God forbid we have some semblance of transparency in law enforcement. That just won’t do!
The first recommendation would have required that prosecutors who use jailhouse “snitches” corroborate snitch testimony with other evidence. […]
The second reform would have required police to videotape interrogations in violent crime investigations. […]
The commission’s third recommendation … would have established a task force to look into eyewitness testimony, and set up a series of voluntary guidelines for the state’s police departments to follow to ensure that police lineups aren’t overly suggestive.
Every one of these sensible recommendations was vetoed by Schwarzenegger. Unbelievable.
Tom Hilton
Would that be the Arnold Schwarzenegger whom the Telegraph put on their list of “20 Most Influential Liberals in the U.S.”?
Yeah, that’s the one all right.
(In halfhearted fairness to Schwarzenegger, though, Gray Davis was arguably even worse on correctional issues.)
r€nato
gah! couldn’t you warn us before providing to a Not Work Safe site like Fox News???
Zifnab
If the terrorists know how our judicial system operates, then they’ll be able to attack it with impunity! Imagine taping police interrogations! Why, the defense could use such tapes against the prosecution to clear its defendant. And corroborating jail house snitches? Isn’t that the job of high powered, well-paid defense attorneys? The job of the police is to put people in jail, not do all this “investigation” nonsense.
Why, with these rules in place, I bet they wouldn’t have busted Michael Jackson, OJ Simpson, or even Gary Condit.
Dreggas
Well hell, what did you respect, Republicans always bitch that Ahnold isn’t Republican enough!
willyjsimmons
‘Michael Jackson, OJ Simpson’
My goodness…
it always boils down to those two doesn’t it.
LOL.
ThymeZone
Arnold is a dangerous specimen, the Unprincipled Pragmatist who thinks getting something “done” is more important than having it be right. Because, you know, isn’t “right” just somebody’s subjective whiney bitchy thing that we’re all tired of listening to?
Wake up call: Unless partisans, like us, learn to deal with the issues effectively, the Unprincipled Partisans will end up doing it for us.
Rudi
He had to veto this bill, it undermines our Wars on Everything(TM pending). We are winning the War on Crime, War on Drugs and GWOT. Just because the rules of law interfere with vigilante justice…
capelza
I’m not going to link to Fox…I’ve waded through enough wingnuttis today, but did he give a reason why?
Dennis-SGMM
Apparently none of you has read the California Waterboarding Initiative.
Supporters hope to place on the ballot an initiative allowing California law enforcement authorities to waterboard suspects.
“Our confession rate will skyrocket!” said one supporter.
Governor Schwarzenegger was said to be “interested” in the initiative.
/snark
Michael D.
capelza and r€nato: It’s FoxNews, yes. But it is an article by Radley Balko, probably one of the best journalists in America today, and an editor at Reason. It’s the only reason I ever read FoxNews.
Sam Hutcheson
He gave reasons for all of them. They were all shitty, idiotic reasons that basically boil down to “I won’t stand up to the prison-industry lobby.”
Evinfuilt
Can’t we call Arnold a Girly-Man since he wont’ stand up against a frickin group of Lawyers… in suits at that.
Those 3 changes are the least they could do, really, the least. I hope they can override it, we really need to hear of a victory for common sense.
Zifnab
Honestly, I’d love to see that on the ballot. Let’s see how much popular support waterboarding – and its corresponding party – would really get.
Pb
Do you think those two things go together? But don’t stop there. He also worked for Cato, and he’s written for Tech Central Station, and pimped their astroturfing lobbyist smear garbage.
Michael D.
Pb: And he’s largely been responsible for saving a couple people from the hideous death penalty, and exposing an unqualified pathologist who’s put more people behind bars in Mississippi than you can count. I’ll allow a few shortcomings. To me, he’s a journalistic hero and I wish there were more like him who weren’t afrais to tell the truth.
And Supersize Me was probably one of the stupidest documentaries ever produced.
Dreggas
They may as well call the California penal system exactly what it is, a corporation. Look at all the SuperMax prisons we have, hell every one of them has been a documentary on the National Geographic channel.
Michael D.
“Oh my God! The Big Mac is making me eat it! I don’t have time because I have kids to take care if. I must eat at McDonald’s!! I must wait in the drive thru for 30 minutes for my supersised Big Mac combo – 365 days a year!!!”
Bah! Whatever…
Make a fucking sandwich!
Michael D.
Let everyone out who has committed a non-violent crime for marijuana. Sheeeesh.
