Like TOG said, it shouldn't take anywhere near this amount of egregious behavior to get sanctions. The sanctions should be much harsher, they should come much quicker, and with considerably less provocation. This guy should have been disbarred long ago.
Ditto (x 10 + prison time) for prosecutorial misconduct.
In 2009, the National Research Council condemned blood pattern analysis as "more subjective than scientific."
And it was old news even then. Many people have been shouting this to anyone who will listen for several decades, probably most notably Radley Balko. But, as the article also points out, no one seems to be listening, especially not the criminal legal system.
It is also worth noting that, with the exception of DNA testing, all of the forensic techniques in use by the criminal legal system were developed either by, or for, people associated with the prosecution side of that system, specifically for the purpose of helping the prosecution secure convictions. These forensic techniques were not developed for, and are not used for, ascertaining the truth.
The accuracy, reliability, and evidentiary value of forensic evidence are almost always grossly overstated to juries, and many jurors have been heavily influenced by the CSI effect, which results in their giving grossly excessive weight to the evidentiary value of said forensic evidence.
Correcting the situation will be very difficult, because, just as in the drug war, there has arisen a very large law enforcement / prison / industrial complex around the practice of this forensic hocus-pocus. That makes for a lot of powerful and influential people all trying to maintain the status quo.
I thought that the basics of this issue had been settled long ago: That one can be compelled to produce something one has, like a key, a fingerprint, or their face, but that one cannot be compelled to produce something that one knows, like a safe combination, computer password, or encryption key.
This has always been the reason given for making sure your phone (or computer, or whatever) cannot be unlocked with biometrics alone if you want to have any chance at all of the government not being able to access it's contents.
Of course, if the government can get into your safe, phone, computer, or whatever without the combination or password, etc, you are still out of luck, but at least the combination lock or password protection add a degree of difficulty to the task.
Isn't this just another example of the government trying to breathe new life into a long dead horse, and hoping no one will notice the horse's miraculous recovery?
These things happen with such regularity that "mistake" is a completely inaccurate description. When cops do not read warrants and do not verify locations, tips, informant information, etc, or deliberately falsify any of those things, they are not making "mistakes." They are essentially planning to commit crimes, and then actively and intentionally committing those crimes, all because they know there is near zero chance they will be held accountable in any meaningful way.
Re: 'No precedent applies and we're not creating any'
'. . . and we're not creating any'
This should be clear and convincing evidence of willful and malicious intent to further entrench and expand a violent, authoritarian police state, at least to anyone who is not part of that effort.
Do you want to undermine public confidence and trust in the police and the courts as institutions?
Been there, done that, got the T-shirt, but it was so long ago that the T-shirt eventually wore out and had to go into the rag-bag (and even that was a long time ago).
You are absolutely correct. I, and a great many others, have said as much in the past. I was just trying to expand on the "symptom of the disease" metaphor. Sometimes one cannot cover all the relevant bases and keep a comment to a reasonable length at the same time.
I, and a great many others, can easily recognize, and ignore, the Alice in Wonderland contradictions of Chris Wray for the nonsensical rantings of a power-hungry, police state authoritarian that they are. Our real challenge is getting Congress, the Courts, and Joe "Executive Order" Biden / Kamala "Dictator in Waiting" Harris (and whoever may come after them) to do the same.
The real problem is that the systemic disease has not yet (and may never) become fatal. The diseased system has survived for many decades, and there is every indication that it will continue to survive . . . and that it will continue to kill, maim, and incarcerate countless citizens, at least for the foreseeable future.
The [Insert Name of Law Enforcement Agency Here] has proven itself unworthy of trust -- both in its inaction and its officers' actions, which needlessly ended a man's life and went mostly undocumented because the troopers knew better than to record their own excessive force and rights violations.
The problem is not the crappy tests, the problem is the lack of consequences. No one should be surprised by the outcome.
We see this time and again: Bad incentives, improper incentives, lack of disincentives or consequences . . . they all inevitably result in bad behaviors and bad outcomes. And the AC is absolutely correct in that none of this should be cause for surprise.
They're even more unreliable than drug dogs when it comes to correctly identifying drugs.
It is not that the dogs are inaccurate, it is generally that the handlers are dishonest and corrupt, ie they are cops. Poor training, often intentional in the case of drug detection dogs, can be at fault as well. Of course, drugs shouldn't be illegal to begin with, but drug detection dogs can be just as accurate as dogs that detect explosives, cadavers, cancers, viruses, or other substances. And all of these detection dogs can be extremely accurate.
