[atlarge-discuss] Re: FC: North Carolina cops may have lied, posed as FBI cybercrime agents

[Jeff Williams <jwkckid1@ix.netcom.com>]

Declan and all fellow members,

  Thanks for posting this Declan.  Very interesting.  Please
if you have the time also thank Ben Brunk Phd for providing
this interesting story and info.  I hope that some of the
members at ICANNATLARGE.ORG will take the time
and effort to read this and learn from the very good
lesson it provides.

Declan McCullagh wrote:

> ---
>
> Date: Sun, 01 Jun 2003 14:20:03 -0400
> From: Ben Brunk
> To: declan@well.com
> Subject: I think this will interest many politech readers
>
> Please remove my e-mail address if you post this, thanks.
>
> Chapel Hill High School student's blog becomes subject of "FBI" investigation
> http://indyweek.com/durham/current/triangles.html
> http://www.upsaid.com/erinrocksout/index.php
> http://www.newsobserver.com/front/story/2579239p-2393565c.html
>
> Ms. Carter should know that anything she puts up on a website is accessible
> to everyone in the world.  Ignoring the fact that she suffers the
> consequences for choosing to publish her diary to the world and thus not
> protect her own privacy, what I find troubling about this story is that
> local police are identifying themselves as federal agents merely because
> they've been recruited into a federal cybercrime task force. This news
> conforms with many other accounts of the disastrous results associated with
> the federalization of police forces around the country.  We have substance
> prohibition to thank for this.
>
> The chilling of free speech is always a reason for concern.  As with TIA,
> cyercrime investigators have a high probability of targeting the innocent
> simply due to the fact that there are only a tiny handful of miscreants in
> the world.  It is hypocritical (but not very surprising) for a town that is
> such a celebrated bastion of liberalism to be involved in questionable
> federal programs that lead to problems for its citizens.  If they are sworn
> local police officers, they are bound by North Carolina laws, as well as
> the state and US Constitutions, both of which prohibit secret searches.
> That piece of garbage called the PATRIOT Act does not preempt the Bill or
> Rights, and police shouldn't pretend that it does.  Also, it is no trivial
> matter that local police are enforcing federal laws.  There was already a
> US Supreme Court decision with regards to the Brady Act (gun background
> checks), that determined that local police cannot (voluntarily or not)
> enforce federal laws without compensation.  There are probably more
> relevant decisions that I am unaware of.  I'm sure in this case there is
> some convoluted legal veneer of justification for it all, but that isn't
> going to be much comfort if more and more outrageous incidents take place.
> If local police are unaccountable to local leaders and the citizens they
> SERVE, what have we got?
>
> Ben Brunk, PhD
>
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Regards,

--
Jeffrey A. Williams
Spokesman for INEGroup LLA. - (Over 131k members/stakeholders strong!)
"Be precise in the use of words and expect precision from others" -
    Pierre Abelard
================================================================
CEO/DIR. Internet Network Eng. SR. Eng. Network data security
Information Network Eng. Group. INEG. INC.
E-Mail jwkckid1@ix.netcom.com
Contact Number: 214-244-4827 or 214-244-3801



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