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Comment by Razengan | Hacker News Reader

> Although the family has agreed to compensate her, Maria, who lived in near-total isolation and without contact with her relatives, will remain with her employers

What the fuck?

Why did the law need the family's "agreement"??

Why is nobody going to jail for imprisoning someone for 55 years??

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Just going on what it says in the article, it may be difficult to prove that anyone specifically forbade her to leave or made threats to prevent her from leaving.

I have some insight into this as my ex ended up in a similar situation in Malaysia. Rich family, no free days, 5-22 work hours.

It took me a year to convince her that it was not ok. They took away her passport, phone, she wasn't allowed to go out without them. I was ready to help her but she did not want my help.

In the end I'm sure she had to pay her "employer" for breach of contract since she left early. I think she had less than $1000 saved from these 18 months of work.

The thing that made me angry the most is that the family was incredibly well off, yet thought they deserve a slave (or more than one) at home.

Sadly this kind of crap is also common in Arab countries like Dubai/UAE where the majority of "household help" is expats who get their passports seized and sometimes even beaten.

In Brazil there are so many laws, I heard that nearly 100% of the population treats laws like strongly worded suggestions, at best.

Idk how the prosecution system even functions without credibility.

If it operates like most corrupt systems, it binds the have-nots, but not the haves.

How can this be true?

Probably the entire adult population gets away with hundreds of offenses per annum on average (judging by the total amount on the books).

Even the most law abiding and most humble decile of Brazilian adults probably still get away with dozens of offenses per annum. That nobody cares to enforce at all.

    > "That nobody cares to enforce at all"

That's the point. When everyone is "committing crimes", you can select who you wish to enforce against. It enables corruption.

Huh?

Did you not understand what it means for even the most humble adult to be getting away with dozens of offenses per annum?

It clearly is not binding on the “have-nots” either.

Of course there is selective enforcement of some % of laws on the books, that’s true in every country on Earth.

Selective enforcement allows those in power to corruptly select who to prosecute. Even though many (perhaps most) "have-nots" will "get away with it", selective enforcement disproportionately impacts the "have-nots" as they have no leverage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_enforcement

https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/law/police-corruptio...

I know? I was the one who wrote that there could be hundreds on average, and dozens for a smaller subset.

That already implies a huge variation.

Edit: But it still doesn’t “bind” anyone in Brazil in the strict sense. At most, it goes from very loose to extremely loose.

It's the usual "criminalize everyone then selectively enforce when politically convenient" corruption.

> The concern is that Maria’s dependence on the exploiting family is so extreme that removing her abruptly, without a structured support network, could do more harm than good

From the article.

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