Boston bomb investigators kill Florida man

by Simon 162 Replies latest members politics

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  sammielee24

  You’d have to ask those folks about that. It’s fallacious to decide a matter based on the number of skeptics.

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  I would have to say that basing an opinion on police reporting at this point in such serious matters, those with holes such as this one, could be considered nothing more than a blind trust in those who have lied in the past - there is a gullibility in that and perhaps a desire to live without disillusion. One has in many cases, a need to be skeptical and should be. Example - a man moves into the neighborhood and a while later rumors begin to circulate that he was a convicted child molester. You confront the man with the rumors and he assures you he was never convicted, people trumped him up on charges and that was it. You can't get any more information from anyone. He wants to take your child camping - do you let him go based on what the man tells you he didn't do? Or do you err on the side of caution - perhaps a little skeptical about his story? sammieswife
• 

  minimus

  Will we apply being rightly skeptical toward official statements with just this situation???
• 

  Simon

  There have been countless miscarriages of justice over the years and many of them relied on a 'confession' as the evidence. It's actually very weak evidence. People confess to crimes they didn't do, some confessions are forced. They are just weak and are an excuse for evidence when there isn't anything more substantial.

  So 6+ (?) people from different agencies are questioning someone who apparently had links to a " known bomber capable of constructing and detonating devastating bombs" (Marvin) and who they claim confessed to grizzly murder. And somehow this guy gets a knife and attacks them?

  This is bad policing right there. Shooting him dead makes the rest of the story sound made up, especially when they are keen to thrown in superfluous 'facts' to paint a picture of him.

  If you want to live in a country where you can just be shot without any process. Congratulations. You're there. Please recite your amendements as they raise the gun to your head.
• 

  minimus

  Well, you or I weren't there. You can express your opinion and maybe it was a "murder". But YOU SURELY don't know that.
• 

  Simon

  The idea that confessions are the weakest of evidence is, I think, a patently absurd notion.

  A confession is really nothing more than hearsay. To say it's not weaker than other physical evidence is absurd. Even eye-witness testimony is not as safe as most people imagine. This has been proven time and time again in real cases and in tests.
• 

  minimus

  So, you don't accept confessions, or do you?
• 

  Simon

  Some reading / facts ...

  http://www.jaapl.org/content/37/3/332.full

  http://www.nasams.org/forensics/for_lib/Documents/1104873219.04/Kassin1997.pdf

  200 people confessed to kidnapping the Lindburgh baby. This is not isolated.

  "police-induced false confessions are a leading cause of wrongful conviction of the innocent"

  "Such reforms, however, are likely to occur slowly in the United States. Great Britain has adopted several reforms, based on growing documentation and awareness of the problem of false confessions. 9 American law enforcement, however, remains steeped in the use of investigative methods and interrogation techniques that continue to cause the three errors that produce false confessions, and the American public continues to believe in the myth of psychological interrogation. Until the misconception that innocent suspects do not confess in response to psychological interrogation is dispelled, police detectives will continue to elicit false confessions that lead to wrongful convictions."

  Sorry to burst your bubble Marvin ... there are numerous studies on this. You need to educate yourself a little more about the matter.
• 

  minimus

  I'm sure there are PLENTY of articles that would rebut that assertion.
• 

  Simon

  So, you don't accept confessions, or do you?

  They have a place but there need to be strict controls and processes to ensure that the confession is sound and safe otherwise innocent people are imprisoned and guilty go free.

  Make no mistake, people can be manipulated. There was a game show on a couple of years ago where the contestants hid a case of money and 2 detectives tried to find it aided by 2 interrogators. People literally broke down and this was on a gameshow playing for money. Real life would be way more pressure and people confess for many reasons.
• 

  minimus

  Quite more often, if a person confesses, they are telling what they did. Sure, there are people who might lie for a variety of reasons, but human nature tells me that MOST confessions are legit, whether it be that of a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar or an adult with blood and a knife on his hands.

  Most often, a confession is real.