The drug detection dogs should not be allowed to be "probable cause on four paws" nor should their "testimony" be allowed in court, but not because the dogs are inherently inaccurate, but because the handlers are dishonest and corrupt.
Here is some data from the National Academy of Sciences:
"Evaluation of 10 canines trained for detection of a severe exotic phytobacterial arboreal pathogen, Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas), demonstrated 0.9905 accuracy, 0.8579 sensitivity, and 0.9961 specificity."
Here is an article from UCLA Department of Psychology:
"Detection of BVDV-infected cell cultures by Dog 1 had a diagnostic sensitivity of 0.850 (95% CI: 0.701–0.942), which was lower than Dog 2 (0.967, 95% CI: 0.837–0.994). Both dogs exhibited very high diagnostic specificity (0.981, 95% CI: 0.960–0.993) and (0.993, 95% CI: 0.975–0.999), respectively. These findings demonstrate that trained dogs can differentiate between cultured cells infected with BVDV, BHV1, and BPIV3 and are a realistic real-time mobile pathogen sensing technology for viral pathogens."
Here is a recent article from CNN about dogs that detect Covid-19:
"During the testing period, the dogs did dozens of trials, with a success rate of between 76% to 100%. Jacky and Bella, the two dogs that specialized in detecting colon cancer, had a 100% success rate in the 68 tests they completed."
Here is an article by Radley Balko that also addresses the issue. This article, while mentioning the capability of the dogs, focuses primarily on all the problems introduced by incompetent or improperly motivated handlers:
"The problem with drug-sniffing dogs is not that dogs aren’t capable of sniffing out drugs; it’s that we’ve bred into domestic dogs a trait that trumps that ability — a desire to read us and to please us. If a drug dog isn’t specifically trained to compensate for this, it will merely read its handler’s body language and confirm its handler’s suspicions about who is and isn’t hiding drugs."
The bottom line is that the weak link is either the training or the handler, whether through incompetence or ill-intent. Trained and handled properly, the dogs do quite well.
The "heat list" was finally abandoned in 2019. . .
Is there any reason we should believe this? Even though the cops say so, and maybe they aren't harassing this guy as much as they used to, I am not convinced. As we all know, lying is SOP for cops.
SCOTUS ". . . still has a lot of damage to undo from its decades of expansion of the qualified immunity doctrine. . ."
While this decision may be a start in the right direction, SCOTUS also has a lot of damage to undo from their decades of demolition of the 4th Amendment (which seems to me to be implicated in this case).
I am one of those captive customers, and if the whole damn company went up in flames I would be one of the millions of people roasting hot dogs and marshmallows.
Just say "No!" to [insert name of company or online service that uses violation of privacy and / or mass surveillance as a business model here]
Mass abandonment is the solution, here. Unfortunately it is a less viable option when government is the violator. Government's private enterprise proxies, however, can and should be kicked to the curb.
There is no possibility that recognition of the exquisite crappiness of facial recognition will result in Clearview not continuing to sell it to cops to use to arrest random people.
And
There is no possibility that recognition of the exquisite crappiness of facial recognition will result in cops not continuing to use it to arrest random people.
On the post: 2nd Circuit Upholds Non-Monetary Sanctions Against Copyright Troll Richard Liebowitz
More of this, please!
Like TOG said, it shouldn't take anywhere near this amount of egregious behavior to get sanctions. The sanctions should be much harsher, they should come much quicker, and with considerably less provocation. This guy should have been disbarred long ago.
Ditto (x 10 + prison time) for prosecutorial misconduct.
On the post: Study Shows Blood Pattern Analysis Is Just More Guesswork Posing As Scientific Evidence
Old, but still outrageous, news
As the article points out:
And it was old news even then. Many people have been shouting this to anyone who will listen for several decades, probably most notably Radley Balko. But, as the article also points out, no one seems to be listening, especially not the criminal legal system.
It is also worth noting that, with the exception of DNA testing, all of the forensic techniques in use by the criminal legal system were developed either by, or for, people associated with the prosecution side of that system, specifically for the purpose of helping the prosecution secure convictions. These forensic techniques were not developed for, and are not used for, ascertaining the truth.
The accuracy, reliability, and evidentiary value of forensic evidence are almost always grossly overstated to juries, and many jurors have been heavily influenced by the CSI effect, which results in their giving grossly excessive weight to the evidentiary value of said forensic evidence.
Correcting the situation will be very difficult, because, just as in the drug war, there has arisen a very large law enforcement / prison / industrial complex around the practice of this forensic hocus-pocus. That makes for a lot of powerful and influential people all trying to maintain the status quo.
On the post: DOJ Asks DC Court To Compel Decryption Of Device Seized In A Capitol Raid Case
Dead horses and already settled law?
