Reply to post: Re: Time was not on FBI's side

Re: Time was not on FBI's side

@BigFire

While not wanting to jump on what might be simply a poor choice of words, I would question the idea that the FBI "have to do" this.

Why do they have to?

The constitution is more important than a law against illegal gambling. It represent the highest law(s) in the land and even trying to prevent people from being killed is not sufficient justification to break it.

But this is the problem and it is an example of how the US got to the place it is with blanket spying on everyone - the agencies view whatever goals they are trying to achieve as more important that anything else, including the constitution.

I am sure the vast majority are very well meaning people, but if they believe that constitutional protections can be ignored when they think it's 'necessary', then they are wrong and need to have their understandings re-aligned.

Those prote@BigFire

While not wanting to jump on what might be simply a poor choice of words, I would question the idea that the FBI "have to do" this.

Why do they have to?

The constitution is more important than a law against illegal gambling. It represent the highest law(s) in the land and even trying to prevent people from being killed is not sufficient justification to break it.

But this is the problem and it is an example of how the US got to the place it is with blanket spying on everyone - the agencies view whatever goals they are trying to achieve as more important that anything else, including the constitution.

They also need to understand why those protections exist - they are there to protect the citizens from overzealous law enforcement and government intrusion. So they need to eat a couple of slices of humble pie and realise that the constitutional laws are there to protect not only from deliberate misconduct but also from 'normal' police who might get a bit wrapped up in their jobs.

In other words: you can't trust that those enforcing the laws will actually do the right thing by the people. Most will, most of the time but because some won't, some of the time, you need to have hard protections because the rights of the people are paramount.

And that is what all our governments appear to have forgotten.