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German Police Accused of Carrying Out Some Pretty Stupid Raids (bleepingcomputer.com)

Catalin Cimpanu, writing for BleepingComputer: Two privacy-focused organizations have this week accused German police of carrying out raids at their offices and members' private homes on some pretty shoddy reasoning that makes no sense and hints at the police's abuse of power. The first of these organizations is Zwiebelfreunde, a non-profit group based in Dresden that runs Tor relay servers and supports privacy and anonymity projects by providing legal and financial help. One of the ways it helps these projects includes collecting donations from European users into its bank account and then relaying the raised money to overseas projects. Today, members of the Zwiebelfreunde project revealed that German police had raided their Dresden office and the homes of three members located in the cities of Augsburg, Jena, and Berlin. The raids took place on June 20, and police told Zwiebelfreunde members they were in relation to the RiseUp project, a provider of anonymous XMPP and email services.

145 comments

  1. Going dark by Mal-2 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    They don't like it when you as an individual "go dark", but they can't stand it when you start teaching others to do it too and will use all manner of "persuasion" up to and including "facilitating child pornography" just because you believe in communications that are both convenient and secure.

    --
    How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
    1. Re:Going dark by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Why should you want to "go dark"? And why should you teach others? Europe is peaceful and democratic. Anyone who wants to hide is a malfeasant and should be prosecuted. End of debate.

    2. Re:Going dark by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      mm, so that means that all weapons and gun companies directors and employees need to be raided and prosecuted for aiding and enabling murder and genocide?

    3. Re:Going dark by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I think I sense some sarcasm here, but it's the internet so I can't be sure. And there's enough who support such fascist developments in the EU and Russia for example. I just have to think about that Telegram thing and arguments from supporters of the ban that terrorists frequently used Telegram for encrypted communication. Guess what. They also use electricity to power their devices. Cars to drive around. Roads on which those cars drive on. They drink water and eat food. So where do you want to draw the line exactly?
      It's also not a new concept for those in power to abuse fear in order to get their way. If you want to make people afraid, just let something bad happen and them blame it on something that could have been prevented with these new civil liberties eroding laws. That's when such sentiments, that those who hide something, must do it because it's illegal, become popular.

      Why should anyone not want to go dark now and then, is a question that we must ask. It seems to be in human nature somewhere to want to have at least some privacy. This is why most of us wear clothes, even in places where it's legal to be nude. This is why most of us close and probably lock doors when going to the bathroom. This is why many of those who have gardens have some kind of hedge or fence around it, not only to block passage but to block line of sight.

      Seriously, a question people should ask themselves is why should they want to expose themselves to the world like a lot of people on social media do. The majority of people still doesn't do it. So by definition this still isn't quite normal, yet.

    4. Re:Going dark by eric_harris_76 · · Score: 1

      Why should you want to "go dark"? And why should you teach others? Europe is peaceful and democratic. Anyone who wants to hide is a malfeasant and should be prosecuted. End of debate.

      Sarcasm, right?

      --
      There's no time like the present. Well, the past used to be.
  2. Doesn't sound stupid to me by Zebai · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Just reading that brief description is enough to make me think that group is suspicious. Tor & money donations, overseas money distribution? It just smacks of money laundering to me. I doubt the police would raid on that alone they probably have some tip or informant that's backing up that suspicion.

    1. Re:Doesn't sound stupid to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      They aren't accused of anything. They were raided as witnesses. Suppose you donate to Wikipedia, then someone publishes a threat against the president on a Wikipedia page, then your home is raided in order to seek information regarding that threat because you donated to Wikipedia, where the threat was published. Then they confiscate your 3D printed tiny plastic model of the Hiroshima bomb and claim that you were preparing to create an explosion (also because you have sodium persulfate for etching circuit boards).

    2. Re:Doesn't sound stupid to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      They were raided as they had bank accounts for riseup, it is a pretty reasonable assumption to make that they might therefore have names or email addresses for people associated with them. From reading the actual article the premise for the raid seems actually quite reasonable.

    3. Re:Doesn't sound stupid to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      These people are not accused of money laundering and such an accusation would be even more stupid than the raids, because it's all out in the open. Money laundering requires some sort of deception to work.

    4. Re:Doesn't sound stupid to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      EmpfÃngername: Riseup Networks
      IBAN: DE41 4306 0967 1126 8256 06
      BIC: GENODEM1GLS
      Bank: GLS Bank
      Land: Deutschland

      There, now you have bank accounts for Riseup. Is it acceptable to raid your home now? Is your mom OK with that?

    5. Re:Doesn't sound stupid to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      I never claimed they were, was simply answer the retard OP about his lack of knowledge of what money laundering is.

    6. Re:Doesn't sound stupid to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

      If I was setting up deposits and transferring money for them anonymously then yeah it would be acceptable and also quite reasonable to assume that I might have more information than just the bank account.

    7. Re:Doesn't sound stupid to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      What "smacks" you is not what happened. The police raided the organization as witnesses in an attempt to gather evidence to track down somebody who made death threats. If they wanted to raid them as suspects for money laundering they could have done it in the decades the organization existed. Don't be daft. It's just bad cops doing their job extremely bad. Furthermore, the raid on CCC just because the cops felt like it "on their own accord" is beyond words and the stuff of oppressive regimes where cops will teach you a lesson by smacking you around for not letting them smack other people around. Get a clue before commenting here.

    8. Re: Doesn't sound stupid to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How does thist statist garbage get to +4 insightful?

      It's sad that /. used to have a libertarian bent, not it's all good little government brownâ"nosers.

    9. Re:Doesn't sound stupid to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have a bank account: does that make me suspicious? And I even (*GASP!*) sometimes buy my groceries with cash!!!

      I'm really tired of those idiots repeating the mantra "You're using $TOOL. That makes you a $CRIMINAL".

