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Anonymous Goes After Miami Police Officer Who Doxed An Innocent Woman (softpedia.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the an-eye-for-an-eye dept.

An anonymous reader writes: After Miami resident Claudia Castillo noticed a cop speeding down the freeway without a siren, she pulled him over and told him to stop going so fast. The cop's police union chief, Javier Ortiz, decided to take the woman's private details and put them on his Facebook account, asking friends to call her and give her a piece of their mind. Of course, harassment ensued. Now, Anonymous hackers have decided to return the favor and dox the police union chief as payback. For once, these hacktivists did something useful.

6 of 174 comments (clear)

  1. They wonder why they get no respect by MikeRT · · Score: 4, Interesting

    He broke the law, got called out for it and then a buddy called for a mob to join in a conspiracy to commit the crime of harassing the woman. This is probably a violation of a state statute on stalking. Even if it isn't, the union head should be fired and blacklisted from working in a government position in Florida.

    Note: this is harassment. A constant stream of people retweeting your stuff, referencing you and stuff like that is not harassment. 90% of what happens on social media and gets called harassment these days is just someone refusing to acknowledge that when you post something in public, you are intrinsically inviting a public response. If you don't like that, use a privacy option. There is not such thing as privacy in public except with regard to what's under your clothes (and that's only outside of an airport).

    1. Re:They wonder why they get no respect by Immerman · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Doesn't seem like it should be too hard. Keep the police under constant surveillance (or at least protect public recording of their actions), and then, with 100% consistency, punish criminals in uniform to the maximum extent permitted by law. Plus further punishment for the violation of public trust. And that includes conspirators and accessories like the cop that stands by and does nothing while their partner commits a crime. Perhaps have something like a three strikes law - after your third violation you get a lifetime ban from ever serving any role within the legal system.

      The problem I think is largely not that they get extra power and privilege, but that they are not held accountable for their crimes. You get the same effect in a classroom where cheating has no consequences, it doesn't take long for cheating to go from an exception to the norm.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    2. Re:They wonder why they get no respect by Dereck1701 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      "cops versus bad guys"

      Why go with a generic statement when there is a direct quote from Ortiz, "It doesn't matter what color your uniform is. If you bleed blue, we have to back each other up." That doesn't sound nefarious, not at all. As you noted he has an extensive and public history of racism, abuse, lying and intimidation. He even goes after other cops who don't keep to the blue wall or show "enough patriotism".

  2. Re:No - it wasnt useful by sumdumass · · Score: 4, Interesting

    One of the news stations in Columbus Ohio did a story on something similar. They framed it as electronic distractions but highlighted an enormous amount of cop cars involved in accidents showing dashcam footage of cops plowing through crosswalks hitting people and such. There is a law about texting and driving but the chief said that the cops were exempt because they are trained professionals.

    What it boils down to is there are laws for us and law for them.

  3. Re: Report + Judgment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I don't know. The summary lost me at "she pulled him over".

  4. Re:Report + Judgment by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Cops can straight up murder someone and receive no punishment.

    Technically, that's not true. Murder requires intent to kill, and it cannot be a "justifiable" homicide.

    If a police officer randomly targets someone and deliberately kills him/her with no provocation, they should be charged with murder -- and will be if the investigation is honest. (Yes, I know in practice that police are often corrupt and try to "protect their own," but legally, a cop is responsible in a situation like this.)

    The problems tend to come in more in the ambiguous cases, where there's some provocation or threat, and police did not attempt a less lethal solution even where one could have handled the situation. These are arguments about "judgment calls" that unfortunately tend to usually favor the police.

    Even more disconcerting, from my perspective, are cases that involve negligence or reckless disregard for safety. In most of those cases, police are generally granted straight-out immunity, even if their actions resulted in someone's death. Technically, these are NOT "murder," but usually some form of manslaughter or negligent homicide from a legal perspective. But police are rarely held accountable for such actions.

    Actual murder, though, with proven intent? If you have that, even a cop can be convicted and punished accordingly.