Hacker News Reader

"Where are the secret police whisking away 'dissenters' in the middle of the night?"

You mean like the 40-50,000 swat team raids against non-violent political dissenters that the US government carries out each year, almost always in the middle of the night?

View on HN

Even more: you can get phone-swatted, is it really believable?

That is an interesting thought. At any moment, an officer that can't get a search warrant could anonymously call 911 from a burner cell or pay phone and report a violent situation. That alone is enough for a full-scale paramilitary invasion of the target's home or office.

Doesn't even have to be violent. Just as easy to roll an informant to claim drugs dealings at a residence. Drugs seem to be easiest way to get a no-knock raid, even if your mayor.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berwyn_Heights,_Maryland_mayo...

So more than 100 a day? Where do you have that number from?

http://www.cato.org/publications/white-paper/overkill-rise-p...

So, non-violent drug users (criminals), rather than political dissenters?

Only if you don't consider civil disobedience to be a form of political dissent, or if you don't consider drug crimes to be a form of civil disobedience.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com