I would encourage you to read more about what philosophers have to say about free will and indeterminism... Because very few say what you've attributed to them.
What happened to "you can beat the rap but you can't beat the ride"? (Or, "just a warning this time, drive safe ok?") Cops always have taken it upon themselves to mete out justice as they saw it, regardless of the rest of the process.
Having a DA whose priorities don't match up with cops is an issue, but it's nothing new and not an excuse to down tools or go rogue. It's fine if your son feels his job has changed underneath him and he wants out, but save us all the "won't someone think of the cops" sob story. It simply doesn't sound sincere.
Bob: no-one was in danger in this call - until the cop arrived. It was a non-emergency welfare check. It's you making the ignorant generalization in this case. Cases like these, as rare (or not!) as they are, are certainly making people think twice about calling 911 when they are not under criminal threat/danger (which is, to be clear, around 93% of current calls to 911.)
Rephrase what you wrote in the context of food safety ("millions of meals eaten every day and only a miniscule amount end in poisonings")... and also realize that there are many people who are justifiably skeptical of cops' ability to impartially declare shootings unjustified.
This has NOTHING to do with "gun control". This has everything to do with "cop control".
Yes, absolutely, these instructors are doing the easy thing of reusing tests (or using publisher provided exams) that mostly demand recall of factoids and are vulnerable to cheating. They should be crafting (crafting, with expertise!) questions (both open-ended free response, and multiple choice) that test real understanding and higher order thinking. Open book testing should be the norm.
But: on the whole the easy way is the only way for most instructors who are poorly paid contract workers. The Uber drivers of education. Until we convince taxpayers that a) teachers and profs really are professionals with expertise worth keeping around, b) that education is not a high GPA or test scores, and c) that higher ed is not just vocational training but other skills that enable ordinary citizens to build new careers and industries, as well as be true civic participants... this is what we will continue to get.
As one of the few privileged tenured profs out there, I do my best to not do these bad things as well as help my adjunct colleagues to avoid them too. But the consumer model of education is slowly eating us up.
Apologies if I missed it, but isn't there a third big problem here? There was no reason (provided by the alleged informant, or otherwise) for this cop to think the firearm was unlicensed or illegally possessed, right? No attempt to determine whether the 'suspect' had registered handguns, or not. Just more assumptions & leaps of logic by the cop.
It seems like a key difference to note between the Kenosha warrants and the Jan 6 riot/insurrection is that in the latter case, a geofenced general warrant could be defended, if the geofence could be precise enough to sort trespassers from those who didn't enter Capitol grounds. (I read news reports suggesting the use of micro cells inside the building, allowing very precise location tracking.) Very much not the case in the Kenosha warrants.
(I would even say that the pipe bomber on Jan 5th is importantly different: while any warrants there might be broader than Jan 6, they still have some PC and specifying info to restrict the geofence through security cam footage. Plus, there are fewer innocent bystanders at the relevant time. Much smaller, and more well-defined and reasonable haystack.)
I would dearly love for a cross-examination to casually slip in some of these hard-won pieces of officer wisdom, in response to testimony.
"Officer, that response seemed very direct, and you were looking right at me. I'm going to caution you that perjury is a very serious action!"
(Officer changes behaviour in next response.)
"Officer, you demeanor changed quite a bit from your last response - isn't that indicative of deception?"
(Officer frowns, gets more irritated in responding to next question...)
"Officer, your curt responses indicate you're looking to get this cross-examination over with quickly, maybe because you have something to hide. What are you hiding?"
With respect Mike, I'm not sure your argument is much stronger because you're still using the term "business". If we (accurately!) described Lavabit's encryption as an "activity" (to distinguish this from the revenue or other business-related aspects of their various "activities") then I think we get much closer to the heart of the matter.
"...handing over Lavabit's private keys absolutely wrecks any real security of Lavabit's system, which is Lavabit's entire *activity*." And, such *activity* is expressly not to be infringed upon casually by the government. (To my mind this makes a more direct connection to 4th Amendment principles...)
It might be a small point, but I think it's necessary to clearly distinguish this case from other cases where government regulation/activity is seen (by you) as "felony interference in a business model". We don't want to foster any chance that these cases can be confused, do we? (Or do we... if that argument is succeeding with judges in those other cases? /s)
Ah, no, I don't think so - I'd expect failing a student would land a professor in an internal grade grievance arbitration at least. I think you might have an inflated sense of faculty powers, Wally. Academic freedom is not absolute (especially when exercised for nonacademic purposes, as your hypothetical appears to qualify.)
Professors have to have as thick a skin as anyone. Though they probably wouldn't be fired (as a teacher might) for saying Rosario did stupid shit.
Probably said somewhere in someone's briefs or whatever, but could a plausible reason for conflating the two (the law & the facts) be that, as part of interpreting the law, specific factual details of the cases where the law is being interpreted are cited? So the interpretational element of a FISC decision that defines the scope of the laws is intertwined with facts about a particular case that are claimed to be 'sensitive'?
