Confidential?

[dave]

Confidential Police Documents Made an Appearance at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

By Caroline Bankoff

Tufts freshman Ethan Finkelstein uncovered a holiday mystery on Thursday while attending the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, where he noticed some unusual writing on a bit of confetti stuck to his friend's coat. "It landed on her shoulder," he told PIX11 News. "And it says 'SSN' and it's written like a social security number, and we're like, 'That's really bizarre.'" Finkelstein and his buddies — who were watching the action from 65th Street and Broadway — began picking up other pieces of confetti and found that they were printed with phone numbers, addresses, license plate numbers, portions of police incident reports, and other interesting tidbits.

One confetti strip indicates that it's from an arrest record, and other strips offer more detail. "This is really shocking," Finkelstein said. "It says, 'At 4:30 A.M. a pipe bomb was thrown at a house in the Kings Grant' area." They even contain information about Mitt Romney's motorcade, apparently from the final presidential debate, which took place at Hofstra University in Nassau County last month.

Most significant, the confetti strips identified Nassau County detectives by name. Some of them are apparently undercover. Their social security numbers, dates of birth and other highly sensitive personal information was also printed on the confetti strips.

The Nassau County Police Department offered a less-than-satisfying explanation for how its (poorly) shredded documents ended up in the parade. In a statement, chief officer Kenneth Lack said only that they were "very concerned about this situation" and added that his staff will be investigating the matter and "reviewing our procedures for the disposing" of sensitive material.

So, is Macy's involved in a plot to take down the cops of Long Island? Well, according to a spokesman, the department store sticks to "commercially manufactured, multicolor confetti" when it comes to the annual gathering of the floats. How boring of them.

From:
nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/11/police-documents-thrown-at-macys-parade.html?mid=google&google_editors_picks=true

[Deleted]

Ethan has been arrested for compiling and releasing documentation that was otherwise shreded for security reasons.

[dave]

Nov 26, 2012 11:46:14 GMT -5 @alanquigly said:

Ethan has been arrested for compiling and releasing documentation that was otherwise shreded for security reasons.

Seriously?

[Deleted]

Nov 26, 2012 11:51:23 GMT -5 dave said:

Nov 26, 2012 11:46:14 GMT -5 @alanquigly said:

Ethan has been arrested for compiling and releasing documentation that was otherwise shreded for security reasons.

Seriously?

Joking. But do you think I would make a good DA? ;D

[dave]

Nov 26, 2012 16:10:50 GMT -5 @alanquigly said:

Nov 26, 2012 11:51:23 GMT -5 dave said:

Seriously?

Joking. But do you think I would make a good DA? ;D

Uh ... your heart is in the right place?

[Clipper]

You crack me up sometimes Alan. LOL ;D I am not sure, but I think a background and degree in law might be the missing link and a serious impediment to achieving election to that position. Not that you would not garner MY vote, haha.

[dave]

Actually, I would not have been greatly surprised if Finklestein was charged, depending upon how much he showed the newsmen. Just because an agency inadvertently (and maybe stupidly) loses confidential information to a member of the public, it doesn't follow that the finder can reveal the information.

If you came across a secret document in a cab and instead of returning it to the National Security Agency, mailed it off to the New York Times, I'm sure you'd be charged.

[dave]

I think Alan would make an excellent D.A. Given that the majority of crime in any given county occurs among the lower socioeconomic echelon of society, with which Alan is familiar, he would be in a better position to mete out punishment in a fair manner, compared to the sons and daughters of the upper middle class.

I suppose for different reasons Corner would also be pretty familiar with the players, but he's done his bit for society. And he certainly might have a different view of the the cast of characters.