Posted on 10/15/2012 11:03:49 PM PDT by coloradan
MESQUITE, Texas (CBS HOUSTON) A North Texas woman has been arrested after being accused of posting Facebook photos of an undercover policeman who testified against her friend in court.
Mesquite police arrested Melissa Walthall, 30, for allegedly posting the photo of the officer, who authorities say recently testified in a drug case against her friend. Her Facebook post identified the person as an undercover officer, according to a federal affidavit.
After a caller tipped off Mesquite police to Walthalls Facebook post about a week ago, an investigator found that it posed a viable threat to that officers safety, the affidavit said.
(Excerpt) Read more at houston.cbslocal.com ...
This seems facially unconstitutional.
All the woman needs to do is read up on “doxing”. The, her attorney can demonstrate in court that it is relatively trivial to locate someone on facebook using a photo from somewhere else as a reference. If they can do it, any other criminal can as well; the officer screwed himself by posting his own photos. Once they’re up there, it doesn’t matter what his covert “name” is; he can be found just by his face. What she did is trivial compared to what a more violent criminal could do with that info, i.e. spread his real name and face to the rest of the criminal underworld, at which point he’d either be immediately at risk of being shot on sight, or if they’re smart they’d use him as a disinformation agent.
I cannot discern anything illegal in what she did.
I am not a lawyer, just a citizen.
That being said, the fault is not in the stars or in social media as this article implies but in this destructive war on drugs that has more and more become a war on ourselves.
Idiot is the undercover poor excuse for LE.
The ones who are biting the hands that feed them should be exposed.
“He blew it... if he is undercover he should not have social media accounts that truly depict him.”
I agree completely. While I don’t condone what this woman did, the LEO did a very foolish thing by putting himself out in the public eye. If your job is to go unnoticed by drug dealers and the like, it’s best to keep to the shadows when it comes to something like FB.
For the record, I oppose outing undercover agents and I approve of the prosecution of people who do so.
It occurs to me that if he had been a CIA agent working in a foreign country and she had been the New York Times, she would not have been arrested. The double standard seems odd.
That being said, the fault is not in the stars or in social media as this article implies but in this destructive war on drugs that has more and more become a war on ourselves.
Agreed!
Sounds like the woman needs to hire herself a good constitutional lawyer and put a big dent this towns bank account. This is totally BS. Can one say 'Police State' mentality?!
The officer’s incompetence does not excuse her malice.
Remember back when we used to have a First Amendment?
Good times.... good times....
This is just like the police not wanting to be recorded while in the performance of their jobs. The court case was obviously not a closed case so anyone could see who he was at the courthouse and then followed up with a search. Police should have to live with the same rules and laws as us citizens.
There is no constitutional right to out a CIA agent in the performance of her duties and most of us would agree that it is absolutely necessary for the furtherance of our national security to maintain secrecy at that and other levels. To the degree that a narcotics undercover officer is operating lawfully (not desirably but lawfully) he should be in the same category.
If it is your opinion that he ought not to enjoy protection against being outed in the performance of his duties, I suggest that the way to change that is in the polling booth not on twitter. If your opinion is based on the futility of our war on drugs which more and more is inevitably leading to intrusions into privacy and converting citizens into enemies of the government, I would agree with you and I will walk with you to the polling place.
There is no constitutional right to out a CIA agent in the performance of her duties and most of us would agree that it is absolutely necessary for the furtherance of our national security to maintain secrecy at that and other levels. To the degree that a narcotics undercover officer is operating lawfully (not desirably but lawfully) he should be in the same category.
If it is your opinion that he ought not to enjoy protection against being outed in the performance of his duties, I suggest that the way to change that is in the polling booth not on twitter. If your opinion is based on the futility of our war on drugs which more and more is inevitably leading to intrusions into privacy and converting citizens into enemies of the government, I would agree with you and I will walk with you to the polling place.
We should also start “outing” members of juries too. Facebook, twitter, posters in the offended gang area.
Conservatives who work for unions and the government also.
Let’s just get it all out there.
And let’s don’t forget to round up all of our conservative colleagues and our conservative students and send emails of their conservative rants on the net to their college professors.
“For the record, I oppose outing undercover agents and I approve of the prosecution of people who do so.”
I’m trying to imagine how they could charge her. Did she sign a security agreement? Is it the citizens responsibility to to help the police play secret squirrel? No.
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