Friday, April 07, 2006



Spamming for justice?

Those convinced that there was a miscarriage of justice in the Louise Nicholas - police rape case have turned to a new tool to spread their message: spam. This is just obnoxious (spam is spam, no matter how high you believe your purpose is) - but it also shows how little the authorities can do when faced with this sort of concerted campaign and some simple technology. And if they do manage to track down the culprits, then they'll be forced to answer some tough questions about why they can't do the same for the scumbags who daily clog our mailboxes with ads for fake degrees, porn sites and pirated software.

This case is also highlighting how secrecy is absolutely toxic to justice. I think there were good reasons for withholding the information from the jury, and good reasons for its continued suppression - but the fact of that suppression is doing far more to undermine the verdict than the information itself does (if only by making it very difficult to explain why without risking getting into trouble). There's a saying that justice must not only be done, it must be seen to be done - and I think if the information had not been suppressed, or if people could talk about it a little more, then the public would be rather more understanding of the outcome.

3 comments:

I don't know (haven't received any e-mails myself and haven't forwarded any information), but I don't think anyone is spamming with the suppressed information. Just a whole bunch of people are forwarding it to everyone they know.

Although it's hard to tell because the MSM don't know what they're talking about. Eva Raddich described sending an e-mail from webelievelouise@gmail.com as using a false domain name.

Posted by Maia : 4/08/2006 09:45:00 AM

You dont have to catch everyone you just have to hang a few people. The law works by people deciding not to break it not by people breaking it and being caught later. Just like "punishment" should be about deterant/prevention rather than harming offenders.

As for spamming I understand a lot of the spammers are organized criminals in russia now (or maybe living in some other miscelanious fairly lawless country) - if we sent our police after them they might be lucky not to come home in body bags.

Posted by Genius : 4/08/2006 04:40:00 PM

The other thing I've been wanting to say is that I wasn't making the argument many people think I'm making.

I can't explain that in any more detail without breaking suppression orders. But I promise to explain a lot more fully what I want when I can.

Posted by Maia : 4/08/2006 05:18:00 PM