I thought that the basics of this issue had been settled long ago: That one can be compelled to produce something one has, like a key, a fingerprint, or their face, but that one cannot be compelled to produce something that one knows, like a safe combination, computer password, or encryption key.
This has always been the reason given for making sure your phone (or computer, or whatever) cannot be unlocked with biometrics alone if you want to have any chance at all of the government not being able to access it's contents.
Of course, if the government can get into your safe, phone, computer, or whatever without the combination or password, etc, you are still out of luck, but at least the combination lock or password protection add a degree of difficulty to the task.
Isn't this just another example of the government trying to breathe new life into a long dead horse, and hoping no one will notice the horse's miraculous recovery?
On the post: Cop Who Led Strike Team Into Wrong House During Drug Raid Granted Immunity By Eleventh Circuit
Re:
These things happen with such regularity that "mistake" is a completely inaccurate description. When cops do not read warrants and do not verify locations, tips, informant information, etc, or deliberately falsify any of those things, they are not making "mistakes." They are essentially planning to commit crimes, and then actively and intentionally committing those crimes, all because they know there is near zero chance they will be held accountable in any meaningful way.
On the post: Cop Who Led Strike Team Into Wrong House During Drug Raid Granted Immunity By Eleventh Circuit
Re: 'No precedent applies and we're not creating any'
This should be clear and convincing evidence of willful and malicious intent to further entrench and expand a violent, authoritarian police state, at least to anyone who is not part of that effort.
On the post: Cop Who Led Strike Team Into Wrong House During Drug Raid Granted Immunity By Eleventh Circuit
Re:
Been there, done that, got the T-shirt, but it was so long ago that the T-shirt eventually wore out and had to go into the rag-bag (and even that was a long time ago).
On the post: Police Union, Lax Oversight Allow Florida Cop To Survive Three Arrests And Seven Firings
Re: Re: Fatal disease?
You are absolutely correct. I, and a great many others, have said as much in the past. I was just trying to expand on the "symptom of the disease" metaphor. Sometimes one cannot cover all the relevant bases and keep a comment to a reasonable length at the same time.
On the post: FBI Director Ignores More Than 500 Ongoing Capitol Raid Prosecutions To Complain That Encryption Is Keeping Criminals From Being Caught
Our real challenge
I, and a great many others, can easily recognize, and ignore, the Alice in Wonderland contradictions of Chris Wray for the nonsensical rantings of a power-hungry, police state authoritarian that they are. Our real challenge is getting Congress, the Courts, and Joe "Executive Order" Biden / Kamala "Dictator in Waiting" Harris (and whoever may come after them) to do the same.
On the post: Police Union, Lax Oversight Allow Florida Cop To Survive Three Arrests And Seven Firings
Fatal disease?
The real problem is that the systemic disease has not yet (and may never) become fatal. The diseased system has survived for many decades, and there is every indication that it will continue to survive . . . and that it will continue to kill, maim, and incarcerate countless citizens, at least for the foreseeable future.
On the post: FBI Ignores Internal Guidelines To Target Readers Of Reporting On The Shooting Of FBI Agents (Updated)
Intellectually dishonesty
This is a pervasive theme in much, if not most, of what the government says and does.
The same goes for most of the government's C Suite and media co-conspirators.
On the post: Newly-Released Body Cam Footage Shows Louisiana State Troopers Beating A Man To Death
Of course, it's not just the LSP
The [Insert Name of Law Enforcement Agency Here] has proven itself unworthy of trust -- both in its inaction and its officers' actions, which needlessly ended a man's life and went mostly undocumented because the troopers knew better than to record their own excessive force and rights violations.
On the post: Man Sues After Field Drug Test Says His Daughter's Ashes Are Meth And Ecstasy
Re:
We see this time and again: Bad incentives, improper incentives, lack of disincentives or consequences . . . they all inevitably result in bad behaviors and bad outcomes. And the AC is absolutely correct in that none of this should be cause for surprise.
On the post: Man Sues After Field Drug Test Says His Daughter's Ashes Are Meth And Ecstasy
Don't blame the dogs
It is not that the dogs are inaccurate, it is generally that the handlers are dishonest and corrupt, ie they are cops. Poor training, often intentional in the case of drug detection dogs, can be at fault as well. Of course, drugs shouldn't be illegal to begin with, but drug detection dogs can be just as accurate as dogs that detect explosives, cadavers, cancers, viruses, or other substances. And all of these detection dogs can be extremely accurate.
The drug detection dogs should not be allowed to be "probable cause on four paws" nor should their "testimony" be allowed in court, but not because the dogs are inherently inaccurate, but because the handlers are dishonest and corrupt.
