13 ms·

I've made friends with a few former police officers. And they usually tell me the job silently destroys you inside. The job makes you deal with the worst of the

by yardie 4y ago

I've made friends with a few former police officers. And they usually tell me the job silently destroys you inside. The job makes you deal with the worst of the worst daily and after a few years, mentally you are fucked. If an officer wants to do something that is constructive rather than destructive of society, they should be commended. The friends that have left the profession would rather work fastfood than anything even tangentially close to law enforcement, like security.

Kye 4y ago
It would help if they clarified his role. So far all he's done is brag about his history of using his new employer's product to create surveillance devices. Absent any details, it's reasonable to assume he was hired for this experience in the lead up to seeking a goldmine many companies aim for: law enforcement contracts.
- asow92 4y ago
  So is the concern that they are going to aid law enforcement in catching people who break the law? I'm having a difficult time realizing the outrage here.
  - Kye 4y ago
    No. The concern is they'll continue supporting the widespread abuses law enforcement is known for.
    - asow92 4y ago
      That doesn't seem paranoid to you at all?
      - deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
      - trs8080 4y ago
        Being concerned about a pattern of behavior is paranoia now?
        asow92 4y ago
        By that same logic, should we be profiling criminals? Or is that problematic?
        trs8080 4y ago
        If "we" is you, go ahead! You're free to judge whomever you want. This is a fairly simple issue - a community of people who are pro-privacy and anti-surveillance have concerns about a former surveillance officer working for an organization which creates small, portable, popular computing devices. If you haven't heard about law enforcement abuses of surveillance, here are some helpful links: https://theintercept.com/2019/10/10/fbi-nsa-mass-surveillance-abuse/ https://theintercept.com/2019/10/10/fbi-nsa-mass-surveillanc... https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/07/police-are-still-abusing-investigative-exemptions-shield-surveillance-tech-while-0 https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/07/police-are-still-abusi... https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-12-27/when-police-abuse-surveillance-cameras https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-12-27/when-poli...
        asow92 4y ago
        I agree to disagree with this community of 11 users. May they find solace in each other.
      - seba_dos1 4y ago
        It can either feel paranoid or like common sense depending on place in the world in question.
        asow92 4y ago
        In the West I would say it feels paranoid, but in certain east Asian or Middle-eastern countries (that will remain nameless) I wouldn't ask questions in the first place. Thankfully I'm in the former.
        seba_dos1 4y ago
        There are still some places in the general West where law enforcement's reputation isn't completely ruined yet, but it certainly isn't a rule.
        asow92 4y ago
        Right, it's not perfect, but I know where I'd rather be.
        Kye 4y ago
        You sound like you're not part of any marginalized, surveilled, or abused communities. Police in some places still arrest people for violating state level sodomy laws even though the SCOTUS ruling nullified them. No, this is still very much a problem here in the West.
        asow92 4y ago
        That's obviously not good and we should speak up when these things happen because that sounds unlawful. The point is that we have the freedom here to stand up and say that, and in other countries you wouldn't even have that much. It could be a lot worse.
  - MrDresden 4y ago
    They clearly could have made the announcement come off less like it was glorifying the type of surveillance work the former police officer did. I would hazard a guess that a big part of the crowd who buy and use RaspberryPi products are privacy conscious. So it makes good business sense not to alienate that customer base and throw away all the goodwill the company has garnered over the years. The concerns over this are justified, and could have been responded to in a calm manner. Instead those in charge of that social media account decided to act up in an incredibly childish manner. If the hiring of an ex surveillance specialist to a FOSS software & hardware company does not rub you the wrong way, then I would at least think the bad PR handling from a pure business standpoint would.
