{"id":1655058,"date":"2022-09-23T12:07:47","date_gmt":"2022-09-23T16:07:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1655058"},"modified":"2022-09-23T12:07:55","modified_gmt":"2022-09-23T16:07:55","slug":"the-usps-spied-on-pro-gun-protestors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-usps-spied-on-pro-gun-protestors\/","title":{"rendered":"The USPS Spied on Pro-Gun Protestors"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">12<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-usps-spied-on-pro-gun-protestors%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1655058&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p>The United States Postal Service, or USPS, isn\u2019t the topic of a lot of discussion here at Bearing Arms. That\u2019s because, well, there\u2019s generally not much reason to talk about them.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s especially true when you look at the shenanigans being carried out by both <a href=\"https:\/\/bearingarms.com\/tomknighton\/2022\/09\/07\/fbi-gun-rights-n62159\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the FBI<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/bearingarms.com\/tomknighton\/2022\/08\/16\/politicization-of-atf-n61478\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the ATF<\/a>. I mean, why would we spend a lot of time talking about the post office?<\/p>\n<p>Well, it seems that postal inspectors are more than willing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2022\/sep\/22\/postal-service-surveilled-protesters-pro-guns-anti\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">to get into anti-gun shenanigans themselves<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/us-postal-service\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">U.S. Postal Service<\/a>\u00a0monitored protesters across the country, snooping on Americans focused on issues involving guns and President Biden\u2019s election, according to records obtained by The Washington Times.<\/p>\n<p>Postal inspectors tracked the actions of gun rights activists gathering in Richmond, Virginia; people preparing to demonstrate against police in Louisville, Kentucky, after an investigation into the police shooting of Breonna Taylor; and far-right groups headed to the District of Columbia after Mr. Biden\u2019s election.<\/p>\n<p>Cato Institute senior fellow\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/patrick-eddington\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Patrick Eddington<\/a>\u00a0obtained the heavily redacted records detailing the postal inspectors\u2019 spying from September 2020 through April 2021, including through covert social media surveillance called the Internet Covert Operations Program (iCOP).<\/p>\n<p>The records provide a rare glimpse into the breadth and depth of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/us-postal-service\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Postal Service<\/a>\u2019s surveillance apparatus, which Mr.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/patrick-eddington\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Eddington<\/a>\u00a0said was capable of reaching into every home and business in the country.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/us-postal-service\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Postal Service<\/a>\u00a0cannot reliably deliver mail to my own home, yet they can find the money and people to effectively digitally spy at scale, including on Americans engaged in First Amendment-protected activities,\u201d Mr. Eddington said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>That\u2019s right, folks. The USPS postal inspectors are spying on people like you and me simply because of our political opinions.<\/p>\n<p>Inspectors claim they were simply using public information to track potential criminal acts, but I find that very hard to believe. After all, these are protestors who are exercising their First Amendment rights to criticize the government and to try and pressure officials to do certain things.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s our right as Americans.<\/p>\n<p>Yet the law enforcement arm of the USPS is snooping into who is doing what where for people who aren\u2019t even suspected of committing any crime, much less one that falls within the postal inspectors\u2019 jurisdiction.<\/p>\n<p>If they had reason to believe contraband was being shipped illegally, that would be one thing, but that seems to be missing in all this.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s more, the USPS apparently knows this.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/us-postal-service\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Postal Service<\/a>\u00a0inspector general said this year that the postal inspectors\u2019 surveillance overstepped law enforcement authority and may not have had legal approval.<\/p>\n<p>The inspectors disputed that conclusion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe determined that certain proactive searches iCOP conducted using an open-source intelligence tool from February to April 2021 exceeded the Postal Inspection Service\u2019s law enforcement authority,\u201d the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/us-postal-service\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Postal Service<\/a>\u00a0watchdog said in a March audit. \u201cFurthermore, we could not corroborate whether other work analysts completed from October 2018 through June 2021 was legally authorized.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The investigation was conducted at the request of the top Democrat\u00a0<em>and<\/em> Republican on the House Oversight and Reform committee.<\/p>\n<p>Bipartisanship can be achieved. All you have to do is spy on everyone, apparently.<\/p>\n<p>However, let\u2019s also remember that while anti-police protests turned violent with startling regularity in 2020, that didn\u2019t happen with pro-gun protestors. So while a case can be made that law enforcement probably should have looked into police protestors\u2013not necessarily the USPS\u2019s law enforcement, mind you, but someone\u2013that isn\u2019t the case of Second Amendment advocates.<\/p>\n<p>The truth here is that the USPS postal inspectors overstepped.<\/p>\n<p>As Eddington noted, they can\u2019t deliver mail in a timely manner, but they can do this crap? I mean, the postal service is routinely complaining about a lack of money. Maybe it\u2019s time to cut the postal inspectors\u2019 budget if they\u2019re going to do crap like this with it and divert those funds to the USPS\u2019s primary mission: delivering the mail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The United States Postal Service, or USPS, isn\u2019t the topic of a lot of discussion here at Bearing Arms. That\u2019s because, well, there\u2019s generally not much reason to talk about<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1655062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1655058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1655058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1655058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1655058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1655062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1655058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1655058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1655058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}