One of the things that scares me about the US criminal justice system is that it relies almost entirely on magical thinking and torture to secure convictions. I don't believe anyone is guilty unless they were literally photographed holding the bloody knife while standing over the body and even then I'll need some convincing to rule out potential mitigating circumstances.

  • DragonNest_Aidit [they/them,use name]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Murder mystery as a genre did a massive damage to the society by convincing people that the police is good at solving murders. I believe that a large number of people are actually skeptical or cynical about the performance of the police, but they kept thinking about the murders and serial killers and thought "Without the police, who would solve all the murders?".

    Except of course, in reality the police actually fucking sucks at solving murders and mysteries.

    • happyandhappy [she/her]
      ·
      2 years ago

      need a murder mystery subversion where the cops just forge evidence every step of the way through "forensics"

      • SoyViking [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        I love the idea of a crime mystery show where cops are the bad guys. Who would the good guys be?

          • SoyViking [he/him]
            ·
            2 years ago

            Nah... The people want some heroes to cheer for:

            In the criminal justice system police brutality, systemic racism and class oppression is fought by an elite squad of ????. These are their stories. Du-Dummm!

            • EmmaGoldman [she/her, comrade/them]M
              ·
              2 years ago

              KopBusters (2022)

              Join Barry Cooper, Comrade Chris Hansen, and a medium channeling the ghost of Christopher Dorner as they bust dirty police departments and serve justice on behalf of the people.

        • Frank [he/him, he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          The good guys are the Anarchist prisoner support group who right letters to all the wrongly convicted innocent prisoners.

    • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Something like 90% of solved murder cases involve either the cops catching the suspect standing over the body or there's enough circumstantial evidence the suspect admits guilt.

      • TheModerateTankie [any]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Or they browbeat someone into pleading guilty by threatening to execute them if they keep insisting they are innocent.

        • Frank [he/him, he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Yeah, something like 99% of federal cases result in convictions, which is really easy to do when you just pick someone to accuse and say "If you confess you get 3 years and probation, if you don't confess you'll die in a concrete box."

    • LeninsRage [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      You mean the police procedural, right?

      Because classic mystery stories focus way more on what actually solves murders - detective grunt work like alibis, motives, timelines, etc