Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

US newspapers are deleting old crime stories, offering subjects a 'clean slate'

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 390 posts

Re: US newspapers are deleting old crime stories, offering subjects a 'clean slate'

#41

Post by dragonwriter »

janice1999 wrote: post #2

> One in three U.S. adults has been arrested by age 23. Does that seem crazy to anyone else? I'm in Ireland and can't think of one person in my extended family and friends that has any interaction with the police beyond routine insurance/DUI checkpoints or reporting incidents like car accidents.

The US is, by comparison to the rest of the developed world (and much of the rest of the world, besides) a very high police interaction regime, owing in no small part to the institutional and cultural aftereffects of the history of slavery and the use of the criminal justice system as a direct substitute for private chattel slavery when it was abolished.

Re: US newspapers are deleting old crime stories, offering subjects a 'clean slate'

#42

Post by xrd »

A flip side to this is that you can go here to see archives of newspapers:

https://news.google.com/newspapers

After reviewing lots of southern papers during the 1960s, shockingly (!) entire months are gone. I was really hoping to read their editorials saying what they thought MLK really was at that time, and then see what they wrote today. I figured this would be more fun than paying attention to Trump on inauguration day, which weirdly falls on the same day as MLK day.

Let's be frank, there probably isn't ad revenue for old crime stories that aren't sensationalized. So, the newspapers owners are not doing this out of the kindness of their hearts, or their thoughts on the criminal justice system.

How about instead, they agree moving forward to not publish crime stories about poor people at all? That I could get excited about.

Re: US newspapers are deleting old crime stories, offering subjects a 'clean slate'

#43

Post by baybal2 »

evujumenuk wrote: post #37

I understand this is the general policy in a few places, like Germany. The general idea seems to be that it is more beneficial to a society if criminals are given a viable avenue to lead non-criminal lives again, with the alternative being people going "ah fuck it, I guess I'm a criminal now". I'm surprised at this concept spreading in the US, since the system would generally benefit from having perpetual perpetrator…

[dead]

Re: US newspapers are deleting old crime stories, offering subjects a 'clean slate'

#44

Post by profile53 »

1over137 wrote: post #32
bookofjoe wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

25 years ago I got a misdemeanor citation for rollerblading on the sidewalk in downtown Charlottesville, Virginia, which required me to make a court appearance and pay for a VERY expensive lawyer to get the charge thrown out. If instead I'd paid the $25 fine, I'd have had a permanent misdemeanor charge on my record.

Having a record of such a minor infraction doesn’t seem to me a problem, in and of itself. The problem would be if such records were public, available to potential employers, etc. If the records were private to the courts, that’d be something else. Not sure how it is in USA.

In the USA it is public record which in practice means anyone with money can get the record. This is potentially a large part of the high US recidivism. Once you have been convicted once, most employers will see the record and refuse to hire you forever.

Re: US newspapers are deleting old crime stories, offering subjects a 'clean slate'

#45

Post by dragonwriter »

1over137 wrote: post #32
bookofjoe wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

25 years ago I got a misdemeanor citation for rollerblading on the sidewalk in downtown Charlottesville, Virginia, which required me to make a court appearance and pay for a VERY expensive lawyer to get the charge thrown out. If instead I'd paid the $25 fine, I'd have had a permanent misdemeanor charge on my record.

Having a record of such a minor infraction doesn’t seem to me a problem, in and of itself. The problem would be if such records were public, available to potential employers, etc. If the records were private to the courts, that’d be something else. Not sure how it is in USA.

Adult criminal records are public in the US (juvenile records vary by state but are usually confidential, and I think in most states also automatically expunged after a certain period or age.)

Re: US newspapers are deleting old crime stories, offering subjects a 'clean slate'

#46

Post by cynicalkane »

coliveira wrote: post #28
ternnoburn wrote: post #21

I'm ok with this, as long as it's systemic. Otherwise it's just another way for people with means to get a leg up on people without means. If it's, "we delete all crime stories after N years", then fine, especially for low level, non violent stuff. The punishment for crimes should come from the justice system and people should be able to pay their dues and move on.

> especially for low level, non violent stuff This is codeword for financial, white collar crimes. So, it is definitely a policy serving the rich.

It's generally the disadvantaged and poor who get hit for low-level, non-violent stuff.

Re: US newspapers are deleting old crime stories, offering subjects a 'clean slate'

#47

Post by yuliyp »

janice1999 wrote: post #2

> One in three U.S. adults has been arrested by age 23. Does that seem crazy to anyone else? I'm in Ireland and can't think of one person in my extended family and friends that has any interaction with the police beyond routine insurance/DUI checkpoints or reporting incidents like car accidents.

I'm trying to figure out where that number comes from. The link to The Sentencing Project claims this, but the link to NCSL instead states "Approximately 77 million Americans, or 1 in every 3 adults, have a criminal record."

Like, this feels like it's got to include speeding tickets in the mix to get something that high.

Re: US newspapers are deleting old crime stories, offering subjects a 'clean slate'

#48

Post by rychco »

janice1999 wrote: post #2

> One in three U.S. adults has been arrested by age 23. Does that seem crazy to anyone else? I'm in Ireland and can't think of one person in my extended family and friends that has any interaction with the police beyond routine insurance/DUI checkpoints or reporting incidents like car accidents.

The prison-industrial complex in the United States encourages this. While less than 10% of prisoners are in “for-profit” prisons, there’s a large industry of private companies beyond this that profit off federal prisons; in addition to providing cheap prison labor or goods made by prison laborers (AKA modern slavery)

Re: US newspapers are deleting old crime stories, offering subjects a 'clean slate'

#50

Post by wat10000 »

bookofjoe wrote: post #19
sgjohnson wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Criminal records would include all misdemeanors. You can get a misdemeanor without ever being arrested. In some cases trivial things like speeding can be a misdemeanor requiring a court appearance.

25 years ago I got a misdemeanor citation for rollerblading on the sidewalk in downtown Charlottesville, Virginia, which required me to make a court appearance and pay for a VERY expensive lawyer to get the charge thrown out. If instead I'd paid the $25 fine, I'd have had a permanent misdemeanor charge on my record.

I was charged with misdemeanor reckless driving for going the speed limit in heavy rain and hydroplaning into another car. My fault for sure, but a criminal charge seems over the top.

Spent $1,500 on a lawyer who negotiated it to a trivial “failure to maintain control” ticket with a maybe $100 fine.

The system is dumb. Or maybe it’s smart, giving people with means, like us, favorable treatment without having to outright say “poor people aren’t worthy.”

Post reply on HN