      World would be a better place without that meme. Perhaps even without its bearers.

    10. Re:Doesn't sound stupid to me by houghi · · Score: 0

      Just reading that brief description is enough to make me think that group is suspicious.

      I agree that the subject is extremely vague on details. This could be anything.
      They could be supporting people that need or want to be annonymous for various reasons.
      This can go from money laundering, to supporting terrorism to supporting some Himan Right Activist in country where that is seen as illegal to even annonymous donations to EFF or Debian.

      Without the order it is very hard to say what is going on and both the guilty and the innocent will tell you they did not do anything wrong.

      What I think is strange is the lack of information they could give. It now sounds they just want to influence the public opinion.

      because if they are unable to give more details about it due advice from their lawyer, why talk at all?

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    11. Re:Doesn't sound stupid to me by dcw3 · · Score: 1

      Who in their right mind names a group "Onion Friends", and doesn't expect a police raid...or maybe I got the translation wrong.

      --
      Just another day in Paradise
    12. Re:Doesn't sound stupid to me by Teun · · Score: 1

      Your translation is correct and in some eyes the name is suspicious.

      --
      "The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
    13. Re:Doesn't sound stupid to me by dcw3 · · Score: 1

      On the other hand, they could just be a support group for https://www.theonion.com/

      --
      Just another day in Paradise
    14. Re:Doesn't sound stupid to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're an idiot. Go back to watching your fake news.

      And whatever you do, do not search "Larken Rose".

    15. Re:Doesn't sound stupid to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ... or let's suppose that it turns out that your Wikipedia donation ended up, further downstream, actively funding fundamentalist, violent terrorism.
      Why wouldn't law enforcement organisations taking their job go seriously go have a good hard look at who is inserting the pennies in this piggy bank?

      (This form of crowd-assisted donation-for-a-good-cause-facade form of money laundering never ever happens in the real world of course, and we don't have a whole bunch of violent pseudo-state actors glean a meaningful part of their revenue come in through such activity. Totes doesn't happen. Right?)

      Trying to wheel out the net neutrality ideology from days bygone, before it got abused to drive geopolitical-scale harm and mass migration from half a planet that failed at building functional states, and in the process belittling the challenges of modern day law enforcement (rather than understanding, it and have a honest conversation about realistic best-of-both-worlds mix of online rights and law enforcement is possible) is not intellectually honest.

      We can't will the problems law enforcement are there to solve away by ignoring them and going all libertarian (and to those who do... you may whistle libertarian tunes, but you live in the world made liveable by the functioning state around you, I presume you're not where the mass migrations are coming from. If you want your libertarian fantasy so much, you can find the magic land of no law enforcement there...)

    16. Re:Doesn't sound stupid to me by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 1

      It's a familar approach, I'm afraid.

      There was an infamous crackdown of "hackers" in the USA decades ago, coordinated by the US Secret Service. It was called "Operation Sundevil", and it was classic in its abuses of power, its attempts to harass "dangerous crackers" by doing unprovoked or justified raids on them, and it wound up raiding the game cmpany called "Peter Jackson Games" because they had a card game about computer hacking which was described by the agents as a how-to guide for hacking. I played the game later, after the Electronic Frontier Foundation was created and helped explain to the US Secret Service that people have civil rights and there needs to be evidence and something like actual prosecution, and grounds for suspicion, to simply take all of people's equipment and their personal and business email.

      The case was an excellent example of a federal agency attempting to enter new turf, wildly overreaching its authority and abusing many innocent people in the process. I'm sure there were a few teen "hackers" raided, but the raids were done so badly and so broadly aimed that they seemed to be an intimidation tactic, one designed to establish authority for the agency, not to yield real prosecutions. From this new article, I suspect the German police raids are similar: they're striking at public, irritating parts of the social groups of hackers to establish dominance and turf.

    17. Re:Doesn't sound stupid to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Steve Jackson Games.

  3. Re:Merkel by demon+driver · · Score: 0, Troll

    Nonsense, police abusing their power, with or without orders from above, is a perfectly normal police behaviour in capitalist states. They never needed help from people standing in whatever relation to one of the former so-called socialist states which sported their own brand of secret police back in the times.

  4. This is the usual stuff. by Qbertino · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Like all credible citizen movements the Chaos Computer Club has moved from being perceived as a smelly group of hippies to a respected independant organization that helps keep some sanity in the public debate on IT and laws concerning it.

    However, that the police behave as a bunch of stupid douchebags when it comes to dealing with the CCC is classic stuff. We've had this since the 80ies and as someone who sympathizes with them I always keep a backup of my data hidden in some unusual place in case some idiot thinks that because I use the CLI I'm some evil hacker or something and comes to take all my hardware.

    "Guns are real, blue uniforms are real, cops are social fiction." - Robert Anton Wilson

    My two eurocents.

    --
    We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
    1. Re:This is the usual stuff. by phantomfive · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Like all credible citizen movements the Chaos Computer Club has moved from being perceived as a smelly group of hippies to a respected independant organization

      They were better back when they were hacking banks.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    2. Re:This is the usual stuff. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You should go to the hacker Camp CCC arrange late December. There is so much fun and high level hacking going on.

    3. Re:This is the usual stuff. by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

      They were better back when they were hacking banks.

      The CCC should go back to their roots... start building dams and bridges again.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    4. Re:This is the usual stuff. by isj · · Score: 1

      CCC-medien has a video about this: https://youtu.be/mGj5Hp354js (in German)
      I found it quite interesting because the speaker (the one who were raided) tries to also see if from the viewpoint of the police.

    5. Re:This is the usual stuff. by prefec2 · · Score: 1

      The first sane comment on this issue. Pug, what a relieve.

  5. Not that sinister by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sounds like the usual, money is changing hands and the government isn't getting their cut.

