Once you’ve dehumanized drug offenders, it’s easy to steal their identities

FunctionalOlfactio

FunctionalOlfactio

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Washington Post said:
Once you’ve dehumanized drug offenders, it’s easy to steal their identities
By Radley Balko October 7 at 1:36 PM

Even in the registry of horrible things government agents have done in the name of the drug war, this Buzzfeed report stands out:

The Justice Department is claiming, in a little-noticed court filing, that a federal agent had the right to impersonate a young woman online by creating a Facebook page in her name without her knowledge. Government lawyers also are defending the agent’s right to scour the woman’s seized cellphone and to post photographs — including racy pictures of her and even one of her young son and niece — to the phony social media account, which the agent was using to communicate with suspected criminals.

The woman, Sondra Arquiett, who then went by the name Sondra Prince, first learned her identity had been commandeered in 2010 when a friend asked about the pictures she was posting on her Facebook page. There she was, for anyone with an account to see — posing on the hood of a BMW, legs spread, or, in another, wearing only skimpy attire. She was surprised; she hadn’t even set up a Facebook page . . .

The account was actually set up by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration special agent Timothy Sinnigen.

Not long before, law enforcement officers had arrested Arquiett, alleging she was part of a drug ring. A judge, weighing evidence that the single mom was a bit player who accepted responsibility, ultimately sentenced Arquiett to probation. But while she was awaiting trial, Sinnigen created the fake Facebook page using Arquiett’s real name, posted photos from her seized cell phone, and communicated with at least one wanted fugitive — all without her knowledge.

The Justice Department’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., referred all questions to the DEA, which then declined to answer questions and, in turn, referred inquiries to the local U.S. attorney’s office in Albany, New York. That office did not respond to multiple requests for an interview . . .

Meanwhile, the bogus Facebook page remains accessible to the public, BuzzFeed News found.

The DOJ filing was in response to Arquiett’s lawsuit. Consider what the federal government is arguing here. It’s arguing that if you’re arrested for a drug crime, including a crime unserious enough to merit a sentence of probation, the government retains the power to (a) steal your identity, (b) use that identity for drug policing, thus making your name and face known to potentially dangerous criminals, (c) interact with those criminals while posing as you, which could subject you to reprisals from those criminals, (d) expose photos of your family, including children, to those criminals, and (e) do all of this without your consent, and with no regard for your safety or public reputation.

The mindset that would allow government officials to not only engage in this sort of behavior, but to then fight in court to preserve their power to continue it is the same mindset that, for example, allows drug cops to compel juveniles and young women to become drug informants, with little regard for their safety — and to then make no apologies when those informants are murdered. Or that would lead campus cops to let a teen slowly kill himself with heroin, because they could hold his addiction over his head to force his cooperation as an informant. Or that would allow a guy arrested on a possession charge to be abandoned for days in a jail cell, nearly killing him.

For decades now, politicians, law enforcement officials, and drug warriors have spent a great deal of time, energy, and propaganda dehumanizing drug offenders. It shouldn’t be all that surprising, then, when drug enforcement officials subsequently treat drug offenders as something less than human. If you aren’t fully human, you have no identity to steal. Or at the very least, your claim to your identity isn’t as important the public good the government might do by stealing it. (In this case, “public good” means arresting a few drug pushers.) Likewise, less-than-human lives are more easily expended than human ones. A drug cop wouldn’t dream of sending his own kid out as an informant. But once a kid gets caught possessing some pot or ecstasy or speed — or God forbid selling it — the kid lost the right to be treated like a fully realized human being. The cops are willing to take some risks.

I don’t think the DEA wants Sondra Arquiett to be victimized by the criminals with whom they interact while pretending to be her. It also seems safe that drug cops didn’t want to see Rachel Hoffman, Daniel Chong, Jonathan Magbie, Chad MacDonald, “Logan,” or Michael Saffioti to die. It’s more that once they were known to be drug offenders, their lives weren’t quite as important.
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Source:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...offenders-its-easy-to-steal-their-identities/
 
This is how the D.E.A. acts when they have overt legal oversight. The most threatening American agencies function in secret without legitimate legal oversight. The later function in surveillance and social control capacities with their secrecy falsely justified with national security and the ambiguous threat of "terrorism". Both types of government agencies participate on this forum.
 
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They will probably get away with it. I know a dealer who the police took his phone and impersonated him for days while he was locked up.
 
Same one of my dope connects got popped and I even saw the case info on Maryland's judicial case search and me and a bunch of others got tzts and calls from his phone. For ppl that think they only work up the chain they work down too to find bit players and small fish, users etc to set up others and threaten with charges unless you give up info...its so fucked. As far as I know it didn't work BC everyone I knew that copped from him knew he was in jail and his cell phone would have been seized. One of the texts said to meet up with his boy for some cheap dope AMD shit and I didn't reply to Amy of it....rotten ass cops.
 
Pieces of shit. Makes me question the humanity of these shitbirds. Certainly their patriotism.

Just reminds me of the story of the girl in Florida that was murdered while being forced to act as an informant for the police.
 
What are those lossers playing around on FB for anyway...

Top ten job prospects for a dea agent when that black whole is shut down?

Loan collection
Tsa
Jv highscool assistant fb coach
Stuntman
Porn star
Prision destruction grunt
Dmv
Priest
Payday loan rep
Corporate security/thug

Full time Dea museum duster
 
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Yes this shouldn't be surprising to anyone in the US, it is incredibly wrong and unconstitutional. If it was anyone other then a drug user would be public outrage. It's same as any other group of people who are fighting a "crusade" against another while thinking their cause is noble and just. I hate making this analogy but its very relivent here, hitler would have done the same exact thing against the jews if those events happened in 2014.
 
Felonious Monk said:
Pieces of shit. Makes me question the humanity of these shitbirds. Certainly their patriotism.

Just reminds me of the story of the girl in Florida that was murdered while being forced to act as an informant for the police.
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People that act like this have no humanity left. They are soul-less.
 
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neversickanymore said:
What are those lossers playing around on FB for anyway...

Top ten job prospects for a dea agent when that black whole is shut down?

Loan collection
Tsa
Jv highscool assistant fb coach
Stuntman
Porn star
Prision destruction grunt
Dmv
Priest
Payday loan rep
Corporate security/thug

Full time Dea museum duster
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You forgot pawn shop owner.

I bet quite a lot of them will go into criminal enterprises. Either selling the hard drugs that haven't been legalized yet or doing other organized crime. They are too scummy for regular work and wouldn't enjoy it. You don't get to trample on people the way they do in most legitimate lines of work. There already highly trained and know how the system works. So they would be the perfect people to run a drug cartel or other criminal enterprise.
 
my3rdeye said:
They will probably get away with it. I know a dealer who the police took his phone and impersonated him for days while he was locked up.
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Yup.... They did the same to me after they raided me last year, but then let me go after trying to coerce me into becoming a CI... Then secretly indicted me on 4 trafficking felonies and 4 possession felonies. 8 fucking months later. Right after I got out of residential rehab.

but luckily I had my 2nd phone after they originally raided/arrested/held me with all my contacts and I sent out a mass text, "DO NOT RESPOND TO ANYTHING FROM MY MAIN PHONE THE POLICE HAVE IT." saved a lot of people's asses, they later told me they were getting texts from my number... and this definitely pissed off the two detectives. Hahahhaha fuck you guys.

Luckily as well I was already in 'treatment' and was simply an addict selling rc's to support my habit... Yup.
 
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