3 ms·
What’s the difference? Whether he was put under surveillance for traveling frequently to the middle east or because of a misinterpreted comment, that seems bot
by ugh 16y ago
What’s the difference?
Whether he was put under surveillance for traveling frequently to the middle east or because of a misinterpreted comment, that seems both to be about equally bad. There is of course always the caveat that the FBI might have had other credible evidence but if not that at least should be a civil rights violation. (Should be. I obviously know too little about the law to tell whether it actually is.)
- GHFigs 16y agoThe difference is that investigating someone who fits a particular behavioral profile is something that a reasonably competent organization might do, while investigating someone over nothing but a Reddit comment that he didn't even write would be stupid. When even the subject of the story describes it as the former, reporting it as the latter is sloppy at best, fallacious pandering at worst. See, what bothers me about this is that instead of highlighting the actually interesting legal question of whether installing such GPS devices is a violation of civil liberties or should require a warrant--the things Afifi is actually suing over--TechDirt (among scores of others in the giant web echo chamber) just throws this into the "look at this fucking government" bin where it does little more than reaffirm, 2 minutes hate-style, whatever the reader already believed.