[FDE] on the proposed demise of the bill of rights

[Patrick Cahalan]

>> What numeric value converts this sentence:
>>
>>  I would rather ____ guilty go free
>>  than 1 innocent be imprisoned. 
>>
>> to this sentence
>>
>>  I cannot countenance ____ guilty going free
>>  just to protect 1 innocent.
>>   
> Interesting question. My indignant gut reaction of "never!" is clearly
> wrong, as no justice system can achieve a false positive rate of zero,
> nor can we live without a justice system. So i don't really know my own
> answer, but I suspect it has several zeros in it :-)

This is a gamed question, however.

I would rather that everyone guilty of a misdemeanor go free rather than 
1 innocent person get convicted of murder with extenuating circumstances 
and get the chair.

On the other hand, I cannot countenance 1 guilty murderer going free to 
protect 1 innocent parking scofflaw.

I think one of the fundamental problems with our criminal justice system 
is that all criminal violations are considered equal in the eyes of the 
law when it comes to allowable tools for investigation (yes, I realize 
that in practice this isn't actually the case; they wouldn't have caught 
Timothy McVeigh if they treated the Oklahoma City Bombing like a regular 
crime, but you get my point).

The difficulty here is that our audit controls over investigation tools 
are really, really poor.  Conceptually, if we had excellent audit 
controls and well understood and inviolate laws in place to prohibit 
their misuse, I wouldn't object to universal camera recording of public 
spaces.  However, it is simply impossible to expect that this is the 
case; a citywide public camera system isn't just only in explicit 
circumstances to catch stalkers or murders, it also can be used by cops 
to track ex-girlfriends, or celebrity reporters to keep tabs on the 
newest "it" star, or politicians trying to catch their opponent in 
compromising circumstances... and then the city will decide that they 
can sell the tapes to businesses to track foot traffic in commercial 
areas (if businesses know the most popular areas, we'll increase our tax 
base!), etc.