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Warmek's avatar

> even if you’re paying cash and have a mask (which always looks suspicious)

Not sure that's true these days, particularly in NYC.

Back during Mask Mania I was just wearing a bandanna, basically, and it made me laugh every time I'd go to the bank, and the signs insisted that I *must* wear the mask. So I'm walking into my bank, in the desert southwest, in a cowboy hat and with a bandanna over the lower half of my face... it looked like very stagecoach robbery you've ever seen in any western movie. :D

But even these days, if you were to just wear a boring N95 mask anywhere in NYC, I doubt anyone would look twice at you.

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Warmek's avatar

I was pleased by how much of this I already knew, regarding avoiding surveillance.

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John Smith's avatar

Pretty much every city has maskers now. They stand out a bit, they're 1 in 100, but not something immediately suspicious. Especially not if the mask looks medical or "cute."

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Warmek's avatar

And I'd suspect in highly lefty NYC, it'd be a lot more than just 1 in 100. A plain white N95 is just a thing you might roll your eyes at these days, but not actually take any *notice* of.

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John Smith's avatar

Could be, I've no experience.

In the leftiest parts of Dublin where all the facebook/google/twitter employees are I see about 1/100 people wearing masks. Which is quite a lot.

If 1/100 people wore a clown suit you'd definitely notice and wonder what was going on.

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Warmek's avatar

But only if clown suits hadn’t been mandated for the entire population for three years. In my incredibly conservative populated work environment (at a literal nuclear weapons factory) I see the occasional mask, and honestly don’t think that much of it. And sure, you say you notice the masked people, but how much note do you take of the rest of them? Could you describe anything about any of them beyond that they were wearing a mask?

My point isn’t that it isn’t at all notable, just that it’s sufficiently normalized that you don’t go out of your way to really pay attention to it other than noting its existence.

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John Smith's avatar

Well... it's notable in the sense that (where I live) it's unusual enough to turn heads, like "huh, that guy's still wearing a mask." But not so much that you'd continue watching them and wondering why, or assume they're up to no good.

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John Smith's avatar

Great article.

Just one small niggle: Once he knew they had a photograph of him it would've been a terrible idea to go into hiding. That would've drawn more suspicion, not less. All his colleagues, friends and family would then have known he had something to hide. Some of them might have reported his disappearance to the police, either out of concern for his safety or suspicion of his involvement. It would have shot him up the list from "a suspect we want to check up on" to "suspect number 1."

Only someone living a truly solitary life like Ted Kaczinsky could afford to drop off the radar when under suspicion and become less obvious as a suspect. Simply because disappearance is their norm.

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Kulak's avatar

No, “suspicious” lifestyle activity is basically useless as far as evidence. Unless you’re a husband who’s killed his wife, the cost in terms of information you’re aging or destroying by going into hiding vs. “Suspiscion” is so overwhelmingly on the side of hiding.

Especially if you’re already unemployed or unattached, like they have to seperate you from every drifter, addict, and seasonal worker in america… hich they can’t because they can’t find you to even look at you

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John Smith's avatar

As far as evidence? No. But it does immediately bump you up the list of suspects and invites further attention. Whereas if you behave normally you're just another one of the ~1-2M guys who look a bit like that grainy photo, but can't be tied to the scene of the crime.

Running the moment you're declared a person of interest means you'll be assumed the perpetrator and you'll be running for the rest of your life.

Behaving normally means that even if someone does notice you look like the photo and report you (normalcy bias is on your side here), they still have to get actual evidence tying you to the scene of the crime.

Ultimately it comes down to the likelyhood of whether finding you is going to produce evidence tying you to the crime. If you're smart then it shouldn't. If you're dumb then running probably won't help you anyhow.

> Especially if you’re already unemployed or unattached, like they have to seperate you from every drifter, addict, and seasonal worker in america… hich they can’t because they can’t find you to even look at you

Agreed, but he wasn't. For someone in those circumstances or someone very well hidden like uncle Ted then hiding is a good option.

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Kulak's avatar

If they are looking at you closely enough they’re judging your lifestyle you’re already at the point where you should be running or assuming they’re already convinced it’s you

There is 1 out of 10 million, and there is 1 out of 1.

1 out of 20 or even 200 hundred suspects is so close to caught it doesn’t make a difference for any high level crime.

Your Agatha Christie murder mystery instincts are WRONG. They can break into the 19 other suspects phone and just see what they were doing at the time of the crime even if they cant see yours.

