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The big picture | 559 comments | Create New Account
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The big picture
Authored by: kuroshima on Friday, January 18 2013 @ 07:11 AM EST
It is the widespread impression, by those of us living on the
other side of the pond, that the US Justice system is so much
out of true that getting actual justice out of it is either
hopeless, or a matter of pure luck. That's not to say that
the justice system here is any better, though.

Disclaimer: I am not a US resident, and so I have a (media
formed) external opinion on the USA Justice system. It may be
wrong (all my evidence is hearsay), and despite me believing
that my opinion is widespread, I could be wrong.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

The big picture
Authored by: Bas Burger on Friday, January 18 2013 @ 07:20 AM EST
Sadly, little or few recognise the flaws of the country they live in. At that
moment there will always be a rift between authoritarian minded people and
progressive people about what is just.

As outsider you often see that sooner, same as I would have a lot of blind spots
towards the country I live in.

Also sadly, few people of the US will or can recognise (because they have to
live there) that their state is corrupt by design, see the system of
pleabargening, the way lobbying is organised and the revolving door between rich
corporations and the government(s) of the US.

Moral is that an individual cannot expect mercy, fairness and balancedness from
a corrupt state, see all the high profile fraud from the rich that is not
prosecuted and the crushing of non rich that takes place at the slightest sense
of suspect.

---
No comments...

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

The FBI - a private security firm for the Corporation - sadly, not alone
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, January 18 2013 @ 12:37 PM EST

We've seen times when the FBI and Local police are used to support the Corporation:

    Apple security having a police officer along so they can execute a search of a private individuals home for a stolen iphone without a proper search warrant
    The FBI assisted CISCO
Now apparently DA's and the Secret Service have joined the ranks!

There's good reason for the average person who has done nothing wrong to fear the US authorities I think.

Because those very authorities have apparently decided to let Corporations decide what is a criminal offense. And if it really is up to Corporations - like the RIAA and the bodies they represent - then Copyright Law would be absolute and there is no such thing as Fair Use! When the Corporation decides you are a criminal for choosing not to be their customer:

    Yes, we all should fear!
I certainly hope the picture outlined above really isn't the reality. That it's rogue members of the various authorities who are responsible. But it's up to those who have the authority to bring their fellow colleagues to Justice to correct the situation.

Will they?

Or, like the Apple scenario where neither the local police nor Apple Security were brought to task for their behavior at all, will nothing be done?

Like the Cisco scenario where the FBI were not brought to task for their role, where Cisco was not brought to task for feeding the FBI bad information - will nothing be done?

Are Corporations and their bad behavior directed at private individuals truly above the Law? Are the authorities that help such Corporations also truly above the Law?

Or will they all start being reigned in?

We've finally started seeing Judges reigning in the RIAA type behaviors.

    When will we start to see the other authority figures who are mis-using their authority reigned in?
    When will we see someone like Carman Ortiz face appropriate criminal charges for her behaviors?
Granted, she may not have actually broken any Law. But:
    Can't the Laws surrounding harrassment be applied to her threats of extraordinary punishment in order to get an admitted conviction be read as "loosely" as the Laws surrounding what was applied to Swartz?
I do not condone such behavior even though the part of me that is uncivilized is convinced Ortiz deserves to be on the receiving end of the very behavior she finds acceptable.

But I do condone that if the situation is honestly examined and she is found to have abused her authority - by promissing extreme punishment if the person does not admit guilt to lesser crimes - that she permenantly looses her job and is never allowed into such a position of authority again. Send a message to all prosecuting attorney's that are behaving the same way that such behavior is not just unacceptable - it's no different then:

    torturing someone in order to get an admission of guilt
Sadly: Extreme behavior requires an extreme response in order to stop it.

RAS

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

The big picture
Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, January 19 2013 @ 08:41 AM EST
I ran into this report [pdf] about how the crime rates of England and Wales compare to other developed countries. On the last two pages they have numbers on how punitive different countries are. The 'punitive ratio' is the ratio between the number of people in jail as result of a court sentence and the number of people convicted per year. The result shows the US is extremely punitive, 27 times more than my country, the Netherlands, and 98 times more than the lowest on the list, Finland.

1.471 United States
0.934 Mexico
0.898 Japan
0.429 Israel
0.356 Chile
0.345 Estonia
0.263 Czech Republic
0.249 Slovakia
0.222 Norway
0.168 Poland
0.152 Austria
0.130 Spain
0.123 Korea
0.123 Hungary
0.117 Slovenia
0.115 Portugal
0.115 Scotland
0.085 Italy
0.078 Canada
0.069 Germany
0.068 Australia
0.065 New Zealand
0.065 France
0.064 Switzerland
0.054 Turkey
0.054 Netherlands
0.049 England and Wales
0.041 Iceland
0.040 Sweden
0.032 Northern Ireland
0.032 Denmark
0.015 Finland

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

The sad big picture
Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, January 19 2013 @ 08:47 PM EST
Unfortunately, many of the laws in the U.S. are authored by corporate lawyers
representing their powerful corporations and not the people. Most of these laws
are written to serve and protect the corporation or industry and not the people,
but to control the people. Our elected “Representatives” pretty much only
represent the wealthy and are looking out for their self interests. The popular
thing today is to push, or at least try to push, laws through and when the bills
are drafted, leave their public office and work for the industry they were
representing as lobbyists. It is indeed a sad time here in the U.S. for its
citizens. I fear it will get much worse before it gets better, since the wealthy
are getting more powerful every day.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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