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Papazsazsa • today at 3:33 PM • 4 replies • view on HN

One of the most compelling aspects of American governance is the latitude local law enforcement has. They can be both an ally and enemy to freedom.


Replies

thephyber • today at 4:29 PM

Your comment reminds me of a post I read on a popular police forum about J Edgar Hoover (the infamous Director of the FBI for half a century). He created a professionalized police / intelligence force, but he also abused the rights of many citizens and elected political officials with that force. Supposedly he even used it to blackmail some of the Congressmen who were legally obligated to oversee his department.

And the comments in that post were a Rorschach test of where the commenter fell on how "necessary" the abuses of the FBI were.

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throwaway27448 • today at 6:01 PM

One of the least democratic and accountable institutions in america, btw, along with the courts.

mindslight • today at 4:58 PM

This right here. If we're going to oust this anti-American Flock and its less prominent "competitors", then we need the police to realize they're not friends, but rather foes. Extra work arresting motorists with frivolous/incompetent warrants from distant cities, civil suits for violating rights where the police department is left holding the bag, spending budget that could instead be spent on actual policing, defiant disobedience when they're asked to take the cameras down or make changes, making your city more likely to be a flashpoint for federal action, etc.

Of course this is in addition to state-level political action against flocks and other types of surveillance to preserve our freedom uniformly. The point is that we want the police lobby to be neutral or even on our side, rather than having to fight against them.

dmos62 • today at 3:39 PM

Are they elected?

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