4 ms·

Given the astronomically high legal cost to individuals, the sheer presence of arbitrary enforcement can already cause a lot of fear and damage.

• 3eb7988a1663 5mo ago
  There was a recent high profile of a case where a woman in Tennessee was accused of a crime in North Dakota. She spent months in jail, where she lost her car, home, and her dog. She was not even in the right state, and her life was destroyed. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47563384 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47563384
  • _DeadFred_ 5mo ago
    [flagged]
    • watwut 5mo ago
      > it's just suddenly defense attorneys care because of the immigration/deportation angle instead of just someone losing their home, job, car, life. 1.) This has nothing to do with defense attorneys who are not available in these cases nor dealing with them. 2.) The scale of it is massively larger. 3.) The defense attorneys were actually talking about it for years, I know because I read about similar issues for years. And I am not particularly interested in legal system. There is that rhetorical trick where people just assume that since they just learned about something, professionals dealing with these issues were oblivious too.
      • _DeadFred_ 5mo ago
        The key word in 'it's just suddenly defense attorneys care' being 'care'. Nowhere did I say defense attorneys were oblivious. Defense attorneys could boycott the system and force reform. How old is the saying 'you can beat the rap, but not the ride' now? You are right, defense attorneys have known that the justice system can destroy anyone just for being a target, for a very long time. I guess I should have written 'they suddenly have energy to challenge it'.