I think where you and I might be diverging here is in our definitions of 'thief' and 'murderer'.
I don't see a difference between, say, a capo that orders a hit, and a member of congress who votes for a foreign 'police action' - save for that the congressmember has much, much higher numbers.
Same goes for a bank robber vs. a bank exec who gets a multimillion $ payout from bailout funds - we're impressed if the bank robber cracks a million - but it's like "that makes sense" when the exec walks away with eight figures of tax dollars.
I don't know anyone whose been killed by a mob hit, but I know soldiers who have lost their lives to bullshit foreign wars, and literally everyone who pays taxes lost money to the villains in 2008.
I believe criminals have had a huge impact on my life - they just all got there through 'legitimate' channels, which IMO makes no difference to whether I'm poorer or people are dead.
A very basic one: organized crime does in fact exist (contra to claims of bogeymen) and law enforcement benefits from clandestine investigations.
It is a trade-off. The downsides have been enumerated ad nauseam on hacker forums for decades and compared to the reality of organized crime comprise just a small percentage of the ill effects experienced in a relatively low corruption society like the United States.
No one is trying to claim organized crime does not exist. They are claiming that the harms from organized crime may not be as bad on the whole as the harms from some of these laws intended (at least in part) to combat it.
This does not, of course, mean that the harms to certain individuals from organized crime aren't worse. But governing based on a small number of emotional anecdotes, and ignoring the broader harms being perpetrated to placate that vocal minority, is deeply irresponsible.
What is deeply irresponsible is ignoring the benefits of clandestine operations by law enforcement in a vain attempt to adhere to some kind of free and open source information ideology.
https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/watchdog/2013/12/...
Three of my teenage friends were in his basement when the FBI kicked down the door and stormed in armed to the teeth.
Perhaps you’re fine letting thieves and murderers get the upper hand but the rest of us are not.
Consider yourself lucky that criminals haven’t had much of an impact on your life.