• linearchaos@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    In theory, it works that way.

    In practice, we’ve never openly stopped anyone with those systems.

    When it comes time for them to justify the invasion of privacy, they don’t have any school shooters stopped, and they don’t have any Unabombers stopped. They don’t have any cases of stolen kids stopped. They’d be shouting all that from the rooftops to expand and extend that funding.

    If they have actually stopped anyone, it’s at super-secret spy game levels. The guys you’re expecting them to stop aren’t even a concern for them. Worse yet, they may actually be rooting for them.

    • proudblond@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Or they have stopped them, so we haven’t heard about it.

      I’m not advocating giving up privacy but you don’t know for sure that these tactics don’t “work.”

      • Dkarma@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        You think they’d shut up if they could look like the heroes??? Lol You don’t know cops.

        • proudblond@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          I guess I don’t think of the higher agencies as cops, even though they are. And those higher agencies (FBI, NSA, CIA, etc.) don’t strike me as the type of groups who want to keep the public informed—quite the contrary, actually. I would expect local cops to praise themselves if they got something right, sure.