in the revenue. Now they can, they can borrow, they can go into debt, but it's not endless like the federal government because they don't own the Treasury. And so, this is going to be interesting to follow. New York was bailed out. I think New York and California were somewhat bailed out by the Democrat Congress and unfortunately President Trump during the COVID mania, they got billions of dollars during that gravy train.
California is hemorrhaging tax revenue at a rate that is unsustainable
So that, that, that bailed them out in the interim. But they're going to hit a point pretty soon like you're seeing with New York City, where they're just straight up out of money and there's nowhere to get it from unless they go to the state Capitol. in this instance, New York City going to Albany, Georgia. I'm sorry, Albany New York to get the money or, going to Washington D.C. to get a bailout. So that'll be something to watch for during the next Democrat administration, whenever that comes, is how much we bail out as federal taxpayers, New York State and California, because that time will come. You just cannot, cannot bleed the tax base At the rate that these Democrat states have and expect the tax revenue just to keep coming in. It's just absolutely unsustainable. And then I was reading a report today about some of the highest paid government employees in California. Guess what? The highest paid employee In California makes $2 million a year. Yes, there is a government employee in California that makes $2 million a year. And there's, I think over, there's dozens, if not over 100, that make over 600,000 annually in California. These are government employees. There was this audit report that showed the salaries of California government employees. So, they're not concerned about the spending. and, Newsom just keeps putting the clamps down on the tax base. And, people keep fleeing by the tens of thousands. And it's ultimately sad is what it is. It's ultimately sad because here's what happens. You turn a state, into the haves and the have nots. That's what happens. And so your people that are, well, to do that are wealthy, yeah, they're going to be paying more taxes, but they're not going to be missing a meal. And then your, middle class, they're the ones fleeing, by the way the middle class is fleeing. And then all that's left is the haves and the have nots. And then you've got the impoverished class, and then you've got the people on the streets of San Francisco. And so it's a very sad situation from a human standpoint, but we can't forget it. Out of all the, the emotion and all the sadness that, that it brings to the communities to have such wealth leaving California, we cannot forget how they got there. And that's a warning to Texas. With all the California migrants, all the California, transplants, they need to remember not to bring their California values with them to Texas, to Tennessee, into Florida, because. Because the last thing we need is these conservative states turning blue. We'll be back in a few, Friend.
80% of abortion vulnerable women choose life after seeing baby on ultrasound
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American Family Radio features special segment on use of license plate readers by police
Walker Wildmon Welcome back to The Core here on American Family Radio. Glad to have you with us in this second segment. I'm Walker Wildmon. Glad to be with you on this program, American Family Radio. The name of the show is At The Core. Well, the Flock Cameras and the Flock Corporation, they're not having to pay for advertising because their name has probably been mentioned in the thousands of times, in different news stories and social media posts over the last few months. but we do have with us a special guest and we're going to break this topic down and bring you kind of the latest on what's going on, with the use of these license plate readers. In with us is, current Tupelo, Police chief John Quaka, also former special agent with the FBI. Chief Quaka. Glad to have you with us.
John Quaka Thank you. I appreciate being here.
Walker Wildmon Well, I thought we could bring in a lot of different people, but you're here based in our hometown police chief over Tupelo. And the Tupelo Police department has utilized some of this technology as well. So I thought be good to have you in and I know y' all have done some social media on this, just trying to inform the public on, on the use of these cameras. But let's instead of jumping into the weeds too quickly for our audience who isn't as familiar with the technology and the license plate reader technology more broadly, just give our audience, kind of a background on the use of this technology because reading license plates isn't A new thing. This has been going on for probably a couple of decades. But anyway, give us a little background around how agencies use this technology.
John Quaka Yeah, so that's a very good question. So when I came here four and a half years ago, one of the things we wanted to do was upgrade the technology of the department. Every industry in the country upgrades their technology, but for some reason, people in America don't want the police to use the technology. And this is just one of the tools we use to reduce crime in the city of Tupelo and in our region in the state of Mississippi. We have 33 license plate readers throughout our town. Our town is roughly 51 square miles, over 400 roads. So in the broad perspective, not a lot of cameras per the size of our town, but it's been very effective. It helps us catch, individuals who may have stolen cars, who may be responsible for murders, who have general warrants out by us or other departments, and it is actually assisted in a kidnapping case.
