Actual, you know, convictions for assault might be persuasive. But just getting charged? Not so much, considering how often the charges get dropped. Not to mention that even those that get to court don't have the kind of high success rate other kinds of cases routinely have.
2025-10-16 21:40:47
And to be picky, I don’t think there is anything to support Noem’s claim that there has been a 700% increase in these incidents.
I doubt that she has the wit for this herself, but there might be someone on staff who does. Percentages are a great way to exagerate an increase from, for example, 1 incident nationwide last year to 7 this year. Both numbers are small enough, given the total numbers of people involved, that the variation might well be nothing more than statistical noise. But it makes for great scare headlines this way.
People should be able to do their jobs without having their home addresses published.
The challenge today is this. If someone can capture your face, they can probably find some facial recognition software to get your name. I don't know how readily available such software is, but it's definitely nor restricted to police departments. And, once someone has your name, getting your home address is difficult only if the name is common enough that there are multiple possibilities. With a name like mine**, it's trivial.
Someday we may work out ways to provide a little more privacy. But for the moment, we are in stalker heaven. (And I'm wondering, now that I think about it, how the Witness Protection Program deals with this.)
** Both the other people in the country with the same first and last names are 1st cousins. No prize for guessing our grandfather's name.
Actual, you know, convictions for assault might be persuasive. But just getting charged? Not so much, considering how often the charges get dropped. Not to mention that even those that get to court don't have the kind of high success rate other kinds of cases routinely have.
And to be picky, I don’t think there is anything to support Noem’s claim that there has been a 700% increase in these incidents.
I doubt that she has the wit for this herself, but there might be someone on staff who does. Percentages are a great way to exagerate an increase from, for example, 1 incident nationwide last year to 7 this year. Both numbers are small enough, given the total numbers of people involved, that the variation might well be nothing more than statistical noise. But it makes for great scare headlines this way.
People should be able to do their jobs without having their home addresses published.
The challenge today is this. If someone can capture your face, they can probably find some facial recognition software to get your name. I don't know how readily available such software is, but it's definitely nor restricted to police departments. And, once someone has your name, getting your home address is difficult only if the name is common enough that there are multiple possibilities. With a name like mine**, it's trivial.
Someday we may work out ways to provide a little more privacy. But for the moment, we are in stalker heaven. (And I'm wondering, now that I think about it, how the Witness Protection Program deals with this.)
** Both the other people in the country with the same first and last names are 1st cousins. No prize for guessing our grandfather's name.