11–20 of 82 posts
"SINCE 1994 Tracey Aldridge has been arrested 100 times, jailed 27 times for more than 1,000 days and spent a total of eight years in prison." The math does not add up. There were not 27000 days since 1994. Did I misinterpret something?
"SINCE 1994 Tracey Aldridge has been arrested 100 times, jailed 27 times for more than 1,000 days and spent a total of eight years in prison." The math does not add up. There were not 27000 days since 1994. Did I misinterpret something?
"SINCE 1994 Tracey Aldridge has been arrested 100 times, jailed 27 times for more than 1,000 days and spent a total of eight years in prison." The math does not add up. There were not 27000 days since 1994. Did I misinterpret something?
Well, if you want to be respected as more than "just a developer," you'll need to understand more about the real world. Specifically people.
If that doesn't convince you, look at it this way: healthcare is a huge, growing, and technologically behind-the-curve industry. It offers a huge market for your services. Mental healthcare needs better solutions.
Also, I have met my share of severally mentally disturbed developers. So this could be any of us we're talking about.
Great example of something that does not belong here. A social political issue with absolutely zero to do with tech or hacker news! Why is this getting upvotes?
I believe you're wrong here. HN is not just about tech. It has always had room for substantive articles about anything interesting. Is this article substantive? I'd say it's surprisingly so, for such a short piece. It contains a mix of anecdote, data, and history. I learned three or four things I didn't know, and I've read occasional stuff on this issue in the past. The graph alone is worth the visit.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
We need more articles about people winning the VC lottery and less about the wider suffering in society.... Social issues are issues which affect society. It doesn't concern you that there are people who haven't received treatment for their mental health problems making them a danger to themselves and society? It doesn't concern you that money is being wasted while cumulatively cheaper and more efficient solutions ex…
It concerns me. This discussion should not be on hacker news. These opinions are not mutually exclusive. Flagged the story.
Ok. I'll bite. Where should it be? What site provides deep discourse into these topics in an intelligent manner?
I see many comments here about developers upset about being treated as "just a developer." Well, if you want to be respected as more than "just a developer," you'll need to understand more about the real world. Specifically people. If that doesn't convince you, look at it this way: healthcare is a huge, growing, and technologically behind-the-curve industry. It offers a huge market for your services. Mental healthcar…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It concerns me. This discussion should not be on hacker news. These opinions are not mutually exclusive. Flagged the story.
> This discussion should not be on hacker news. Ok. I'll bite. Where should it be? What site provides deep discourse into these topics in an intelligent manner?
I will vote something up is based on the quality of the article (whether it's technical news or not), if it has not already been submitted recently and if the article will lead to an informative/intellectual discussion. If it only has one of those criteria, then I'm less likely to upvote it when there's other articles that meet two or all three criteria.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It concerns me. This discussion should not be on hacker news. These opinions are not mutually exclusive. Flagged the story.
> This discussion should not be on hacker news. Ok. I'll bite. Where should it be? What site provides deep discourse into these topics in an intelligent manner?
In terms of 'deep discourse': honestly, the level of discourse in HN comments on things that are outside the traditional purview of the site is not particularly deep. I've found that if you want deep discourse about a topic X, you should seek out areas where there are many people very knowledgable about X.
The petty theft is later discussed as theft from a supermarket, probably of some small food item.
As to the others, why should any of them be imprisonable offenses? Drinking in public? Drugs? Prostitution?
Trespassing is not breaking and entering, which is reasonable as an imprisonable offense. Shouldn't trespassing be an infraction with a modest fine?
Back to that food item she took from Whole Foods. In a fabulously wealthy nation, how is it that she has come to need to shoplift food to be able to eat. Is that not a failure of the society as a whole?
The proposed answer in the article is to have them committed by some sort of court order and place them indefinitely in a "secure nursing home" facility with an ankle bracelet. That's likely to be more costly than prison since it requires round the clock medical care, and is no better than a prison since they are locked up.
I propose a better solution. Decriminalize all of these things, leave this woman alone, and save the $719,436 it cost to imprison her for minor and non-offenses.
The article also makes the claim, "If someone decides he wants to walk around naked, or cannot give his name to a police officer, the likelihood is that he will end up in jail." If police are arresting people without probable cause or even reasonable suspicion, then it is the police that are acting illegally here. You are not required to identify yourself to any police officer just because he asks, and if he asks without reasonable suspicion or probable cause (it depends on the state which one is the threshold), and you refuse to state your name, then he can not arrest you for that sole reason. If he attempts to do so, it is false arrest, and you have the right under the law, upheld by the supreme court, to use any necessary force to resist illegal arrest.
Regarding walking around naked, that is permitted or tolerated in some areas such as nude beaches. There are also issues where people ask why it is that it is legal for men to go topless, yet is criminal for women to go topless? Should not the law apply equally to both men and women? That is a reasonable question and there is no answer that justifies this discrimination that is not intrinsically sexist. Is that what we want? What is so wrong with even total nudity? There is an old man in Barcelona who is well known for going about completely naked, wearing only his tattoos, pierced foreskin and often a full erection. The police do not bother him.
http://chrisrako.blogspot.com/2007/05/naked-man-of-barcelona...
Has Spanish society collapsed as a result? Is it obvious he should be in prison as The Economist advocates as common sense?
Or consider the Jainists, many of who walk about India naked because of their religious beliefs. Are they criminals as well?
http://s781.photobucket.com/albums/yy95/phuongvien_bucket/Do...
I propose that public nudity and refusing to give your name to police when they have no cause to ask it are both fundamental rights of man and that any society which denies these rights is tyrannical and any person who denies these rights is an enemy of humanity.
