[javajosh]

These kinds of stories seem to have no other effect than to make the world feel darker, scarier, more dreary. It is, at best, another data-point in the argument against the criminal justice system, that it is run by ignorant, ego-inflated bullies looking for anything to make their bullying easier and more total. It goes along with the many auditing videos of LEOs overtly breaking the law, issuing unlawful orders to citizens, assaulting them, arresting them for nothing, knowing how much pain they are causing and knowing they'll get away with it. It goes with the SWAT teams violently entering homes at the wrong address, shooting dogs and leaving with a snide, "Be grateful it wasn't worse."

It paints a picture of an American justice system that is entirely corrupt, where judges, attorneys, police and prosecutors all work on the same team, all operate different levers of the same meat grinder, where the rules are an impediment and treated like a joke. The only people to get any kind of justice are those with deep pockets, and often not even then.

Local police have far too much power, far too little knowledge of the law, and far too often escalate an interaction because of their hurt egos. And they have so many tools: 'officer safety' being a perennial favorite. How does this stop? Why are the police in other countries better behaved? When will people stop being distracted by pronoun wars and get outraged at something real and urgent? What do you do with the legions of unthinking supporters of the meat-grinder, who cannot or will not imagine that one can have societal order without it, and that the lever-pullers are doing God's work? One can play whack-a-mole with this systemic injustice and that one, but the system as a whole is so deeply embedded, it seems impossible to change incrementally. The cops, judges, lawyers, AGs are just too comfortable operating with impunity, and they are too politically connected to ever change.

[reaperman]

> * These kinds of stories seem to have no other effect than to make the world feel darker, scarier, more dreary*

No other effect at all? It brings transparency and shines light on a failed prosecution tactic. This can now be easily googled and understood by both defendants and judges.

[ryandrake]

> judges, attorneys, police and prosecutors all work on the same team

These guys ultimately are desperately wanting a black box computer algorithm, where 1. you type in the suspect's name, 2. the algorithm spits out "guilty" and 3. that is admissible to a jury. If they had this, every single one of their jobs are a piece of cake:

A crime happens. The police can now pick up literally anyone they don't like. The prosecuting attorney doesn't have to do anything--just enter the suspect into the algorithm. The judge doesn't have to do anything. Computer Says YES. The jury doesn't have to do anything. Computer Says YES so I can convict and go home. This is the future of law enforcement. They just have to get that darn black box approved and invulnerable to defense attorneys.

[dreamcompiler]

Police always want their jobs to be easier. Everybody wants their own job to be easier.

The problem is that in a free society policing needs to be hard. Places where policing is easy are called police states.

[mypalmike]

Yes, it's telling how excited I've if the prosecutors in the story was because they got a conviction. Not excited by whether justice was done.