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by DataWorker 1955 days ago
I hope you never experience America’s “due process.”

You thinking highlights your own inexperience. The system idd as heavily flawed and often makes mistakes. Many convictions are eventually thrown out. And that’s the very imperfect justice system. Don’t get me started on very imperfect software or data management.

1 comments

Indeed, I never had an encounter with the law enforcement, the justice, or the due process.

If I'm not too nosy, did you? Or you are basing your conclusions on things you read about?

In my case, not only I didn't experience the "heavy hand" of the law enforcement, but I don't know anyone who did. I interact with hundreds of people, and I don't know anyone who's been subject to law enforcement troubles. Now, I assume that some people with such trouble would not talk with everyone about their issues, just like people with health problems don't necessarily advertise their condition. But if I can continue the parallel with the health issues, if someone has cancer, you learn about that sooner or later. If someone spends a few days in the "crowbar hotel", there's a good chance people would start whispering. I never heard this type of whispers about the people in my circle.

So, based on my personal experience, I did not see evidence that the "due process" is a farce. But more importantly, I did not see evidence that innocent people fall pray to any intentional or unintentional abuse from the law enforcement linked to face recognition, or other types of surveillance.

Yes, I did read horror stories on the internet. But I take what I read with a bit of grain of salt (especially since there's a tendency in all these stories to hear only a sigle part of the story), and I prefer to rely more on my personal experience.

Aaron Schwartz comes to mind. Move beyond anecdotes. There are libraries full of books on this very subject, the experiences of all the people you know not withstanding. Consider there once were witch trials, not so long ago.