Walker Wildmon Yeah, I've read and I've heard stories from other law enforcement about how crimes are solved pretty regularly with the use of these license plate readers.
Tupelo PD says most agencies are regulating who has access to flock cameras
let's talk about the, I want to mention the innovation you mentioned, upgrading systems. I got to give it to both Flock and the other providers out there that are producing this technology because it's a step up from the traditional license plate readers that have to be hardwired, probably mounted on red light post, et cetera. These are mostly, it appears to be wireless, run off solar and batteries and connected to LTE networks.
John Quaka That's correct.
Walker Wildmon you're not having to utilize thousands of dollars in infrastructure and running electrical and all that. I mean, you can pop these things up wherever you, wherever you need to, right?
John Quaka That's right, yes. Very, very mobile.
Walker Wildmon Yeah, for sure. so that's the folks, that's what's going on here. And this is, from a technological standpoint and from an innovation standpoint, it's a pretty smart setup and that's why so many agencies are using them. But let's get into some of the concerns that residents have or voters or citizens, et cetera. There's all kinds of news stories on this stuff and I'm going to mention, I'm going to mention this is probably the worst of the worst examples of the use or the improper use. There's, I've only, I've only found a couple stories of like a law enforcement officer misusing the Flock. And that mostly gets down to just improper access controls. But this Story out of Texas. This is in a small, I think a suburb of Austin. Pluggersville. Plugerville, Bobby meant. Bobby shook his head. This morning when I said the city name. Anyway, this is right outside of Austin, Texas. But their city council was kind of investigating. Hey, what's. What's the drama with these Flock cameras? And their audit found that the city council had given authorization for up to 83 agencies to access their cameras or their data. which means a neighboring police department, sheriff's office, or maybe a state agency could log in and access per the city council's authorization. But the audit or the review found that over 400 agencies had accessed that city's flock system and their data. So how do you respond to that? And what are some ways to prevent misuse like this?
John Quaka So any system can be misused, and that's just the nature of the game. So, Tuple opd, we do our best to hold everyone accountable. When you log into our system and you're going to request, say, to run a license plate number, you have to give a reason. There's just no carte blanche. Do whatever you want. Take a look At it. You've got to give a reason. We limit our access. So Tupelo pd, Only certain individuals have access to the system. Now, we are in a unique situation. We host a regional narcotics unit. We're the host agency. We work with 13 other agencies. We have allowed those agencies to access our system because we work together on drug cases. And as we all know, drug cases are not limited to a specific jurisdiction. They cross jurisdictional borders every day.
Walker Wildmon Sure.
John Quaka So we do allow other agencies, but it's 13 of them. It's not 80 or 90 of them. Right.
Walker Wildmon And that's controlled either by the chief and his office, or in some cities, the city council might have regulatory authority over that. but the point is, is that most agencies are conscientiously regulating who has access to their flock cameras, correct?
John Quaka Yes. Not only do we regulate who has access, we audit it. We created a position within our police department just to manage this. In our real time command center, we created a position known as captain of technology. And that's what he does. That's his only job. So we keep our finger on it. Very close.
Walker Wildmon Yeah, that's good to know. this technology folks isn't going away. So anybody who thinks they're going to protest this technology away, it's just not going to happen. this is At this point probably a billion dollar industry, if not multi billion dollar industry. As far as the Technological advancements in law enforcement. You've got the federal government leaning into this, and then local and state agencies as well.
Um, let's talk about, uh, this Fourth Amendment and privacy
let's talk about, this Fourth Amendment and privacy, because this stuff gets thrown around. And I just want to tell folks how I feel about this. First off, I am. I don't like the big brother. You know, everybody knows where everybody is. I don't like that from a high level, just principle standpoint. But as far as how this applies in this instance, there is no. I want my audience to know. There is no, quote, right to privacy, in the Constitution. There's the Fourth Amendment. What has to do. And you're better At this than I am. Search and seizure, which is why you have to get a warrant. You can't just go up in somebody's house with rare exceptions.
There's a myth that there's a right to privacy on public roadways
You can't, but talk about that, kind of dispel this myth that there's a right to privacy on the public roadways. Like that's a constitutional right. Because some people would say that is. They think that is.
John Quaka And they do. They have told me that. So let's just start from the beginning. The Fourth Amendment prohibits unreasonable searches. It does not prohibit reasonable searches.
Walker Wildmon Okay.
