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Comment by jeffbee | Hacker News Reader

It is not "secret police". The reason your car has a highly visible number plate is because for decades society has recognized its compelling interest in knowing the whereabouts of private vehicles.

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No, the ability to know the current whereabouts and location history of practically all private vehicles is a new capability afforded by deployment of ALPR mass surveillance.

Previously, we had some balance between privacy and accountability. A bystander or a victim of a collision could remember license plate numbers and give them in a police report. The police could tail you (but only you, because $$$) to discover your movements. But government agents couldn't track the movements of all the people, all the time. Now they can.

The societal balance of power has shifted and is now seriously lopsided in favor of the rulers. And cheerleaders like you don't mind, as long as you can purchase a little temporary safety...

Masked, unidentified individuals abducting people are either kidnappers (if doing it without the law behind them) or secret police (if doing it with the law behind them).

EDIT: Rather then downvote, offer an example of a masked, unidentified person abducting someone who is neither a kidnapper nor secret police.

Then why are they wearing masks?

Probably so unhinged individuals don't show up at their homes and attack their families for performing unpopular law enforcement functions?

Interesting that record deportations under the Obama administration didn't spur such reactions to immigration enforcement at the time. Has there been any change in behavior by officials?

Any change in behavior? Is that a joke? Setting aside the masked men terrorizing our communities, immigrants are being literally tortured inside camps across the country. They are being treated worse than criminals- tortured. Abused. What's happening right now is horrific, and the dehumanization propaganda can only be compared to Hitler's vilification of the jews.

Setting aside their lawlessness, it sounds like we agree they are unidentifiable, meaning their identity is a secret. So they are a secret police. And you support that for some reason, maybe because you haven't read a single history book.

Is this supposed to be some kind of "gotcha?" I don't really care about the language being used to describe this law enforcement agency: it isn't going to change my opinion about their mission or somehow change their legal ability to carry it out.

You're right: because I do not want illegal immigrants in my country I haven't "read a single history book."

Nah, it's your support for lawless authoritarianism because you think it will improve your safety- that's the part you missed in history class. That's the con you are falling for. The truth is that once authoritarianism takes hold, nobody is safe. Many Germans who thought the Nazi's would only target "bad people" learned this the hard way.

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