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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'

#251

Post by impossiblefork »

like_any_other wrote: post #244
impossiblefork wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are enormous problems with this kind of thing though, especially when for example, a murderer is part of the establishment or is cuddled by the big established entities. There was a guy who was a motor journalist for a major Swedish newspaper (Dagens Nyheter) who stabbed a man to death while his friends prevented the man's escape, and you basically don't get to hear about. It's even been removed from the journa…

What is this journalist's name? I couldn't find any information on this, but I don't have much to go on - Dagens Nyheter being a newspaper means "Dagens Nyheter murder" surfaces a lot of results of the newspaper reporting on murders.

Jacques Wallner.

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

#252

Post by scarab92 »

bko wrote: post #219

I wish newspapers were more concerned about being an objective system of record rather than trying to push social goals by helping rewrite history. They should post follow-ups for those wrongly convicted or after the fact caveats but completely memory holeing news stories strikes me as deeply disturbing

I would like them to refrain from naming people until/unless they are actually convicted.

Heck, I would probably go a step further and update defamation laws to make publishing allegations (legal or otherwise) considered equivalent to making allegations. Far too many lives have been ruined by media “just reporting on allegations”

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

#253

Post by whoitwas »

jgalt212 wrote: post #125
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 prison slavery system. extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Where is the enslavement?

In the US police and prisons are directly derived from slave patrols. This is history and factual.

In prison and jail inmates work for rates like $.25 an hour. Many places in the south prison inmates are contracted out to work minimum wage jobs and denied parole.

Recidivism rates for people incarcerated more than 6 months is something like 66% for one year post release.

There are private prisons that benefit from more prisoners. In many places the jail or prison is the largest and best employer.

... .. . You can go on forever. It's maybe getting better in some places, but not where they used to have slavery.

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

#254

Post by dwaltrip »

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…

What!?! Why did they do that? Absolutely bonkers.

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

#255

Post by ocschwar »

sethhochberg wrote: post #206
ocschwar wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm honestly surprised that after 20 years of the Internet "never forgetting" things like this, we haven't gotten a lot better about forgiving them instead.

Much has been written about Gen Z having a tiny appetite for risky behavior, and the causes are attributed to all sorts of stuff. But my entirely unscientific bet is that there is a real chilling effect to growing up as the first generation that had entirely digital “permanent records” and zero tolerance policies for their entire lives. Very little room for error when, regardless of whether you learned anything from…

I have to admit I kind of inflicted this on my own child. She has her paper diaries, which are sacred, not to be touched, and a box for putting any artifacts she doesn't want me to see. But for any interaction with electronic devices, the rule is "don't do anything you don't want your parents to see. Just assume we can."

But the thing is, her permanent record exists, and I do not control it, so inhibiting her from entering things into it is somewhat called for.

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

#256

Post by ddingus »

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.

True story:

In the late 70's my Uncle had a run of bad luck and a dubious business partner basically sink him financially. After some discussion, he made a plan. It was simple:

Uncle goes back to Virginia to lay low in one of the back hollers.

My mom gets his mail, due to him living with us for a while[1], and writes "Deceased" on it, and "Return to Sender"

5 years pass. Maybe 4, I can't remember.

Uncle shows up, everything is fine, and he and my aunt live out the rest of their days in a small comfy trailer no worries.

[1] Living and other time with this Uncle was a great time in my life.

Edit due to device change: My uncle had one eye, the other lost when he was young and unlucky in the woods. He read everything and acquired a great many skills which he proceeded to pass along to me: lock picking, electronics, engine rebuilding and a ton about autos, working with wood, metals, tools... He is probably still doing that in his afterlife. Good soul who I treasure having known.

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

#259

Post by watwut »

worik wrote: post #174
dylan604 wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The negative knee jerk reaction to things has become comical. It's to the point where schools will not allow the parents of a student that has a record to come on school campus. They don't even care what the offense was for; they only look that there's not a clean slate.

> schools will not allow the parents of a student that has a record to come on school campus It is even wider than that. I have noticed in my wider circle of friends. Deciding somebody is "bad" and ostracising them. Often when people are at their most vulnerable and need to wrapped in love by their friends they get the opposite.

People kicking someone out of their immediate circle is not a new development. It always existed - both for good reasons and bad reasons.

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

#260

Post by bdangubic »

bko wrote: post #219

I wish newspapers were more concerned about being an objective system of record rather than trying to push social goals by helping rewrite history. They should post follow-ups for those wrongly convicted or after the fact caveats but completely memory holeing news stories strikes me as deeply disturbing

number of views/shares when someone is accused on something: 876.5 billion

number or views/shares on the follow-up for wrong conviction: 17

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