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NYPD Creates Fake Social Media Profiles To Track Loud Parties, Underage Drinking
v3rgEz writes Is that Facebook friend request from the cute girl in third period, or an undercover officer looking to bust up the next high shool kegger? That's the question more students in New York City might be asking, as newly released documents from the NYPD disclose its process for agents creating undercover social media aliases with the aims of uprooting terrorist plots, tracking "political activity," and other nefarious crimes like underage drinking or pre-meditated loud partying. Fake profiles must be approved by bureau brass, unless it would "seriously impair" an investigation or risk life or property damage.
...what you don't want want other people to read?
This isn't condoning the actions of the NYPD, but I always figured that it was common sense, don't write down or otherwise document what you don't want others to know or find out about...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
... of America dropping deeper and deeper into the abyss of absolute fascism
... this isn't condoning the actions of the NYPD ...
I feel sad that you choose to limit it within the very narrow context of 'action of NYPD'
The sad fact is that the United States of America, thanks to NYPD and all other local / state / federal law enforcement agencies is becoming more and more like what the Stasi did in Eastern Germany, or the secret police of the Nicolae Ceausescu regime of Romania, or under the CCP in China, or the Kim's secret police in North Korea, ...
If the sentence 'uprooting terrorist plots, tracking "political activity"' fails to alarm any of the Americans, the future of United States of America is bleak
I mean, please read that sentence again
They actually use the term "terrorist plots" and the term "political activity" in the same fucking sentence!
What kind of America is _that_ ?
Aren't Americans supposed to be free to associate or join with any political activity, especially in the Land of the FREE??
What the fuck has happened to the freedom of association?
Or has America turned into a place where local law enforcement agencies such as NYPD, and all other agencies from the States as well as from the Federal level, get to dictate who can mix with whom now??
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Calm your taco: none of this is new or different, except the "on a computer" part. I thought we were over "on a computer" freak-outs?
HS and college parties have always had narcs. Either undercover officers, or informers who were in the social scene and would ruin parties for fun. In college, we'd always learn who they were by the end of the year, and plan accordingly, but there'd be a new crop of them the next year.
This is just that, "on a computer". A fake profile is easier than a CI, enabling more surveillance, but this doesn't seem different in kind. This isn't some panopticon with perpetual DB, like a lot of recent crap, this is just automating old-school narcing a bit.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Under cover cops used to do things like randomly rent apartments in places they thought they could make contacts and do investigations. Back about 1967 I was more than amazed to find out that the very young looking hippie girl from next door was in fact an undercover cop. It went so far that she had moved out of her apartment and was living on the roofs of hotels on Ft. lauderdale beach in order to get on the inside with people prone to crime. All that has changed is that with the net the same tactics are easier to use. As for the cops a big part of this ios in not making arrests so that a police agent can work further and further into criminal activities. They may be on top of a criminal for several years before springing the trap and then they will have a list of charges so long the person will be buried in the prisons unless he starts working for the cops.