The title sounds sinister.

Sure, there are abuses of power. You can disagree with policy of prohibition.

The DEA also has important job to do combatting really bad people. Because there is due process and because they don't just disappear people, they need to collect evidence. They can't walk in with a mic strapped to their lapel. A credit card mic seems pretty clever.

▲ 47282847 a day ago | parent | next [-]

> because they don't just disappear people

Article states otherwise, at least as far as ICE assistance goes.

▲

gruez a day ago | parent [-]

That might be true but as it relates to this gadget in particular I doubt they're using it to grab people from courtrooms or home depots. Otherwise you can claim an iphone is sinister because DEA uses it, DEA helps ICE, and ICE "disappears" people.

	▲	47282847 20 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Any phone is sinister if you care about privacy and could be used to eavesdrop on you, correct!

▲ nick__m a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

from the article

   Now, according to federal procurement data reviewed by The Independent, the DEA – which has recently diverted agents from their usual drug-fighting mandate to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement in carrying out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts – is outfitting agents, presumably undercover, with audio-video recorders camouflaged to look like everyday credit cards.

	▲	aerostable_slug a day ago \| parent [-]
		Shoddy journalism, as it's both true and misleading. There's little application for covert evidence gathering in these immigration enforcement actions: the targets are already eligible for removal. There's no need to build a case. I can't imagine it's super common for credit card microphones to be used in complex DEA-led surveillance operations simply to locate ICE targets. They're hitting Home Depots, weed grow farms, factories known to employ foreign nationals in ways inconsistent with their immigration status, etc. — this is low-hanging fruit, and often the only reason the subjects are still in the country is the fact that they're in a sanctuary states so the locals haven't already done the work.

▲ thrpw844959 a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

[flagged]

▲ soulofmischief a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Lol. The DEA's enemies are created by criminalizing the human right to consume whatever you'd like in your own home, and criminalizing distribution networks that have no right to be criminalized. This criminalization leads to feedback loop with police militarization and violent crime.

The DEA has no justification to exist, and the War on Drugs has been used to destabilize dozens of foreign regimes in order to benefit the US' neoliberal policies. It's now being used to take away even more rights as it's being used in part to justify ICE raids, and Trump's imperialist skirmish and attempted regime change in Venezuela. Additionally, the cartel has destroyed northern Mexico and now Trump is floating the idea of "cleaning up" Mexico.

▲

platevoltage a day ago | parent [-]

> The DEA has no justification to exist, and the War on Drugs has been used to destabilize dozens of foreign regimes in order to benefit the US' neoliberal policies. It's now being used to take away even more rights as it's being used in part to justify ICE raids, and Trump's imperialist skirmish and attempted regime change in Venezuela. Additionally, the cartel has destroyed northern Mexico and now Trump is floating the idea of "cleaning up" Mexico.

You just explained the entire justification for it existing.

	▲	soulofmischief a day ago \| parent [-]
		You've misunderstood my comment. The War on Drugs created these problems, it is not the solution to them. We've done it here domestically too at least as far back as Prohibition. Prohibition ended in 33, we banned automatic weapons in 34, add in the racially-motivated disenfranchisement of Irish and Italian immigrants and ghettoization of their communities, and you got an unprecedented level of domestic organized crime and subsequent retroactively justified restriction of civil rights. [0] The same happened again in the 80s with the Iran-Contra affair. [1] The same continues to happen in my city and in many other cities every day, justifying racial and immigration-focused discrimination and allowing institutions to extract wealth from poor communities while ensuring their continued generational poverty. I would recommend checking out Jack Herer's seminal The Emperor Wears No Clothes [2], especially chapters 5, 13 and 14. I'd also look into William Randolph Hearst [3], his involvement in drug prohibition, and the racially-motivated tactics used to make it happen, by first convincing Americans they should be racist against Mexican immigrants and then connecting these "dangerous" Mexican immigrants to cannabis. Now, we're using fentanyl, etc. as an excuse, when the entire fentanyl trade thrives on the fact that secure, regulated facilities and distribution networks do not exist for many recreational drugs. The failings of the War on Drugs are perpetually used to circularly justify its existence, and it's shameful. [0] https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/gangsters-pr... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_involvement_in_Contra_coca... [2] https://www.jackherer.com/emperor-3/ [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Randolph_Hearst#Critic...