A Web Site Causes Unease in Police

NY Times ^ | 7/12/03 | Adam Liptak

[HairOfTheDog]

Your experience with one guy who wronged you has turned you against all the souls who do the work and their families? Bizarre rationale! - I have had experience with a few choice butt-heads in almost every kind of profession.

No - that website allows a personal vendetta to be carried out against any cop. Face it.... We hire cops to go deal with people and sometimes ruin their lives. Their justified and expected work would make them hated by some, and those 'some' are just the type to cause bodily harm, not some righteous protestor for justice as you and this website creator claim to be giving info to..... One cannot just claim good intentions while supplying information that can get people killed.

[HairOfTheDog]

The department didn't do the action, the people didn't do the action, a single enity did the action.

That's bull.... The whole point is that the cop did the action under the pretext of community protection and community-given power. if the public doesn't like his use of that power then the public takes that power away, not storms his house.

[elbucko]

I'll ping you to the thread when it goes up.

Put me on your ping list, please. I hope you get the Alpha Hotels job.

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

My biggest complaint is with abuse by federal law enforcement cowboys. A lot of those guys can get away with anything and don't ever seem to be held accountable. Law enforcement abuse by the feds is the biggest threat to our freedom and privacy in America.

[dts32041]

Now you are going out on the limb, never said anything about storming a house, although the black faced and jack booted thugs do that easy, and apologize when they do something wrong, like kill a couple of retirees sitting in there house watching TV.

To those families what recourse do they have, none, but if you know who was in the that raiding party, who planned it, you can sit outside their house and let their neighbors know what kind of scum lives next door.

It all comes down to accountability.

BTW I think it should apply to lawyers also.

You serve in the public I you should have nothing to fear from disclosing where you live.

I live in a small town for years, I knew my selectman, and my town constable, (went shooting with both), never had any reason to picket either.

You put the black mask on under the color of authority, you no longer serve the public, you serve the slave masters.

[HairOfTheDog]

Now you are going out on the limb, never said anything about storming a house

...Trouble is, the information is not only available to the rational and reasonable people, eh?

[garbanzo]

Exactly at what point did we become a fascist state? You know, one in which law enforcement officers have special rights against public scrutiny that the rest of us don't have.

[Teacher317]

It reminds me of when the Elkhart Times newspaper put up an online database for all Indiana holders of CCW licenses two summers ago. They quickly took it down when FReepers showed up with some fiery opinions.

Gun Permit Holders Published Online

[HairOfTheDog]

which law enforcement officers have special rights against public scrutiny that the rest of us don't have.

That's bull.... Your home number is not the domain of any disgruntled customer you may come across at work, nor would you feel those customers have any right to come to your house to address their grievances. You have full right to be 'unlisted' at home.

[zoen]

Lets just say after the last two incounters with LEO's I have issue none with this. Those guys were massive jerks on a power trip.

If a person wants to hold a public office thats what it should be. After all they can pull down everything about us in a heart beat. What makes them any different.

[Rifleman]

So, you would have turned in the escaped slave that you found in your corn crib back in 1860? Or the jew hiding in your alley in 1941 Germany?



Anything that makes cops a litte more careful about how they treat citizens is doing them a service.

[Old Professer]

This "idiot", as you call him, is exercising his 1st Amendment rights and has been found justified by a federal court.

What happened here is that the state allowed the prior dissemination and linking of public information to otherwise sensitive information such as SSN's and now finds itself caught in a trap of its own making.

Had the web site operator not received maltreatment at the hands of the police, there would never have been a web site out there to complain about.

The very notion that the state can selectively prohibit the use of certain public information because it involves authorities is the very genesis of a police state.

[HairOfTheDog]

internet rants have caused many posters to be set upon. I've seen it right here on FR. Be careful if you've had a few adult beverages.

What the heck does that mean? and, I never post drunk, 'specially on Saturday morning.

[HairOfTheDog]

You serve in the public I you should have nothing to fear from disclosing where you live.

Wrong.... We are not talking about a phone directory of the people in town, cops among them... This is targeted information collected for use by activists against cops, accessible by the lawful and unlawful.

[AAABEST]

What the heck does that mean? and, I never post drunk, 'specially on Saturday morning.

Forgive me for not making myself clear, I wasn't directing that at you.

What I was saying is in general, we have to be careful if we've had a few and get on FR and rant. Such actions could cause you to be set upon by law enforcement. It's happened on more than one occasion.

[HairOfTheDog]

What I was saying is in general, we have to be careful if we've had a few and get on FR and rant. Such actions could cause you to be set upon by law enforcement.

Well, people ought not be able to make threats against anyone with some kind of cloak of invincibility on the internet. Nor should they enable and encourage others without being accountable.

[gitmo]

I went to the guy's website. It looks pretty bland to me. Mostly names of police officers by precint. Some precincts had salaries of the police officers. A few scattered addresses. He also had the email addresses of all the Seattle officers.

But the links on his sites go to the precincts websites, where the same information is available.

[HairOfTheDog]

I haven't been to the website, but I question the motive and focus of it...

To have public records on all of us is in a very real sense, anonymity due to sheer volume.... But to take one particular subset and collect information for use by activists of all stripes against that set, especially public servants we send in to do our dirty work for us, is to put those servants, our servants, out in front without backup. Any one of us in a warehouse full of files is not at risk.... but setting up cops to anyone who might just feel like taking out some aggression against a cop should not have this guy providing numbers in 'dial-a-target' fashion.

[AAABEST]

You apparantly weren't around when Grassontop got a visit from the SS for the high crime of stating that Clinton ought to be tried and shot for treason. Like I said, a plain old Friday night rant can't get you a file.

Then some ass comes along with a comment like "Well, people ought not be able to make threats against anyone with some kind of cloak of invincibility on the internet."

This is exactly what we're talking about with you people, you defend to the end, every effen bit of minutia. Cops are always right and any kind of action is justified or excused, everyone always brings it on themselves. This is why the problem is never fixed, because only when it becomes blatant and severe will any of your type admit it even exists.

Ya'll make your own bed.

[HairOfTheDog]

I am not defending anyone's right to be unreasonable, 'authority' or not. You made a general statement that words written on the internet can get you in trouble, I made a general statement that said the internet is not a sanctuary where you are immune from trouble you cause.

All rules have effects, all rules have some who misapply them, all rules have various interpretations of them.... We are not predictable machine or a perfect one.