3 ms·
The US has a good constitution but worse policing.
by graemep 5mo ago
The US has a good constitution but worse policing.
- exe34 5mo agoWhat good is a piece of paper? I have nice toilet paper. It doesn't make me safer when visiting the US.
- graemep 5mo agoThe entire point of a constitution is that, unlike toilet paper, it can be enforced by the courts.
- sph 5mo agoThe very politicized US courts that collude with and are completely in the pocket of whomever's running the country? More developed countries have a clear separation between the judiciary and the executive powers.
- sofixa 5mo agoIn theory, unless the supreme court is bought and paid for and decrees things like "immunity for official business".
- exe34 5mo agoAnd which one are the courts enforcing at the moment in the US? Pretti? Good?
- trumpdong 5mo agoCan be, or is? Courts can enforce my toilet paper too.
- ben_w 5mo agoTrying to imagine how, and the only thing I can think of is that technically you can write a contract on anything? And possibly a cheque, too, because a the cheques in a chequebook are just a standardised IOU form with exactly the same legal weight as if it was done by hand? (Vague memory that someone used this to avoid paying a bill, because refusing a cheque when offered counted as discharging the debt it represents (if I have the right terminology), and as cheques could be written on anything they chose to write it on a car that physically would not fit through the door).
- trumpdong 5mo agoJust gotta bribe the right judge. My toilet paper says you owe me $10,000 and the judge agrees.
- ben_w 5mo agoIn this thread's context, the "constitution" is the kind of thing which is supposed to make that not happen. Famously bereft of a written constitution, the closest single document along these lines which the UK had for a long time was ("the") Magna Carta, which basically exists because King John's lords were tired of King John directing the courts that King John personally owned to not hear cases against himself. But if your point is that some constitutions may as well be toilet paper for how much the people with power care about their contents, then I agree.
- trumpdong 5mo agoFamously, the toilet paper known as the US Constitution has prevented any violations of rights recently, like the brown skinned people getting brought to concentration camps, or your dog getting shot because you used free speech.
- Xirdus 5mo agoMaybe you're not safer, but you can get rich quick. Recently someone got $100k compensation for fake DUI charges and resulting wrongful imprisonment.
- BLKNSLVR 5mo agoInteresting entry for the "pro" list.