This is a purely educational website. Nothing here is legal advice or creates or implies an attorney-client relationship. If you have a specific legal issue, PLEASE talk to a lawyer who practices where you live—laws vary from place to place, and how they're applied varies from courthouse to courthouse. Your local county bar association can probably refer someone.
By using this site, you agree that you are awesome. Use of this site also constitutes acceptance of its
Terms of Service and Privacy Policies, which are known to medical science as a cure for insomnia.
It's best to keep all discussions in the comments. But if you really need to reach Nathan privately, go ahead and email him at n.e.burney@gmail.com. He won't mind.
THE ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO LAW and the PEEKING JUSTICE logo are pretty damn cool trademarks and should probably be registered one of these days.
© Nathaniel Burney. All rights reserved, though they really open up once you get to know them.
hmm secret courts, interrogation focused on getting results not protecting the rights of the accused, a system in which most people confess even if innocent. glad we moved past that and have a system where law enforcement respect the rights and dignities of individuals and always err on the side of protecting the innocent over convicting the guilty….
…what’s that….really…60% huh….TSA is doing what?….
what’s guantanamo bay?….Extraordinary rendition?
when you look at the rhetoric supporting the actions of the NSA, TSA, CIA, FBI, DHS, DEA you see one common thread, they seem to hold the idea that it’s better for an innocent person to suffer than for a guilty person to go free. keith alexander of the NSA put it “I much prefer to be here today explaining these programs, than explaining another 9/11 event that we were not able to prevent.” the same kind of reasoning is used to explain the need for the obscene amount of security checking at airports by the TSA and by the DHS for why they can’t let the people in guantanamo bay they know are innocent go, because for them it’s better the innocent suffer than the guilty go free. the same is used to justify torture/”enhanced interrogation”
and to be perfectly honest i hadn’t heard of the blackstone formulation prior to the comic a few comics back, and i wonder how many people who might agree with it, even think it somewhere in their subconscious, have never heard of it. id just like to see banners put up everywhere with this quote from john adams:
“It is more important that innocence should be protected, than it is, that guilt be punished; for guilt and crimes are so frequent in this world, that all of them cannot be punished…. when innocence itself, is brought to the bar and condemned, especially to die, the subject will exclaim, ‘it is immaterial to me whether I behave well or ill, for virtue itself is no security.’ And if such a sentiment as this were to take hold in the mind of the subject that would be the end of all security whatsoever”
Are you suggesting history repeats itself? Come on, the world is more complex than tha-
Oh, wait.
Never mind.
Seeing that font again is a real blast from the past.
Not that the TSA gives much security anyway. When they confiscate a pocket knife with a 2 inch blade, but allow the same guy onto the plane with a 6 foot walking stick that has a 6 inch steel spike on one end…
“No, you can’t take the barely threatening knife onto the plane, but the war spear is fine…”