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Comment by bytm3 | Hacker News Reader

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service supports and protects the U.S. Postal Service and its customers by enforcing the laws that defend the nation’s mail system from illegal or dangerous use.

What do they have to do with ebooks???

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That same Postal Inspection Service also had a large role in the creation of the Secret Service. Highly trained and well-armed mailmen :)

honestly i am looking to see the comments in this thread tomorrow, funny to see what people say coincidentally

i was once visiting a friend who worked at the US postal service. i was traveling with a backpack with gear that looked rather rough, ready to go hiking in the woods. at one point my friend took me to his office while i was in full travel gear. in the elevator he told the others that i was one of those people delivering mail in the american backcountry.

I smell an origin story movie brewing.

One interesting little fact from history is that the Postal Inspection Service was one of the first bulk buyers of the Tommy Gun (Thompson submachine gun).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thompson_submachine_gun#Early_...

It's also the oldest federal law-enforcement agency, pre-dating the formation of the United States itself.

(The Post Office was established in colonial times by Benjamin Franklin, the USPSIS precursor was formed in 1772.)

The federal government increasingly is finding interesting nooks and crannies to shove enforcement into. Customs and Border Protection is now larger than the FBI, and ICE which houses "homeland security investigations" is almost half their size. These, and other arms of government, are increasingly being used to clamp down on activity by citizens deep within US borders (such as the recent Portland riots).

And yet this same government randomly, arbitrarily, (or sometimes not at all) chooses to selectively enforce (or not) a wide variety of existing laws, all while busily making more new laws that may or may not be arbitrarily and randomly enforced (when / if it suits their current "agenda of the day"). It's gotten downright ridiculous, honestly.

Another interesting example of the phenomenon you describe is that until 2003, the Secret Service was part of the Department of the Treasury, as the agency was founded in 1865 to combat the then-widespread counterfeiting of U.S. currency.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Secret_Service

"Something something PATRIOT Act. Looks like we've got another 'domestic terrorist' here..."

if they sent anything via mail, even once, then that's the justification

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