John Quaka The courts have said there are three areas that are highly, highly private. That is your private residence, your private conversation, and your curtilage. We are talking about vehicles that by law have to display a license plate on a public road. These are not set up, on your driveway, where we're monitoring you as you enter and leave your driveway. These are public roads. And I said we have 33. So we've got them on the main roads. We have to be strategic where we place them. a lot of people still, they don't agree with that. But that has been set by case law, federal case law, Supreme Court. Even though, even. And this is hypothetical, even if we say it is a violation of the Fourth Amendment, There are seven exceptions to the warrant clause, and one of them is plain view. There is no way you could say this is not plain view.
Walker Wildmon Right. On public roads.
John Quaka That's right.
Walker Wildmon Right.
Sen John Kennedy Yeah.
Walker Wildmon Because, and as I'm thinking through these arguments, I try to be reasonable. Anybody can stand on a public road or sidewalk and watch cars and take notes on who's driving by. And now they would have to have access to the plate information, which is in the state database. But nonetheless, anybody can stand and keep note of who's driving down the road. So I just want our audience to know there's nothing special or private about driving down Public roads. which is what you noted as well.
Tupelo Police Department uses license plate readers to catch bad guys
But let's talk about the use cases, the legitimate use cases, because these are the stories that probably don't get picked up as much just because it's so frequent that you have bad guys being caught using these types of technologies. But what are some. You've mentioned a few on the front end. But what are some use cases that you, the Tupelo Police Department or even other agencies are, being able to utilize these license plate readers and actually catch bad guys that otherwise would have either taken longer to catch or they would have just not been caught At all?
John Quaka Yeah. So we had one recent. We had one in June. Not a criminal act. We had a dementia patient missing from another jurisdiction. They placed the license plate number of this dementia patient on a hot list. It hit on one of our LPRs. We get notification within about 15 seconds. We were able to help dispatch officers from another agency to the location and that dementia patient was recovered.
Walker Wildmon Wow.
John Quaka Also, last year there was a kidnapping in the northwest part of the state. That license plate also put on a hot list. It hit on one of ours within 15 seconds. We get it, we stop the car. We help recover the individual that was kidnapped who was not in the car At the time.
Walker Wildmon Sure.
John Quaka but we did stop the individual that was responsible for it.
Walker Wildmon Wow.
John Quaka So those are big wins now. Those are all really, really reactive. We're getting an alert and we're responding to them. I want to give you an example of proactivity. about nine months ago on the west side of Tupelo, we were being hit very hard by a car burglar and he was responsible for about 40 of them. And it was an odd time of day. It was always between 5am and 6am and that's just not a normal time. Someone would break into someone's car because the sun's starting to come up. So we went back over a 30 day period to look At who was hitting our LPRS between 4:30am and 6:30am M and got a list of about 10. And then we start weeding them out and we got down to three. That really interest us. And then we got a break. And we actually got a picture from a ring camera of the car that was committing the burglaries. And it matched the car of one of the cars that was hitting our LPRs. We were able to identify that individual. We were then able to establish probable cause and put a court ordered tracker on that car which then confirmed he was the car burglar. Which led to more probable cause for a search warrant At his house. And we recovered the items that had been stolen.
Walker Wildmon Wow, that's pretty advanced. And, of course, a lot of that's happening on the front end the public doesn't know about until after the fact. But even to that point, communicating all of this to the public in a way that they can consume it and think reasonably. I hate it for you guys, but y' all don't always have that opportunity.
John Quaka We don't.
Walker Wildmon I mean, people are reading headlines, they might get a paragraph into the story. Unless they do some deep research where they can get these pros and cons out there. I did look up kind of what Flock's, privacy policy is, what some of their terms of use are. And folks, At the end of the day, what this boils down to, Flock and any of these other providers, they're building and selling the technology. they're not. At least Flock is not. they've got strict controls that whoever the purchaser of the technology is, in this instance, Tupelo Police department, they're the customer. They have full control over the technology, who has access to it, how it's used. It's almost like a. Think of it like a computer, for example. They're selling the computer. Intel Mac, they're selling the computer. Whatever the customer does with it, that's up to the customer. Let me ask you this. Once again. We're talking to Tupelo Police Chief John kwaka, who has 30 plus of these cameras within a pretty large, city, limit area jurisdiction. Are there things that you've run across just using the technology over the last few years where it would be. You could see it helpful if the local government, city council, et cetera, did have some type of code, enforcement or ordinance or, regulation, anything to provide barriers and guardrails to the technology like this.
