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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'

#91

Post by bookofjoe »

profile53 wrote: post #44
1over137 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

No, it means anyone with — or without — money can get the record right here:

https://www.judyrecords.com/

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

#92

Post by wat10000 »

bookofjoe wrote: post #90
wat10000 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 gr…

So you're saying I should have paid the fine and had the charge recorded, creating a criminal record for myself?

Not in the least. I’m just saying there are good reasons for everything that did happen to be public record. (And some good reasons for privacy. There’s a conflict and a balance to be found.)

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

#93

Post by wat10000 »

Filligree wrote: post #89
wat10000 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From your use of “kmph” I’m going to guess that you live in a country with decent driver training. I’m in the US, where driver training goes just slightly beyond checking if the candidate is capable of fogging a mirror. I learned in a northern state so we learned a lot about how to deal with ice and snow, but I don’t think there was anything about rain. If there was, I’d forgotten it in the 20+ years since I last had…

Well, I originally missed the “criminal” bit. I was agreeing that it was reckless. A misdemeanour wouldn’t be considered a criminal charge where I live; it goes through a similar system, but has far fewer implications. The original fine seems reasonable.

Ok. Unfortunately that bit was the entire point. If it had been a “reckless driving” traffic ticket I wouldn’t have a problem with it and wouldn’t be commenting about it here.

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

#94

Post by blackeyeblitzar »

cynicalkane wrote: post #46
coliveira wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Are they the ones also committing more of them statistically - is that why (or are you saying they are targeted)? And if so why is that the case - there are plenty of people who are disadvantaged and poor and don’t commit crimes. Look at various immigrant minority groups for example.

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

#97

Post by HPsquared »

Yeul wrote: post #82
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…

Before things like the FBI and the telegraph it was quite common for Americans to find a new life in another state. You could be married in New York but nobody in Montana would know unless they actively started an investigation. The world has become a village.

It's one of those feudal villages you can't leave.

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

#98

Post by xrd »

slowmovintarget wrote: post #79
xrd wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's probably just me, but it feels like reporting on crime is very lopsided and slanted against the powerless.

The powerless are usually the victims, not the criminals. Criminals are by definition exerting their power (usually through physical violence) over people who have even less "power." Not everything is about power dynamics, and crime rarely is. Far more often it is about selfishness.

Again, would love to be proved wrong, but I think physical violence is far and away the majority of crime reported, but the minority (in my own definition) of crimes committed.

As an example, I think RealPage and the rent collusion they were doing clearly is illegal. And, has impacted hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people.. But, you'll see a lot more reporting on a shooting in every newspaper, even though in most cases that would directly impact only a few people.

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

#99

Post by SoftTalker »

tokai wrote: post #27

I know Library of Congress has a newspaper database. But does anyone know if newspapers are covered by mandatory deposit in the US? Many European countries archive all national newspapers, printed or digital, so they won't be lost for posterity if deleted by their publisher. To me it seems unreasonable to require publishers to keep an immutable record. Shouldn't be forced by law to keep up your blog posts. National L…

The local newspaper here recently shut down. They had close to 100 years of archives, went to the dump. They tried to give them to the library, to the local university, to anyone. No takers.

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

#100

Post by urronglol »

steelframe wrote: post #74

I used to work with someone who was arrested for having a beer in his possession when he was 20 years old. The circumstances were pretty colorful, and so it made the local news. He had since worked his way into management at the company we worked for. One day he mentioned that the article about his arrest finally fell off the Google index after more than a decade, and he was relieved about that. One of his reports in…

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