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Google Engineer bails out student in jail

neil.fraser.name

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Re: Google Engineer bails out student in jail

#31

Post by _delirium »

qq66 wrote: post #26
mixmax wrote: post #24

25% of the world population in jail is American. 737 out of 100.000 Americans are in jail, that's almost one out of a hundred. As a comparison Denmark has 59 out of 100.000 people in jail. And the number of Americans in jail has been rising steadily for the last 20 years. This is a pretty serious problem.

That 25% number seems pretty hard to believe, given that compared to all countries (not developed countries) America is very low-crime and America is 5% of the world's population. I suspect that either a) poorer countries are too cash-strapped to lock up dangerous criminals or b) that many poorer countries don't have reliable data on prisoner numbers.

Another possibility is that America is jailing a lot of people who are not really "dangerous criminals".

Re: Google Engineer bails out student in jail

#32

Post by bad_user »

qq66 wrote: post #26
mixmax wrote: post #24

25% of the world population in jail is American. 737 out of 100.000 Americans are in jail, that's almost one out of a hundred. As a comparison Denmark has 59 out of 100.000 people in jail. And the number of Americans in jail has been rising steadily for the last 20 years. This is a pretty serious problem.

That 25% number seems pretty hard to believe, given that compared to all countries (not developed countries) America is very low-crime and America is 5% of the world's population. I suspect that either a) poorer countries are too cash-strapped to lock up dangerous criminals or b) that many poorer countries don't have reliable data on prisoner numbers.

You forgot (c) law enforcement gone mad in the US.

Re: Google Engineer bails out student in jail

#33

Post by benatkin »

gcb wrote: post #17
benatkin wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know of him because of http://code.google.com/p/google-diff-match-patch/ which is best in its class by a longshot. And it's a very awesome class of a library: a powerful text diff tool with implementations in multiple languages. Haven't read TFA yet but I'm expecting I'll be even more impressed by him when I get done reading it. Edit: read the article. What an amazing contribution to justice! I'm especially glad to…

The bail and nicely commented code. now you can't not like the guy!

If you don't like heroes, you could not like the guy!

Re: Google Engineer bails out student in jail

#34

Post by zeemonkee »

mixmax wrote: post #24

25% of the world population in jail is American. 737 out of 100.000 Americans are in jail, that's almost one out of a hundred. As a comparison Denmark has 59 out of 100.000 people in jail. And the number of Americans in jail has been rising steadily for the last 20 years. This is a pretty serious problem.

Or a pretty serious opportunity, if you get to build/run prisons for a living. Given how corrupt US politics is, I'm sure the two are connected.

Re: Google Engineer bails out student in jail

#35

Post by mixmax »

qq66 wrote: post #26
mixmax wrote: post #24

25% of the world population in jail is American. 737 out of 100.000 Americans are in jail, that's almost one out of a hundred. As a comparison Denmark has 59 out of 100.000 people in jail. And the number of Americans in jail has been rising steadily for the last 20 years. This is a pretty serious problem.

That 25% number seems pretty hard to believe, given that compared to all countries (not developed countries) America is very low-crime and America is 5% of the world's population. I suspect that either a) poorer countries are too cash-strapped to lock up dangerous criminals or b) that many poorer countries don't have reliable data on prisoner numbers.

"The United States' incarceration rate is, according to official reports, the highest in the world, at 737 persons imprisoned per 100,000 (as of 2005).[7] A report released in 2008 indicates that in the United States more than 1 in 100 adults is now confined in an American jail or prison.[8] The United States has 4% of the world's population and 25% of the world's incarcerated population.[9]"

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration

Re: Google Engineer bails out student in jail

#36

Post by qq66 »

bad_user wrote: post #32
qq66 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That 25% number seems pretty hard to believe, given that compared to all countries (not developed countries) America is very low-crime and America is 5% of the world's population. I suspect that either a) poorer countries are too cash-strapped to lock up dangerous criminals or b) that many poorer countries don't have reliable data on prisoner numbers.