Here is some data from the National Academy of Sciences:
https://www.pnas.org/content/117/7/3492
Here is a quote from the abstract:
"Evaluation of 10 canines trained for detection of a severe exotic phytobacterial arboreal pathogen, Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas), demonstrated 0.9905 accuracy, 0.8579 sensitivity, and 0.9961 specificity."
Here is an article from UCLA Department of Psychology:
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9xw413g4
Here is a quote from that abstract:
" After 15 weeks, the dogs achieved 95% detection reliability."
Here is an article from Frontiers in Veterinary Science about dogs detecing viruses, and distinguishing between different types of viruses:
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fvets.2015.00079/full
Here is a quote from the article:
"Detection of BVDV-infected cell cultures by Dog 1 had a diagnostic sensitivity of 0.850 (95% CI: 0.701–0.942), which was lower than Dog 2 (0.967, 95% CI: 0.837–0.994). Both dogs exhibited very high diagnostic specificity (0.981, 95% CI: 0.960–0.993) and (0.993, 95% CI: 0.975–0.999), respectively. These findings demonstrate that trained dogs can differentiate between cultured cells infected with BVDV, BHV1, and BPIV3 and are a realistic real-time mobile pathogen sensing technology for viral pathogens."
Here is a recent article from CNN about dogs that detect Covid-19:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/10/health/detection-dogs-covid-19-scent-study-scn-wellness/ind ex.html
Here is a quote from that article:
"During the testing period, the dogs did dozens of trials, with a success rate of between 76% to 100%. Jacky and Bella, the two dogs that specialized in detecting colon cancer, had a 100% success rate in the 68 tests they completed."
Here is an article by Radley Balko that also addresses the issue. This article, while mentioning the capability of the dogs, focuses primarily on all the problems introduced by incompetent or improperly motivated handlers:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2015/08/04/federal-appeals-court-drug-dog -thats-barely-more-accurate-than-a-coin-flip-is-good-enough/
Here is a quote from that article:
"The problem with drug-sniffing dogs is not that dogs aren’t capable of sniffing out drugs; it’s that we’ve bred into domestic dogs a trait that trumps that ability — a desire to read us and to please us. If a drug dog isn’t specifically trained to compensate for this, it will merely read its handler’s body language and confirm its handler’s suspicions about who is and isn’t hiding drugs."
The bottom line is that the weak link is either the training or the handler, whether through incompetence or ill-intent. Trained and handled properly, the dogs do quite well.
On the post: How Predictive Policing Got A Chicago Man Shot Twice
Are we sure?
Is there any reason we should believe this? Even though the cops say so, and maybe they aren't harassing this guy as much as they used to, I am not convinced. As we all know, lying is SOP for cops.
On the post: Supreme Court Says The Community Caretaking Exception Doesn't Apply To Warrantless Searches Of People's Homes
While this decision may be a start in the right direction, SCOTUS also has a lot of damage to undo from their decades of demolition of the 4th Amendment (which seems to me to be implicated in this case).
On the post: After 50,000 Layoffs And Absolute Chaos, AT&T Ends Its Bungled Media Experiment
Re:
I am one of those captive customers, and if the whole damn company went up in flames I would be one of the millions of people roasting hot dogs and marshmallows.
On the post: Lawsuit: Cops Trashed An Attorney's Home In Retaliation For Successfully Defending A Suspect Against Murder Charges
Re: Let's hope justice prevails
Yeah, about 20 years of 6' x 8' therapy.
On the post: Detroit PD Detective Sued For His (Second) Bogus Arrest Predicated On Questionable Facial Recognition Searches
Re: The modern day version of 'reasonable cause on demand'
This is just the new-tech version of the police dog named "Probable Cause," who "alerted" on the handler's cue.
On the post: Facebook's Distinction Between Data Breaches And Scraping Would Make A Lot More Sense If It Hadn't Argued Differently In Court
Just say "No!"
Just say "No!" to [insert name of company or online service that uses violation of privacy and / or mass surveillance as a business model here]
Mass abandonment is the solution, here. Unfortunately it is a less viable option when government is the violator. Government's private enterprise proxies, however, can and should be kicked to the curb.
On the post: Law Enforcement Officials Confirm Clearview's Facial Recognition Tech Is Mostly Useless
P(A) + P(B) = 0
There is no possibility that recognition of the exquisite crappiness of facial recognition will result in Clearview not continuing to sell it to cops to use to arrest random people.
And
There is no possibility that recognition of the exquisite crappiness of facial recognition will result in cops not continuing to use it to arrest random people.
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