Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

Techdirt

from the that-makes-me-angry... dept

This week, after a lab tech was caught faking drug test results, calling over 7,800 prosecutions into question, That Anonymous Coward delivered our first place winner for most insightful comment of the week, in the form of a rightfully outraged tirade:

Because to protect the image of the system outweighs the rights of the convicted.
So what if they were convicted on contrived evidence.
So what if the details were not released.
So what if anyone finally managed to get exonerated, we’ve limited their recourse for compensation.
So what if the system is rigged.

So few people will care because it hasn’t happened to them. It has happened to a population they’ve been taught to fear and expect the worst of. This only happens to bad people who deserve it, not good people like me. We got the bad people locked away, so what if the lab results were fake they probably did it anyways.

Allowing the liar to retire, probably with all benefits intact & allowed to move elsewhere, shows how little the system cares about the law. They cheated the law, they violated their oaths, and when confronted with it they drag their feet and leave thousands of people screwed to protect their win rating.

“Regular” people need to wake up to the very simple truth that the system routinely does screw innocent people, and that the system does nothing to punish those who did it or compensate people who had their lives stolen. That they are paying the price for faked worked, incompetent workers, keeping innocent people in prison, and paying a pittance in oh sorry we fucked you money, and keep these cheating cogs working.

Yes Skippy it hasn’t happened to you, but perhaps consider what happens when the system targets you incorrectly and magically the evidence says you did it. Imagine the rest of society discounting what you say and not giving a shit because you had to have done something wrong and need to be punished.

In second place, we’ve got another strong response to a terrible law enforcement situation, this time in the form of one of the worst and most violating traffic stops we’ve ever seen. Anomylous had a lot of support in calling it exactly what it was:

If there was no reason for the stop…

and no reason for the searches…

why aren’t they pressing rape charges? Sure, they’re cops, but they violated the law to essentially rape 2 people, in public.

These cops are rapists. The female officer may be an accessory if the other officers lied to her, but its still rape.

For editor’s choice on the insightful side, we stay with that post for one more comment, this time from DannyB in response to the question of whether the victims had a history of criminal activity:

Suppose someone did have a history of criminal activity.

Are you suggesting that they should probably choose to remain a criminal for the rest of their life because the police have a right to treat them that way for life?

Is it a worthy goal of the police to discourage anyone from ever getting their act together and becoming a law abiding citizen?

It is probably worth extending this thinking to family relations as well. If your grandfather had any criminal activity, then you might too. Or your cousin, etc.

Next, we head to a post about the latest broadband company shenanigans, where TheResidentSkeptic scored high on both the insightful and funny sides by pointing out that we may need to adjust our nomenclature:

Incorrect classification of companies

As the FCC has now classified “broadband” as 25MB+, most of these companies no longer qualify to be called broadband providers…

Over on the funny side, we start out on our post about the absurd legal fight over one artist’s painting of a nude Donald Trump, where we commented that nothing about the story makes sense. Our very own Tim Geigner aka Dark Helmet took first place for funny by correcting us on that:

Except for the idea that Trump has a tiny, infinitesimally sized dong, which actually makes every last bit of sense ever….

For second place, we head to the story of law enforcement’s utter failure at social media outreach about encryption with the #unlockjustice hashtag. Jeremy Lyman proposed they continue with the excellent campaign:

Surely we can help Vance out and come up with an untainted hashtag for his crusade. Here’s a few never-been-used tags to get the ball rolling… all for FREE!

#CriminalizePaperShredders
#NeverDeleteAnythingOrGoToJail
#PrivateConversationsMakeCopsCry
#SeriouslyThoughYouCanTrustUsThisTime

For editor’s choice on the funny side, we’ve got a pair of comments in response to the Authors Guild’s ongoing whining about Google Books. First, it’s a second nod to DannyB for a little acerbic sarcasm:

If people can now freely read short snippets from out of print books that will never be in print ever, ever again, then how will the authors of those books get paid?

Wait, did I call that sarcasm? No, no, this is sarcasm:

If only there was a group representing authors, a guild of sorts, that would digitize the books for the benefit and profit of the authors. Too bad nothing like that exists.

That’s all for this week, folks!