Can we turn the agility and unpredictability of superpowered individuals into assets for the State?
Owen Walker, the 18-year-old Whitianga resident also known as Akill, was discharged without conviction in the High Court in Hamilton earlier today.
The NZ Police certainly seem to think so.
The sentence given today was a balanced decision, says Waikato crime services manager, detective inspector Peter Devoy. The police may use Walker's assistance if required in the future, he adds.
It all comes down to motivation. Our good friend Akill was most likely in it for the challenge, the notoriety, and the money (in that order), rather than motivated by any ideological drive to damage the West's network infrastructure.
Akill was a service provider for other criminal organisations; he provided a platform from which to launch attacks, steal data and otherwise target vulnerabilities in the systems he had control of.
Was Akill a superempowered service provider? A single individual providing assistance, technology or skills to 4GW organisations in exchange for compensation (money, power, status), without the associated ideological baggage. The pinnacle of Capitalism (can you taste the irony?).
The issue would be one of identification.
A superempowered service provider could be leveraged by the State with the right application of force. They have no loyalty, besides money and/or professional pride, to the groups they service; they would be a weaker link in the network than members of a terrorist cell (for example). As a service provider, these individuals would pass through a lot more information, potentially on a wider range of groups.
Given that Akill has been 'outed', his value as a captive service provider falls dramatically. No one would deal with him anymore. However, if a service provider could be identified and covertly recruited, the State would have a viable weapon.
In the age of the global guerilla, are superempowered service providers the systempunkts of 4GW groups?
The other issue, of course, is that for every Akill they catch, there are thousands more waiting for just the same opportunity.