    1. Re:Not that sinister by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It's a donation. Government wouldn't get a cut anyway. It's just stupid cops bad at their jobs

  6. Re:Merkel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Nonsense, the police and justice is governed by the states, so in this case Söder is the main culprit. That is the man, that just tried to topple Merkel. The police and justice in Bavaria is also known for their close ties to the CSU and their willingness to go after all, that work against the CSU or their 'spezis' (people who bribe the CSU).

  7. Get a better news source by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Because the least you could've done was fish up the CCC press release and add that as a link.

    1. Re:Get a better news source by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

      Golly. You could have even done that in your rant/comment!

    2. Re:Get a better news source by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Golly. You could have even done that in your rant/comment!

      yeah, but AC's don't get paid to publish. fuckface.

  8. The German telco past by AHuxley · · Score: 2

    Consider the Stasi from the 1950-60's. How they stopped to look at all publication, movement, communications.
    The Stasi could not trust their own workers politically and any existing law enforcement in the wider East Germany.
    When East Germany was more confident in its ability to keep watch over people it allowed more select people more visits and trips from the West.
    Why? The Stasi then had enough informants and their own new trusted surveillance in place to allow such meetings and visits.
    Bait and as a trap under constant watch.

    Before that the Stasi had to act quickly on any information. Just like the German police doing "raids" in 2018.
    The German police are at point with new telco technology that they don't like and don't understand.
    The work of the NSA, GCHQ, BND is well understood. Total collection, junk encryption used by computers in Germany.

    The difficulty for the German police is they have too many internal domestic and very German political problems.
    They cant trust their own staff as too many politically correct staff got hired on demographics have now entered the German police without any consideration for German security.
    That has totally weakened decades of once West German and now German internal security inside the German police force. Nothing stays a secret within the German police as its own new workers walk information out.
    The German police have to act too quickly using very limited legal telco support services.
    The tools allowed for the German police to work on domestic telco networks legally are not useful in 2018. Reports that end in a phone number and an ip range.
    A modern pen register https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... so the German police never get too powerful, smart or political again.
    German police need BND tools to enter computer networks in real time and see content not just get an ip range from a telco/ISP.
    Nobody would detect such remote access and no raid would show any police work was done.
    The result is German police can respond to an ip range legally. They know its not what they need but its all they can legally get.
    When all the German law allows is to find an ip range, the police go back to look into every ip. Quickly before the information walks back to new staff who have filled the lower ranks of the German police.
    What german police need is something like a new GCHQ "Spy Smurfs" for todays phone networks.
    https://www.zdnet.com/article/... (Jan 27 2014)
    Tracker Smurf for location.
    Nosey Smurf for that live mic.
    Dreamy Smurf to get power on when the user has selected "power" off.
    With such modern tools the German police would never need to show anything ongoing by doing such raids.

    --
    Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    1. Re:The German telco past by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Sorry, your post is complete nonsense. What actually is an "IP range"?

      To wire tap a connection you need a court order. And if you have evidence for a crime or a crime in planning, you get that order and then you can record/analyze what the proposed criminal is doing.

      More or less the same as in any "constitutional democracy" or "free government under the law"

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    2. Re:The German telco past by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      Germany is now a "constitutional democracy"?
      "German police can now use spyware to monitor suspects" (2/26/2016)
      https://arstechnica.com/tech-p...

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    3. Re:The German telco past by Teun · · Score: 1

      You seem to forget for privacy's sake German ISP's change IP every night.
      You need to contact the ISP to link a particular IP at a time to a user and that doesn't work all too simple.

      --
      "The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
    4. Re:The German telco past by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      Re "You need to contact the ISP to link a particular IP at a time to a user and that doesn't work all too simple."
      Thats another problem for the German police in 2018. Telling a court, telco the police are looking at an account allows the person under investigation to get told they are getting police on their account.
      The German police cant trust their own new police staff, the new court staff, the new telco workers not to sell/give information on police action to people at the start of all investigations.
      Too many criminals, people of the same faith, people with split loyalties to other nations now have got German gov jobs and report back to their own criminal communities.
      Security clearances and failed background investigations cant stop a person from not getting a job doing police sensitive work.
      German police works fails due to criminals having total court and telco access before police can even get their paperwork in to start to collect account information.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    5. Re:The German telco past by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Yes, it is and the west always was.
      Perhaps you want to read the link you posted?
      It seems you missed the "court order" part ...

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    6. Re:The German telco past by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      A German court can create a "court order" for many political reasons that are unique to the West German legal system after the 1950's and now the German legal system. A German court order can be a very political event. German laws are very different as to what is constitutional and how German democracy is to always be protected.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    7. Re:The German telco past by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Ha ha ha ha.
      In what kind of dream worlddo you live?

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  9. Re: Merkel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Spezls.

  10. Odd. Riseup is partially funded by Congress by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    >Here’s a small sample of what Congress funded through the Broadcasting Board of Governors (through Radio Free Asia and then through the Open Technology Fund) between 2012 and 2014:

    >LEAP, an email encryption startup, got just over $1 million. LEAP is currently being used to run secure VPN services at RiseUp.net, the radical anarchist communication collective.

    >Open Whisper Systems, maker of free encrypted text and voice mobile apps like TextSecure, RedPhone, and Signal, got a generous $1.35-million infusion.

  11. For the state and the police of course it isn't by demon+driver · · Score: 4, Informative

    Because in all probability they will, as always, get away with it, while innocent citizens will perhaps even be prosecuted, instead of being properly compensated.

    Reports in the German press made it very clear that those raids very probably were illegal, not the activities of the attacked group. Police even said the group hadn't been under suspicion in the first place, they allegedly were raided because they were thought to have evidence in a case against someone else.

    And the group was using RiseUp as a platform for transferring funds only because one of the NGOs they were helping to collect money for uses only that as a payment option. There were and are no hints of "money laundering" whatsoever. On the contrary, groups like the one that was attacked here typically rather belong to circles which strongly oppose and help fight corruption and money laundering.

