| > Does that completely invalidate these tools Yes, when the error is this large and so easily manipulatable. (breathalysers are notorious for being incredibly broad in what the detect (bad false positive rate), and they are required to assume a 2100:1 ratio when estimating blood concentration from the measured breath concentration. In reality, there is a lot (up to +/-800 for some people). There is a good, science-based reason for that ratio involving the partial pressure of EtOH. The reason is valid, it simply ignores the (large) minority of cases where other factors complicate the analysis. You may suggest that it would be easy to use modern techniques to find a better formula that accounts for these variations. That would work... but it has always been possible. You don't need anything particularly fancy to add a few corrections. These problems - and how to correct them - have been known for decades, yet breathalysers haven't changed. Why? Because an inaccurate tool gives police the leeway to target a much larger set of people (if they want to - selective enforcement is a powerful tool). > Should we only opt for rigorous methods like drawing blood samples? Yes, absolutely, and I (and many defence lawyers and civil right organizations) recommend insisting on a blood test should you ever asked to take a breathalyser because of how inaccurate and manipulatable the breath test is in real-world situations. (disclaimer: this can vary between states; see a local lawyer for proper advice) > at the inevitable cost of some errors and inconvenience A necessary feature of a free society is the assumption of innocence until proven guilty. Law enforcement is deliberately given a harder task, because errors are not simply an inconvenience. Errors risk charging an innocent person with a crime. You would not call being arrested because of a false-positive an inconvenience. > You assume that this system will be used to justify police brutality and that this system will be used by people who think that any black person is a "criminal". I don't need to assume anything. These things are already extremely common today without the need for advanced data processing techniques. If for some reason you doubt these facts, you may want to look up the per-capita incarceration rates by race and compare that to stuff like the drug use rates for the same groups. > In my world I believe in just intentions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-world_fallacy > I have a higher opinion of the people who join the police I prefer to keep my opinions based in reality. While I'm sure only a minority of police are abusive, the rest are aiding and abetting by not reporting the crimes committed other officers. Misprision of felony is still a crime in the US (18 U.S. Code § 4) ( https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/4 ) |
Misprision requires concealment and not reporting; not reporting by itself is insufficient, concealment is active. See, United States v. Johnson, 546 F.2d 1225 (5th Cir. 1977) [0]
[0] http://openjurist.org/546/f2d/1225/united-states-v-johnson