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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.
Even if the police are not acting illegally (which I'm not so sure they are acting lawfully here)
They are violating Facebook's TOS, which is illegal. The police generally need a warrant to commit acts that would otherwise be illegal.
this is highly immoral.
Expecting the police to act morally is not reasonable. Their behavior should be constrained by laws, not just by their internal sense of right and wrong.
... 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 !
It's less like having a cop reading information you have put up on a flyer and more like the cops having wiretaps on all of your associates. Which would be fine, with a good reason and a court order.
Since when does facebook offer a reasonable expectation of privacy? If you don't want it to be public, it shouldn't be on facebook.
"Don't meddle in the affairs of a patent dragon, for thou art tasty and good with ketchup." ~ohcrapitssteve