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The way I see it, law enforcement has had it far too easy for far too long. The Snowden revalations finally turned over all the rocks and people saw that they
by beedogs 11y ago
The way I see it, law enforcement has had it far too easy for far too long. The Snowden revalations finally turned over all the rocks and people saw that they have been grossly overstepping both ethical and legal boundaries, and encryption is finally getting the mindshare it desperately needs.
So to their petulant cries of being unable to read our communications anymore, I say: fuck 'em. Time to earn your keep now, boys. You're not going to destroy our Internet just so you can keep feeding the mass-surveillance beast.
- tremon 11y agoI have a lot of trouble viewing anything involving the NSA as "law enforcement". Like the CIA, aren't they specifically created to subvert the law in other countries and not operate in their own jurisdiction?
- kabdib 11y agoCollusion, then things like "parallel reconstruction" and inter-agency agreements to keep things dark. Power always corrupts. The big lie is "No, our motives are to keep you safe, and [list of the usual bad things] can't possibly happen this time."
- beedogs 11y agoI used the term loosely, but the FBI director was the one agitating for crypto legislation recently.
- WildUtah 11y agoThere's no high tech terror for the NSA to fight. So-called intelligence about what Angela Merkel is thinking is of no diplomatic or economic use. The NSA has almost no purpose in practical government. But the NSA does do a lot and has a mission. It's the same mission US law enforcement always invents for itself. The NSA provides lots of leads to cops to arrest innocent drug dealers. Aside from parallel construction, the NSA does the same thing most FBI, DEA, and Border Patrol dollars go to: small time non-violent drug offender persecution.
- pluma 11y agoThe NSA is also heavily engaged in industrial espionage. What Angela Merkel has to say may be irrelevant, but having insights into trade deals before they are signed certainly isn't.
- mike_hearn 11y agoOnly if you want to try and unfairly tip the balance towards yourselves by outmanouvering your opponents, in which case the unfairness of the resulting trade deals will be obvious to all who read them. Attempting to fuck with an economy the size of Europe's by spying in trade negotiations only leads to problems in the long run.
- LordKano 11y agoI want law enforcement to be a difficult, time consuming job. Idle law enforcement is a terrible thing. When law enforcement has spare time, they will find ways to occupy it. Sometimes it will be by overzealous enforcement of low level laws and other times their idleness will be used an a pretext for politicians to pass even more micro-managing laws. It's this kind of thing that led to women being arrested for wearing bathing suits that exposed their calves. It's this kind of thing that resulted in young men being arrested for the bad fashion decision of sagging jeans. When they complain that something will make their job more difficult, I say good. I want law enforcement to be difficult and time consuming so that it loses its luster for the people who want to join up for all of the wrong reasons.
- shit_parade3 11y agoThe other solution to idle law enforcement is to reduce the positions in law enforcement. Bureaucracies have a natural tendency to grow, people ceding power to the state need to be more vigilant in demanding the reduction of outmoded and lax capacity instead of funding their own micromanaged oppression
- ryanmarsh 11y agoThe state has all the power, therefore the burden of proof should be solely on it. This is where the doctrine of presumed innocence comes from.