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

111–120 of 390 posts

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

#111

Post by DonHopkins »

PessimalDecimal wrote: post #62
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, th…

Whenever I'm openly performing nefarious illegal acts in public, I always wear my Sixfinger, so if anyone takes a photo of me, I can plausibly deny it by pointing out (while not wearing it) that the photo shows six fingers, and obviously must have been AI generated.

In support of said nefarious illegal acts, the Sixfinger includes a cap-loaded grenade launcher, gun, fragmentation bomb, ballpoint pen, code signaler, and message missile launcher. It's like a Swiss Army Finger! You can 3d print a cool roach clip attachment too.

"How did I ever get along with five???"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElVzs0lEULs

https://www.museumofplay.org/blog/sixfinger-sixfinger-man-al...

https://www.museumofplay.org/app/uploads/2010/11/Sixfinger-p...

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

#113

Post by datavirtue »

gjm11 wrote: post #23
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.

It'll vary a lot by demographic. It's not that 1/3 of every group of US adults has ever been arrested, it's that there are some groups where hardly ever have and some groups where a huge fraction have, and it averages out to 1/3. In particular, I bet that if you look at poor black men who live in US cities the figure is very very high. Maybe it's close to 100%.[1] If you look at middle-class white women living in the…

I live in Cincinnati and I'm continually surprised to meet African Americans who all seem to have an immediate family member who has been shot. And that's without the subject even coming up with a lot of them. At this point, I would be afraid to ask. (Most are not involving police)

Among whites the only person I know to have been shot dropped his shotgun and accidentally blew half his forearm off while hunting.

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

#114

Post by SoftTalker »

Filligree wrote: post #60
add-sub-mul-div wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're describing punishment by the state. One is entitled to move on from a fine or imprisonment. One is not entitled to a clean social or occupational reputation. There's a good reason those consequences exist.

It’s useful for society if there’s a way for criminals to reintegrate into society. If potential employers can always check for a criminal record, and refuse to hire criminals, then guess what those criminals will do? The answer isn’t “starve to death”. Previously there were practical limits to how long a sentence could follow you. If you moved across the country, you might lose whatever family you still have, but at…

There are employers who don't care about criminal records, at least up to a point. Most trade unions don't, and many other blue-collar employers don't. A criminal record isn't going to prevent you from working, but it might limit your choices.

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

#115

Post by datavirtue »

yuliyp wrote: post #47
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.

Speeding tickets are not criminal.

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

#116

Post by FredPret »

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…

There are private prisons in the US that benefit from more prisoners.

But there are many more people and organizations there that benefit from fewer prisoners.

For most purposes, a country is not a singular thing.

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

#117

Post by doctorpangloss »

GuB-42 wrote: post #84
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; and the life expectancy is high at 83. This gives you 41 years for a cumulative 25% chance to have been involved in your first car injury. It doesn't account for the fact that people can be injured more than once. Taking that into account, the number would be closer to 50 years. It also makes agency mo…

> 5-10% difference seems crazy.

Well. That’s what it is. It’s crazy only because of how deeply you believe in agency.

If you instead think deeply about the numbers, and then the fact that you are comparing two completely different driving environments, one thing becomes clear: the way the driving environment is designed and driving culture is administered in France might be much better and safer! Then, agency plays a relatively larger role, by definition, even if it is absolutely small everywhere. Whereas in America, such as in San Francisco and many other communities, a lot of injuries are probably attributable to the environment and culture. This is at least the expert consensus is, not just the consensus of insurance companies.

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

#118

Post by benatkin »

caymanjim wrote: post #49

[flagged]

You don’t avoid 1984 (mass surveillance) by being 1984 (erasing history).

Edit: to expand my thought, what you just said would be erased if we got in the habit of erasing stuff because it might be unpleasant. So while maybe this kind of opposition to Internet Archive would get rid of it, good luck preserving your well intentioned reason for it far into the future. A world in which books are burned/rewritten is a world in which it’s impossible to give a shit about anything on a societal level, including privacy.

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

#119

Post by [deleted] »

gosub100 wrote: post #108
caymanjim wrote: post #49

[flagged]

> That stupid shit you said in some obscure forum when you were a teenager What's the first presidential election going to be like when the first candidate who was old enough to have a Facebook or myspace runs for election? Each opponent will do anything they can do disparage the 35+ year olds character with the words he uttered as a teenager. I think one of the unintentional consequences of this newspaper move will…

[deleted]

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

#120

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]
Post reply on HN