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Comment by ChuckMcM | Hacker News Reader

I find it particularly refreshing that New Zealand has pushed back on this as hard as they have.

I find this whole case very interesting (maybe I am wrong but I don't see the difference between MEGA and dropbox or Google Drive), but I too found the New Zealand push back to be eye opening and refreshing as well. As a US citizen, reading about the paramilitary assault style arrest, I figured there would be the typical international outrage - that the US/FBI is pulling the strings of foreign governments.

I never once gave consideration to the notion that governments using helicopters and military style weapons in an arrest, would offend the sensibilities of ordinary citizenry. NZ's condemnation of the military style assault and the actual apologies from NZ officials was the most eye opening. This made me realize how engrained and accepted these types of operations are in the US (at least for me personally), even for non-violent crimes - a local example that comes to mind was the military style extraction of Elian Gonzalez.

There is even a phrase used among lawyers that you can beat the rap but you can't beat the ride, meaning you will be arrested guilty or not, the time to make your case is not during the arrest but in a court of law...I used to laugh about this phrase, now it disgusts me.

Kim loved to pose with automatic weapons and is a felon, the only thing NZ had to apologize for in regards to how they handled the raid was not realizing he is a clown.

Edit: No one seems to be arguing that he is not a clown, but I can't blame them as that is a hard argument to make.

This is no indication that he would violently resist arrest, which is the only reasonable justification for these types of raids. Military tactics should be confined to the cases where there is a risk of violence; intimidation should not be a part of the process of serving an arrest warrant in the average case.

I do not know enough about German law vis-a-vis NZ law and the right to carry weapons, to comment. KIM may have been convicted, but I do not know if he is a "Felon" or what that even means under German law, because it may not be the same as the US legal term felon. I do not think NZ apologized for not knowing KIM was a clown, but they apologized for the unnecessary use of force, what I am saying is the US (even me) would have justified this kind of use of force not thinking twice, but NZ has a different attitude where police do not normally carry fire arms1, much less use military assault weapons for exercising warrants, especially for non-violent crimes despite how many pictures the suspect took with automatic weapons.

"Even the police officer says there has never been a raid like this before in New Zealand."2

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_Police#Weapons

2. http://www.talkleft.com/story/2012/2/7/155744/7370/crimenews...

Yes it was embarrassing for NZ to be scared of this joker.

To be fair, it's a great ride. You seriously can't beat it as a learning tool. Lawyers and their double meanings, eh? :)

As for not being able to stop the ride, I used to agree with you, but I've since learned how to beat it. At least in North America, the trick is to counter their offers (arrest, obligation to show ID, etc) with a demand for consideration. That consideration can be in the form of payment, information, or performance on their end.

Basically, Kim Dotcom needs to have a chat with Timothy Geihtner about how he was released from the main NYPD station (less than four hours after being arrested for felonies), and he'll never spend a night in Jail again.

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