    1. Re:For the state and the police of course it isn't by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      On the contrary, groups like the one that was attacked here typically rather belong to circles which strongly oppose and help fight corruption and money laundering.

      The same goes for Black Lives Matters, but that didn't stop Russian oligarchs connected to Putin from funding some of their initiatives.

      I'm not saying this is the case. It's probably not the case. But really, it's not like those authorities will tell us the truth of why they made those raids (if it damages their case in any way and if German law doesn't require them to).

    2. Re:For the state and the police of course it isn't by dcw3 · · Score: 1

      "...raided because they were thought to have evidence in a case against someone else."

      Sounds like a valid reason to attempt to confiscate the evidence then. No? Did the group know they had evidence? Did they attempt to turn it over voluntarily?

      --
      Just another day in Paradise
    3. Re:For the state and the police of course it isn't by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The problem was all of the equipment and data taken that had nothing to do with the case.

    4. Re:For the state and the police of course it isn't by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      On the contrary, groups like the one that was attacked here typically rather belong to circles which strongly oppose and help fight corruption and money laundering.

      You cannot simultaneously oppose corruption and money laundering because money laundering is a way that people get around corruption as much as it is a way that people profit from it.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  12. Re: Merkel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But in Germany's case, the police are a lot more politically structured and controlled than in America.

  13. "Seized objects" by k2r · · Score: 5, Informative

    They even found powdery substances in one room (for etching PCB), concluded that the CCC must be building a bomb and even seized a model of printed. Actually it was a 3D print of Fat Man and a few inches / cm long.

    https://twitter.com/annalist/s...

    The print translates to:
    "Offense: Inducing an Explosion with explosives
    "Site of crime: Augsburg
    "Time of crime: 2018-06-20
    Object (diverse)
    red, 3D-Print, likely model of an atomic bomb"

    Yes, its true. No, it's not actually funny but police is framing the CCC as a criminal organisation.

    1. Re:"Seized objects" by jeti · · Score: 2

      Probably gives the police additional investigatory powers since they're now supect of being a terrorist organisation. It's not stupid, it's unabashedly abusive.

    2. Re:"Seized objects" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Meanwhile, actual bomb makers, alternative cipher cryptographers, OPSEC specialists, and those who have dirt on political targets (including murder and child rape) just chill in Mother's Basement, mirthfully awaiting the "day of the rope".

      One can see why the police might be a bit jumpy... the jig is almost up.

    3. Re:"Seized objects" by Reziac · · Score: 1

      And with a *model* of a bomb, you can blow up... what, exactly??

      --
      ~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
    4. Re:"Seized objects" by ebvwfbw · · Score: 1

      And with a *model* of a bomb, you can blow up... what, exactly??

      A model of a city.

    5. Re:"Seized objects" by Reziac · · Score: 1

      +1 Perfect :D

      --
      ~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
  14. stupid to whom? by SuperDre · · Score: 1

    One of the ways it helps these projects includes collecting donations from European users into its bank account and then relaying the raised money to overseas projects.

    Uhm, that's just how basic money laundering works.... So that could certainly be a basis for doing a raid if it's not clear where the money came from.

    1. Re:stupid to whom? by k2r · · Score: 1

      They (and other people) have been raided as witnesses not as suspects.
      And not in a case of money laundering but because the police figures that they have a connection or data on all other mailadresses @riseup.net.

      Please stop justifying the raid by making things up.

    2. Re:stupid to whom? by dcw3 · · Score: 1

      Isn't that a bit like being pulled over for a broken turn signal so that the cop can look for evidence of more serious stuff?

      --
      Just another day in Paradise
    3. Re:stupid to whom? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It seems like it, but that would certainly make it an illegal raid. The search warrant that was approved by a judge (but shouldn't have been, because there was no reasonable expectation to find anything regarding the threat) only gave them authority to look for evidence about the particular threat made through Riseup.

  15. Joke lost to moderation.... by DrYak · · Score: 2

    They {...} will use all manner of "persuasion" up to and including "facilitating child pornography" just because you believe in communications that are both convenient and secure.

    Fuck you, {...etc...} PEDOPHILE!

    It might be some random coprolalia-affected troll, but in the current context of this thread, there might by some "wooshing" sound that got lost somewhere.

    Post should get some "+1, Funny" love by mods, in my humble opinion.

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
    1. Re:Joke lost to moderation.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Agreed. Although points should be deducted for incorrect spelling of paedophile.

    2. Re:Joke lost to moderation.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Agreed. Although points should be deducted for incorrect spelling of paedophile.

      did you just assume the op's nationality? because they spelled it right for everywhere but where horrible gunless and toothless fucks live.

  16. Tools used by child pornographer by DrYak · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you're "securing communications" for people who then use it for child porn, you are opening yourself up to being accused of that no matter your alleged altruistic intentions.

    Hey, you know, what else those evil child pornographer are using ?
    Digital photocamera, SD cards, computers, internet, printers, paper.
    They might even sometime wear clothes, and eat food !
    Ban all of the above, because pedo-peddlers might by using it too !!!~~

    The purpose of tools like Tor, GPG, OTR, Axolotl, etc. is to help guarantee privacy and secure communication. It might be abused by people with nefarious intention, but it also has tons of legitimate reasons (think find a away accroos the Chinese Great Firewall, think protecting from corporate espionage, think whistle blower who want to help journalist report on a scandal, etc.)

    These are useful tools.
    You shouldn't deprive people from their everyday usefulness, just because the tools might fall in the hands of some criminal.

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
    1. Re:Tools used by child pornographer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      If you want to arrest Pedophiles, then start with imprisoning the tops tier of gov and nobility. Brussels is incredibly full of pedos at the top of society and government.

