Albuquerque PD encrypts videos before releasing them in records request

[Permalink]

damn! that is some mighty fine police work.

2 Likes

If this stands, it could set some interesting precedents.

1 Like

Post the video on github or some place and let’s take a crack at the encryption. I’m sure someone can crack it quickly.

11 Likes

Yes officer, that’s my current address, ROT13.
Ouch! Stop hurting me!

2 Likes

Sounds like bizarro-world. Like in some dystopian third world shithole and not the self-claimed land of the free.

What’s not getting into my head is the disconnect form reality thats happening in the US public. As soon as some politician mutters something like “automatic rocket launchers should be banned for deer hunting”* there is a massive outcry along the line of “oh my gaawd - there taking away my freedoms like in soviet russia”.
When there is a seemingly systemic problem regarding law enforcement acting like in Russia or China: murdering citizens without repercussions, secret black sites where torture happens, blatant disregard for human rights and due process, harassment and obstruction of justice there is … mostly silence, a few raised eyebrows and meaningless statements by the officials without consequences. It’s law enforcement we’re speaking about - one of the cornerstones of a peaceful society.

What does the US public think when they hear that a dissident disappears in prison for bogus offenses (Ai Weiwei) or protesters get beaten up by thugs (secret police) in China? Same shit happening right now in the US.

Is this some sort of self-delusion? “It cannot be (in the land of the free) what may not be”

*plz be lenient if I don’t get the finer details of the gun control debate as a fascist/communist european

18 Likes

I’d be curious if it’s a file that’s been encrypted or some type of physical/playback encryption on the disc. I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t take the internet long to do the “dirty” work of freeing her videos.

The American public has in large part been tricked into thinking they’re not impoverished commoners, but rather temporarily embarrassed millionaires.

In that state of mind, seeing that the cops are keeping the riff-raff down is a good thing, because “When I’m rich and powerful one day, I’d be glad to know the police will shoot or kill the lowly common folk to keep my gilded jaguar scratch-free.”

12 Likes

It’s a muni police dept. Let’s be realistic. We are probably talking about zip files.

1 Like

This is how privilege works.

6 Likes

Delete the “in large part” and you may have the tweet of the century there.

4 Likes

Steinbeck tweeted it first.

15 Likes

So if it loses the lawsuit and has to pay damages, it can just make up for the budget shortfall by working a little harder on civil forfeitures. No problem!

4 Likes

John Steinbeck’s greatest literary accomplishment: authoring the “tweet of the century”.

8 Likes

Interested to see how it plays out: Does it count as destruction of evidence, or an admission of guilt? Could the officers “plead the 5th” to avoid revealing the password? Is there a specific crime of withholding a password / attempting to pervert the course of justice by tampering with evidence?

2 Likes

I always feel that should be ‘twote’.

But anyway, I usually (usually? - hah - sometimes) first check for ‘aphoristic phraseology’ these days, but “The American public has in large part been tricked” doesn’t seem to pop up in google’s first page of results and there’s no obvious mention of Steinbeck. So I’d never have found it anyway. Where’s it from?

And why is it being kept secret? Gonna have to start a-lookin’ for the ol’ tinfoil hat.

3 Likes

My plan if I am ever in trouble and asked why all my stuff is encrypted and I won’t divulge the password I am just going to respond, “I learned it from watching the Albuquerque Police. I learned it from watching you Big Brother!”.

3 Likes

One of my employer’s suppliers, with whom our relationship had soured, once responded to a request for test data by sending us two giant binders of excel print outs (and not the nice kind of excel print out which is fit to a normal number of pages widths with repeated column heads). Encryption raises the bar.

1 Like

Apparently the attribution is unclear, but widely credited to Steinbeck.

How the quote actually goes:

"Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires."

The “Temporarily embarrassed millionaires” is what’s vital anyway.

3 Likes

Just you wait til the Great Twits of the 21st are actually a part of English Lit classes. It’ll happen eventually.

3 Likes