John Quaka I don't know that there's anything the city council could enact that we're not doing. We're very transparent about what we do. I will give data to the city council anytime they ask for it. We're our hardest critics, and I don't want this system to be abused. We audit it frequently and we will take strong action to correct any misuse of it that we might find.
Walker Wildmon Yeah, that's good. That's good. well, there you have it, folks. That's, Tupelo Police Chief John Quaka. He's been with us for the last 10 or 15 minutes. this is going to have to be talked about more. because the people see what's going on in these other countries like China, which obviously don't have a constitution or individual liberties like we do. but that's the instinctive reaction is we don't want things to be abused by the government or bad actors. but At the same time, law enforcement has to have the tools At their disposal, the legal tools to be able to carry out their job and do it effectively. And it's another one of those uses where if you're the one benefiting from it, if it's your family member that has dementia, that's lost, or your child's been kidnapped or adult, and this technology is used, you're all in favor of it.
John Quaka That's right.
Walker Wildmon So, the fact of the matter is this boils down to local municipalities and local governments having checks and balances in place and, using this technology properly and of course, within the full, confines of the law, state, local and federal. So we appreciate you coming in and, bringing us the lowdown on this.
John Quaka Thank you, Walker.
Walker Wildmon Thanks, John
American Family Radio celebrates America's 250th birthday with special content
That's Tupelo police chief John Quacca, former special agent with the FBI as well. And, that's how these license plate readers, these LPRs, are being used. There's multiple brands on the market. Flock's just making the headlines. but there's other brands out there as well that manufacture and sell these, license plate readers. So there you have it, folks. That's the latest on the, social media and, the media drama about the flight cameras. So we'll keep covering stories like this, bringing you, the truth about what's going on. So thank you for joining us. We still have one segment left. Stick around.
America's 250th birthday. It's a great excuse to have some extra cake and ice cream, but we can help your celebration go well beyond that. Show your patriotism with America. 250 apparel that will become a memento of this special year. We also have special episodes on AFA stream to help underscore that America is a Christian nation and help you find God in the constitution. Find all of this and more in one place. Afa.net topics250 this is At the core on American family radio with your host Walker Wildmon.
Matt Thayer is the director and filmmaker of a new documentary
Walker Wildmon Welcome back to The Core here on American family radio. Glad to have you with us. Well, as I alluded to earlier in the program, we've got a special guest with us now, Matt Thayer. He's a director and filmmaker of can you hear me now? It's a new documentary. It explores the prophetic movement that is shaping American faith and politics. And he's with us to talk about this film. He's actually in Dallas where they had a, a premiere, if you will, or a viewing there in Dallas with over 300 individuals. Matt, welcome to the program.
Matt Thayer Hey Walker, thanks so much. Glad to be here.
Walker Wildmon Yeah, absolutely. We're glad to talk about this and the role of Christian, voices in American politics and American culture before we jump into the film.
Give us a little background on how you ended up in the filmmaking business
Can, you hear me now is the name of it, which is coming out very soon with an exclusive on Salem, and then it'll be out on all the major platforms later in the fall. But give us a little background on yourself and how you ended up into the filmmaking business.
Matt Thayer Well, the story, starts when I was 13 years old and I watched Aladdin, in the theaters and all of a sudden the credits started rolling and I kind of connected with my 13 year old brain that these were adults, with job titles. And I was like, wow, you can do this, this is amazing. So I started doing animation. I started learning all I could in animation. I was homeschooled my whole life. So I had a lot of time for self actualization. The library got every single book that I could find on Disney and animation and everything, started studying that. But then, I couldn't tell you, this then, like I can now. But, I was less interested in making the characters move as I was interested in who they were, what the world they lived in, the story. And so I was always kind of a director. And then I set that aside because, you know, I thought that, well, that was just a child pipe dream. And somewhere in the mid 2000s, my life kind of fell apart based on some, you know, personal decisions that I made that were bad and everything else. And I was laying there on the ground and I was like, lord, what am I supposed to do? And he's like, well, you know that thing that you, that I've put in your heart that you've always wanted to do, but you've never done you could do that. and At the time I had some kids. I, made my second marriage and we, had a gaggle of kids. Father Abraham comes to mind, when I talk about the amount of kids that I have. And they all wanted to be in short films. And so we took them out to the park, started making short films and started, winning some film festivals. And then Started doing a lot of corporate and commercial work and then was, asked to start doing documentaries back in 2020. during Cove there was a producer friend of mine that had some access to Lara Trump. And so we, made the Trump I Know, which is on Amazon right now. and, that was my first feature film. And since then, I've made seven in the last six years. So this is the seventh documentary. Got actually two documentaries coming out in September, and this is one of them.
