8 ms·
Kim Dotcom Releases New Raid Footage Captured By In-House CCTV
- Samuel_Michon 13y agoCan we all just ignore this attention-seeking thug, please? His marketing team does its job well, but surely, HN users are smarter than to fall for this rhetoric.
- fsckin 13y agoFirst they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out-- Because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out-- Because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out-- Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me.
- nextw33k 13y agoYou sir have just restored my faith in comment systems. Thank you for an awesome reminder from history.
- zalew 13y agonot the first nor the last time 'first they came' is used around here https://www.google.com/search?q="first+they+came"+site%3Anews.ycombinator.com https://www.google.com/search?q="first+they+came"+site%3Anew...
- Samuel_Michon 13y agoApart from misquoting, you should be ashamed for comparing the non-violent arrest of a convicted felon to the genocide perpetrated by the Nazis. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came...
- nknighthb 13y agoThere is nothing "non-violent" about an armed police raid. And his past convictions are irrelevant on every conceivable level -- not only is he not currently serving a sentence in relation to them, they provided no basis to believe he could be dangerous.
- Samuel_Michon 13y agoYou think it’s OK to liken the arrest of a repeat offender to the genocide of millions of innocent men, women, and children? In the video, I didn’t see physical force used. Neither did I read of anything like it in any of the reports of the arrest. What part of the operation is violent to you? Schmitz was found with a sawed off shotgun, and the police had to cut him out of his panic room, so he could obviously be dangerous.
- arethuza 13y ago"What part of the operation is violent to you?" Pretty much all of it?
- Samuel_Michon 13y agohttp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/violence http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/violence
- nknighthb 13y agoI can only assume you are confused by the meaning of "force". The actual application of physical force is not necessary for an action to be forceful and violent.
- smackfu 13y agoDwelling on whether it's violent or not seems silly. It was excessive. And the problem with using excessive measures is that it makes the line between non-violence and violence as simple as one guy with a gun being surprised and accidentally pulling the trigger.
- Peroni 13y agoRegardless of your stance on the entire Mega issue, no-one can deny that the raid is simply terrifying. Personally I have no clue how they justified such a heavily armed response particularly considering the fact that Dotcom never posed a physical threat to anyone let alone the fact that there were a number of children in the building at the time.
- mjolk 13y agoWhat's the point of buying all those toys if you never get to use them? And what's a better time to use them, but when you know they can't potentially get damaged?
- Samuel_Michon 13y ago> no-one can deny that the raid is simply terrifying. It looked pretty amateurish to me. They had trouble climbing a 3 foot high gate, which after they had ‘scaled’ it, turns out was easily opened. > such a heavily armed response I counted 5 police officers who approached the house together, only one of them was armed with a rifle. I saw no violence whatsoever, it was pretty laid-back. At no point in the video did they point a gun at any of the suspects, and they lowered their fire arms before they entered the building (highly unusual if you think you’re in danger or if you want to intimidate someone). > Dotcom never posed a physical threat to anyone When you’re dealing with a rich suspect who loves expensive toys and has a large staff, you have to be prepared for anything. In the US, they would’ve sent an army to surround and comb through that enormous mansion. Given that Dotcom is morbidly obese, I doubt the agents saw him as a physical threat, it’s his staff and the presence of weapons they needed to worry about.
- mrmagooey 13y agoI'm pretty sure that in most countries if a police officer turns up with a silenced automatic weapon then the police action is no longer "laid-back".
- aranw 13y agoWow you really have no idea do you? Seriously just cause you live in the US and everything is over the top including police force, that doesn't mean its the norm. I can ensure you police force in the US and the use of guns is over the top and unjustified, so was this in the case for Dotcom.
- belorn 13y agoI remember reading somewhere that the policemen in the raid did not know what were going on, or even who the target was. I wouldn't be surprised if they thought they were taking down a terrorist cell, given that the personal used was the counter-terrorism special tactics Group. Reading the Wikipedia article about the task force, their job is in dealing with high risk situations involving armed offenders and possible terrorism related events. They also train with New Zealand Special Air Service Commandos. In that context, the raid makes much more sense in how it was conducted, with silencers, helicopters, dogs and 20-30+ personal. The real question then comes to who in the command structure decided to use such group for serving a warrant, and collecting evidence for an assisting copyright infringement case. Given the nature of the crime, the low threat level (admitted in court), this is rather uniquely in history. One might also wonder how much influence the FBI had in the decision.
- contingencies 13y agoThe audio from the helicopter features radio reports from the ground team with words to the effect "target secured" (ie. they knew they were after Kim specifically, once he was restrained that was their objective completed).
- xtrumanx 13y agoI believe by what belorn meant regarding the police not knowing who the target was, was the they didn't know they were after a guy for copyright infringement as opposed to a armed and dangerous individual.
