Not at all. It's pretty far-fetched to say that any link between policing and crime rates is illusory. It's certainly not the only causation, but it would be ludicrous to say they weren't related. It is rather ludicrous to talk about global warming and crime, unless you can come up with a truly plausible mechanism for it.

And I'm certainly not being contrarian either. I'm saying that the argument that "life went on" even when the government had no wiretapping ability, has no relevance here. You might as well say that life went on in the gulags in Russia. That's the point I'm arguing -- that "life went on" is not a valid argument in any context, because it's generic and doesn't address any of the actual issues.

Oh well, go ahead and downvote away... it's only numbers! :P