For people who claim to be invested in justice, liberals sure do love threatening people with prison.
Why do liberals love prison so much?
Tag: justice system
On Brock Turner’s defenders and secrecy
Brock Turner’s defenders were shocked and surprised when their supportive testimony went public. They shouldn’t have been.
Using asset forfeiture to further disenfranchise marginalised communities
The US justice system is constantly on a quest to find new and exciting ways to keep marginalised communities down, and asset forfeiture represents just one of them — but it’s on the rise, and federal agencies in particular are applying it far too broadly, which makes it a concern that should be addressed more […]
Why people don’t report: Testimony
There’s a strong cultural pressure surrounding rape victims/survivors and reporting: You’re a bad person if you don’t report, if the rapist does it again it’s your fault, why wouldn’t you want the rapist to be punished, you need to talk about it to work through it, &c. This pressure doesn’t consider the needs of the […]
The Myth of Civil Rights on Television
My ongoing fascination with law enforcement on television has been stoked most recently by Almost Human, the Fox drama on policework in 2048, when human cops are partnered with androids in a hell-like version of Los Angeles that’s become plagued with crime and social inequity. As always, I find it fascinating that most television depictions […]
Prisoners Using Civil Suits to Fight for Justice
Being the sort of person who follows major civil suits coming out of prisons, my morning reading is often a bit grim and spattered with stories that might seem utterly bizarre to people who aren’t familiar with the abuses of the prison system. Prisoners are suing across the United States for the right to access […]
Funneling Children With Disabilities Into the Justice System Through Zero Tolerance Policies
The hot trend in US schools is zero tolerance policies, brought on by a series of incidents in the 1990s which reminded people that schools weren’t necessarily safe places to be. Columbine was probably the critical turning point, the moment at which people understood that violence could strike anywhere, at any time, and could involve […]
Public Defenders: Underpaid, Overworked, and Critical for the Justice System
Life as a public defender is rough. After finishing law school and being saddled with the accompanying debt, people work in an often maligned profession for minimal pay and extremely long hours. They’re not getting the perks and benefits available to private criminal defense attorneys, who can charge massive fees for their services, work out […]
Laying Some History On You: People v. Hall
In 1853, a court in San Francisco convicted a man of murder. Not a particularly remarkable case, except for two things. The victim, Ling Sing, was a Chinese miner, and the perpetrator was George Hall, a white man. To bring a white man to trial for the murder of a Chinese man was unusual, and […]
Eyewitnesses Are Not Reliable. So Why Are We Still Relying On Them?
Few things impress a jury more than an eyewitness. Someone who saw the crime take place, and gets up on the stand to testify about it. Eyewitness testimony is compelling in its simplicity; anyone can witness a crime and tell the jury what happened. Scientific evidence is often snarled and confusing, not cleanly laid out […]