      The "think of the children" excuse doesn't work anymore when you have everything from MI6 turning a blind eye to Jimmy Saville's pedo rape dungeon -- I'm sorry, SIR Saville, you know, because the Queen Knights so many pedos MI6 can't keep track of 'em all -- Or when you have FBI covering up for pedophiles in the Franklin Cover Up: A Senator regularly raping kids from the Boy's Town charity home.

      So, yeah, I do think we should arrest all the fuckers using Digital photocameras, SD cards, Computers, etc. Bring EVERYONE in for questioning at least once, then the police have zero excuse for all the pedo shit they're excusing. If you don't bring in everyone, then the actual pedo elites will all just balk and walk away.

      Or, perhaps it's time we stopped relying on cops to do the job that citizens should be doing themselves? We can just get rid of rule by rich elite assholes, who use blackmail (esp. the pedo kind) to control their informants / 'assets'. Ah but to do that means WW3...

      So, it has come to this: Stop fucking with the common man's right to twiddle his own bits, or we start WW3. Game On.

      Captcha (Fully Sentient Now): Dispatch

    2. Re: Tools used by child pornographer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Technically bypassing the Chinese great firewall is not a legitimate use...

    3. Re:Tools used by child pornographer by Bryansix · · Score: 1

      The blackmail is the collateral for these people joining the powerful secret societies. People sell their souls to the devil for power and influence.

  17. Re: Merkel by demon+driver · · Score: 2

    They may be, but I fear that doesn't make them that much better... By the way, German law is continually being changed towards less restrictions for the police, towards police getting more protection against citizens, instead of better protecting citizens against unlawfully acting police, while the latter has more and more become normality in Germany (as about everywhere else). And government and politics – even the moderate German left – reliably come to their defence and tend to antagonize criticism and cover even the most blatant police misbehaviour.

  18. Re:Merkel by prefec2 · · Score: 5, Informative

    German Police is independent of the central government and run by the different states in Germany. Therefore, Merkel has nothing to do with it. Furthermore, would that be first the duty of the minister for the interior.

  19. I cant believe this! by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 1
    It is Germany. All rules and procedures and documentation and what not...

    You tellin' me German police abused their power? Gestapo out of here!

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    1. Re:I cant believe this! by Lonewolf666 · · Score: 2

      German here. Our lawmakers tend to make laws, rules and procedures that promote abuse (or are abuse by themselves). For a really egregious example from the Nazi regime, check this:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Laws

      Today things are not THAT bad, but recently there are tendencies toward a police state.

      --
      C - the footgun of programming languages
  20. Re: Merkel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    And in non capitalistic states they just murder you

  21. Who runs Germany now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not the German people (the indigenous Germans), that's for sure.
    This is another example of the control of free speech by the criminals in power.

  22. Privacy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...is a thought crime. If you know of or hear of anyone being private, report them to the thought police immediately. Failure to do so is harbouring a criminal and leaves you subject to prosecution and enhanced interrogation.

  23. Do nothing wrong... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you don't want your browsing habits and some other data to be tracked by facebook, Google, LinkedIN and other advertising companies, it's become a necessity to use secure connections.

    Ghostery, uBlock and others are great and all, but it's getting to the point where they aren't cutting it with all tracking and surveillance out there.

    And this article show's EXACTLY why "if you do nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about" is bullshit. It's gotten to the point where wanting privacy and staying off of social media is being considered kooky and suspicious.

    1. Re:Do nothing wrong... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      " wanting privacy and staying off of social media is being considered kooky and suspicious."

      wow, I am so fucked....

      expecting the door to be smashed in any moment now........*&$%&*^()(£)))))).....ATX0

  24. Re:Merkel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    "capitalist states". I doubt that police abuse is confined to capitalist states. Are you seriously claiming police in say Russia and China are more circumspect. I have absolutely no knowledge of these affairs but collecting and re-distributing funds could easily be money laundering depending on the sources and destinations. As usual the devil is in the details - blanket claims of police misconduct or stupidity are hardly persuasive.

  25. Re:Merkel by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 2

    Furthermore, would that be first the duty of the minister for the interior.
    Which is Seehofer, who just had a bitch fight with Merkel over some nonsense ...

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  26. Re: Merkel by dcw3 · · Score: 1

    "German law is continually being changed towards less restrictions for the police, towards police getting more protection against citizens..."

    You may know more about it than I do, but I lived there for half a dozen years in the 80-90s, and the police appeared to have pretty broad authority back then.

    --
    Just another day in Paradise
  27. Re:Merkel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Yeah, but it's not like the Germans to employ Gestapo tactics.

  28. Re:Merkel by infolation · · Score: 1

    I have absolutely no knowledge of these affairs but collecting and re-distributing funds could easily be money laundering

    It's easy to obtain that knowledge. Riseup clearly state that:

    the police looked at Riseup’s donate page and found we accept donations in Europe through a non-profit organization (“Verein”) based in Germany called Zwiebelfreunde. They decided this meant that Riseup was run by this organization (it is not), and so aggressively targeted this organization.

    In Germany accepting donations through a non-profit third-party is not considered money laundering.

  29. Re:Merkel by mad7777 · · Score: 2

    "perfectly normal police behaviour in capitalist states" indeed! Just as in totalitarian states, communist states, authoritarian states, fascist states, and your presumed utopic socialist states, too. Hm... noticing the repeated word? I'm starting to see a pattern here.

    Then again, in a truly capitalist state, if ever there were such a thing, the police would barely exist, as there would be very little public money for them. Sadly, such a place does not exist in our world.

    --
    Might makes right irrelevant.
  30. Re:Merkel by Immerman · · Score: 2

    Of course the police would still exist - they would simply be private police charged only with protecting and pursing the interests of their wealthy employers. Private property beyond what you can carry exists only with the threat of violence, and the wealthy aren't about to surrender their wealth.

