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To be clear, I was responding to the commentary about the UK and Australia. That said, even though America doesn’t have a perfect record on this, our Fifth Ame

To be clear, I was responding to the commentary about the UK and Australia. That said, even though America doesn’t have a perfect record on this, our Fifth Amendment rights are generally effective at protecting us from forced self-incrimination. We at least have the luxury of the Supreme Court that may hear and adjudicate our cases if our Fifth Amendment rights are violated. > Americans are forced by their government to self-incriminate all the time and are sitting in jail for it. “all the time” ← Can you please quantify that? I genuinely don’t believe it happens enough to justify your assertion. (I’d love to be corrected with some data if I’m wrong.) All in all, I think it’s a mistake to expect a perfect system. Compared to the rest of the world, our Constitution is a massive luxury; Americans are beyond lucky. I can either focus on the fact that the overall system isn’t perfect or I can appreciate—i.e., not take for granted—the fact that we even have the codified set of rights that we do. P.S. I personally know folks from Third World countries whose family members were executed for having the “wrong” opinion. We really do take a lot for granted here in America.

AndrewKemendo 3y ago
No, you simply aren’t seeing it because you aren’t exposed to communities who are regularly just getting hammered by police. There is no “evidence” because it’s not on the record. It’s a lived experience by poor people. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but police kill a lot of innocent people that looks precisely like executing somebody for making the wrong decision, so I’m not sure how you’re not seeing it but it seems like you’re intentionally not seeing it. It’s examples like my friend who did 10 months in county jail because he pissed hot during a two month probation on a drug charge related to a friend that he was driving the car with. This is an every day experience for me as a teenager. I was pulled over regularly and padded down and it was only because I had a white mom who would come bitch at the police that I didn’t have a record. There is an entire country within America that has no access to constitutional rights. I suggest you just look up a little bit of black history and you’ll be informed on some of this.
- jay-barronville 3y ago
  > No, you simply aren’t seeing it because you aren’t exposed to communities who are regularly just getting hammered by police. > […] > There is an entire country within America that has no access to constitutional rights. I suggest you just look up a little bit of black history and you’ll be informed on some of this. I really hate having to bring up my background and race, but I really have to here: I’m literally a black man who grew up in inner city America who also used to be a leftist activist years ago (one of my primary focuses used to be “police brutality”). This is absolutely not a foreign topic to me. I’ve personally had a number of bad encounters with the police going back all the way to my pre-teen years. I find it interesting that you simply assumed, based on my perspective, that I’m somehow just oblivious. Regardless, none of that changes anything I’ve said. Also, your claim that a certain segment of Americans, such as poor black folks, have “no access to constitutional rights” is simply false. A more reasonable argument would be that a certain segment of Americans lack the resources to properly defend their Constitutional rights, but those rights haven’t gone anywhere.
  - AndrewKemendo 3y ago
    So what gives? How can you question the insanity given your experience? I got put on the hood for nothing for years before going into the military and whitening up.

AndrewKemendo 3y ago

No, you simply aren’t seeing it because you aren’t exposed to communities who are regularly just getting hammered by police. There is no “evidence” because it’s not on the record. It’s a lived experience by poor people. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but police kill a lot of innocent people that looks precisely like executing somebody for making the wrong decision, so I’m not sure how you’re not seeing it but it seems like you’re intentionally not seeing it. It’s examples like my friend who did 10 months in county jail because he pissed hot during a two month probation on a drug charge related to a friend that he was driving the car with. This is an every day experience for me as a teenager. I was pulled over regularly and padded down and it was only because I had a white mom who would come bitch at the police that I didn’t have a record. There is an entire country within America that has no access to constitutional rights. I suggest you just look up a little bit of black history and you’ll be informed on some of this.

jay-barronville 3y ago
> No, you simply aren’t seeing it because you aren’t exposed to communities who are regularly just getting hammered by police. > […] > There is an entire country within America that has no access to constitutional rights. I suggest you just look up a little bit of black history and you’ll be informed on some of this. I really hate having to bring up my background and race, but I really have to here: I’m literally a black man who grew up in inner city America who also used to be a leftist activist years ago (one of my primary focuses used to be “police brutality”). This is absolutely not a foreign topic to me. I’ve personally had a number of bad encounters with the police going back all the way to my pre-teen years. I find it interesting that you simply assumed, based on my perspective, that I’m somehow just oblivious. Regardless, none of that changes anything I’ve said. Also, your claim that a certain segment of Americans, such as poor black folks, have “no access to constitutional rights” is simply false. A more reasonable argument would be that a certain segment of Americans lack the resources to properly defend their Constitutional rights, but those rights haven’t gone anywhere.
- AndrewKemendo 3y ago
  So what gives? How can you question the insanity given your experience? I got put on the hood for nothing for years before going into the military and whitening up.