Re:Maps Showing Where FBI Planes Are Watching from Above (2016)
by meri_dian on Monday December 04, 2017 @07:17AM
(#15843307)
But your analysis of the situation is wrong. When we talk about power we necessarily speak of relative power. While this represents an escalation of FBI intelligence gathering capabilities, the average civilian has more ways to discretely communicate and congregate now than ever before.
Viewed in this light, the government improving its intelligence gathering capabilities is simply a response to the citizenry's increasing ability to avoid detection. And it goes without saying - or perhaps you need to be reminded - that bad actors' ability to work in the shadows increases in parallel with everyone else's.
That's a truism. If we play Battleship and you can see my battleships but I can't see yours, who is going to win?
But your questioning of a truism makes me think you don't agree with a hidden premise of civic life: that there will be times where the citizenry will be rightfully at odds with law enforcement tasked with protecting it. Many stripes of civil disobedience depend on that hidden premise.
> Let's concern ourselves with electing good governments, not the capabilities they develop to defend us from criminals.
Unfortunately it doesn't work like that. Trusting a future elected "good government" to keep the FBI honest with their black box capabilities-- capabilities which they reflexively claim are necessary as currently implemented to combat terrorism-- isn't a viable solution in a democracy.
A "good" government itself includes a fearless press and a strong judicial branch which citizens can use to force the FBI to be more transparent about what it does. That strong judicial branch can also be used to revise the capabilities of LE if they are found to be ripe for abuse and corruption.
Our ability to do this at all is itself a measure of how "good" our government is.