AP says it will no longer name people charged with minor crimes

boing
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Originally published at: AP says it will no longer name people charged with minor crimes | Boing Boing

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Seems like a good call to me too. I’m assuming that it doesn’t apply to politicians and famous people who commit minor crimes. It’s also hard to tell if this is from the goodness of their hearts or if it has to do with the EU “right to be forgotten” stuff.

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Wow, side stepped that one. Again.

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Don’t suppose they can do that retroactively with their archives, now can they?

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Depends on “minor”. A disorderly conduct arrest for some Karen who’s yelling racist shit at some poor McDonalds employee is indicative of a dysfunctional anti-social person who isn’t safe to be near.

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Here in the Netherlands (and I think also in some other neighbouring countries), suspects are usually identified only by first name, initial, and sometimes age, hometown, nationality or occupation. The main exception is if they’re still on the run, in which case their full name and photos are used to aid in finding them.

This continues even after they’ve been convicted.

You do occasionally get ridiculous things like “Jan M., the owner of Modaal and Sons builders” or “Piet Modaal, the father of the suspect Jan M.”- or papers that stop using a suspect’s name once they are arrested, by which point it’s already public knowledge.

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Mutants can’t get enough of Florida man? Seriously this is a good policy.

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There is, ultimately, a question to confront: if the crime is so trivial that the person committing it deserves anonymity, why are we reporting it?

Looks at several articles and links posted by boing boing

pause

rereads that final bit of editorial high-horsemanship

okay sure

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The concerns of the mob have been noted.

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There is, ultimately, a question to confront: if the crime is so trivial that the person committing it deserves anonymity, why are we reporting it?

Kind of specious. There are plenty of incidents that are minor/trivial, that are nevertheless notable/news.

Plus, Europe doesnt even report the names of suspected murderers until they are actually charged.

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Saw the headline and wondered, “Why now?”

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a hundred years ago newspapers would publish the street address of anybody mentioned in an article

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A hundred years ago finding a specific week-old article required astronomical luck; now you need 5 seconds.

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