- Samuel_Michon 13y agoWhy the distinction? Schmitz was armed when he was found. Also, he was arrested not only for copyright infringement, but also for racketeering and money laundering. Those are serious crimes, usually the domain of organized crime.
- contingencies 13y ago
- mjolk 13y agoWhat I find most offensive is that this level of police response is that it's being used against someone that facilitated sharing of content between users that would have never paid for it, yet, good luck getting a third of these resources spent tracking down criminals that did things to hurt someone. Apparently, it's more important to protect imagined profit than people.
- ancarda 13y agoInteresting to see how big is house is. I wonder how much money Dotcom made off MegaUpload.
- Peroni 13y agoHis net worth prior to the raid was estimated at $200M.
- codfrantic 13y agoI remember him participating in the Gumball Rally in Europe in 2001 (Filmed by Jackass) in a Mercedes Benz S V12 Brabus, I'd guess a $900,000.00 car. So my guess is that he was quite rich before starting MegaUpload (founded in 2005) :-)
- Samuel_Michon 13y agoOh yes, he has been lying, bragging and hustling for far longer. In 2001, he told the NY Times his net worth was Euro 200 million. Obviously not true, but he did make at least some money by selling Data Protect to TÜV Rheinland. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/22/business/worldbusiness/22iht-btkim22_ed2_.html http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/22/business/worldbusiness/22i... http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/01/kim-dotcom/ http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/01/kim-dotcom/
- crb 13y agoIt was considered, at the time, the most expensive house in New Zealand. However, he only rents it. He tried to buy it, but the New Zealand government get involved in overseas investment deals/land purchase, and he was denied permission to buy it because he was "not of good character". It is known within NZ as "the Chrisco mansion", as it was built by the owners of Chrisco - a Christmas hamper mail order company. People still get wealthy the old-fashioned way down under.
- dopamean 13y agoWhat on earth is a "Christmas hamper?"
- hereonbusiness 13y agoI guess the masterminds behind this whole fiasco wanted to impress their friends from the US, but they tried too hard. A behaviour one would expect from adolescents, not leaders.
- magoon 13y agoWhat were they even looking for? It was a copyright infringement claim - no reason for any of this. Did they worry that Kimble had a Dr. Evil escape pod?
- alan_cx 13y agoWell, yes there is. But as you should see below, the reason cant be stated here because it will get down voted and eventually disappear. I suppose we could call it "crowd censorship". Edit: OK, egg on face. Its now very visible. I'll eat the humble pie and shut the hell up.
- crb 13y agoWorse: "the FBI actually believed Dotcom had a Dr. Strangelove-style “doomsday device” that was capable of wiping out all evidence of Internet piracy with the flick of a switch." http://bgr.com/2012/08/10/kim-dotcom-raid-fbi-feared-doomsday-device/ http://bgr.com/2012/08/10/kim-dotcom-raid-fbi-feared-doomsda...
- e40 13y agoThat sounds like the type of thing people make up after the fact to justify their actions.
- arethuza 13y agoIf someone can make that up you wonder why they don't just accuse him of being in Al-Qaeda or having WMD and simply bomb him. Would save all the tedious business of due process and evidence...
- knome 13y agoWhat's laughable is that if he had such a device, it's almost certain he would have a 3rd party capable of deploying in the event of, say, a highly publicized police raid of his home to arrest him. Of course, the counter to that would be to contact whoever hosts his data ( it's doubtful it's in his basement ) and have them pull the plug before the raid. Of course, if you do that, there's little point in raiding his house in the first place as the "doomsday device" would be neutralized. A simple summons would likely have been sufficient. "Hi, we've taken your servers from the co-lo, come in for questioning by tomorrow at blah blah blah". What if he runs? Who gives a shit? It was a copyright infringement case. If he runs, you then lock his assets, put him on a watch list and let him crawl back out at his leisure, letting his servers rot in an evidence locker somewhere. I'm not sure how they justify the car removal at all. I suppose they didn't, since the warrant was deemed to be overreaching. This was just ridiculous.
- FreeInfo4All 13y agoGo Kim! Stick it to those dirty MAFIAA copyright gangsters! I hope Mega takes off and helps us share even more culture. Information wants to be free, man! Except when it's my information. Then it's just a terrible invasion of privacy.
- alextingle 13y agoWhat on Earth did those police think they were doing? Playing Counter Strike??
- jack-r-abbit 13y agoTwo things that made me laugh watching the video: 1) That some very official looking people are forced to address him as Mr. Dotcom... which is on my list of the most ridiculous names a person could give themselves. 2) The giant statue of a rino in his yard. Really? A Rino?
- dopamean 13y agoFrom what I understand, he rented the house. The rhino is likely not his.
- Apocryphon 13y agoI wonder if the endgame to Snowden's exile will be him being accepted into NZ, and taking refuge at Kim Dotcom's estate.