Slashdot Mirror
Woman With Police-Monitoring Blog Arrested
Kris Thalamus writes "The Washington Post reports that a Virginia woman is being held in custody by police who allege that information she posted on her blog puts members of the Jefferson area drug enforcement task force at risk. 'In a nearly year-long barrage of blog posts, she published snapshots she took in public of many or most of the task force's officers; detailed their comings and goings by following them in her car; mused about their habits and looks; hinted that she may have had a personal relationship with one of them; and, in one instance, reported that she had tipped off a local newspaper about their movements. Predictably, this annoyed law enforcement officials, who, it's fair to guess, comprised much of her readership before her arrest. But what seems to have sent them over the edge — and skewed their judgment — is Ms. Strom's decision to post the name and address of one of the officers with a street-view photo of his house. All this information was publicly available, including the photograph, which Ms. Strom gleaned from municipal records.'"
They have a lot to hide, and for legitimate reason. Undercover officers face the possibility of violent death on a daily basis, and avoiding that chance comes down to keeping their real identity and their assumed identity separate. This woman is clearly trying to put the police and, by posting address information, their families in danger. She can post what bullshit she wants about public information, free speech, etc., the point of her blog is simply and obviously the harassment and endangerment of cops. She should be forcibly moved to a high-crime area and forced to fend for herself.
I prefer rogues to imbeciles because they sometimes take a rest.
Because in their professional capacity the police are agents of the state. My employer is not the state.
When you choose to seek the power that the police (or elected officials, for that matter) wield, you forfeit the right to be treated as a regular Joe Citizen.
"You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time."