The Kiddie Porn Excuse by emptywheel
Remember when Alberto Gonzales called for Google to preserve all its search data to support potential child porn investigations? We crazy moonbats suggested that that sounded like an invitation for abuse, that once Google had preserved the records, such records would be accessed for other purposes.
Now Cannonfire points to one such case.
In brief: An incendiary comment appeared on a blog called the Deerfield Beach Insider -- which uses the Blogger service. (So do I.) The anonymous "pundit" was upset about alleged corruption at the Public Works Department. "Nothing will be done until somebody brings in a gun and shoots up the whole place," he wrote. Deerfield City Manager Mike Mahaney took these words as a threat, so he called the Broward Sherrif's Office. The cops subpoenaed Google (owner of Blogger) and soon found their man -- a guy named Wayne Adams. He insists that he has no violent intentions. As it happens, writer Bob Norman is acquainted with Adams and vouches for his character, although he does not defend his atrocious choice of words.
So what makes this tale a matter of national interest? This: When the Broward Sherrif's Office wanted info from Google, they used a disturbing strategy.
BSO turned to its child porn task force for help. The task force, Law Enforcement Against Child Harm (LEACH), is adept at getting sensitive information on the web. But when deputies subpoenaed Google for the IP address of the Deerfield Beach Insider commenter, the heading on the document indicated that the case was part of an ongoing child porn investigation. The Broward Times' Elgin Jone wrote about the apparent deception Friday after BSO, which had stalled me, finally released the documents.
Now, for the record, I don't believe the proper way to fight corruption is to speak--even hypothetically--of violence breaking out at government agencies. So I'm not so bugged about the investigation into this comment. What bothers me is that law enforcement went to Google and claimed they were investigating kiddie porn, not potential threats of violence and/or political speech.
It's a troubling precedent.