[Serial] podcast. A case study in how our justice system sucks.

CommunistCow

Even if he isn't proven innocent, he will not be convicted again because there is MASSIVE amounts of reasonable doubt.

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The Ender

SarcasmoBlaster wrote: »

I wasn't in the army or anything, but I think we all know some Bowe-types. He almost seems like a real life Dwight Schrute or something. A sort of dorky, introverted guy who fancies himself a modern day samurai warrior.

I thought the best episodes by far were the last few, starting with the one that finally explains why Bowe left (which made for the jaw dropping moment of the season for most people I'm sure.) Like Sarah said, a poorly planned/executed mission that put lives in danger (probably needlessly) and a commanding officer who's a dick? That just sounds like what I pictured the army to be. Then it's followed by the last two, which really help you understand that, yes, someone out there would think that walking off post would be a reasonable course of action, and that person is Bowe, because he's........well, he's unique let's say.

I honestly don't think Berghdahl's actions, given his postion & available options, were unreasonable.

He made a poor life decision under the encouragement & enticement of a state office and found himself in a situation that he clearly couldn't handle. In other theaters, people in Berghdahl's position have resorted to murder (fragging in Vietnam, for example) to get out.


Militaries need to provide an option to allow soldiers to extract themselves if they can't handle what is happening, IMHO - otherwise the service is honestly not as voluntary as it's made out to be, and problems like the scenario played out by Berghdahl & his company will be a recurrent problem.

GONG-00

Season 3 episode 1 and 2:
Not surprisingly, this is not a flattering look at our justice system in motion.

CommunistCow

I haven't listened to the episodes yet but the Season 3 trailer sounded suuuuper interesting. I'm surprised Cleveland let them have unfettered access to record all over their courts.

KetBra

Got through the first episode.

This is the 'system working', huh.

shryke

KetBra wrote: »

Got through the first episode.

This is the 'system working', huh.

I said this like 3.5+ years ago now but it remains true:

the one thing I took away from this podcast more then anything is that it's like an 8.5 hour in-depth testimonial on the terrifying arbitrarity of even the basic idea of how our criminal justice systems function.

GONG-00

Episode 3:
Does there exist some sort of judicial overwatch? a Judge putting words in the mouth of a cop to justify her ruling is a bad look for everyone involved.

wazilla

Grounds for appeal I would think, certainly. But likely that's also why she didn't include that bit in her decision. But it's all recorded so maybe they could still move forward with it.

That's actually even more damning because it could show the judge altering her reasoning in a post hoc fashion to hide the fact that she realized the cop never said there was a bulge. I'm not sure how easy it would be for the cop to just amend his testimony though to say "oh and there was totally a bulge" but whatever.

Also the cop she talked to, Steve whatshisnuts

Holy fuck

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KetBra

Yeah so far this seems to be a documentary in why American policing is fundamentally broken, and how that reverberates through the rest of the justice system

KetBra

KetBra wrote: »

Yeah so far this seems to be a documentary in why American policing is fundamentally broken, and how that reverberates through the rest of the justice system

update: this assessment is perhaps too kind to cops

GONG-00

KetBra wrote: »

KetBra wrote: »

Yeah so far this seems to be a documentary in why American policing is fundamentally broken, and how that reverberates through the rest of the justice system

update: this assessment is perhaps too kind to cops

Yeah, today's episode focusing on East Cleveland...perhaps some local police forces should be disbanded in favor of state police for better accountability?

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TDawg

Thus far, this is by far the best season of Serial. The shift in perspective from "one individual's story" to "a bunch of stories under this general umbrella" is great for this stuff.

Thirith

I don't think that makes it the best season, because it makes it a very different beast from S1. (I don't remember S2 all that well, and I found it quite a bit less engaging.) The thing that S1 did, it did exceedingly well; S3 chooses to do something different. There are overlaps in style and theme, but S1 was much more focused on telling a coherent story, something it excelled at (until the final episode, perhaps), while S3 has more of a journalistic mission, for want of a better word. Either approach is legitimate and I don't think it'd be accurate or fair to say that one is inherently better than the other.

CommunistCow

So after listening to these episodes I'm making more of an effort to try and find out more about the judges on my midterm ballot. I must say it is hard and I have a brother in law who works in the public defenders office in a different county. I wish there was a better way of informing voters on these judges we are supposed to retain.

AngelHedgie

CommunistCow wrote: »

So after listening to these episodes I'm making more of an effort to try and find out more about the judges on my midterm ballot. I must say it is hard and I have a brother in law who works in the public defenders office in a different county. I wish there was a better way of informing voters on these judges we are supposed to retain.

We shouldn't be voting on judges in the first place.

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