Cops Walking the MySpace Beat

theodp writes "Meet the point-and-click police. Newsweek reports that a growing number of ordinary officers are working a new beat, turning to MySpace to collect clues and crack offline cases. Most of the nabbed wrongdoers have been victims of their own hubris, like the two boys who uploaded video of themselves firebombing an abandoned airplane hangar earlier this month."

Disappointment..

[chrismcdirty]

Most of the nabbed wrongdoers have been victims of their own hubris, like the two boys who uploaded video of themselves firebombing an abandoned airplane hangar earlier this month.

I was thoroughly disappointed when I clicked that link and saw that there was no video after the site had loaded.

idiotnet

[Anonymous Coward]

Only a dumb ass would post things on the internet.

Re:Why I post AC

[pedantic bore]

I caused the war in Viet Nam...

Damn you!

Re:You get back what you put out.

[Anonymous Coward]

stop spamming, lardass.

What's illegal offline is illegal online, too?

[gearmonger]

So you're suggesting that my recent investment in the social networking sites BankHeistSpace.com and WillTradeKiddiePornVids.net is a bad move?

Re:Plain and Simple

[NiteShaed]

Parents should be more diligent not with monitoring every single thing their kids do on the computer

Yeah, C'mon parents......teach your kids not to post video after they firebomb buildings. Make those nosey cops find the perpetrators the old fashioned way.

Excerpt from Police Report

[Giant Ape Skeleton]

...the perps apparently escaped on what they called "LOLerskates".

5-0! 5-0!

[AndyLandrews]

Well, crap. Now I gotta go change my MySpace profile. Are the cops checking Blogger, too? I hope not. What's the usual sentence for third-degree yoinking and aggravated shenanigans?

Re:A slightly different take...

[RLiegh]

Now, how would you feel if every square inch of this public space was being constantly monitored by closed-circuit cameras whose feeds are reviewed by police officers?

Good question; I'm sure there's at least one brit who posts to this site; let's ask them how it feels.

Re:Forget Future Employers

[RLiegh]

No need to worry though; as long as you have the bases covered:

1)Don't do anything wrong
2)Make sure your computer isn't broadcasting an IP (I hear there are sites that can help you with that)
3)Cmdr Taco dumps all of the MD5ed /. IP Hashes on a regular basis (I've been told /. does; but I have no first hand idea how often or even or not if that's true).

Re:idiotnet

[gijoel]

And only a bigger dumbass would respond to something on the internet.

I can imagine how this was started

[General Lee Cynical]

"Hey, you're supposed to be working, what are you doing browsing profiles of 16 year old girls on MySpace?"

"I...er...I'm...um...I'm looking into possible crimes that these teenagers may have committed. Right. That's what I'm doing."

Re:Disappointment..

[supertoad]

i am a racist. i hate these [dead-frog.com] people

Re:Disappointment..

[NitsujTPU]

Warn us next time! I'm at Cornell University, the most politically correct place on the planet... sitting here, minding my own business. We load this video to check it out, and people hear the words "white power" screaming from my laptop.

Re:Why I post AC

[Duds]

Good point Steve.

Ooh shit, sorry man.

Re:Plain and Simple

[Ohreally_factor]

Still, I've had to cut way back on having sex with 13 year olds since the cops started infiltrating Myspace.

Re:I've been thinking this for a while

[Ohreally_factor]

It's actually much easier to if you commit your crime in front of a green screen.

Re:Why I post AC

[Cro Magnon]

A Darth Vader mask works fine 90% of the time. But if you go around saying "Luke, I am your father", you've blown your cover.