Ignorant Anti-Encryption Law Enforcement Groups Made A Logo And A Hashtag... And It All Backfired

from the do-you-even-social-media? dept

Today, 11am at City Hall we stand with @ManhattanDA & advocates to call for encryption legislation. #UnlockJustice pic.twitter.com/hqjRxtAzYO — NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) April 18, 2016

DA Vance: Crime victims are entitled to stronger protections than criminals #UnlockJustice pic.twitter.com/003FmSGwYn — Cyrus Vance, Jr. (@ManhattanDA) April 18, 2016

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Yesterday morning, things kicked off with a ridiculous tweet from the NY Police Department, announcing that it "stood with" the Manhattan DA in calling for "encryption" legislation. Of course, that's inaccurate. What it was really calling for waslegislation.But, suddenly we discovered that not only was Manhattan District Attorney -- and proudly technologically ignorant -- Cyrus Vance continuing to push his dangerous anti-encryption views, but he had somehow created a hashtag and a logo for it (I've sent in a FOIA request to see how much tax payer dollars were spent on the logo, though I doubt I'll get a response). Vance held quite the grandstanding press conference over this , in which he repeated the same misleading claims as in the past about how horrible encryption is, and then trotted out some sob stories of cases where law enforcement, and then blamed it on encryption.You can watch the half-hour press conference below if you have the stomach for it:Of course, just about everything about this is ridiculous. It took place just a few days after Patrick O'Neill, over at the DailyDot, revealed some details of a FOIA request he'd made with Vance's office about all those cases he claimed he needed to get into phones for -- and found that, of the ones that were listed all had resulted in convictions anyway , even without getting into the phones. And most didn't appear to be for really serious crimes.Meanwhile, as is often the case, an attempt by law enforcement to co-opt whatever "the kids these days" are doing by setting up a hashtag failed spectacularly . First off, Vance's office just happened to pick a hashtag that was. Even worse, it was in use by the Quakers to push for criminal justice reform that would "start to reverse the failed 40-year 'war on drugs.' Ooops.Then, of course, the folks whotook the hashtag and ran with it, explaining why Vance's campaign was idiotic.After going through lots and lots of tweets, I have to admit that I couldn't find any -- outside of those from the DA's office and various law enforcement people that were actually supportive of the campaign. It really makes you wonder, just who does Cyrus Vance think he's protecting?

Filed Under: cyrus vance, encryption, going dark, nypd, unlock justice, unlockjustice