You forgot (c) law enforcement gone mad in the US.

I didn't forget it, I don't think that that can be a 50x effect.

Re: Google Engineer bails out student in jail

#37

Post by tlrobinson »

jrockway wrote: post #27
waterlesscloud wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The part about "attempted lynching" results from an accusation that the student yelled "Kick her (the police officer's) ass!" during the confrontation. At least that makes the charge make sense, though of course who knows if it's true or not. Details were linked off the linked page- http://www.laweekly.com/2010-12-09/news/jeremy-marks-attempt...

This seems pretty weak to me. So say you are having the shit beaten out of you. You're being beaten, and shit is coming out. Will the shout, "kick her ass" yelled by some random onlooker change your strategy for dealing with the situation? You were going to just lay there, but because of that onlooker's suggestion, now the thought to fight back occurs to you? I kind of doubt that. Maybe we should arrest the adrenalin…

Presumably the "kick her ass" comment was directed at the other bystanders, not the guy in custody. I could see how that could be considered inciting a riot in some cases, but among a bunch of teenagers who ultimately did not act on it it seems excessive. Not to mention they don't seem to have any evidence it was Marks who yelled it, and in fact I believe the officer even said in her report it wasn't him, yet they charged him anyway.

It seems like they're just looking for someone to make an example of.

Re: Google Engineer bails out student in jail

#38

Post by jrockway »

paulbaumgart wrote: post #25
patrickaljord wrote: post #22

I don't live in the US but when I read that kind of story or how Bradley Manning is treated (regardless of whether he's guilty or not), it really looks like the US is acting like the worst kind of police state or despotism (where the despot would be a mixture of corporations and corrupt media/politicians).

Keep in mind that the US is a very distributed system. You can have a local District Attorney who decides to pursue cases like this, but in the next jurisdiction over, you could very well have a DA who is an entirely reasonable person and would never allow something like this to happen. Eventually these things usually get sorted out in some higher court, but that can take years and can really mess up a person's life…

Well, as long as some people aren't being abused, the system is fine and in no need of repair.

Re: Google Engineer bails out student in jail

#39

Post by jrockway »

pyre wrote: post #29
patrickaljord wrote: post #22

I don't live in the US but when I read that kind of story or how Bradley Manning is treated (regardless of whether he's guilty or not), it really looks like the US is acting like the worst kind of police state or despotism (where the despot would be a mixture of corporations and corrupt media/politicians).

The way that Bradley Manning is being treated doesn't surprise me too much. He is suspected of "leaking classified information," so it would make sense to keep him in solitary confinement from a government/military bureaucrat's point of view. If they don't segregate him, he might leak more secrets to other people. The other stuff (no mattress or pillow) just seems like pettiness on the part of the people in power tha…

Anyone can be suspected of anything. Let's have a trial, a real trial, and then worry about punishment after he's guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

(And by real trial, I mean a jury of Americans, not some bullshit military tribunal. Yeah, yeah, he signed some papers that said he can't have a real trial. Fuck that. This is America, not Saudi Arabia.)

Re: Google Engineer bails out student in jail

#40

Post by patrickaljord »

pyre wrote: post #29
patrickaljord wrote: post #22

I don't live in the US but when I read that kind of story or how Bradley Manning is treated (regardless of whether he's guilty or not), it really looks like the US is acting like the worst kind of police state or despotism (where the despot would be a mixture of corporations and corrupt media/politicians).

The way that Bradley Manning is being treated doesn't surprise me too much. He is suspected of "leaking classified information," so it would make sense to keep him in solitary confinement from a government/military bureaucrat's point of view. If they don't segregate him, he might leak more secrets to other people. The other stuff (no mattress or pillow) just seems like pettiness on the part of the people in power tha…

Read that http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/23...

tl;dr Many experts say that his punishment is torture and the US has denounced such treatment as torture not too long ago when it was done by others.

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