Re:FBI releases documents that confirm they proactively spy ...
by SwellJoe on Wednesday October 24, 2012 @04:23PM
(#4694881)
Because they did nothing wrong.
I am an anarchist (a market anarchist, specifically). It is my professed ideology. I don't break laws (well, maybe occasional acts of non-violent civil disobedience in protest of specific unjust laws), I pay my taxes, and I behave according to pretty high ethical standards.
I wouldn't be surprised if there are files on me with the Austin Police Department, and DHS (via the Fusion Center here in Austin), because an organization I've been a part of has been infiltrated multiple times by undercover APD officers (and APD has, thankfully, been slapped around by judges for doing so, and for the way the officers behaved in the process). But, I'm not pleased about it, and I consider it a violation of basic civil liberties provided by the constitution...since I've never been arrested and never been charged with a crime. I am, by all reasonable standards, an upstanding citizen. Only if you believe holding a belief can be a crime, could you believe that I deserve to be spied on.
I'm sure you hold some beliefs that others, including others in positions of power, consider wrong. Wanting to change (or dismantle peacefully) the government is not a crime.
In short, it aint nobody's business what my ideology is. And, if you believe someone should be put in prison, in solitary, for holding an unpopular ideology...well, that's just not very American. Worse, it's not humanitarian.
I am an anarchist (a market anarchist, specifically). It is my professed ideology. I don't break laws (well, maybe occasional acts of non-violent civil disobedience in protest of specific unjust laws), I pay my taxes, and I behave according to pretty high ethical standards.
I wouldn't be surprised if there are files on me with the Austin Police Department, and DHS (via the Fusion Center here in Austin), because an organization I've been a part of has been infiltrated multiple times by undercover APD officers (and APD has, thankfully, been slapped around by judges for doing so, and for the way the officers behaved in the process). But, I'm not pleased about it, and I consider it a violation of basic civil liberties provided by the constitution...since I've never been arrested and never been charged with a crime. I am, by all reasonable standards, an upstanding citizen. Only if you believe holding a belief can be a crime, could you believe that I deserve to be spied on.
I'm sure you hold some beliefs that others, including others in positions of power, consider wrong. Wanting to change (or dismantle peacefully) the government is not a crime.
In short, it aint nobody's business what my ideology is. And, if you believe someone should be put in prison, in solitary, for holding an unpopular ideology...well, that's just not very American. Worse, it's not humanitarian.