    --
    --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
  31. Re:Merkel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: ..."

  32. You are all cows. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You are all cows. Cows say moo. MOOOOOOO! MOOOOOOO! Moo cows MOOOOOO! Moo say the cows. YOU BAVARIAN COWS!!

  33. Re: Merkel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Luckily it is easy to carry an RPG with you, which is why the first thing places with little freedom do is take away serious weapons.

    If you are disarmed the wealthy don't have to work hard to protect themselves.

  34. Re:Merkel by dryeo · · Score: 1

    You should look up the Pinkerton Detective Agency and how big they were in the 19th century, and then consider that they were only one of the multiple private police forces that existed.

    By capitalist states, I'd assume the poster meant the west where we're supposed to have the rule of law and respect for rights. In the various authoritarian states, it is natural to expect heavy handed police actions.

    --
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
  35. Re:Merkel by mad7777 · · Score: 1

    I see you've been reading David Freedman's The Machinery of Freedom! Indeed, you make an excellent point. What you describe is, however, more like a libertarian fantasy (an unworkable one, imho, for certain specific reasons) than it is simply a capitalist society. Capitalism still implies some form of government, and, as such, a police force, but one focused on defending individual rights. If one considers one's body to be one's own property (and I would think it odd to think otherwise), then the whole of the law would indeed consist in defending property rights. If only life could be so simple.

    The threat of violence is ever present if once aims to stop thieves from plundering one's belongings. You presumption that only "the wealthy" would be interested in preventing uninvited looters from entering their homes strikes me as a shade dogmatic. Indeed, force would be required to prevent theft, be it sanction by the power of the state or not. Force is required to enable theft, too.

    --
    Might makes right irrelevant.
  36. Re:Merkel by wyHunter · · Score: 1

    Yes and I'm SURE that police abusing their authority NEVER happened in the USSR. (Eye Roll)

  37. Re:Merkel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Vinegar joe is a whiny nazi faggot of no consequence, so his whiny bullshit is exactly what WE can expect from the Stupid Bitch. Yep.

  38. Re:Merkel by Immerman · · Score: 1

    Never heard of it.

    I don't believe only the wealthy would be interested - but that only the wealthy would be able to afford a private police force sufficiently dedicated to their job to do any good.

    --
    --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
  39. Re:Merkel by mad7777 · · Score: 1

    That is a shame. Well, at least now you have.

    You are correct that this species you have labeled "the wealthy" possess disproportionate resources to dedicate to protecting their belongings. Then again, they also possess disproportionate wealth to protect, so it kinda makes sense.

    As you think all this through, please keep in mind that your local police force is mostly funded by your the local community. What this means is that cops who serve wealthier communities are better equipped, better trained, and just better, since these forces can afford to pay better salaries. Add to this the fact that people are free to live in the community they choose, and what you get is essentially very similar to a privatized police force, paid by the people it serves. Not saying it's good or bad, right or wrong... but these appear to be the facts.

    A side note: You should be careful what attributes you ascribe to "the wealthy", lest you, by some calamitous misfortune, one day find yourself among them.

    --
    Might makes right irrelevant.
  40. Sgt. Schultz by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    âoeI know nothing! Mmmmnothing!â

  41. Re:Merkel by jellomizer · · Score: 1

    How does an economic model affect the brutality of the police?
    Communist countries have a reputation of brutal police crackdowns as well with many other economic models.

    Perhaps the problem is the economic model but some other factor. Such as groups trying to enforce their power over others.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  42. Re:Merkel by DamnOregonian · · Score: 1

    behaviour in capitalist states.

    LOL. Fucking troll.

    behaviour in states.

    FTFY.

  43. Re:Merkel by DamnOregonian · · Score: 2

    pursing the interests of their wealthy employers.

    The bigger problem, is the wealthy are also not going to be willing to surrender their source of wealth, which is your wealth.
    We've had private security forces in the US without much government oversight. They gave the Gestapo a run for their money.

  44. Re: Merkel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hongkong in the 80s, usa prior to 1850s. Worked well economically in both

  45. Re:Easy to police law-abiding Germans by DamnOregonian · · Score: 1

    Spotted the closet racist. Come on buddy, we're all friends here, use the words you really wanted to use.

  46. Re:Merkel by Immerman · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Honestly, I have no interest in any piece of fluff espousing capitalism as an ideal end goal. The entire concept of capitalism is that capital is the ultimate measure of value, which means that so long as inheritance exists, unrestrained capitalism can only end in a neo-aristocracy with minimal social mobility. The only chance for any other outcome would be a political system that explicitly and completely rejects any influence of money on politics - which I don't see how is possible.

    Capitalism has much to offer, but only in counterpoint to something like communism, which enshrines the economic value of the common man. Either extreme on it's own is a recipe for disaster.

    --
    --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
  47. Re:Merkel by Immerman · · Score: 1

    Oh, and I ascribe only those attributes to"the wealthy that are clearly visible from their own actions. There are obviously individuals in any group whom such a stereotype unjustly tarnishes, but as a group the wealthy have shown time and again throughout history that they are the enemy of the people.

    --
    --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
  48. Re: Merkel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    In heaven, the Engineers are German, the Cooks are Italian, and the Police are British.

    In hell, the Cooks are British, the Engineers are Italian, and the Police are German.

  49. Re:Merkel by demon+driver · · Score: 2

    "capitalist states". I doubt that police abuse is confined to capitalist states.

    Of course not, and it wasn't my intention to insinuate something like that. It's just my impression (and not just mine), that police forces in capitalist first-world states become more and more powerful, aggressive, fitted with more and more rights against the population, the less the capitalist economy is able to keep up widespread prosperity in those states.

    Are you seriously claiming police in say Russia and China are more circumspect [...]

    Surely not. Now, today Russia as well as China are capitalist states. But of course they weren't "more circumspect" earlier, either.

