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Somewhat related personal anecdote: I sometimes hang out at a popular hackerspace in San Francisco. Recently, a member was kicked out for several reasons, one

by GuiA 13y ago

Somewhat related personal anecdote: I sometimes hang out at a popular hackerspace in San Francisco. Recently, a member was kicked out for several reasons, one of them being that he was caught showing a teenager how to use tools like LOIC. He claims that he was just doing this as an educational thing; but a few members who overheard him claim that he was definitely encouraging him to use it for nefarious purposes. I've been in presence of that member at weekly meetings, and he's definitely amongst the most vocal supporters of Anonymous, offensive hacktivism, etc. I didn't think much of it until I was talking with an older member that I consider trustworthy, who told me he heavily suspected him of being an agent provocateur. I'm not sure how likely it is, but in the face of events of like that, who knows.

codyb 13y ago
This reminds me of the incident in Florida where a teenager fell in love with an undercover cop stationed in a high school, who did not smoke pot, but after the cop insisted he get her marijuana, he was arrested. This article talks about that and a bunch of other stings. An undercover cop in NYC tells someone he has an iPhone for sale and he really needs money to feed his daughter. It's pretty sickening. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/21/teen-falls-in-love-undercover-cop-marijuana-operation_n_1291823.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/21/teen-falls-in-love-... I think there's been plenty of times NYPD has baited Muslims in mosques. And the FBI has been known to do the same thing. Cooking up terrorist plots and hoping people will join them. Ridiculous.
- patrickod 13y ago
  NPR ran a story about 3-4 months ago where they interviewed this teenager in Florida while recounting the story. I couldn't believe my ears. It sounded like textbook entrapment. Are the police in these areas so desperate for drug-related arrests that they'd use tactics like this? IIRC the case ended up being her word against his on the key points of his conviction. That too rubbed me entirely the wrong way. To first lure him in and then use only one person's testimony to clinch the conviction sounds totally unjust. EDIT: Link to the This American Life story about Justin's case http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/457/what-i-did-for-love?act=2 http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/457/w...
guard-of-terra 13y ago
The problem here, while it does create some "criminals" it won't help in the slightest against real threats. It diverts attention from them if anything.

by GuiA 13y ago

codyb 13y ago

This reminds me of the incident in Florida where a teenager fell in love with an undercover cop stationed in a high school, who did not smoke pot, but after the cop insisted he get her marijuana, he was arrested. This article talks about that and a bunch of other stings. An undercover cop in NYC tells someone he has an iPhone for sale and he really needs money to feed his daughter. It's pretty sickening. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/21/teen-falls-in-love-undercover-cop-marijuana-operation_n_1291823.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/21/teen-falls-in-love-... I think there's been plenty of times NYPD has baited Muslims in mosques. And the FBI has been known to do the same thing. Cooking up terrorist plots and hoping people will join them. Ridiculous.

patrickod 13y ago
NPR ran a story about 3-4 months ago where they interviewed this teenager in Florida while recounting the story. I couldn't believe my ears. It sounded like textbook entrapment. Are the police in these areas so desperate for drug-related arrests that they'd use tactics like this? IIRC the case ended up being her word against his on the key points of his conviction. That too rubbed me entirely the wrong way. To first lure him in and then use only one person's testimony to clinch the conviction sounds totally unjust. EDIT: Link to the This American Life story about Justin's case http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/457/what-i-did-for-love?act=2 http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/457/w...

guard-of-terra 13y ago

The problem here, while it does create some "criminals" it won't help in the slightest against real threats. It diverts attention from them if anything.