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.
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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.
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For anyone who thinks what ICE is doing is new or limited to just ICE, this happened over a year ago. This is why due process is so important.
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Local officials worry they could even be charged for certain votes on city or county councils
That sounds legal, doesn’t it?
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Looks like Mr. Diddy is staying in jail for now.
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,”
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I have mentioned before that our criminal justice system is even worse than most people realize, even people who are progressive in their politics and support justice reform. I’m currently studying for the bar. This was a test question from one of the bar prep courses. I knew the answer, and I understand why it’s the answer, but if you need evidence of how fucked up our system is, even before Trump, this is a good example. (red was the answer the person who posted this to reddit guessed, green is the correct answer)
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Why?
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Well, notice it says the man was wanted before the FBI kidnapped him. So there is evidence of his crimes independent of the illegal arrest. And then it says he was indicted (as was the woman), which means evidence of their crimes was presented to a grand jury, and their illegal arrests aren’t the source of that evidence, so the indictments are still valid. The proper remedy for the 4th Amendment violations, in this case, would be a lawsuit against the FBI, not throwing out the indictments.
Personally, I think throwing out the indictments when such a thing occurs would be a much better deterrent to law enforcement violating people’s rights, but what do I know?
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Ah, I see what you’re saying.
Yeah.
Thanks!
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Yup, that is entirely logical, and I can follow the chain of thought. It is probably even right. And no way I can say this hypothetical person is a good guy, he is probably slime. It still feels wrong. But you do what you gotta do, I guess?
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Yeah, it’s just when you take this kind of thing, and combine it with how much Miranda has been weakened, the balance is massively in favor of the state right now, when they suspect you of a crime. For example, originally, if they failed to properly read you your Miranda rights, and you said something that led them to physical evidence, that evidence would be excluded as “fruit of the poisonous tree”. Not anymore. Now, Miranda violations can only exclude confessions, not physical evidence. It’s ridiculous, and it’s why you constantly hear lawyers telling people to NOT talk to the police without an attorney present.
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And this is why we need to have laws that create criminal penalties for violating peoples’ constitutional rights. The answer would still be the same, but with the addition that the FBI agents be charged with kidnapping and human trafficking.
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This is what you get when instead of fully funding a public defender’s office, you rely on private attorneys who the state underpays to represent indigent defendants.
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The solution, of course, is to get rid of that pesky “if you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be appointed for you” bit of socialism, and just convict based on accusation. That would speed up the system! (I mean, that’s basically what ICE is trialing currently, right?)
(/s, just to be clear)
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I half expected this to be simple and obvious, but I was wrong. It’s much more interesting and unexpected than I expected.
To quote the current top comment: “im 20 minutes in and this is not where i thought this video would go. what. the. fuck.”
I made it all the way through the video and I concur. It’s significantly weirder than I expected.
What do Bill Clinton, Michael Jackson, Daryl Gates, SWAT Teams, Jeffrey Epstein, junk bonds, Multilevel Marketing scams, and the assassination of Robert Kennedy all have in common with each other?
Well, it’s weird. A program that had been studied and was already known to be flawed and counterproductive even before it rolled out.
40 minutes long, but well worth the watch.
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I watch RV news channels and they have been covering the increasing changes in parking laws at state/municipal levels, recent attacks against national park funding, and attempts to increase camping costs on public lands (or privatize them). Now the regime (and state/municipal governments) are working hard to criminalize homelessness in a way that casts a wide net that will trap occasional campers, as well as full-time nomads, vanlifers, and RVers:
The points raised at the end of the video about eroding rights to privacy, freedom to use public or private property without breaking the law, and the methods LEOs are using for surveillance and enforcement are chilling. I can easily imagine the drone scenario she described with infrared / thermal tech included to make it clear where people are sleeping. This is another area of overreach where we need to fight back at all levels of government before it gets worse.
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Here are two examples of our criminal injustice system. The first is Reese Waters discussing Lauren Boebert, her family, and their encounters with law enforcement / the courts:
The second is John Oliver’s report on Deferred Prosecution Agreements, explaining why corporate crime rarely leads to prosecution, significant fines, and/or a prison sentences for executives involved in illegal activity:
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