(Now, if that's the case, I think we could at least get a redacted version, or a rewritten one that summarizes the resulting interpretation without the case details it was built from.)
1) Just because I leave DNA all over the place doesn't mean I intend to, have no interest in it, or mean it's "public". Many things are and will be technologically possible that invade my privacy - this doesn't automatically invalidate any expectations of privacy that I have. (We may have to think about new justifications for that expectation, or revise the expectation itself, given new technologies. But that's different.)
2) Fingerprinting children is done with the consent of parents/guardians. And though the intent of those parents isn't relevant to the consent issue, most (I'd expect) do it not to solve crimes but to recover their children in the awful circumstance of abduction, etc. (I want my children found first. Catching the criminal is a distant second.) Therefore, I see no inconsistency here.
It's notable that many students coming to universities (especially "access" universities serving first-in-family college-goers) eagerly want to be 'trained' for jobs rather than become critically thinking, broadly knowledgeable citizens... this will not help.
But I think we need pushback from more than First Amendment grounds, because that only protects the right to express potentially objectionable or offensive ideas. Universities have a duty to expose minds to such things, IMO. To my mind, that's a core mission of universities: to intellectually challenge its students. And a necessary part of that is to make them uncomfortable with their present beliefs & attitudes, so they are motivated to examine them carefully. Of course, there are promising ways to do this, and there are crude ways... and there is actual harassment. But I wouldn't rely on a hastily drawn-up law to distinguish between those.
I would care about my privacy rights, sure. I'd be looking for the Prosecutor's office to charge you with the appropriate criminal charges, and/or go after you civilly. If you sold/leaked it to others and they reported on it, I'd be furious at that too. (Not sure my performances would be newsworthy, though...) In any case, I'd use that public dissemination at YOUR trial, not theirs, when it came to damages. Free speech is not stalking. The problem (if there is one - in this case, it's apparently unsettled fact) is the initial taping, not the reportage after that.
I'm a little surprised that an instructor isn't in control of the text they use in a course - that's traditionally something covered under academic freedom. But I guess for-profits are pioneers in educational efficiency. Did this just slip by their accreditors?
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I would encourage you to read more about what philosophers have to say about free will and indeterminism... Because very few say what you've attributed to them.
Cops already do 'justice' on their own
What happened to "you can beat the rap but you can't beat the ride"? (Or, "just a warning this time, drive safe ok?") Cops always have taken it upon themselves to mete out justice as they saw it, regardless of the rest of the process. Having a DA whose priorities don't match up with cops is an issue, but it's nothing new and not an excuse to down tools or go rogue. It's fine if your son feels his job has changed underneath him and he wants out, but save us all the "won't someone think of the cops" sob story. It simply doesn't sound sincere.
Bob: no-one was in danger in this call - until the cop arrived. It was a non-emergency welfare check. It's you making the ignorant generalization in this case. Cases like these, as rare (or not!) as they are, are certainly making people think twice about calling 911 when they are not under criminal threat/danger (which is, to be clear, around 93% of current calls to 911.) Rephrase what you wrote in the context of food safety ("millions of meals eaten every day and only a miniscule amount end in poisonings")... and also realize that there are many people who are justifiably skeptical of cops' ability to impartially declare shootings unjustified. This has NOTHING to do with "gun control". This has everything to do with "cop control".
It's a systemic thing
Yes, absolutely, these instructors are doing the easy thing of reusing tests (or using publisher provided exams) that mostly demand recall of factoids and are vulnerable to cheating. They should be crafting (crafting, with expertise!) questions (both open-ended free response, and multiple choice) that test real understanding and higher order thinking. Open book testing should be the norm. But: on the whole the easy way is the only way for most instructors who are poorly paid contract workers. The Uber drivers of education. Until we convince taxpayers that a) teachers and profs really are professionals with expertise worth keeping around, b) that education is not a high GPA or test scores, and c) that higher ed is not just vocational training but other skills that enable ordinary citizens to build new careers and industries, as well as be true civic participants... this is what we will continue to get. As one of the few privileged tenured profs out there, I do my best to not do these bad things as well as help my adjunct colleagues to avoid them too. But the consumer model of education is slowly eating us up.
Use-rights do not grant them the right to police how others use the tweets.
3rd issue
Apologies if I missed it, but isn't there a third big problem here? There was no reason (provided by the alleged informant, or otherwise) for this cop to think the firearm was unlicensed or illegally possessed, right? No attempt to determine whether the 'suspect' had registered handguns, or not. Just more assumptions & leaps of logic by the cop.
Distinct from Jan 6 geofencing?
It seems like a key difference to note between the Kenosha warrants and the Jan 6 riot/insurrection is that in the latter case, a geofenced general warrant could be defended, if the geofence could be precise enough to sort trespassers from those who didn't enter Capitol grounds. (I read news reports suggesting the use of micro cells inside the building, allowing very precise location tracking.) Very much not the case in the Kenosha warrants.