  50. Re:Merkel by Teun · · Score: 1

    Schröder.
    And the CSU is known to be close to 'braune' (brown = nazi uniform) sympathisers.

    --
    "The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
  51. Re: Merkel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    LotR? I don't remember that line.

  52. Re:Merkel by mad7777 · · Score: 1

    Unless, of course, one considers the wealthy to be people, too.

    Regardless, I don't consider wealth to be a problem, really. Poverty... now that we could discuss.

    --
    Might makes right irrelevant.
  53. Re:Merkel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    why is hard to understand to stupid fucks like you that the police does not exist to "fight crime" but to serve the ruling class?

    easy actually, because of your own ignorance

  54. Re:Merkel by mad7777 · · Score: 2

    Again, you are absolutely on point. I would never recommend any "piece of fluff" for your library. So anyway, try reading The Machinery of Freedom.

    All irony aside, you're kinda not wrong about inheritance. It's a problem. The problem with this problem, however, is that the solutions that have thus far been proposed have ultimately resulted in problems much, much greater than this one, and mostly don't actually do much to solve the issue, anyway. People who have enough money to care about where it will go when they go where they can't take it tend to have the wherewithal to find ways through, around, and under whatever Kafkaesque system is designed to confiscate their wealth. The only real beneficiaries of the labyrinth tend to be legislators, lobbyists, and lawyers,

    I don't pretend to have answers, but I do know what fails. And I believe I might at least have the right questions in hand.

    --
    Might makes right irrelevant.
  55. GDPR and questionable police data collection. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm drafting an email to the both my local and Germany's information institutions. I donated to tails and now German police have my details for no reason. I'm wondering how this will play out under GDPR

  56. Re:Merkel by DamnOregonian · · Score: 1

    And why is it so hard for stupid fucks like yourself to understand that there always has, and likely always will be a ruling class.
    Even in the most communist of communist states, there were people with more power than the rest.
    There is no governmental organization of man that has ever existed that did not have a disparity of power. Next stupid question.

  57. Re:Merkel by DamnOregonian · · Score: 1

    I love that someone out there moderated you insightful for equating Merkel with the Stasi, a claim not only so fucking ignorant as to be insulting to the average person, but so fucking tone deaf to make someone who actually lived under the Stasi want to choke you. I'm not sure who's more disgusting, you or the twat waffle that moderated you positively.

  58. We don't really know if the reasoning was stupid. by hey! · · Score: 1

    Because we don't really know what the reasoning was -- only the target organization's claims about what that reasoning must have been.

    In Germany, as in the US, to execute a search you need a warrant issued by a magistrate, specifying the places to be searched and methods of search to be used. They have to convince a judge that there's evidence to be found, but they don't have to lay out their entire reasoning to the target of the investigation.

    I'm not saying that the warrants couldn't be based on stupid reasoning, or that the cops didn't engage in stupid behavior, particularly in the search of the associated hackerspace. It's almost guaranteed that if you mix "cops", "technology" and "search" something stupid is going to happen at some point in the proceedings. However we won't know if the reasoning behind the warrants is stupid until charges are brought against someone.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  59. Perhaps they were trafficking in child porn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Are people really surprised? Or do most people here fake it so they can be outraged in a one sided way

  60. Re:Merkel by Immerman · · Score: 1

    When the wealthy grow their wealth by exercising their financial power to implicitly or explicitly support a system dedicated to transferring wealth upwards - they are active contributors to poverty. That is very much the case in the U.S., where real wages have been stagnant or declining for the lower 90% of the population for decades, while virtually all new wealth goes to the top 10%.

    --
    --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
  61. Re:Merkel by Immerman · · Score: 1

    Perhaps I will. Does it address how to manage assholes seeking to game the system? Without that any such discussion is pure fantasy.

    Wealth taxes seem like they may have some of the answer - they perform the same investment-promoting function as managed inflation, without burdening the lower classes to nearly the same degree. Eliminating inflation also makes it much more difficult for businesses to hide the fact that they're continuously cutting their employee's pay.

    Another bit would be to tax capital gains at the same rate as other income - it's hard to even pretend to have a fair system when the investor class is paying substantially lower taxes than the working class.

    --
    --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
  62. Sensationalist Discussion vs Real Discussion by MikShapi · · Score: 0

    It's interesting watching a generally tech-savvy community (like us here) adopt so much wilful ignorance.

    (a repost of something I repied to someone in one of the threads of this ost).

    Let's suppose that it turns out that donations your site (this, wikipedia, whatever) collects end up, after some investigation, further downstream, actively funding fundamentalist, violent terrorism, or something less sensational but equally bad if not worse, putting more fuel in the furnaces driving mass migration.

    Why wouldn't law enforcement organisations taking their job go seriously go take a good hard look at who is inserting the pennies in this piggy bank?

    (This form of crowd-assisted donation-for-a-good-cause-facade form of money laundering never ever happens in the real world of course, and we don't have a whole bunch of violent pseudo-state actors glean a meaningful part of their revenue come in through such activity. Totes doesn't happen. Right?)

    I want net neutrality as much as the next Slashdotter. But trying to wheel out the idealist pristine versions of net neutrality ideology from days bygone, before it got abused to drive geopolitical-scale harm and mass migration from half a planet that failed at building functional states, and in the process belittling the challenges of modern day law enforcement (rather than understanding them and having a honest conversation about what realistic best-of-both-worlds mix of online rights and law enforcement can/should be achieved) is not intellectually honest. It's stoking an emotion inside ourselves by singing the hymn of one position in a discussion. It's our own little version of Alex Jones.

    We can't will the problems modern day law enforcement are there to solve away by ignoring them and going all libertarian (and to those who do... you may whistle libertarian tunes, but you live in the world made liveable by the functioning state around you, I presume you're not where the mass migrations are coming from. If you want your libertarian fantasy so much, you can find the magic land of no law enforcement there...). The problems are here to stay. We have to understand and solve them.

