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

theguardian.com

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

#61

Post by brookst »

luckylion wrote: post #20
doctorpangloss wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can figure this for anything, and prepare to be shocked. The variables are the number of incidents per period, the population during that period, and the expected duration an incident could occur. For example, in San Francisco, there are about 4700 car related injuries and deaths per year; about 800000 people; and the life expectancy is high at 83. This gives you 41 years for a cumulative 25% chance to have been…

> For example, in San Francisco, there are about 4700 car related injuries and deaths per year; about 800000 people; 800k permanent residents. > In 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic more than 26 million visitors travelled to San Francisco. That changes your statistics quite a bit.

Indeed. If we assume two days per visitor, that would be 140k additional people.

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

#62

Post by PessimalDecimal »

caymanjim wrote: post #49

[flagged]

That's doubtful. This "panopticon" version of the future is in direct competition with the increasing sophistication of deep fakes and other means of generating content. Instead of everything you've ever done being easily searchable, verified to be you, and there to shame you forever, another view of where we're headed is to where all content from the past is subject to doubts and questions of authenticity. To me, the latter scenario seems likelier to occur.

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

#63

Post by thefaux »

luckylion wrote: post #20
doctorpangloss wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can figure this for anything, and prepare to be shocked. The variables are the number of incidents per period, the population during that period, and the expected duration an incident could occur. For example, in San Francisco, there are about 4700 car related injuries and deaths per year; about 800000 people; and the life expectancy is high at 83. This gives you 41 years for a cumulative 25% chance to have been…

> For example, in San Francisco, there are about 4700 car related injuries and deaths per year; about 800000 people; 800k permanent residents. > In 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic more than 26 million visitors travelled to San Francisco. That changes your statistics quite a bit.

I don't think it does unless you assume that San Francisco roadways are on aggregate dramatically safer or more dangerous than other places.

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

#64

Post by Filligree »

wat10000 wrote: post #50
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.

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 outri…

Frankly, I think the original sentence was accurate. If that had been a cyclist instead of a car then they’d be dead.

The speed limit is a limit, not a requirement. Driving fast in conditions where you can hydroplane is absolutely reckless.

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

#65

Post by wat10000 »

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.

It’s a difficult balance. On one hand, privacy is important. On the other hand, visibility into the system is an important check on the power of law enforcement. It’s especially important for arrests; you really, really do not want the police to be allowed to secretly jail people. But it’s important for other things too. In this example, if the police were using rollerblading citations as a way to harass a certain group of people, it’s good to have access to that information to be able to discover this.

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

#67

Post by cj »

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…

The article isn’t strictly talking about prisoners.

In the example in the article, a kid vandalized a tombstone in a graveyard, and can’t find a job years later.

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

#68

Post by [deleted] »

kQq9oHeAz6wLLS wrote: post #9
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.

That seems exceptionally high, and I'm assuming the study was mostly (all?) urban subjects, which could skew the results heavily. I can't think of more than 2 people I know that have an arrest history, and I know a LOT of (non-urban dwelling) people.

[deleted]

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

#69

Post by CuriouslyC »

veny20 wrote: post #31

This is Orwellian gaslighting. These papers should no longer be viewed as authoritive keepers of the public record. Any institution that engages in this kind of memory-holing forfeits all credibility. They can no longer be trusted whatsoever.

Imagine someone who got pardoned by the state for a minor crime (so a clean criminal record) but who still had a newspaper article about them. That would be a raw deal.

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

#70

Post by wat10000 »

Filligree wrote: post #64
wat10000 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 outri…

Frankly, I think the original sentence was accurate. If that had been a cyclist instead of a car then they’d be dead. The speed limit is a limit, not a requirement. Driving fast in conditions where you can hydroplane is absolutely reckless.

Restricted access highway, no cyclists allowed or present.

I don't think “reckless” is the right word. Clueless, really. I didn’t know there was a problem until I lost traction.

Whatever you want to call it, do you really think that’s worth a criminal charge? Possibly destroying my livelihood over this? Do you think the possibility of criminal charges is what stops me from doing it again, versus the potential damage to life and property, including my own? Lay it out for me.

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