Journal Journal: Justice 1
Rioters in England cause millions of dollars worth of damage in 2011. 3000 arrested.
Bankers in England cause billions of dollars worth of damage in 2008. Zero arrested.
This is what passes for justice these days.
Rioters in England cause millions of dollars worth of damage in 2011. 3000 arrested.
Bankers in England cause billions of dollars worth of damage in 2008. Zero arrested.
This is what passes for justice these days.
"God Hates Fags" -- Protected Speech
"Bong Hits for Jesus" -- Not Protected Speech
What the fuck is wrong with this country?
It used to be that metamoderation was just that, moderation of moderation. I haven't metamoderated in a while, but something has gone horribly wrong. When I go to metamod today, none of the comments are moderated. All I see is "Score: 1". What use is it for me to judge whether a comment has been moderated appropriately , when there's no moderation applied?
Just another reason Slashdot 2.0 sucks.
A government exists to protect it's citizens. Any government that doesn't, doesn't deserve to exist. Let's look at the US government.
In 2004 crime in the US cost its victims almost 16 billion dollars. [cite(pdf, table 82)]
The criminals behind the current financial crisis have cost the US *trillions* of dollars. Clearly, theft, fraud, and all other property crimes are insignificant in the face of this disaster, and our government did nothing to stop it, and is holding no one accountable. They have utterly failed in their responsibility to protect us.
The WTC attacks on 9/11/01 killed nearly 3000 Americans and caused losses reaching 1.7 trillion dollars in the stock market. [cite]
In response, Bush went to war with Iraq. This war has killed over 4500 Americans and will cost over 3.5 trillion dollars. [cite(pdf, p.1)] Not only did the US government fail to protect us, they harmed us worse than Bin Laden did.
Let's keep going. In 2007, 775,138 people were arrested for marijuana possession. In contrast, 597,447 were arrested for *all violent crimes combined. [cite]. As you can see, the US government victimizes more of its citizens than it protects.
So what's left to justify the existence of this government? Majority rule perhaps? Well, Barack Obama got 62.98 million votes in 2008. The voting age population in 2008 was 230,117,876.[cite] That's 27% of our population that voted for this president. That can in no way be interpreted as a mandate to rule.
From all these facts and figures, one conclusion is clear. The US government has no claim to legitimacy whatsoever.
I'll add to this as ideas come to me.
There shall be a right to trial by jury in all cases.
Abolish sovereign immunity.
Restitution must be made to innocent people falsely accused, if no charges are filed, or if a person is found innocent the state must bear their legal fees, lost wages, etc. Similarly, those who sue and lose should bear the costs to the defendent.
The punishment for legal negligence should be equivalent to the potential damage caused by the negligence. If a prosecutor neglects to produce exculpatory evidence during discovery, then he should get the same penalty that the defendant would have gotten.
There should be something akin to habeas corpus for evidence.
The president gets 2 weeks vacation per year, as do congressmen.
Congressmen must show up for work, i.e. they must be present to vote unless they're on vacation.
Congressmen must read and understand every bill they vote for. Perhaps bills should be read aloud before a vote, or maybe there should be a quiz.
Probable cause should be just that, probable. If any judge issues warrants, or officer makes arrests, and these warrants or arrests lead to convictions in less than 50% of cases they must lose their authority to issue warrants or make arrests.
Given the widespread practice of 'testilying', it shall be presumed reasonable to doubt any testimony given by a police officer. Everything an officer does while on duty must be recorded.
All jurors should be informed of their responsibility to nullify unjust laws.
Passing a law that is found unconstitutional will result in impeachment.
No corporate personhood.
No victim, no crime. If there is no actual, specific, individual victim, no crime has occurred.
Numeric stability is probably not all that important when you're guessing.