whosarat?
bigdvs
Posts: 235
This is my first topic on the moving train forum and I think it is rather interesting development. This morning on the Today show Matt Lauer was interviewing the owner/producer/creator of a site call Whosarat.com. A site that looks at public records to determine who has coped a plea bargain and turned on all of their former associates in illegal dealings (drugs, guns, organized crime). As most of these folks are obviously fearful of their lives and most probably get some sort of Protective Custody deal the posting of their personal information and what they were previously involved in and such is a concern from the law enforcement and government agencies that use these people to put others behind bars. So the questions are. Does this person (he chose to remain anonymous, he was blacked out during the interview) have the Free Speech right to be doing this? (My feeling is yes its public information, he is not speculating or slandering as far as I can tell) Why can't the government catch these criminals without having to give sweet deals to one of the said criminals?(They could but instead they take the easy, currently acceptable, way of bending the rules and bribe testimony out of one criminal against the other). The counter interviewee to the site owner was a federal prosecutor that felt a site like this could prevent people in the future from testifying as they would fear they would be outed and killed. (But wait you have a criminal jail him and don’t bribe testimony out of him to get someone you otherwise have little evidence to go after)
Bash away if I am missing something.
Bash away if I am missing something.
"The really important thing is not to live, but to live well. And to live well meant, along with more enjoyable things in life, to live according to your principles."
— Socrates
— Socrates
Post edited by Unknown User on
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The only thing that doesn't get me that upset about this situation, at least by going by your description of the site, he is posting info about criminals. When I first read it, I mistakenly thought that he was outing innocent whitenesses, but he is probably putting info out there that is already know by the convicted person and his/her associates anyway.
was like a picture
of a sunny day
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln
— Socrates
I'm not disagreeing that he has the right to do this with public information, I just find it funny that he is so secretive about himself.
And I don't think it's really a thorn in the side of the law/gov't, people will still cop a plea if they get the chance to roll over on someone... there doesn't seem to be much loyalty among criminals (except gangs), and some random website doesn't seem like much of a deterrent to me.
The gov't has no grounds to shut him down, and I don't really see this site being that big of a deal anyway, like I said, the people who get rolled over on know who testified against them anyway.
was like a picture
of a sunny day
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln
Hypocrite
...are those who've helped us.
Right 'round the corner could be bigger than ourselves.
makes me think of a song from a band I like a little.
http://www.whosarat.com/
that is the site, looks more like a money maker then a community service as he was trying to paint it in the interview.
and I agree a site like this is a nothing until some freak that wants revenge on one of these guys uses the information to find them and do some harm to them.
— Socrates