(I would even say that the pipe bomber on Jan 5th is importantly different: while any warrants there might be broader than Jan 6, they still have some PC and specifying info to restrict the geofence through security cam footage. Plus, there are fewer innocent bystanders at the relevant time. Much smaller, and more well-defined and reasonable haystack.)
Lawyers, learn from them
I would dearly love for a cross-examination to casually slip in some of these hard-won pieces of officer wisdom, in response to testimony.
"Officer, that response seemed very direct, and you were looking right at me. I'm going to caution you that perjury is a very serious action!"
(Officer changes behaviour in next response.)
"Officer, you demeanor changed quite a bit from your last response - isn't that indicative of deception?"
(Officer frowns, gets more irritated in responding to next question...)
"Officer, your curt responses indicate you're looking to get this cross-examination over with quickly, maybe because you have something to hide. What are you hiding?"
>Repeat until judge dismisses case.<
"Business" is the wrong word...
With respect Mike, I'm not sure your argument is much stronger because you're still using the term "business". If we (accurately!) described Lavabit's encryption as an "activity" (to distinguish this from the revenue or other business-related aspects of their various "activities") then I think we get much closer to the heart of the matter.
"...handing over Lavabit's private keys absolutely wrecks any real security of Lavabit's system, which is Lavabit's entire *activity*." And, such *activity* is expressly not to be infringed upon casually by the government. (To my mind this makes a more direct connection to 4th Amendment principles...)
It might be a small point, but I think it's necessary to clearly distinguish this case from other cases where government regulation/activity is seen (by you) as "felony interference in a business model". We don't want to foster any chance that these cases can be confused, do we? (Or do we... if that argument is succeeding with judges in those other cases? /s)
Re: Re: Career Choice
Ah, no, I don't think so - I'd expect failing a student would land a professor in an internal grade grievance arbitration at least. I think you might have an inflated sense of faculty powers, Wally. Academic freedom is not absolute (especially when exercised for nonacademic purposes, as your hypothetical appears to qualify.)
Professors have to have as thick a skin as anyone. Though they probably wouldn't be fired (as a teacher might) for saying Rosario did stupid shit.
Interpretations of law and 'security issues'
Probably said somewhere in someone's briefs or whatever, but could a plausible reason for conflating the two (the law & the facts) be that, as part of interpreting the law, specific factual details of the cases where the law is being interpreted are cited? So the interpretational element of a FISC decision that defines the scope of the laws is intertwined with facts about a particular case that are claimed to be 'sensitive'?
(Now, if that's the case, I think we could at least get a redacted version, or a rewritten one that summarizes the resulting interpretation without the case details it was built from.)
Re: Privacy & fingerprints
2 things:
1) Just because I leave DNA all over the place doesn't mean I intend to, have no interest in it, or mean it's "public". Many things are and will be technologically possible that invade my privacy - this doesn't automatically invalidate any expectations of privacy that I have. (We may have to think about new justifications for that expectation, or revise the expectation itself, given new technologies. But that's different.)
2) Fingerprinting children is done with the consent of parents/guardians. And though the intent of those parents isn't relevant to the consent issue, most (I'd expect) do it not to solve crimes but to recover their children in the awful circumstance of abduction, etc. (I want my children found first. Catching the criminal is a distant second.) Therefore, I see no inconsistency here.
Re: worker factories
It's notable that many students coming to universities (especially "access" universities serving first-in-family college-goers) eagerly want to be 'trained' for jobs rather than become critically thinking, broadly knowledgeable citizens... this will not help.
But I think we need pushback from more than First Amendment grounds, because that only protects the right to express potentially objectionable or offensive ideas. Universities have a duty to expose minds to such things, IMO. To my mind, that's a core mission of universities: to intellectually challenge its students. And a necessary part of that is to make them uncomfortable with their present beliefs & attitudes, so they are motivated to examine them carefully. Of course, there are promising ways to do this, and there are crude ways... and there is actual harassment. But I wouldn't rely on a hastily drawn-up law to distinguish between those.
Re: use in commerce`
If she had advertising supporting the site... that could qualify.
Great, now you have me rationalizing on behalf of lawyers.
Re: Suspiciousness
But what if you're the only one not acting suspiciously? Well, that's very suspicious, isn't it? You don't fit in...
(Analogous to the "interesting number paradox" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interesting_number_paradox]...)
Re: Privacy
I would care about my privacy rights, sure. I'd be looking for the Prosecutor's office to charge you with the appropriate criminal charges, and/or go after you civilly. If you sold/leaked it to others and they reported on it, I'd be furious at that too. (Not sure my performances would be newsworthy, though...) In any case, I'd use that public dissemination at YOUR trial, not theirs, when it came to damages. Free speech is not stalking. The problem (if there is one - in this case, it's apparently unsettled fact) is the initial taping, not the reportage after that.
Academic freedom
I'm a little surprised that an instructor isn't in control of the text they use in a course - that's traditionally something covered under academic freedom. But I guess for-profits are pioneers in educational efficiency. Did this just slip by their accreditors?