<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto">My point was that “secret police” drive in unmarked cars, and snatch people quickly. By definition you don’t see them operating.<div><br><div dir="ltr">SR Ballard</div><div dir="ltr"><br>On Jul 19, 2020, at 10:16 AM, Dan TheBookMan via extropy-chat <<a href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><div dir="ltr">On Jul 19, 2020, at 6:09 AM, SR Ballard via extropy-chat <<a href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr">How would anyone know that secret police existed if no one told them?</div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><div>SR Ballard </div></div></blockquote></div><div><br></div><div>I used ‘secret police tactics,’ and meant stuff like dragging people off the street in unmarked cars, which is similar to secret police kidnappings of their victims. Of course, it’s not secret now.<div><br></div><div>And any real world secret police is likely to be known eventually... The notion is less that no one ever ever knows about it — that the secret part is completely successful — than that the operations of a secret police are meant to be kept from public and even other legal scrutiny. (Often the tactics and operations are illegal or at least disavowed by the government. But that’s a technicality. After all, what’s legal is defined by whomever is considered the legal authority.)<br><br><div dir="ltr"><div style="line-height: normal;"><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="line-height: 20px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Regards,</span></div><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="line-height: 20px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="line-height: 20px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Dan</span></div><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="line-height: 20px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> Sample my Kindle books at:</span></div><div style="line-height: normal;"><p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://author.to/DanUst">http://author.to/DanUst</a></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><span>_______________________________________________</span><br><span>extropy-chat mailing list</span><br><span><a href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a></span><br><span><a href="http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat">http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat</a></span><br></div></blockquote></div></body></html>