this post was submitted on 24 Dec 2024
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Privacy

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I’m timid about this and might be late to a party where others already had this idea, so please, no haters.

I can’t get over how facile and stupid the identification of LM was at a McDoballs. This is someone who fell off the entire grid for three months??

Just asking… but couldn’t an organization trying to conceal its reach and inevitability track a fella… and then… force an identification?

I do not have any idea about details… it’s broad strokes. Could it be? How many other privacy lovers heard about these three months completely off the grid somehow and also wondered… how?

Please pardon if this isn’t the appropriate place but the real theme is privacy. What if the watchers are always watching even when a person might believe they have made themself completely digitally invisible?

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[–] [email protected] 57 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (5 children)

I don't buy the conspiracy theories and "the Man sees everything and needed a plausible excuse" theories (although I'll admit the Man does see a lot more than he should...)

But I will say this: I find it extremely odd that a random McD employee in Fucktown, Nowhere, 275 miles from NYC, recognized a hooded dude wanted for murder in NYC, for the following reasons:

  • McD employees don't look at patrons. They're bored shitless and they're not paid well enough to care. You could show up at any McD joint disguised as Elton John with a feather up your ass and the employee behind the counter would still tell you "Would you like fries with that" while looking right through you.

  • Do you follow the local news in a city 275 miles from where you live? I don't. And even assuming it's NYC and it's a big enough city that people in Altoona pay attention, there's a murder every 12 hours in NYC. Why would that one in particular enter the consciousness of a bored employee in a burger joint in Altoona.

  • Can you recognize a hooded guy you saw on a still photograph? I can't. I might have suspicions, but I'm almost certain I wouldn't be positive enough to call the cops. And again, I work at McD and all I really want is go home after my shift. So I might just forget I saw someone I might have vaguely recognized.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 days ago

Do you follow the local news in a city 275 miles from where you live? I don't.

You mean to tell me you live in NYC? Otherwise you're breaking your own rule being aware of the shooting (which has been pushed hard on every news outlet be it TV, internet, radio, or print since 1h after it happened, and would be hard not to know about.)

The rest, yeah, but c'mon the entire world basically watched this in real time. I was showing the video around work literally at 8am and it happened at 6am, not much delay.

[–] [email protected] 84 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I think you're already forgetting just how prevalent the story of the murder was. It wasn't just local news. It was unavoidable.

Luigi is innocent until proven guilty. I think it's weird that cops found a backpack in central park with no real evidence, but found a gun, a suppressor, and a written confession that started off with praising the cops on this guy who decided to get McDonalds in the middle of the day. I'm not saying that the cops planted evidence to have somebody to finger, but it seems convenient.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 2 days ago

Yea, I live in the UK and his smiling face was all over the news here too.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 days ago

Oh come the fuck on, you live in New York or did you not hear that he iced the slimy exec hours afterwards? Cuz everyone in the US did

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It was all over national news, and some international news, for days.

You might not be sure, but you don't have to be sure. I would expect they got a very large number of tips, most which did not pan out, of course.

But I also don't think it's ever been confirmed that it was an employee. My suspicion is there happened to be some law enforcement officer and they called it in. That would explain the rapid response, and the caginess about the tipoff.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I also don’t think it’s ever been confirmed that it was an employee

Oh yeah that's another thing: would you rat out the guy who killed a disgusting CEO if you flipped burgers for a living? Whatever you think of murder, you might well look the other way in this instance.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 days ago (1 children)

For a $50k reward? Yeah, I don't know what McDonald's employees make at that location, but it's probably low enough to make that very tempting.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Nobody pays attention to that part. They just see the very prominent $50k! and think that’s what they’re gonna get. Even if they do catch the “up to” they are going to hope. 50k is still life changing money to someone that makes 5x what a McDs worker makes.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

Despite what the critics responding here say, I think there’s some smoke here if not a little fire.