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This is exactly how "law enforcement" used to work behind the iron curtain. An anonymous tip that you were anti-communist could get you arrested.
by bh42222 15y ago
This is exactly how "law enforcement" used to work behind the iron curtain. An anonymous tip that you were anti-communist could get you arrested.
- jasonlotito 15y agoHe wasn't arrested. He was observed. So, this is not "exactly" how it used to work behind the iron curtain.
- mgunes 15y agoThe Stasi extensively "observed" people before an arrest.
- tptacek 15y agoAnd so did Hitler. Does that end this pointless debate? You can't argue from a position that says "surveillance" and "arrest" are the same thing. They are simply not the same thing. The police cannot arrest you at will. An arrest is a big deal.
- burgerbrain 15y agoAccidentally down voted you. Readers should note that the vast majority of people observed by the Stasi were never arrested. At one point in history, their mere pervasive and unjustified "observing" was considered bad enough...
- raganwald 15y agoThat is very different than how things used to work on this side of the iron curtain: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism#House_Committee_on_Un-American_Activities http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism#House_Committee_on_...
- bh42222 15y agoNature loves symmetry!
- learc83 15y agoI'm not defending McCarthyism, but the two just simply aren't comparable. It's like comparing the Japanese American Interment Camps to Auschwitz. Talk to the countless East Germans who were imprisoned b/c of a tip from one of the thousands of Stasi informants. See if their stories in any way compare to the people who were swept up in the red scare.
- raganwald 15y ago“Metaphors are to similes as transvestites are to my wife.” I am not suggesting the two are the same, but rather that thinking about the two at the same time and deciding in what ways they are the same and in what ways they are different is a useful exercise.
- learc83 15y agoI'll concede that.