| Submit your comments on this article |
| Science & Technology |
| Wacky Shaq Attack Smacks then Slacks |
| 2006-10-24 |
| And you wonder why they say truth can be stranger than fiction? We all know that IP addresses are notoriously unreliable in tracking down who may have committed an online crime. Most of the time, we see this in civil cases filed by the entertainment industry where they accuse someone without enough evidence or (better yet) without a computer at all. However, sometimes, the myth that an IP address identifies you has bigger consequences. A year ago, reminiscent of the computer bug in the movie Brazil that created a mixup over whether or not someone named Buttle or Tuttle was responsible for a crime, a Cox Internet employee gave police the wrong info about an IP address, leading a completely innocent couple in Wichita, Kansas to be accused of distributing child porn. It seems that a similar situation has again happened, this time in Virginia, where another wrong IP address resulted in a family having their house raided in search of child porn. This was pointed out by Radley Balko who notes that the story gets even weirder when you realize that basketball star Shaquille O'Neal may have been a part of the raiding team. The original report doesn't mention the Shaq connection, but others do, and a separate report does say he participated in an attempt to execute a child porn warrant that weekend in that county. So, beyond the question of why Shaq is apparently participating in such raids, can we ask no one does things like double check IP addresses or, say, look for additional evidence that a particular household is guilty of a crime before sending in people with guns drawn? The same report that suggests Shaq was a part of the raid also notes that "Shaq did some computer work" with the team. Anyone know if Shaq is familiar with the way IP addresses work? The RIAA is now dropping all charges of music piracy against people who state in court that "IP addresses are not people", and/or who have a factory default WIFI network for several computers, which is commonplace, and note that anyone could access their network to unlawfully download music. The RIAA doesn't want to risk losing such cases, or having it widely known that they can't win such cases, so they drop the lawsuit. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #6 It is commendable that he champions these worthy causes, BUT, I'd prefer that high-profile celebrities stay out of Law Enforcement. Besides, Shaq is so damn big, he'd make an easy target. |
| Posted by: NoBeards 2006-10-24 16:30 |
| #5 Shaq is my new favorite basketball player. Just hope that when he goes on a raid as a "for real" cop, that the bad guys resist arrest. |
| Posted by: Mike 2006-10-24 16:01 |
| #4 Melike, Sherry - Thx! Good guys aren't rare, but those who can get important issues noticed, such as pedophilia and predatory behavior, are a real boon. I normally find him far too self-satisfied and annoying, but Bill O'Reilly's effort to take the SP Idjits in the judiciary to task is another example. Maybe Shaq could be a BIG (lol) help in shaming the asstards, mainly in the NE for some "odd" reason, into passing Jessica's Laws where the effort has failed, thus far. Thanks, Shaq. |
| Posted by: .com 2006-10-24 13:36 |
| #3 http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/AmericanFamily/story?id=1020604&page=2 Aug. 10, 2005 — On the court, Shaquille O'Neal is virtually unstoppable. Off the court, O'Neal is just as relentless, but now he's taking on a very different kind of adversary — online pedophiles. "We want to get these predators off-line," O'Neal told "Good Morning America." "It's very disturbing to see that anyone would want to harm a child especially in a sexual manner, very, very disturbing." O'Neal is the national spokesman for a group called the Safe Surfin' Foundation. But he's more than just a figurehead; he's also a cop — a real one. O'Neal is a trained reserve officer with the Bedford County Sheriff's Office in Virginia, working on a task force aimed at busting Internet pedophiles. Shaq on the Case At a secret location near Roanoke, "Good Morning America" recently found O'Neal working a case, exchanging e-mail messages with a suspected sexual predator. "I don't like to give away my secrets, but I just say 'hi,'" O'Neal said. "They ask how old I am and they get right into it. … Ninety-eight percent of it's sexual right away." The idea, he said, is to keep the dialogue going until the suspect sets up a meeting. "Once they want to meet in a certain location, we'll be there," Shaq said. An estimated 77 million kids use the Internet. And according to the FBI, nearly all of them will eventually meet an adult sexual predator in a chat room. O'Neal and the Safe Surfin' Foundation have some advice for kids faced with that situation. "What I tell the children is just simple things," O'Neal said. "Don't give out personal information online. If you're having a conversation with someone and they start to get nasty, just sign off. Just be smart and have a lot of common sense." Trading in the Jersey for a Badge? The Bedford County Sheriff says O'Neal is the real deal. "I've known a lot of police officers and in my 40 years in the business, and I think I'm pretty hard to fool," Bedford County Sheriff Mike Brown said. "There is absolutely nothing phony, fake about Shaquille O'Neal and his desire to help kids and to be a viable part of law enforcement." O'Neal says he has long been interested in police work. In addition to his work in Virginia, he's also a reserve police officer in Miami Beach, Fla., and Los Angeles, and has undergone extensive police training. O'Neal recently signed a five-year, $100 million contract with the Miami Heat. But, at age 33, he is also contemplating his life after basketball — a life wearing a badge instead of a jersey. |
| Posted by: Sherry 2006-10-24 13:29 |
| #2 Shaq has often said he intends to move to law enforcement after he's done with the NBA, and he's apparently put in the time and effort to get some real training to prepare. He's not one of these guys who gets an honorary badge or two and thinks he's a cop. Someone with that attitude must have found working with Kobe Bryant pretty difficult his last season in LA. |
| Posted by: Grolusing Hupolurt5568 2006-10-24 12:59 |
| #1 IIRC, Shaq is a part-time deputy somewhere, I think Karl Malone may have been too. |
| Posted by: Spot 2006-10-24 12:06 |