> -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Steve Thompson > Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2005 12:13 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: RE: Gripes About Airport Security Grow Louder > > > --- Tyler Durden <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > [airport security] > > More indications of an emerging 'Brazil' scenario, as opposed to a > > hyper-intelligent super-fascist state. > > As if. > > There already is a kind of intelligent super-fascist state in place > thoughout much of society. My bugbears of the moment are the > police and > courts, so you get my take on how they are organised so as to be > 'intelligent' without seeming so -- which further enables a > whole lot of > fraud to masqerade as process and incompetence. The > super-fascist part > comes about because the system avoids public accountability while also > somehow evading any sort of reasonable standard of performance. > > What's the error rate, that is the false arrest, prosecution, and/or > conviction rate of a Western countries' judiciary and police > divitions? > If it's even ten percent, and it's probably much higher, then > there is no > reason to respect the operation and perpetuation of the system.
One chilling data point. Remember a few years ago the (pro death penalty) governor of Illinois suspended all the death sentences in has state? The reason being was that with the introduction of DNA testing, 1/3 of the people on death row were found to be innocent. I don't know how many other innocents the state planned to murder, but presumably there were some cases where DNA evidence was not available. If, in a capital case, where the money to pay public defenders is usually maximally available, and the appeals process, checks, and cross-checks are the more thorough than in any non-capital prosecution, you STILL get at least a 33% error rate, then what is the wrongfull conviction rate in non-capital cases, where there are far fewer appeals, and public defenders are paid a pittance? Peter Trei
