
Facebook Bought a Police Force - onetimemanytime
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/d3akm7/how-facebook-bought-a-police-force
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someonehere
Several years ago there were protests in Anaheim over some police incident. If
you go about a mile north east of Disneyland, it’s a rough area. Anyway the
protests started around that area and made their way towards Disneyland.
Anaheim PD came out in paramilitary showmanship. It literally looked like PD
was about to go to war with all of those armored vehicles PDs bought after the
last Middle East invasion. They had sharpshooters on the roof too. They were
trying to keep the protestors from stepping foot onto the Disneyland property.
So yes, it’s common to defend the hand that feeds you and it’s no surprise FB
has Menlo Park PD on speed dial.

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godzillabrennus
Child’s play. Try being Apple and getting the police to break a number of laws
to raid a reporters home. Apple pays for California’s Rapid Enforcement Allied
Computer Team: [https://publicintelligence.net/rapid-enforcement-allied-
comp...](https://publicintelligence.net/rapid-enforcement-allied-computer-
team-react-task-force/)

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numtel
I'd be the first to condemn police brutality but for the expensive property
they have in the police department's jurisdiction, Facebook paying what
amounts to elective taxes in order to improve security seems totally
reasonable.

As someone who does not use Facebook and considers it deeply flawed, nothing
presented in the article should cause alarm and it only seems like a misguided
attempt to discredit the company.

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onetimemanytime
Kinda agree. In the end police will bend backwards to protect business
activity. So in a way it makes sense to protect a business with tens of
thousands of employees, but FB shouldn't be setting the PD agenda.

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numtel
Police departments exist to protect property. Every wealthy individual or
large business sets the PD's agenda by design.

In order for less-wealthy people to effect the agenda, they can vote or
protest but these are significantly less direct than the influence that
property ownership provides.

I'm not saying this is good but that it's just the way it is.

I wish the article provided an analysis of different models for maintaining
order but the article seems more about causing outrage than finding a
solution.

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aamir562
A