The film explores how the prophetic works, how it lines up with science
Walker Wildmon Well, tell us about. Can you hear me now? Tell us a little bit about the origin of this and what you guys are looking At here.
Matt Thayer Well, the origin of it was, really kind of around the prophetic movement in 2020, where there was a lot of people that came out saying that Trump was going to win in 2020. and then when Biden was crowned victorious by the media, there was a lot of the prophetic voices that backed off from that word and, you know, said, oh, I'm sorry, we got it wrong, all of that. But then there were several prophets that doubled down and said, no, he actually did win, and this was stolen. And so that's kind of an interesting conversation. As somebody that grew up, aware of the prophetic, always grew up in churches that believed that God spoke. you know, kind of going like, well, you know, is this a delay? What's going on here? And so we began to explore it from that standpoint. And then when we, wanted to broaden this out to a broader conversation around Christians being involved in politics and kind of confronting the, you know, the misinformation that's been out there about church and separation of church and state and Christian nationalism. We reached out to tpusa, to, you know, get an interview with Charlie Kirk, because we thought, well, you know, having somebody in the documentary like that might make it a little bit more mass appeal. we sat down with Charlie Kirk, ironically, two weeks before he passed. And so making a documentary where God's speaking, we're talking about God speaking. All of a sudden, two weeks later, when I'm getting the alerts that Charlie Kirk has died, after I've just interviewed him, I'm going, all right, Lord, what are you saying with this? And so, it's a really special documentary that's not only interview featuring one of the last unseen interviews with Charlie Kirk, but it's also really exploring how the prophetic works, the origins of the prophetic, how it lines up with science, how it lines up with history. But Then also what do we do with it? Right. Because when God speaks, things are created. And, so, you know, he has a purpose behind what he's saying. And I believe that he has a purpose in, activating his people to be a part of the conversation.
Walker Wildmon Some, I've heard people refer to my grandfather, my late grandfather, Don Wildmon, as a, quote, modern prophet. And not that my grandfather or anyone who is referred to as a modern prophet, has the ability to basically reopen the canon and add to the scriptures. I think that's unbiblical. but the question is, and this is what your documentary, explores is the question is, does the Lord speak through believers today, which clearly God can speak through the modern church, and does he give them wisdom and insight, so that they can share that with others? That's pretty much a layman's explanation. And then, I know I just tried to like, summarize your film in three seconds, but, is that the direction you're going here? Yes or no? Or if not, which direction are you going here with the film?
Matt Thayer Yeah, absolutely. It was, you know, it kind of built on my own story and skepticism around, politics and prophetic, and, you know, just m asking a lot of questions that I had. And one of the things that Charlie Kirk said that I thought was really, really moving in the documentary was that a word from a prophet is not an excuse for apathy or an action, and really kind, of exploring the prophetic, not from the standpoint of future telling, but the standpoint of direction. You know, it's like, this is the ways that God is saying that we should go and we should walk in it. And in that way I thought, you know, Charlie Kirk was actually kind of operating in a little bit of that, in the sense that he was saying, hey, guys, we're going in the wrong way. We need to go in the other way. And when you demystify the prophetic, I like to say it this way. Ah, we all know children, anybody that's been a grandparent or parent, has come across a child that has a really good way to argue, they can make a point. And you're like, wow, they should be lawyers. And so there's this talent that's given to people for argumentation and debate. And then they go to school, they learn how to do it better, and then they use, hopefully that, that talent for the benefit of humanity. But then we also all know lawyers that have used their talents and abilities, for their own, self Serving. Right. And so, you know, Better Call Saul, we've all seen that series. And you know, you would think of these bus stop lawyers that are just ambulance chasers. Right. Well, they're not really actually using their talents for the benefit of humanity. So if you look At profits, ah, as somebody who has just had, has a, just a, you know, they have an ability. They have, they have a talent that's been given to them to see into the unseen realm. Well, that can be used for good or for bad. And, the Bible very clearly says that a false prophet is somebody that's pointing in the wrong direction, pointing towards another God. You know, in today's world, we could, we could say that they were using it to build their own social media platforms, all of that. Right. And. But a true prophet is pointing to Jesus, on this side of the cross. And that's how you kind of mark the true prophet, right, as somebody that's actually pointing to Christ. Not necessarily, because that's the thing that in Deuteronomy 13, what I thought was really interesting is that a prophet who is false prophet who's pointing in the wrong direction can actually say things that come to pass. So if you look At Balaam, Balaam is the false prophet of false prophets. But if you read in numbers and you know the biblical text, he actually was very accurate. Yet you have Jonah, who is called a prophet by Jesus, and he doesn't have a complete, he doesn't have a fulfilled word recorded in the Bible. So accuracy is not necessarily the hallmark of what is true or false. It's the direction in which you're pointing it.
