wallflower67
Active Member
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2006
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Thanks for the clarification. I see the article actually says the NYPD plan is to search within public forums for words/phrases used in prior language used by shooters in their past emails.
Phew! I was thinking -- sometimes in jest and sometimes in angry/frustration, etc. -- that many people write off-the-cuff things like "if I can get my hands around that jackass, I'd...", etc. so it'd be extremely invasive if that was what the NYPD plan was. However, as you have indicated, that wasn't the quote -- although I could see a slippery slope occurring.
As an example, look at the Patriot Act of 2001 whereby the government can eavesdrop on telephones/library records, etc. of ANYONE they suspect as terrorists, and even since 9/11 anyone at airports can be searched for possible terrorist tools.
Anything can happen on the public internet. Just recently, my step-daughter made a snarky comment as a joke on someone's Tumblr page that wasn't private. It went completely viral. It wasn't even funny, but apparently thousands of people thought it was.
I think if LE searched this website they wouldn't be too worried unless they knew they were looking for someone in particular. We are ALL doing weird web searches here! They'd have a heck of a time wading through all of our ISP addresses and trying to decide who, if any of us, was dangerous lol.
That said, if I were truly going to commit a crime, I would never plot it online, even in private email or chat. Or via text. I know enough to leave my phone at home and buy a throw away Tracfone.
I will probably have LE on my doorstep within the hour