CBP agents at the border accused Brösche of planning to violate the terms of the visa waiver program by intending to work as a tattoo artist during her trip to LA, Lofving said.
The beauty of this kind of accusation is they don’t have to prove anything. She had the proper papers, had done nothing illegal or even questionable, but was planning to do so. How can you prove a negative? I am going to guess that ICE doesn’t have to bother with the whole “innocent until proven guilty” thing, so she is screwed.
Well…yeah, I don’t know how that works. I know how it should work. Nowhere in the Constitution does it say that the 4th Amendment only applies to US citizens. They should have to have probable cause to believe she was going to violate the visa waiver. They can stop her at the border and check ID and search her and all that shit without violating the 4th Amendment. But to detain her pending deportation should require probable cause. And their feefees shouldn’t be sufficient. But this woman is a tattoo artist, and she looks the stereotypical part: lots of tattoos and piercings. She looks like “one of those people” to law enforcement and ICE, the kind they don’t think should be allowed into the country. But it’s more than that, because if that’s all it was, why not just deny her entry and send her back into Mexico? No, these private detention centers are making money off this, and I’m guessing the more people they have in custody, and the longer those people stay in custody, the more they get paid. Government efficiency my fucking ass. These oligarchs are going to drain the nation’s coffers of every last penny if they can.
I’m not a lawyer, but it seems to me like the best technical outcome would be holding the prosecutors/AG trying to drop the case as quid pro quo for their boss (while keeping the option for blackmail open later) in contempt and jailing them.
The prosecutors asked for the case to be dropped without prejudice, which would have allowed them to refile charges later. Instead, the judge dismissed with prejudice, which means Adams will never be held accountable.
For anyone who wasn’t aware, the California bar exam in February was a disaster. They switched from the UBE most of the country used to their own exam, which was at least partly online, and had all kinds of problems. Now, it’s been revealed that AI wrote some of the questions, and shit is hitting the fan all over again.
Some additional stats and info about bail. Bail exists ostensibly for two reasons: to help ensure people show up for their day in court, and to protect the public from dangerous people until they can be convicted and sentenced. There are many problems with this, but here are the two biggest problems with those reasons. One, there is no data to support the idea that bail makes it more likely for defendants to appear in court. None. Zero. Zip. Nada. It’s one of those things that feels like it makes logical sense, but the data just doesn’t support it. Two, pretrial detention of defendants who may be a danger to society, by definition, presumes they are guilty. This violates what is supposed to be the core tenet of our criminal justice system, that all those charged with crimes are presumed innocent and the burden is on the state to prove their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. I understand that it doesn’t feel good to think about someone who might be a violent and desperate person free to walk the streets while awaiting their trial for murder, but keeping innocent, wrongfully accused people in jail for months to years before they even get their day in court does more harm.
On any given day, 400,000 to 500,000 people are in pretrial detention in the United States. That’s about a quarter of all people incarcerated in the US right now. We have, by far, more people incarcerated of any country in the world, AND 1 IN 4 OF THOSE PEOPLE HAVE NOT YET BEEN CONVICTED OF A CRIME. And, of course, a disproportionate number of those people are people of color, and almost all of them are poor. This is a national embarrassment that very clearly violates the 8th Amendment to our Constitution.
At a hearing in Manhattan federal court hours after the verdict was read, U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian said Combs must remain in federal lockup in Brooklyn for now given the ample evidence presented at trial of violent acts Combs had committed.
“It is impossible for the defendant to demonstrate by clear and convincing evidence that he poses no danger,”