Suspicious, blending in, these are meaningless concepts unless you’re trying to keep your wife from figuring it out. These are meaningless concepts for deceiving the regime.

Evidentiary standards are the exact same if you’re a hobo, a drifter, a family man, or a CEO.

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John Smith's avatar

Not necessarily. They'll likely have a list of hundreds of potential suspects and sightings all over the US. Most of them they'll just ask the local PD to drop by and see if anything shows up. If it doesn't, that guy will likely never get another visit.

On the other hand if his friends and relatives haven't seen him in a couple of weeks and are worried about him and he hasn't been showing up to work, then they'll likely look deeper.

Ok... and they can break into your phone too. Unless you had it with you it's not going to show any incriminating activity.

But your wife finding out is a concern, because your wife can go to the police.

> Evidentiary standards are the exact same if you’re a hobo, a drifter, a family man, or a CEO.

Yes, but you'll attract a lot of attention if you happen to look a lot like a murder suspect and go from being a CEO to a drifter shortly afterwards.

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Martin Castillo's avatar

I get that there are a lot of cameras in NYC, but even so, what are the odds that the video of the murder would be so perfectly in frame, from a ground level camera, that was either very close or was able to zoom in and appear to be close?

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13/1 NYS CONstitution's avatar

Knew it was a SCAM when they claimed Altoona Pa lol I have been thru there if u blink u miss it. No one intentionally goes to that town ah ha

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DE's avatar

Thanks, Kulak.

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Matthew Thompson's avatar

Excellent case study.

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janoy crevsna's avatar

he was caught because he was acting like a weirdo, looked like him, and the mcdonald employee put 2 and 2 together. he made so many obvious mistake it's clear that there was no way he'd get away with it. he doesn't have the discipline and conscientiousness. what he had was motivation and a messiah complex, good for getting you to the target, but not good for allowing you to get away with it.

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ReadingRainbow's avatar

This is asking a lot of a 25 year old Italian.

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Mohd. Saifullah bin Majid's avatar

It's a lesson for everyone else to learn from

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Monkyyy's avatar

Im still wondering if they found a body double because of the eyebrows

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Vengeful Son's avatar

Excellent analysis. Subbed.

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Jupiter's avatar

Probably the article I've enjoyed the most on this site so far.

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English Tom's avatar

Outstanding piece of work, as always. Thank you for your insights and efforts.

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Mohd. Saifullah bin Majid's avatar

For reference on how far the surveillance technologies have achieved... These plus banking surveillance made up the PEGASUS program...

- Visual identification (networked CCTV + facial recognition): https://www.viseum.co.uk/

- Electronic emission (every type of data that's transmitted across mobile and landline telecommunication): https://www.globeoss.com/post/noc-soc-automation-for-a-gov-agencies

IMHO, his breach of the digital OPSEC led to his eventual arrest. Once the LE has matched your face ID to your IMEI number, you're fucked BIG TIME! Escape is next to impossible. Only divine intervention can help you by then... Therefore, don't just listen to what the lady says. OBEY!

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wmj's avatar

Interesting piece. Thanks for taking the time to write.

It is difficult to square his apparent concern to escape with his decision to retain so much incriminating evidence. A profound melancholy. idk

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13/1 NYS CONstitution's avatar

But what if I want them to know I’m coming?

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Lionel Thorne's avatar

nice... long one. my body is ready

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Feb 21
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Kulak's avatar

I support being able to do what he did even better.

A free man is one who can choose to violate the law and get away with it.

Those who obey because they could never disobey are slaves.

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Feb 21
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Kulak's avatar

Your reading comprehension is utterly lacking, supporting capability is completely different from supporting action.. Just as supporting gun ownership is completely different from supporting homicide, or supporting nuclear deterrent is completely different from supporting nuclear Armageddon.

and the fact you did this within a minute of me posting the article, in which you could not have read it, tells me you are unserious, and likely a corporate bot. Blocked.

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John Smith's avatar

This guy prides himself on being a "centrist."

Any rejection of the system is disgusting to him and celebration of people doing so is deeply unsettling.

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Will Martin's avatar

Lol, you’re a cuck and you’re weak. You deserve the Corporat Boot that stomping on you, faggot.

Saint Luigi Did Nothing Wrong.

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Kulak's avatar

Less of this.

We don't do insults here, we do arguments. You didn't threaten or invoke a report to some outside authority like shay... So just a warning.

But be warned

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13/1 NYS CONstitution's avatar

Did we read the same evidence?

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