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by rdtsc 4519 days ago
> agencies to make criminal allegations that might turn out to be less than factually accurate,

It doesn't. Parallel construction is designated to hide the source of the initial tip. Like say illegally wiretapping everyone and running a regex search for words "drug deal at 2pm today in the park". Then after getting the names and numbers of people involved. They dispatch an on-foot patrol to the park at 2pm that day. And lo and behold, woops, they randomly walk in on a drug deal. The parallel construction will dictate that court evidence will have this chain of events "during patrol in the park, our officers walk in on a drug deal in progress".
1 comments
gregholmberg 4519 days ago
What if the tip names the wrong park, and the officers detain a similar person, and decide to plant incriminating evidence?
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rdtsc 4519 days ago
Well planting incriminating evidence is a separate problem. They can do that with or without parallel construction.

Ideally they wouldn't have to as after they apprehend the people they would find drugs on them.

The main idea is that they need an plausible explanation to the court and the outside world on how they got the evidence.

Not justifying or saying I like what they do, just explaining how I understand parallel construction to work.

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Semiapies 4519 days ago
They might have more interest in planting incriminating evidence on someone - whether a random person or the actual suspect, if the cops don't find anything on them - if it's part of an inter-agency investigation.
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andylei 4519 days ago
this hypothetical scenario has nothing to do with parallel construction. the DEA could plant incriminating evidence on a random person and the results would be the same.
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njharman 4519 days ago
Your missing the point that a tip handed down tip from NSA has authority. It must be right, right? Thus in stilling idea that target must be guilty. And if they get off it's your fault. This leads to all manor of things from unconsciously triggering drug dog, to forced enemas, to planting evidence.

This happens. All the time. It is not theoretical. Innocent people are dead.

I am not willing to trade innocent life for the theoretical "more safety" promised.

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