You're so welcome! Spending my day looking through criminal records, I've become really sensitive to what sentencing people get. Like, on my end, I have no way of knowing if the person did or did not do what they were accused of, but I DO get to see how they're punished, and the system is completely backwards. Simple things like marijuana possession get years (and have sent MILLIONS of black men to prison, many of those prisons run by for-profit companies, where their labor is used to make even more profits for the companies), heck, I've seen people get six months jail on their first "driving without a license conviction," but rape carries laughable penalties and even murder often doesn't get more than ten years. It's so supremely messed up.
I haven't heard of that movie! I'm now torn on whether I want to watch it or not. I love Gong Yoo and it sounds like it was brilliantly done, but sometimes it's just too much, you know?
and how angry does it make me that in all of these cases, justice is almost always contingent on the media or the public picking it up, like, wtf do the legal systems exist for, then?
SERIOUSLY. Trayvon Martin?
and a bill abolishing the statute of limitation on sexual abuse of minors and people with disabilities was passed
I wish such a bill would pass here. I know there are reasons for having a statute of limitations, but they don't seem (to me) to outweigh the benefits of NOT having one. But I'm not in the law profession, so...
makes you realize how truly awful people can be
Amen.
till the justice system is absolutely free of all possible errors, it shouldn't even be a possibility, and the justice system will NEVER be free of all possible errors because it's not a simple mathematical equation. It's governed by people and their subjectivity, contingent on often arbitrary criteria where cases with almost identical facts give different results.
I could not agree more. A lot of people are completely against any kind of capital punishment ever, and I respect that. I'm not sure where I stand on the issue myself. But even if you're for it in theory, anyone with any sense of justice should be horrified by the way it's applied.
If there's DNA evidence AND you caught the person on tape OR it happened in front of multiple people or something, I could understand pursuing capital punishment. But only AFTER we ensure that racial profiling and other biases don't enter the court...and we can't do that. So it has to be taken off the table.
Prostitution, I find a very very complex problem, and I think I should read more about places where it's legal to figure out whether it will lead to betterment for the women, or will make trafficking easier, before forming any opinion.
I totally agree with you and I definitely respect that. My own solution would be to decriminalize prostitution but make soliciting a prostitute or pimping a felony. That would be a more effective way to fight it, I think. But you're right that it's an incredibly complex problem. I just hate that I know of women (we have an extraordinary women's program here in town that works with former sex workers/addicts/single moms/homeless women/etc. so I've heard lots of stories) who were convicted of prostitution at like eighteen after having been pimped out by grown men for several years, and then that conviction is on their record and when they try to go get another kind of job, they have a difficult time doing it.
no subject
I haven't heard of that movie! I'm now torn on whether I want to watch it or not. I love Gong Yoo and it sounds like it was brilliantly done, but sometimes it's just too much, you know?
and how angry does it make me that in all of these cases, justice is almost always contingent on the media or the public picking it up, like, wtf do the legal systems exist for, then?
SERIOUSLY. Trayvon Martin?
and a bill abolishing the statute of limitation on sexual abuse of minors and people with disabilities was passed
I wish such a bill would pass here. I know there are reasons for having a statute of limitations, but they don't seem (to me) to outweigh the benefits of NOT having one. But I'm not in the law profession, so...
makes you realize how truly awful people can be
Amen.
till the justice system is absolutely free of all possible errors, it shouldn't even be a possibility, and the justice system will NEVER be free of all possible errors because it's not a simple mathematical equation. It's governed by people and their subjectivity, contingent on often arbitrary criteria where cases with almost identical facts give different results.
I could not agree more. A lot of people are completely against any kind of capital punishment ever, and I respect that. I'm not sure where I stand on the issue myself. But even if you're for it in theory, anyone with any sense of justice should be horrified by the way it's applied.
If there's DNA evidence AND you caught the person on tape OR it happened in front of multiple people or something, I could understand pursuing capital punishment. But only AFTER we ensure that racial profiling and other biases don't enter the court...and we can't do that. So it has to be taken off the table.
Prostitution, I find a very very complex problem, and I think I should read more about places where it's legal to figure out whether it will lead to betterment for the women, or will make trafficking easier, before forming any opinion.
I totally agree with you and I definitely respect that. My own solution would be to decriminalize prostitution but make soliciting a prostitute or pimping a felony. That would be a more effective way to fight it, I think. But you're right that it's an incredibly complex problem. I just hate that I know of women (we have an extraordinary women's program here in town that works with former sex workers/addicts/single moms/homeless women/etc. so I've heard lots of stories) who were convicted of prostitution at like eighteen after having been pimped out by grown men for several years, and then that conviction is on their record and when they try to go get another kind of job, they have a difficult time doing it.