Hacker News Reader

Comment by barbariangrunge | Hacker News Reader

People shouldn’t be profiled based on what they watch or read. Are we going so say that couldn’t video games are evidence that somebody is going to go commit violence next? What if you’re into spy movies? Crime documentaries? Weird reality tv shows?

I read all kinds of non fiction things I won’t even list here but I seem to be a perfectly boring member of society. It’s just interesting subject matter

View on HN

When the authorities catch up to you, you are definitely going to be treated differently if you have bags packed, tickets booked, and a bunch of books on how to evade the police versus being on your volunteer shift at the local soup kitchen. Getting caught fleeing speaks poorly to your character if you don't have a good reason or have already been told to not leave town by the cops.

If they had contacted a defense attorney, does that also speak poorly to their character and should be held against them? Certainly that's something a criminal who knew they were guilty would do.

Not really. Innocent people need defense attorneys as well.

It’s not profiling as the book was collected as evidence after being charged with a crime and with a search warrant (or at least probably cause must be established with other evidence). Profiling would be using information about such a book before crimes were committed or charged.

In addition, such evidence is important in establishing bail, as risk of fleeing is of primary concern.

> In one of their bags packed for their flight, there was a book titled “Criminal Law Handbook: Know Your Rights, Survive The System,” the papers say.

You sensibly mention that this was not brought up until after the warranted search. But why is this title being mentioned now? Is the suggestion that someone who’s been charged with a crime should not attempt to read up on his rights—that doing so is a black mark suggesting flight risk? If the other book, on disappearing, is derogatory in itself, then why bring up this book too?

I'd guess that it speaks to the "knew charges were coming" bit to support that they were specifically fleeing the law and not disappearing to escape a bookie or an annoying family member or something

Apply that to other situations though. Those sorts of books are ordinary. If you used that sort of profiling after the fact on everyone, you could make anyone look suspicious or untrustworthy

Witch hunters during the inquisition literally used to do this sort of thing to help condemn people

You are absolutely correct! Law enforcement should not in any circumstance be allowed to go through someone's library of books that are publicly available and then try to tie in one of those books with the fact that they've committed a crime. That is the problem, like many people in this feed they are totally oblivious of how much illegal control and power they are giving the authorities. Interestingly though, my gut tells me that they didn't even find that book that that book may have been planted as evidence against them. We live in a world where police are always getting busted on social media for lying in deception. We can no longer sit back and assume that they are doing the right thing behind closed doors. I don't believe for one minute that they found the book I think that was their way of adding a layer so that they could later charge the people. If we don't fight this type of stuff now, our lives As Americans in the future lives of the next generations literally will not even be worth living!!!

Oh c'mon. That's just a bunch of vapid nonsense.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com