    - asow92 4y ago
      Yeah, I definitely think they could have handled it better. Mainly, what rubs me as intellectually dishonest to condemn this one person without knowing him because he used to be in law enforcement.
  - 9864250 4y ago
    Braking the law doesn't mean doing anything wrong, and a lot of the people these people harass haven't even broken the law. These people infiltrate and destroy innocent people's lives. Imagine meeting someone you love and having a child with them, just for them to disappear one day. Imagine finding out that they actually never existed and were actually a government agent who was assigned to infiltrate your life and possibly frame you for daring to speak against the state. Imagine being that child. Or anyone else in these peoples lives for that matter. Or imagine finding yourself abandoned in a foreign country by your closest friends of several years who were actually government agents you met on a holiday you won in a fake competition created by the government, then find out that the company you worked for was also a fake company set up just to try to entrap you in some elaborate plan, so now you are unemployed, and everything you said in your own home or car in the last several years probably exists forever on a government server somewhere. Imagine then opening a newspaper and reading that the police claim to be underfunded... Imaging what it does to a person to find out that their life for years has been a real life government conspiracy. That their friends, neighbours, co-workers, partner, etc. are not real and that they have had no privacy. It may not even be you they are after, but someone close to you. These are both real cases, one from the UK where this cop is from and one from Sweden where I'm from, and they are far from unique. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jan/25/activist-deceived-relationship-met-police-officer-wins-compensation-kate-wilson https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jan/25/activist-dec... https://www-aftonbladet-se.translate.goog/nyheter/a/dwwdlO/polisen-anvande-honungsfalla-for-att-losa-helena-mordet?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp https://www-aftonbladet-se.translate.goog/nyheter/a/dwwdlO/p...
    - asow92 4y ago
      You don't think you're blowing this one instance out of proportion at all? This is just a one person who works at a hobby computer company.
      - 9864250 4y ago
        My objection is not really that they hired him. I believe that people can change and no one is irredeemable, but I don't think they should advertise it like this. It's like hiring an ex-con who used to use your product to victimize others and then bragging about it and getting upset when people are unconformable with it. If nothing else, I think they should show more respect for people who are victims of the police and state-sponsored surveillance.
nullfield 4y ago
I’d believe this, and almost want to commend the ones you know for leaving. I’m not quite jaded enough (barely) that I still believe that people can grow up in decent environments, somewhat sheltered from the world, thinking they can go into policing or politics and “do some good”. I don’t know that I still believe that they actually can do any good… but if they started off naively optimistic and then realized what it was like, and left? That takes a degree of character, and some guts knowing you’re leaving a profession. There’s opportunity cost. Now… this particular guy at RPi and 15 years to figure it out? Eh. And generally unsure why this is being flagged, except for “drama” maybe. It’s a bad look from an organization that lots of people know about and respect(ed).
- yardie 4y ago
  Police depts have a plenty of departments that aren't public facing. I imagine you can spend 15 years in building surveillance devices and not suffer the mental breaking point of a beat cop or CSAM investigator. If you can turn a side hobby into a second career, why not go for it? The RPi's social media poster definitely needs retraining. There is no need to be this passive aggressive on a commercial account.

