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When I first heard about Carmen Ortiz, I realised there was very, very little I could do about it, given I am not a U.S. citizen.

A few days later, more out of frustration, I created the following meme:

http://memecrunch.com/meme/DV7N/carmen-ortiz-for-great-justi...

Image is here:

http://memecrunch.com/meme/DV7N/carmen-ortiz-for-great-justi...

Hopefully someone here finds it darkly amusing.

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I share your concern about Carmen Ortiz' fitness for being at a position where she holds any power whatsoever over people. But your meme distracts from the real sinister elements of the system that are outlined in the article. It is a strawman argument that is easily dismissed, which is detrimental to the discussions.

The system incentivizes abuse of power and coercion of suspects. No one in the system is honestly interested in absurdly high sentences. hey are only interested in "winning", which is the main problem.

Competitiveness has its place in sport, in the economy and at hackathons.

But a trial should NEVER be a competition. I am aware that the legal system in many countries devolved to this. BUt we should not rest to attack this aspect.

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