What a crappy system. Sorry. I am bored. :-)
capelza
Michael..okay. I like Balko and his great articles on injustice and wrongful convictions and abusive police.
Reason makes my eyes roll sometimes, but his work in that area is really good.
Thanks for the explanation above.
capelza
However, because I hit the reply button too early..a lot of the stuff at Reason, or at least Hit & Run is simply pissy hippie sniping.
Said as a Saab owning, Mac using “elitist” who goes to the Saturday Farmer’s market and doesn’t think “recycling is slavery”. That place cracks me up.
Right now they are talking about what a bad idea solar power is (it needs subsidies) but out of the other side of their dreamy little mouths hype nuclear, like THAT doesn’t need subsidies? Again, the knee-jerk anti “elitist” sometimes makes them caricatures. Is there ANY energy source that isn’t subsidized by the government?
Anyhoo…I’ll go read the article now.
Zifnab
What’s the stat now? 40% of incarcerated individuals? That’s freak’n ridonkulous. I’m not for legalization, but if I can walk away from a speeding ticket with a three-digit fine and a driving safety course, why does some white-trash street kid get two years in prison and a life-ending police record for having a pocketful of bud?
Michael D.
Yay! I am a Saab owning elitist!! I have a 9-3 Linear – 2003.
Michael D.
I am. Cigarettes harm more people than cannabis.
capelza
9-3..1999 (late year)..I like the old style hatch back better..i use that thing like a pick up truck and the storage capacity is huge in the trunk. But the new ones sure are purty.
The thing is built like a tank, goes over mountain passes where SUV’s fear to tread and it’s just so practical. It’s gas mileage isn’t as high as I would like (about 30 on the hwy, low 20’s in town, but I walk to the store. I drive it maybe once or twice a week. I love my Saab..and my Mac.
High fives a fellow elitist. pssst…don’t tell Reason readers…heh.
Michael D.
My dad told me not to buy a late model Saab. He said that they suck. He was right. I’ve had more problems with it than I care to recount.
But my god, it’s fun to drive!
Which is, by the way, totally relevant to the discussion at hand about Ahnold, so screw off haters! :-)
capelza
That’s odd…what do you mean by late model? I know the 900’s had some problems, but mine has been a very ,very good girl…the first 9-3’s have a hatchback, the newer models look like the 9-5s.
My first car wreck as a driver, a 1972 Saab in 1977…I’ve been a long time fan. Before it became “elitist” and was just eccentric…and before I really learned to drive, too.
Arnold…he frustrates me…I do agree abou the Calif. Prison industry though.
About the prison “industry” period.
Michael D.
I just love my Saab, and I would buy another one. Granola that I am!
Dreggas
Oh I couldn’t agree more, then again I am a Cypress Hill fan and like they say “Legalize it”.
Dreggas
Honestly I could not agree more. Sorry, I know it’s bad since I am a liberal and all and here I am defending the golden arches and their trans-fats and what not but the reality is, if you eat nothing but McD’s 24/7 it’s your own damn fault and if your parents feed you nothing but McD’s then it’s their damn fault as your care givers.
if you’re bored Michael, check this out if you haven’t already:
Link
Xenos
At least Supersize Me was honest enough to note that the guy who ate three big macs per day for thirty years was perfectly healthy. And that was because he never drank soda and never ate french fries – so it is the sugar, which you hardly need to go to McDonalds to overdose on, that was doing the damage.
Laertes
Good heavens, they don’t videotape interrogations in California? Why the hell not?
This is a no-brainer. Everywhere it’s proposed, the pattern is the same. Cops bitch about it, complaining that they won’t be able to do their jobs. The law passes anyway. And then a short time later the cops and DA’s have completely changed their tune.
Cops quickly figure out that the tapes are an ironclad defense against bogus allegations of brutality and coercion. Prosecutors quickly realize that the tapes are a great way to present a suspect to the jury in the state in which they found him, before the defense attorney made him get a haircut, dressed him in a tie, and coached him on how to speak. There he is on tape, pissed-off, high, belligerent, and smug.
The only people who lose when you videotape interrogations are bent cops and guilty suspects, and there’s no pleasing them.
Cybershaman
Maybe Arnold realizes that if we actually see what is going on in those interregation rooms in our Prison industry we would not be able to blindly support it.
When we legalized ‘coerced confessions’ under Reagan we set the stage for our slide into Abu Graib and waterboarding justifications. I think we would be truly outraged if we really knew what was going on behind those walls and bars.
It’s all been ‘punishment’ for those damn hippies who tried to stand up to the military/industrial/prison complex.