by yardie 4y ago

Kye 4y ago

It would help if they clarified his role. So far all he's done is brag about his history of using his new employer's product to create surveillance devices. Absent any details, it's reasonable to assume he was hired for this experience in the lead up to seeking a goldmine many companies aim for: law enforcement contracts.

asow92 4y ago
So is the concern that they are going to aid law enforcement in catching people who break the law? I'm having a difficult time realizing the outrage here.
- Kye 4y ago
  No. The concern is they'll continue supporting the widespread abuses law enforcement is known for.
  - asow92 4y ago
    That doesn't seem paranoid to you at all?
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - trs8080 4y ago
      Being concerned about a pattern of behavior is paranoia now?
      - asow92 4y ago
        By that same logic, should we be profiling criminals? Or is that problematic?
        trs8080 4y ago
        If "we" is you, go ahead! You're free to judge whomever you want. This is a fairly simple issue - a community of people who are pro-privacy and anti-surveillance have concerns about a former surveillance officer working for an organization which creates small, portable, popular computing devices. If you haven't heard about law enforcement abuses of surveillance, here are some helpful links: https://theintercept.com/2019/10/10/fbi-nsa-mass-surveillance-abuse/ https://theintercept.com/2019/10/10/fbi-nsa-mass-surveillanc... https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/07/police-are-still-abusing-investigative-exemptions-shield-surveillance-tech-while-0 https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/07/police-are-still-abusi... https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-12-27/when-police-abuse-surveillance-cameras https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-12-27/when-poli...
        asow92 4y ago
        I agree to disagree with this community of 11 users. May they find solace in each other.
    - seba_dos1 4y ago
      It can either feel paranoid or like common sense depending on place in the world in question.
      - asow92 4y ago
        In the West I would say it feels paranoid, but in certain east Asian or Middle-eastern countries (that will remain nameless) I wouldn't ask questions in the first place. Thankfully I'm in the former.
        seba_dos1 4y ago
        There are still some places in the general West where law enforcement's reputation isn't completely ruined yet, but it certainly isn't a rule.
        asow92 4y ago
        Right, it's not perfect, but I know where I'd rather be.
        Kye 4y ago
        You sound like you're not part of any marginalized, surveilled, or abused communities. Police in some places still arrest people for violating state level sodomy laws even though the SCOTUS ruling nullified them. No, this is still very much a problem here in the West.
        asow92 4y ago
        That's obviously not good and we should speak up when these things happen because that sounds unlawful. The point is that we have the freedom here to stand up and say that, and in other countries you wouldn't even have that much. It could be a lot worse.
- MrDresden 4y ago
  They clearly could have made the announcement come off less like it was glorifying the type of surveillance work the former police officer did. I would hazard a guess that a big part of the crowd who buy and use RaspberryPi products are privacy conscious. So it makes good business sense not to alienate that customer base and throw away all the goodwill the company has garnered over the years. The concerns over this are justified, and could have been responded to in a calm manner. Instead those in charge of that social media account decided to act up in an incredibly childish manner. If the hiring of an ex surveillance specialist to a FOSS software & hardware company does not rub you the wrong way, then I would at least think the bad PR handling from a pure business standpoint would.
  - asow92 4y ago
    Yeah, I definitely think they could have handled it better. Mainly, what rubs me as intellectually dishonest to condemn this one person without knowing him because he used to be in law enforcement.
- 9864250 4y ago
  Braking the law doesn't mean doing anything wrong, and a lot of the people these people harass haven't even broken the law. These people infiltrate and destroy innocent people's lives. Imagine meeting someone you love and having a child with them, just for them to disappear one day. Imagine finding out that they actually never existed and were actually a government agent who was assigned to infiltrate your life and possibly frame you for daring to speak against the state. Imagine being that child. Or anyone else in these peoples lives for that matter. Or imagine finding yourself abandoned in a foreign country by your closest friends of several years who were actually government agents you met on a holiday you won in a fake competition created by the government, then find out that the company you worked for was also a fake company set up just to try to entrap you in some elaborate plan, so now you are unemployed, and everything you said in your own home or car in the last several years probably exists forever on a government server somewhere. Imagine then opening a newspaper and reading that the police claim to be underfunded... Imaging what it does to a person to find out that their life for years has been a real life government conspiracy. That their friends, neighbours, co-workers, partner, etc. are not real and that they have had no privacy. It may not even be you they are after, but someone close to you. These are both real cases, one from the UK where this cop is from and one from Sweden where I'm from, and they are far from unique. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jan/25/activist-deceived-relationship-met-police-officer-wins-compensation-kate-wilson https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jan/25/activist-dec... https://www-aftonbladet-se.translate.goog/nyheter/a/dwwdlO/polisen-anvande-honungsfalla-for-att-losa-helena-mordet?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp https://www-aftonbladet-se.translate.goog/nyheter/a/dwwdlO/p...
  - asow92 4y ago
    You don't think you're blowing this one instance out of proportion at all? This is just a one person who works at a hobby computer company.
    - 9864250 4y ago
      My objection is not really that they hired him. I believe that people can change and no one is irredeemable, but I don't think they should advertise it like this. It's like hiring an ex-con who used to use your product to victimize others and then bragging about it and getting upset when people are unconformable with it. If nothing else, I think they should show more respect for people who are victims of the police and state-sponsored surveillance.

nullfield 4y ago

I’d believe this, and almost want to commend the ones you know for leaving. I’m not quite jaded enough (barely) that I still believe that people can grow up in decent environments, somewhat sheltered from the world, thinking they can go into policing or politics and “do some good”. I don’t know that I still believe that they actually can do any good… but if they started off naively optimistic and then realized what it was like, and left? That takes a degree of character, and some guts knowing you’re leaving a profession. There’s opportunity cost. Now… this particular guy at RPi and 15 years to figure it out? Eh. And generally unsure why this is being flagged, except for “drama” maybe. It’s a bad look from an organization that lots of people know about and respect(ed).

yardie 4y ago
Police depts have a plenty of departments that aren't public facing. I imagine you can spend 15 years in building surveillance devices and not suffer the mental breaking point of a beat cop or CSAM investigator. If you can turn a side hobby into a second career, why not go for it? The RPi's social media poster definitely needs retraining. There is no need to be this passive aggressive on a commercial account.