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The justice system only cares about process, not outcomes. This is a fundamental feature of bureaucracies (particularly large ones) and it doesn't matter if its

The justice system only cares about process, not outcomes. This is a fundamental feature of bureaucracies (particularly large ones) and it doesn't matter if its government or a corporation or union or hospital. Bureaucracy is always about soul-destroying, humanity-ignoring process layered in such a way that the people running it are each somehow simultaneously overpowered over people trying to navigate the system while at the same time powerless to prevent foreseeable harms.

culi 2y ago
The "justice" system was optimized for stuff like this. At least in the history of the US, police started as private task forces for elite to lock up striking workers and other protestors that might be a threat to their private property. In the South they started as groups to capture runaway slaves. After the Civil War the image of the Black person was transformed from effeminate and stupid to strong scary criminal. The South fought very hard to add "except as punishment for crime" to the 14th amendment which otherwise outlawed slavery. And their campaign to criminalize Black people began immediately as an attempt to recreate slavery. That's when jails really took off and that's the context under which much of our justice system developed. It was literally optimized to throw people in prison for made up charges. Nowadays (most of us) have different expectations from our justice system but we've yet to really update the processes
- Vecr 2y ago
  That's not true, modern policing started in London and was brought over. Further developments in China were also brought to the US. Before that the US did have law enforcement, but it generally was not as large scale with the hundreds or thousands of officers used now. The larger scale slave catching gangs were a dead end and didn't lead into modern law enforcement, but various dubious "projects" attempt to conflate that. For example, SWAT teams were invented in China under the advisory of British police, not in the US south.
  - culi 2y ago
    This is a much written about topic https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/civil-rights-reimagining-policing/how-you-start-is-how-you-finish/ https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_r... https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/07/20/the-invention-of-the-police https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/07/20/the-invention-...
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]

culi 2y ago

The "justice" system was optimized for stuff like this. At least in the history of the US, police started as private task forces for elite to lock up striking workers and other protestors that might be a threat to their private property. In the South they started as groups to capture runaway slaves. After the Civil War the image of the Black person was transformed from effeminate and stupid to strong scary criminal. The South fought very hard to add "except as punishment for crime" to the 14th amendment which otherwise outlawed slavery. And their campaign to criminalize Black people began immediately as an attempt to recreate slavery. That's when jails really took off and that's the context under which much of our justice system developed. It was literally optimized to throw people in prison for made up charges. Nowadays (most of us) have different expectations from our justice system but we've yet to really update the processes

Vecr 2y ago
That's not true, modern policing started in London and was brought over. Further developments in China were also brought to the US. Before that the US did have law enforcement, but it generally was not as large scale with the hundreds or thousands of officers used now. The larger scale slave catching gangs were a dead end and didn't lead into modern law enforcement, but various dubious "projects" attempt to conflate that. For example, SWAT teams were invented in China under the advisory of British police, not in the US south.
- culi 2y ago
  This is a much written about topic https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/civil-rights-reimagining-policing/how-you-start-is-how-you-finish/ https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_r... https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/07/20/the-invention-of-the-police https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/07/20/the-invention-...
deleted 2y ago
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