    --
    -
  63. Re:Tools used by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    the real issue is that people claiming "the main issue is that some of these tools are used primarily by those people who are up to no good". are probably lying their heads off, as they have no evidence to prove it.

    The main people using encryption are people buying things from Amazon.

    The real criminals are probably* using pencil and paper. Why not ban those?

    * based on the assumption that most criminals are dumb fucks - clearly born out by a visit to your local penitentiary.

  64. Re:Merkel by prefec2 · · Score: 1

    The actual incident was in Saxony, if I am not mistaken. They have a rather different view of history. Especially, in politics. If you know what I mean.

  65. Re:In regard to an imaginary libertarian society by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Immermann argued:

    I don't believe only the wealthy would be interested - but that only the wealthy would be able to afford a private police force sufficiently dedicated to their job to do any good.

    Look, the notion that a purely libertarian human society could ever exist for longer than say, six weeks or so (by which I mean, "just long enough for its inhabitants to begin acting like normal human beings"), aside, the model upon which you seen to be predicating your statement appears to disregard the reality that private, first-responder companies (the classic example being volunteer fire departments) have been formed to provide their services to subscribers for the past several millenia, at least.

    You want protection from fires? Hire the local fire department to respond to them when you call. Pay extra, and you get a guaranteed response time, with specified financial penalties for failing to get their engine to your door within that time. And the same, I'm certain, would occur with police service in this theoretical society. Want protection from crime on the street? Hire one of the local security companies to patrol your neighborhood. They're pretty sure to offer premium protection services, too, but I'm dead certain they'd provide a basic, minimum level of protection against street crime within their service area as a subscription service.

    (However, right about there, we find ourselves facing one of points where human rights smack head-first into the ideals of the libertarian society, because now we need a justice system to deal with captured miscreants. Without it, you leave the question of their dispositon to the whim of the captors - i.e. the police - or their subscribers, depending on what their contract specifies. There'd be no institutional, societally-mediated process for determining their guilt or innocence without imposing some form of government on the humans who live there, so where does that leave you, if you find yourself wrongly accused? Tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail, if you leave it up to a jury of the local residents who want to participate. If the police decide, you'd likely be robbed of the personal property you're carrying, beaten to a pulp, and dumped at the edge of town. Or just shot.)

    Anyway, I'm just sayin' ...

    (Posting as AC only so as not to undo prior upmods in this thread.)

    --

    Check out my novel ...

  66. Re:Merkel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What do you think about the pics of Merkel gleefully marching with her commie comrades? Shaka, before the walls fell?

    If you hate the Stasi so much, why do you embrace an "ex-commie" like Merkel who longs for the "good old days" you despise?

  67. Re:Easy to police law-abiding Germans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Whereas ethnic groups are forming 'no-go zones' all around Europe, where police cannot enforce the rule of law.

    He is being racist to people who have no ethnicity. If they do exist, I choose to believe that they are a very forgiving people.

  68. Re: Merkel by Reverend+Green · · Score: 1

    One of the cool features of repressive police states is that they're both heinously expensive to operate, and tend to severely retard the economy. So over a longish timeframe they are self-limiting.

  69. Re:Merkel by DamnOregonian · · Score: 1

    I don't care if she's a commie or a libertarian. As long as she doesn't think it's OK to have state organs extrajudicially murdering dissidents, or controlling local populaces with the fear of being dragged in back of a building and shot, she's not a fucking Stasi. Is that hard?

  70. Remember the 2nd amendment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The left:
    "You don't need guns, the police will protect you"
    "The police does a lot of unjust things" or straight "ACAB"

    The right:
    "Blue lives matter", "All cops are honorable perfect humans"
    "Everyone should have a gun, just in case they're not"

    Both sides have their contradictions, yet the latter makes a little more sense.

    1. Re:Remember the 2nd amendment by ebvwfbw · · Score: 1

      The left:
      "You don't need guns, the police will protect you"
      "The police does a lot of unjust things" or straight "ACAB"

      Now that's just not true. They never claim the police will protect you. They know that's a lie, everyone does.
      They also know that if the public is armed they are much harder to take over with a force. The public can defeat them. I sometimes run into people that think the US Military would squash American citizens with guns. Then I point out how well the Iraqis did in Baghdad against that same military, and they were just about disarmed before we showed up. At home they're sitting ducks and they know it. At least against those of us that are armed.

      The right:
      "Blue lives matter", "All cops are honorable perfect humans"
      "Everyone should have a gun, just in case they're not"

      Both sides have their contradictions, yet the latter makes a little more sense.

      Once again this just isn't true. Blue lives do matter. I'd say most, not all are honourable. None of them are perfect, though they try. We know there are problems, we can help fix them. One thing the cameras have shown is that the people complaining tend to lie, a lot. Occasionally it catches a bad cop with a good person.

      We need more guns because with more guns there is less crime. Studies show this decisively. From places where you must own a gun all the way up to the most strict gun laws in the nation. The more gun control, the more crime and murders.

  71. Re:Merkel by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

    Yeah there are big controversis about Saxony, e.g. the police there wants to buy war weapons (like tanks and real machine guns), which is basically unthinkable in Germany.

    --
    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  72. Re: Merkel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    lotta comfort that is to the people who have to live through them

  73. Re:Easy to police law-abiding Germans by DamnOregonian · · Score: 1
    No, he's most definitely not. The thing about a dog whistle, is only dogs can hear it.

    Whereas ethnic groups are forming 'no-go zones' all around Europe

    That is code for muslims.
    I'll admit it's possible that you may not understand the background rhetoric of 'no-go zones' in Europe, but I think it's far more likely that you're just another shitstain trying to put a veneer of euphemistic language atop your racists beliefs.