🚀 go-pugleaf

Ed Cummings.
 
His crime?
 
Talking with African Americans in a parking lot. A heavily monitored group...
The *sole* reason Ed Cummings was targeted was because he was talking to
black people.
 
What was he arrested for?    Suspicion of drug dealing. (I'm guessing here.)
 
Did he have any drugs?       None.
 
How do you arrest someone for drugs when they don't have any?  I don't know.

What did he have?            Electronic components: crystals.

No, not Starship Dilithium Crystals; just radio shack components.
 
Haverford Police put out word they had Ed Cummings; the Federal government
responded that they wanted the state case. It was transferred to the Feds.
 
Specifically, the Secret Service wanted to prosecute him.
 
Why the Secret Service? Because Ed was associated with the 2600 hacker's
publication.  And because he had photographed a Secret Service agent who
had come snooping around. The Secret Service agent was picking their nose.
The local TV station showed it.

To which the Secret Service agents responded:

    "Don't fuck with us. We're the biggest gang in town."

No other reason.
 
What eventually happened in court?

For possession of a 'red box' - a simpleton tone device that can fool
telco computers into making free calls even though the same computers
spot its usage:

>   In the words of Ed Cummings, "I was forced to make a deal with the devil."
>   
>   The government had found data on a commercial diskette in his possession
>   which they say was related to cellular fraud in California. While Ed says
>   he has no idea what it is they're referring to, the odds of a jury being
>   able to understand how someone could have a diskette and not be held
>   accountable for every bit of data on it seemed uncomfortably slim.
>   
>   Also, by pleading guilty at this point and in this manner, Bernie will be
>   sentenced in 10 days and will most likely be