Comments on: Good Enough for Government Work

By: varmintito

varmintito — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 13:56:44 +0000

c andrew @ 5 has the right idea. There should be an accounting of the aggregate time wrongfully incarcerated. Then it should be tripled because of the abuse of power. Then, find ANY person responsible. He must serve the entire nut, which is probably dozens of lifetimes, and pay the entire nut, which is probably tens of millions. The only way out is to sing, sing, sing. And if you get caught doing another false acc, you serve the entire nut anyway.

The obvious problem is that the “they” we would ask to conduct this investigation and prosecute the ones responsible either are, or are loyal first, to the wrongdoers.

It is only a badge of respect and authority as long as respect and authority are warranted.

By: Boyd Durkin

Boyd Durkin — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:16:52 +0000

Us vs. Them. One day we’ll all understand we don’t need “them”.

By: Nancy Lebovitz

Nancy Lebovitz — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:22:41 +0000

It may be that the idea that guilty people are so qualitatively different from the innocent people that there’s no limit to how badly it’s legitimate to tread guilty people leads to arbitrary mistreatment of anyone who’s been accused.

By: marco73

marco73 — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 13:59:11 +0000

Something that I find disturbing, is that once someone gets their biometric information (fingerprints, digitized mug shots) into a computer system, that information should be readily available. At the point when someone is being booked, they could have them face a scanner for a couple seconds, and have their identity verified quickly.
Even with identity theft and computer mixups, more than 24 hours is just obscene. Sure, career criminals provide aliases and lie constantly, but your fingerprints and face don’t change.
Locking up people for days and days, when the real perp is on the street, hurts the innocent and is just a waste of resources.

By: Balloon Maker

Balloon Maker — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 12:05:43 +0000

They must have been guilty of something, right? The people arrested shouldn’t have been standing around looking so arrestable and none of this would have happened.

By: JOR

JOR — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 09:20:44 +0000

#13, the reasoning is basically rule-utilitarian in nature. The idea is that if you have a general rule of locking suspicious people up and throwing away the key, you’ll catch more “bad” guys than if you “coddle” suspects on the chance that they might be innocent. After all if the real “bad” guy is still out there he’ll most likely eventually get caught.

That’s their reasoning, anyway.

By: Bergman

Bergman — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 06:40:48 +0000

Re: Jason Vines, #4:

Exactly. If you have the wrong guy locked up, that means the guy who actually is a threat to national security is free to do whatever he likes, because no one is looking for him.

What always puzzles me, is how wanting to lock up the guy who actually did it (whatever “it” was) and make sure nobody gets falsely imprisoned is viewed almost universally as being “soft on crime”. How exactly is it tough on criminals to lock up innocent people while the criminals go free?

By: John P.

John P. — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 06:23:35 +0000

Seems like were seeing quite alot of “isolated incidents”, on all fronts of the war, our cops are currently waging against us, the public…

By: Bernard

Bernard — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 04:35:14 +0000

Where there’s a sloppy and unaccountable system there’s corruption.

Who wants to bet against the likelihood that many of these arrests are deliberate to get back at people who the cops have petty grievances with?

By: Powersox

Powersox — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 02:30:54 +0000

Picachu #9,

It’s obvious he’s in Canada. The dollar coin (L’une) has a picture of a loon on it. I don’t remember what’s on their two dollar (T’une) coin.

Powersox

By: picachu

picachu — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:07:26 +0000

Primus ” Question is, where is freedom greater than our two countries?”

Not sure where you’re at but I’ve been in a few central and south Ameirican countries as well as most of Western Europe. Every country I’ve ever been in was noticably freer than the US.

By: Judas Peckerwood

Judas Peckerwood — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 23:46:23 +0000

And 95% of America responds with a collective shrug and a “Hey, what can you do, right?”

Imagine the universal outcry if one of the Mexican drug gangs or some other foreign group kidnapped 500 American citizens. But when it’s our own government, next to no reaction at all.

By: primus

primus — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 22:53:49 +0000

Which is why I stay out of your crazy country, though mine is headed that direction too. Unfortunately not only do we have a loon on our dollar coin, we have one at the helm of the country as well. Question is, where is freedom greater than our two countries?

By: Steamed McQueen

Steamed McQueen — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 22:25:12 +0000

Arrest someone. ANYONE. Doesn’t matter if we have the wrong person, we need to keep those numbers up, dammit!

This is the kind of crap that was a hallmark of Stalin’s Russia.

By: c andrew

c andrew — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 17:47:57 +0000

Well, if justice were a concern of the Denver politicals, then those making these mistakes would be incarcerated for similar lengths of time, lose their jobs, and have to pay restitution to the victims of their incompetence.

I have a dream…

By: Jason Vines

Jason Vines — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 17:45:11 +0000

The good news is, thanks to the recent NDAA, the government can now lock people away without any kind of judicial process that could help make sure the inmate is actually who the government says he is.

If you think the government should be sure it’s imprisoned the right person, you’re living in a pre-9/11 world. 9/11 changed everything, and we can’t be soft on terror.

By: Monica

Monica — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 17:12:09 +0000

In a sane country, these officials would be brought up on kidnapping charges, but we left sanity behind a LONG time ago. I weep for my children inheriting this.

By: Radley Balko

Radley Balko — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 17:00:00 +0000

Here’s the link:

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/dec/25/local/la-me-wrong-id-20111225

By: Homeboy

Homeboy — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 16:37:11 +0000

Radley, you suggest that similar abuses have been documented in Los Angeles. Could you please post a link to information regarding similar findings in LA?