Presumption of 'innocence' vs 'guilt' & the Japanese police

[Reiku]

You hear a person complain that the judicial system is unfair, then cite racism against hispanics as a reason, and assume I am uneducated?

At the risk of fitting into your stereotype, there's a hint of racism in your reaction as well, Leto.

Perhaps you confused me with the "poor dumb minority bitching about his rights"?

Deny it all you like, you response shows your presumptions about me clearly. Although I'm willing to bet you weren't aware of the prejudice coloring your opinion--most people aren't...

...and that's the point.

Despite the written law, people in the US are not always presumed inocent--most of the time they are presumed guilty.

It is a natural human reaction, and you cannot overide human emotion with laws. You yourself have supported this point:

In fact, some people who are acquitted still suffer from ruined lives, like plenty of teachers and principals accused of "molesting" students, students who later come clean and admit they lied, but the defendant still has to live in shame and can never work in that field again.

Despite what some people think, police and judges are still human, and subject to the same prejudices and frailties as the rest of us. The natural tendancy to assume a suspect's guilt does not dissapear the moment you put on a badge--if anything, the situation becomes worse. Because they see themselves as agents of justice, a police officer or judge who assumes a person's guilt may feel driven to prove or punish that guilt--without realizing that they have jumped to a conclusion based on personal bias.

Not unlike you assuming that I was ignorant of the law--I'm actually quite well versed in it. Sociology has always interested me, and you can learn a lot about a culture by studying it's laws. I've been studying the laws of our culture for most of my life, and I've learned that laws cannot dictate emotional responses, such as bigotry or the presumtion of guilt or innocence. Sometimes laws can prevent a person from acting on those responses, but more often than not suspects in the US are assumed to be guilty--regardless of what it says on paper.

Don't mistake first-hand experiance for personal bias, Leto, and don't mistake rash judgements for wisdom.