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I think the idea is that making charges & arrests public keeps the system transparent, and makes it harder for the government to disappear people or otherwise d
by moshmosh 5y ago
I think the idea is that making charges & arrests public keeps the system transparent, and makes it harder for the government to disappear people or otherwise do crazy despotic stuff.
In practice I'm not convinced it was net-beneficial before the Internet, and I'm almost certain it's not in an Internet-equipped world.
- _jal 5y agoThis is the reason. The US justice system is meant to operate in the open, to serve the interests of the public who finances it. Same reason it is generally very difficult to litigate under seal. Observations about the difference between theory and practice omitted.
- thatcat 5y agoThe justice system forbids individuals recording the judge but records and could publish every interaction you have with them. That is not operating in a system of openness and transparency.
- herbst 5y agoI doubt the system really is much more transparent than more usual systems that do not blame every potential 'criminal' publicly. Or in another world, if that openness does anything good how comes the US has one of the biggest issues with police violence from all the developed world?
- BitwiseFool 5y agoI also think that in the pre-internet world the amount of effort to obtain such public information acted as an effective filter. You actively had to go looking for this information and that involved in-person visits to government buildings and filing paperwork. That gave average people a reasonable degree of cover.
- watwut 5y agoThat don't explain mug shots.
- seoaeu 5y agoI think that being public about the "who is currently being imprisoned by the government?" question is still a net positive. No so sure about the rest