Walker Wildmon Amen. And does it sync up with scripture?
Matt Thayer Exactly.
Walker Wildmon That's good stuff.
Matt Thayer is the producer of this latest film
Hey, once again we're talking to Matt Thayer. He's an award winning filmmaker. He's also producer of this latest film. Can you hear me now? Some of the great, folks interviewed. I just looked earlier. obviously the late Charlie Cross Kirk was interviewed. our good friend Bill Federer was interviewed. Kelly Shackelford over At First Liberty is a name on the film as well. Matt, what are some other, folks that we might recognize in the film? And then after that we'll get into how folks can watch it.
Walker: Pre-orders for Christian film available now on Salem now
Matt Thayer Well, Hank, Kuneman's in the film. he's a frequent quest on Flashpoint. then also Amanda Grace, Johnny, Enlow. I know Johnny Enlow personally. what I love about Johnny is he doesn't ever or claim, the title of prophet. He just kind of operates in that. But one of the stories that he tells in the film is how his words actually were instrumental in transforming the nation of Peru. And so if it can actually transform a nation like that, why couldn't it transform our country?
Walker Wildmon Amen. Absolutely. hey, how are folks going to be able to watch this? Because I know we've got thousands of listeners now around the country and they love a good, family friendly, faith friendly film. So tell our folks how they can check this out.
Matt Thayer Yeah, we're partnering with Salem now right now, for a four week exclusive during the month of September. So on. so right now pre orders are available. You can either go to SalemNow.com or you can go to canyouhearmenowfilm.com that's canyou hearmenowfilm.com and for those of you that want to pre order, you get a free DVD with the transaction. So it's a really great way to enjoy the film digitally, but then also get that hard copy that you can share with your friends and family or maybe a pastor that you feel like needs to hear the message. And so you can go to canyouhearmenowfilm.com to get that pre order today and you'll get that free dvd. And then in, about four to five weeks, early in October, we're going to be releasing it onto major streamers. So you're going to be able to find it on Amazon, you're going to find it on Apple, Google, all of that.
Walker Wildmon Excellent, excellent. We've been talking to Matt Thayer, he's a filmmaker, also producer and director of this latest film. Can you hear me now? Hey Matt. God, bless you brother. Appre. Appreciate your work and we look forward to checking this film out.
Matt Thayer Thank you Walker. Thanks for taking the time today.
Walker Wildmon Yeah, absolutely. There you have it folks. the URL that he gave out by the way, is canyouhearmenowfilm.com we'll link to this in the show notes. Canyouhearmenowfilm.com you can check that out. It's coming out on Salem now, on September 10, on Salem now. And then of course you can check out their website and watch the trailer now and then after that, in October. Plus it'll be available on all the major film and video streaming platforms. So check that out. Can you hear me now is the name of that film. And that was Charlie Kirk's last, interview he did that was yet released. And he's in that film as well as a participant along with others, very reputable voices that you would recognize in that film. Well, one story before we wrap up the show here in a few minutes.
Republican Senatorial Committee not spending money in Texas to help Ken Paxton
this, unraveling of the Democrat Party is just continuing to take place before our very eyes. but also the Republican Party has their own challenges. in Texas, the Republican Senatorial Committee that raises all the money for the Republican Senate candidates, is not spending any money in Texas to help Ken Paxton win the Senate race there. This was a very shocking tell by Senator Kennedy from Louisiana on how much money, which is zero, the Republicans are planning to spend in Texas. Clip 2 let's listen.
