Having known lots of people who participated in Cop Watch exercises, I know that there is plenty of material to work with where you can bust cops in the act without manufacturing a situation.
So, what, if the Internal Affairs guys get some cop fired, and then they don’t have enough staff to respond as fast, are they culpable too? Ok, so I’m exaggerating for effect, but I see this as sort of the same thing. Within reason (and boy, that’s a tricky phrase, isn’t it?) I’m okay with them keeping the police honest.
For instance, if they can show, and keep showing, that the police are falsifying warrants, and that stops (or at least retards) the practice, more power to them. If, on the other hand, they’re just interested in getting the cops to look stupid, then I can’t support them. From what I got in the link, the goal was really to show that the cops weren’t following procedure, and were making an illegal search. That’s worth exposing, to my mind. If it was just ‘haw haw, look at the cops, busting our fake drug operation’, but the cops are doing everything right, then that’s pretty lame. The bottom line is that most people don’t have the resources to expose, and fight, illegal police operations, and I’m okay with someone going for it. Making the cops just look stupid, not so much.
On a tagent, but sorta related note: Back when bulletin boards were young and many of us ran them out of homes, it was rumored that the cops might come and raid your house due to the high electricity bills you were generating. Apparently an unduly high bill lead them to believe that you were using grow lights and growing pot.
I’ve always wondered if that particular urban legend had any truth.
Bah, just missed the edit deadline to respond to this:
True, but it’s not as dramatic. As much as I may regret it, drama sells, and TV gets into peoples memories better than secondhand reality. So, on the one hand, it’s kind of stupid to manufacture this kind of thing, but on the other - well, let’s just see what comes of it. Whistle-blowing relies largely on how much people pay attention, and if they can do a good job presentation-wise, I think they can get that attention.
Heh, well the Sea Shepherd on Whale Wars seems to be fairly successful.
I read an essay a while back about two kinds of surveillances societies. One where the government watched you, and another where everyone watched everyone.
Maybe with small potatoes type stuff like illegal parking or hanging out too long at the doughnut shop, but I see no other way for average Joes to catch them obtaining illegal warrants.
Can’t answer the grow lights/ pot rumor one way or the other… in my experience, uh… both tended to be true.
The ones I know who got busted happened to be doing both.
[QUOTE=Fantome;10545616But you said "The whole point is that they’re not doing anything remotely illegal. " 
[/QUOTE]
Seriously? That’s confusing? You can’t put together “They did nothing illegal” with “and yet the cops showed up within 24 hours” and end up with this thread?
Sorry, still confused. I have no idea what you’re talking about.
We need to see the basis for the warrant.
According to the article in the OP the police have refused to release this:
Whether that is suspicious, or not I don’t know. Is it usual for the police not to release this, and KopBusters are just making a big deal out if it to make them look bad. Or is it usually released as a matter of course, in which case it refusing to release does indeed imply they have something to hide.
I presume it is a court record and ought to be open to interested parties.
Perhaps, but what do you think is more likely; that Kopbusters orchestrated this elaborate sting and sat around the house hoping the police would someday target them with infrared, or that they significantly hastened things by making a phone call?
I think it most likely it was cop biz as normal. They bend every rule they can and feel justified. They require a counterbalance.
It was not an elaborate sting. 24 hours of a high power light does not constitute a n elaborate sting.
Ok, eliminate the word “elaborate.” It’s not exactly central to my point.
I agree: police officers are naughty a lot and should be found and punished. However, there are many police officers that are not naughty and sending them to a non-existent crime scene is a waste of critical public resources. Isn’t pretending you think there has been a crime committed when you know there has not, a crime itself?
The police only wasted their resources because one of the naughty police officers sent them on an illegal wild goose chase. Catching him red-handed now reduces the chance that he, or anyone who knows about this, is going to send the police out on an illegal wild goose chase in the future.
I for one am very interested to see what “probable cause” the police listed in their request for a search warrant.
My understanding is that the confidential tip was provided by an informant with the street name of Fuzzy Dunlop.
Do podunk Texas cops really have FLIR cameras?
With the new confiscation laws a lot of podunk places have the best of everything.