It's a kind of mutually assured destruction. It's not that "everyone" will leave. But the people the cops are targeting probably will. The tension reminds me of

It's a kind of mutually assured destruction. It's not that "everyone" will leave. But the people the cops are targeting probably will. The tension reminds me of the Backpage/Craigslist Adult Services saga. Prostitution isn't legal in most of the US, but regardless of its legality, it will always exist. So, given the choice of having a place where they know prostitution is happening, and a place where they know it isn't, cops would prefer the former. Wild tangent follows. I promise it'll connect to the original thread. From a certain perspective, all discussions about personal rights are silly. Almost every free-speech case started with someone being an asshole. Fourth Amendment search & seizure cases almost always defend a person caught red-handed. Bitcoin is evil because it's used only for drugs and prostitution. And so on. Most of us live in a world where we don't ever need to assert our rights. As long as we're not an asshole, we don't have strange religious convictions, we aren't a journalist trying to expose outlandishness, we don't commit crimes, etc., then we can live our whole lives as if the Bill of Rights didn't exist. The problem with that observation is that the borders describing acceptable conduct are defined by something, and that something is our personal rights. If the Bill of Rights didn't exist, then "acceptable conduct" would surely be a smaller set of actions. We'd have less freedom, and we'd all miss the things we couldn't do. So the fact that nearly all controversy about personal rights seems silly (including the "I don't care about privacy because I have nothing to hide!" argument) is extremely significant. If the average person thought these discussions were important, then society would already be feeling constrained by lack of freedom, and we'd be in bad shape -- dictatorship, surveillance state, etc. And if nobody discussed them at all, then we'd probably be in a state of chaos -- survival more important than freedom, etc. Having silly discussions about personal rights is probably right at the sweet spot. The only thing worse than believing Bitcoin is useless is living in a society where everyone believes it's essential! This is why it's OK to feel like a warrant canary is silly. You should. But you should also take very seriously the fact that you're able to feel it's silly. The moment you feel warrant canaries are important, it's too late for our society. (The word "silly" is mine, not yours, but I believe the sentiment is in the same neighborhood as your question.)