You do make some good points there, but ultimately I don't buy it. The key thing is your citation of punishments for cops who "misused databases". This isn't a

You do make some good points there, but ultimately I don't buy it. The key thing is your citation of punishments for cops who "misused databases". This isn't actually what's at issue here. The existence of law enforcement databases is a very different thing than the facility for spying on communications. And I still see no evidence that anyone has been punished for that, or that any active measures have been taken to protect abuses of those programs.