Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/10/09/though-crime-happens-everywher.html
…
2 Likes
A police officer sees a drunken man intently searching the ground near a lamppost and asks him the goal of his quest. The inebriate replies that he is looking for his car keys, and the officer helps for a few minutes without success then he asks whether the man is certain that he dropped the keys near the lamppost.
“No,” is the reply, “I lost the keys somewhere across the street.” “Why look here?” asks the surprised and irritated officer. “The light is much better here,” the intoxicated man responds with aplomb.
28 Likes
I can’t see how this will be anything other than a viscous circle.
7 Likes
Well, that’s what happens when the tall, frosty glass of just-ice is left to melt on the kitchen counter of society: a viscous circle of INjust-ice!
7 Likes
what’s the source for 97% pleading guilty statistic and what year(s) is it from?
1 Like
And, I wonder, what did the officer think that said inebriate was going to do with the lost keys on finding them?
1 Like
How are you supposed to arrest someone for drunk driving if you can’t get them in their car first? That’s just community policing 101.
12 Likes
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (2005), in 2003 there were 75,573 cases disposed of in federal district court by trial or plea. Of these, about 95 percent were disposed of by a guilty plea (Pastore and Maguire, 2003).
- https://www.bja.gov/Publications/PleaBargainingResearchSummary.pdf
In 2013, while 8 percent of all federal criminal charges were dismissed (either because of a mistake in fact or law or because the defendant had decided to cooperate), more than 97 percent of the remainder were resolved through plea bargains, and fewer than 3 percent went to trial. The plea bargains largely determined the sentences imposed.
While corresponding statistics for the fifty states combined are not available, it is a rare state where plea bargains do not similarly account for the resolution of at least 95 percent of the felony cases that are not dismissed; and again, the plea bargains usually determine the sentences, sometimes as a matter of law and otherwise as a matter of practice.
- Why Innocent People Plead Guilty | Jed S. Rakoff | The New York Review of Books
6 Likes
I lived under these red splotches… this is an entirely crap set of maps, but also a lame article.
Honestly? Who cares where the drug use is? Does it really seem like more police resources should be devoted to Adams Point? There were children being sold as prostitutes on my block. I was informed by the city that non-violent crimes, like “burglary,” wouldn’t be investigated. Also, cops weren’t going into West or East Oakland because those places are too dangerous.
So, Pedopol… feh… whatever. Garbage in, garbage out.
3 Likes
If Chicago can cut their number of police stops by 80 percent, I don’t see any reason why any other city can’t do the same.
They would if they could. The attitude seems to be, if it happens outside of a home, they should know of it (and your computers are considered to be outside your home).
2 Likes
In my RSS feed reader, at a glance, I thought the title was “Thought crime happens everywhere”
11 Likes
Everywhere there’s people. That’s the great thing about thought crime: everybody does it. Or can be convinced that they did it.
thanks!
1 Like
oops, posted to wrong thread. Please delete…
I’ve always assumed that that story predates cars; it sure changes a bit without that assumption.
Oops, comment posted to wrong thread. Mods please delete…
What year was this?
I live in North Oakland right now. Oakland PD is understaffed. Frankly, I agree with you about drug use. I don’t care for the cops harassing most folks for it when we have actual violent crime that is unaddressed.
So, going by the image at the top of the post, the amazing prediction offered by the computer algorithm is to make arrests where there have already been a lot of arrests? I’m amazed that the cops needed a lot of expensive computer modelling to be encouraged to do what they’ve already been doing.