Shannon Bream It, didn't sound from his answer that the President made any commitments, either himself or through his, super pac to write checks for Paxton, At least right now. does Senate Leadership Fund or anything NRC have any plans for TV ads, you know, to support him because he's down in spending there?
Sen John Kennedy Well, I listened to your interview. It was very good, by the way, with, the Attorney General. Look, there's no sense bubble wrapping it. We've got a race in Texas, and the Attorney General is going to have to do two things. He's going to have to point out the deficiencies of Mr. Talarico. he really is a, Lululin, and he's a little bit of a weenie. But At the same time, Mr. Paxton is going to have to talk about what he's going to do. A positive platform for the United States Senate. You can't win an election by saying, the other guy is worse than me. Money is an issue. Mr. Talarico has been raising bucket loads of money from California, Hollywood, all the beautiful people who partied with Harvey Weinstein. we don't have, we in the Senate don't have the money budgeted for Texas. We need help for the president from the president. President says he has $850 million in his campaign accounts. that's a lot of jack. I'm hoping that the President's going to spend 100 or 200 million in Texas, but he hasn't committed to it yet. but in the meantime, you know, we've got a race, and I'm not going to play act and say that we don't.
Senator Kennedy says Senate Republicans don't have any money for Texas
Walker Wildmon All right, well, hey, folks, here's the, two things, and we're going to get to the bottom of this, and we're going to bring it to you, and you're probably going to be pretty upset about it, At a later show when I have more time for this. But there is Senator Kennedy from Louisiana on Fox News telling us the conservative voting bloc, that they don't have any money for Texas. They don't have the Senate, the National Senatorial Republican Committee, which is basically the political arm of the Senate Republicans that funds all the campaigns. They have effectively $0 allocated for Texas. That is shocking. And all these talking heads and all these pollsters are talking about, oh, Texas, Texas is going to go blue, Talarico is going to beat Paxton, and the Senate Republicans have no money allocated for Texas. What on earth have they been doing? What I'm going to do some research on between now and Wednesday is how much money these Senate Republicans found to campaign for Darlene Graham in South Carolina against Ralph Norman. How much money they've used to support these other establishment candidates around the country. All this money that these Senate Republicans got for their campaigns. But we've got zero dollars for poor Ken Paxton in Texas. That is a shocker. We'll see you next time.
The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
In this episode of At The Core, we delve into the pressing issues surrounding religious freedom and the sanctity of life. Join Walker Wildmon as he discusses the impactful work of PreBorn, which provides ultrasound services to expectant mothers, helping them choose life. The conversation shifts to Acts chapter 19, exploring the early church's understanding of the Holy Spirit and the importance of baptism in the name of Jesus.
Our guests include Tupelo Police Chief Jon Quaka, who shares insights on the use of license plate reader technology and its implications for law enforcement and community safety.
We also hear from filmmaker Matt Thayer about his new documentary, Can You Hear Me Now?, which examines the prophetic movement influencing American faith and politics. This episode offers a blend of scripture, current events, and expert perspectives, inviting listeners to engage thoughtfully with the topics at hand.
(00:00 ) American Family Radio thanks its sponsor, Preborn
(01:43) Acts chapter 19 is where we are this week
(05:03) Buc-ee's is a newer brand of gas station that's exploding
(12:32) California is hemorrhaging tax revenue at a rate that is unsustainable
(15:28) 80% of abortion vulnerable women choose life after seeing baby on ultrasound
(16:51) American Family Radio features special segment on use of license plate readers by police
(19:29) Tupelo PD says most agencies are regulating who has access to flock cameras
(23:49) Fourth Amendment and privacy
(24:31) There's a myth that there's a right to privacy on public roadways
(26:26) Tupelo Police Department uses license plate readers to catch bad guys
(32:41) American Family Radio celebrates America's 250th birthday with special content
(34:17) Matt Thayer is the director and filmmaker of a new documentary
(35:05) How Matt ended up in the filmmaking business
(37:15) The film explores how the prophetic works, how it lines up with science and Scripture
(43:06) Matt Thayer is the producer of this latest film
(43:37) Pre-orders for Christian film available now on Salem now
(46:19) Republican Senatorial Committee not spending money in Texas to help Ken Paxton
(48:41) Senator Kennedy says Senate Republicans don't have any money for Texas
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