How Police Secretly Took over a Global Phone Network for Organized Crime

Re:How Police Secretly Took over a Global Phone Network for ... by motohagiography on Thursday July 02, 2020 @11:26AM (#23714327)

Point of order to mods on this, is "check your privilege," within the realm of civil discourse? It seems unnecessarily provocative. However, if it is fair game, my response would be "check your reading comprehension," as the further implication of my comment is that societies are locking up their most entrepreneurial and productive members for creating too much value. Using the privilege dog whistle is just cheap intimidation. I'm upvoting this because sweeping it away with downvotes doesn't do it justice.

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Re:How Police Secretly Took over a Global Phone Network for ... by honkycat on Thursday July 02, 2020 @12:29PM (#23714996)

> as the further implication of my comment is that societies are locking up their most entrepreneurial and productive members for creating too much value.

Strange, right? People WANT to do these drugs, there are plenty of dangerous LEGAL drugs, yet the state is obsessed with them. How much do we spend a year to arrest and incarcerate these people? How much money could we be making my bringing these products out of the black market and into the light?

There is a strong case to be made that the "war on drugs" is less about "locking up dangerous criminals", and more about targeting anti-war, civil rights, and pro-labor movements. Nixon even outright said so.[0]

It is a potent weapon. Lots and lots of people do drugs. All the police need to do is trump up an excuse about "smelling weed", plant a drug[1], and BOOM. Police man meets his quota for arrests, the prison system gets a new worker they can pay $0.50/hr, and one less potential activist on the street.

0: https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/23/politics/john-ehrlichman-rich...

1: It DOES happen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z6RVGnoXeI

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Re:How Police Secretly Took over a Global Phone Network for ... by kyboren on Thursday July 02, 2020 @12:13PM (#23714833)

> the further implication of my comment is that societies are locking up their most entrepreneurial and productive members for creating too much value

This view seems flawed to me: "creating value" for the drug dealer by selling cut and fentanyl laced "heroin" is definitely not creating value for society. That said, there is no denying the entrepreneurial aspects of drug dealing.

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Re:How Police Secretly Took over a Global Phone Network for ... by vangelis on Thursday July 09, 2020 @04:52PM (#23785057)

One is certainly worse, but adtech isn't exactly creating social value either.

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Re:How Police Secretly Took over a Global Phone Network for ... by johnmarcus on Sunday July 05, 2020 @11:40AM (#23739482)

> "You can succeed with a crew of violent, drug addicted idiots whose only reliable characteristic is short term thinking, and who spend half their time in prison if you have product market fit"

My comment stands. And further, drugs don't sell themselves, a lot of good hard work and smarts goes into it. It's unfortunately the only easy avenue for those without an education and steady home life.

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