Cop Watching is Illegal

Justin Schwartz jkschw at hotmail.com
Mon Jul 15 10:00:53 PDT 2002



>>
>>OK, so what's your proposal for making sure that the accused shows
>>up for trial?
>
>Reasonable (affordable) bail.

No good for the indigent. I knwo it sucks that we have poor people, but we do, and we have to deal with crimea s well as fighting poverty.
>
>>...And what about people accused of horrible violent crimes,
>>including those caught red-handed pumping bullets into their victims?
>
>Including the Amadou Diallo cops?

Yeah, them too. Are you under the impression that I think that criminal cops are less rather than more of a danger to the community than regular hoods?

Anyway, pretrial detention
>where release would involve a real risk to society is not at
>issue though anyone should recognize it as
>punishment. Even the Law deducts time served pretrial from
>the eventual sentence for those proven guilty.

Yeah, but legally we can't say it's punishment, except retroactively. Think about it, you'll see why. The result is an elaborate but quite unavoidable legal fiction.

At issue is
>the use of "pretrial detention" as punishment for the
>innocent (in New York its called "putting you through the
>system")

Well that's an abuse, but it's an abuse of a procedure that's sound if not abused, not evidence that the system is inherently unsound.


>
>How to reconcile the rejection of administrative punishment
>with the fact that even honest cops sometimes make
>mistaken arrests? For a start, how about decent compensation
>(say $200 per day or fraction thereof) for all time under arrest
>not otherwise compensated by a reduction of sentence after proof
>of guilt at trial?

Suggest it to the legislature. Btw, there is a cause of action in most states for malicious prosecution, but it's not available for negligent or honest mistakes. only for intentional acts.

jks

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