I think perhaps the fact it's largely other people's UNRELATED stuff is where the issue really begins to rub people up the wrong way.
There were a bunch of raids like this in the UK. The police keep taking entire sets of Indymedia servers and not giving them back for ages.
Seriously. How about if the FBI confiscated the luggage from every room in a hotel, just because 1 of them had 50 kilos of cocaine in their room? I have no idea how they've been getting away with these tactics.
Rule #1 is: Security through obscurity isn't.
While that applies to information security. It applies much less to physical security. For example, if "casing" a potential burglary target requires standing outside of it suspiciously, then security is much enhanced even if it's not absolute.
Rule #2 is: Making a huge stink about your private neighborhood against a well-liked company like Google will probably mean you're going to get a lot more attention than if you just let well enough alone.
You're right on the money with that one...
"I've seen it. It's rubbish." -- Marvin the Paranoid Android