In Jail Without a Lawyer: How a Texas Town Fails Poor Defendants

Post by autoexec » Wed, Mar 26, 2025, 6:23 PM UTC

lurk2 wrote: post #260

pseudocomposer wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing about being “poor” in Europe is, you can be “poor” your entire life by American standards of income/assets, but still never take on medical debt, travel more than a month out of the year, have a couple kids and educate them in good schools, and retire. Most Americans cannot.

> Most Americans cannot. You have no idea what you’re talking about and there is no statistical basis to the claims you are making. The only two metrics Europeans win out on is life expectancy (by around 4 years) and (narrowly) on home ownership rate (around 5 percentage points higher in Europe). Americans are overwhelmingly wealthier than Europeans by every other metric.

Post by netcan » Wed, Mar 26, 2025, 6:28 PM UTC

nukem222 wrote: post #386

netcan wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where is this untrue currently?

Wherever people think their justice system hasn't failed them so completely. So, this includes many people in the developed world. Approximation of justice was always a matter of degree, not a boolean.

Post by netcan » Wed, Mar 26, 2025, 6:41 PM UTC

nickpsecurity wrote: post #303

netcan wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Just like healthcare, US justice is only for people with money. In most times and places, this is true. Ancient times, recent history, autocracies, democracies... Justice is expensive. Justice, and the legal college as an ideal often specifically negates this. Equality before the law. Blind justice, etc. That said... justice is inevitably ridden with contradiction, hypocrisy and whatnot. That's what justice is. Deg…

In God's system (Mosaic law), they would go before the judges, plead their case, bring evidence (eg witnesses), and something would be decided. The U.S. was originally based on Jethro and Moses' method. Over time, the self-centered and godless people did to it what the Pharisees did to the other system. It was no longer about what's good or even doable for human beings. I also like that the Biblical law, from command…

Post by nukem222 » Wed, Mar 26, 2025, 7:11 PM UTC

KennyBlanken wrote: post #331

PaulHoule wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I spent a year in Germany circa 1999 I thought the food labels sucked compared to food labels in the US. There were cigarette vending machines on the streets all over Dresden and they even had little candy vending machines below them. When it comes to occupational health and safety you can't say European standards are better. The established process for making plutonium fuel is to grind uranium oxide together wi…

> I thought the food labels sucked compared to food labels in the US. > When it comes to occupational health and safety you can't say European standards are better. First off, US food labels aren't nearly as strict as most people think. There are a number of exceptions and cases where things simply don't have to be listed, and in others the label can outright lie. Tic tacs somewhat famously are listed as having "zero…

Post by anon291 » Wed, Mar 26, 2025, 7:37 PM UTC

tetromino_ wrote: post #368

anon291 wrote: post #356

There's a major bias by outlets like the NYT to paint red states in a bad light. In reality, the worst state in the country for lacking public defenders is Oregon.

Lack of public defenders is the least of the problems pointed out in the article. The presence of a public defender should not be the only thing keeping the system from losing track of who has been imprisoned, why, and for how long. The presence of a public defender should not be the only thing preventing judges and prosecutors from violating the state's sentencing guidelines. The system described in the article is i…