Read This: Boston PD attempts to use social media to crack down on punks, find out "the 411" on "local music" concerts

The Internet is full of interesting things to read outside of The A.V. Club—no, really! In our periodic Read This posts, we point you toward interesting or noteworthy pieces that caught our eye.

While government persecution of punks might seem like a thing of the past now that Hot Topics thrive and Green Day plays arenas, apparently liberty spikes still don’t fly in Boston. The police there have been cracking down on shows at DIY spaces for a bit now and have recently turned to a relatively modern method of gathering info: posing as disaffected youths on social media.

Slate has an investigation of the whole sad, sordid business today, including descriptions of fishy “kids” looking for info on “DIY concerts,” asking for “the 411” on “the local music show tonight,” and posting Google image pictures of mosh pits to their pseudonym’s Facebook page with captions like “I love the pit!”

The whole thing’s equal parts laughable and creepy, especially considering a survey last year found that about 80 percent of law enforcement agencies use social media to investigate and that quite a few organizations admit to creating fake profiles in order to weasel their way into a suspect’s digital crew. Long story short: Think before throwing a basement show and maybe only accept people as friends on Facebook if you actually know them.