Comments | siderea: [ethics, crimjust] Outside the System

siderea

[ethics, crimjust] Outside the System

Mar 27, 2015 23:09

Someone (maybe on metafilter? I've lost the source) pointed me at this article: Let's Make A Deal. It explains: Imagine you’re browsing at Bloomingdale’s when a security guard taps you on the shoulder and accuses you of shoplifting. He takes you to a private room, sits you down, and runs your name through a database to see if you have any ( Read more... )

crimjust, ethics

Comments 25

lyorn March 28 2015, 19:12:50 UTC

Lots of perverse incentive here.

Shops can go after anyone whose nose they do not like, as the likeliness of this ever going to court is close to nil.
Shoplifters can get out of jail free.
Law enforcement can lessen their work load by making themselves too scary to call.

All that's missing right now is kickbacks to get a money printing scheme going.

Also, it replaces the rule that those who are guily should be punished and those who aren't should not, with the rule that those who can't pay should be punished and those who can should go free -- completely independent of their guilt or innocence.

It's a mercy *only* because law enforcement and the justice system cannot be trusted except *maybe* by the most privileged. In a culture of corruption, allowing those with least to win and most to lose to buy favours is probalby the only mercy available.

siderea March 28 2015, 20:30:25 UTC

Law enforcement can lessen their work load by making themselves too scary to call.

Huh, that's an interesting angle I hadn't considered.

shava23 April 2 2015, 04:00:41 UTC

This guy put it pretty well:

http://ethicsalarms.com/2015/02/27/a-new-seductive-and-sinister-way-to-be-unethical-shoplifter-extortion-for-profit/#more-25939

A brief survey of the Web shows no evidence that CEC training is effective at anything except putting $40 in the store's pocket and $200 in CEC's, besides scaring the fuck out of some petty criminals.

One dumbass teenager actually confessed to shoplifting $30 of merchandise and being charged *$300* for the course. I wonder who was pocketing that extra $60?

The lawyer who answered if this was legal said it was, but perhaps it were less than advisable to confess to criminal activity online using your presumably real name on a legal forum.

Heh.

But yes, it has all the marks of an inherently corrupting racket. You are engaging in the mistake of cops bad; rent-a-cops good. In fact, many rent-a-cops are peeps who didn't make ( ... )

londo April 7 2015, 19:12:56 UTC

(I thought I hit post on this a while ago, I clearly didn't.)

Given this choice, I'd be tempted to plunk down the money too. Even if I'm for-sure innocent, a day off work is likely to cost me more than the money for this thing, so financially the choice is really easy.

The larger scale implications of this are terrifying. They're terrifying in the same way that private prisons are terrifying. Terrifying in the same way that police departments have more money to go around if they issue more fines. Terrifying in the same way that a doctor gets paid more for putting a patient on more drugs, whether they're useful or not ( ... )