

Right to Remain Silent - jbp
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/414/right-to-remain-silent

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bmccormack
This is an excellent episode. The story of Adrian Schoolcraft is a great
example of how data, when used to irresponsibly set quotas, can be abused.

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fridrik
Yes. It particularly shows an example of how bad incidents (e.g. bugs, serious
offences) tend to be underreported or have their criticality misrepresented. I
feel that whenever possible, these metrics should be used for strategic
guidance, but the primary metrics for people in the field to follow should be
positive ones—things that the team agrees will likely affect the negative
metrics in a desirable manner: number of test cases, reviewed commit counts,
emergency response times or serious lawbreakers caught in the act.

But many of the things that affect the final outcome may not be particularly
measurable. Without expert knowledge of law enforcement I think that may be
the problem with evaluating police officers' work. For example, conversations
with citizens may prove to aid crime reduction and confidence in the police,
but how do you quantify them in terms of nature and value?

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js2
The first segment reminds me of the "Sophomore Uses List Context; Cops
Interrogate" story.

[http://yro.slashdot.org/story/01/03/13/208259/sophomore-
uses...](http://yro.slashdot.org/story/01/03/13/208259/sophomore-uses-list-
context-cops-interrogate)

<http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/UnixReview/col38.html>

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fennecfoxen
If you're interested in outrageous and/or _senseless_ perversions of justice,
go to <http://reason.com> and follow their Daily Brickbat. (You'll have to
deal with the magazine authors being a bunch of Libertarians; naturally, you
may or may not appreciate this.) A good number of incidents involve schools,
of course.

Sample: 'Marshall Junior High School in Texas bars students from having
"designs shaved into their hair." So when Sheldon Williams showed up for
classes with lines shaved into his hair officials took a permanent marker and
filled in those lines.' -- <http://reason.com/brickbat/2011/10/18/thats-leave-
a-mark>

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TDL
You may also want to follow Radley Balko who's focus is criminal justice & the
legal system. He was at Reason for several years, he is now at Huffington
Post.

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sjmulder
In the first segment, why is the focus on his supposed irresponsibility of
posting that joke to Facebook, instead of the braindead legislation that
allowed this silliness to end up in court?

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drhodes
It's the nature of `This American Life`. it's not a show about politics, it's
about individuals and their experiences.

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cemerick
It's _sometimes_ about politics, but when it's about politics, they make the
show about politics.

In any case, on-the-nose commentary about the legislation involved would be
really boring in comparison.

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atirip
What is this? I went there and they try to sell me some iPad app?

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icebraining
_This American Life is a weekly public radio show broadcast on more than 500
stations to about 1.8 million listeners. It is produced by Chicago Public
Media, distributed by Public Radio International, and has won all of the major
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They also have mobile apps, but you don't have to use them to download the
episode.

