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  1. Falos says

    The word Likely asks about odds. Historical stats can tell us which happens more, but not necessarily which concerns “me”.

    • And?

      I’m not being snarky here. You make a valid point. But what conclusion are we to draw from it?

      People make judgment calls (and form beliefs) based on their own personal experience, and what they see happening in their communities. Generalized statistics don’t really enter into it all that often.

      Of course people have widely different experiences. And so they have widely differing views on what is and is not more likely to happen to them personally. This informs their view of what is more likely to happen in general. Someone who lives in the projects of Philly may well have a very different experience of law enforcement than someone who grew up in a gated community in the burbs.

      And so it is not surprising that people have widely different views on what the trade-off should be here. Some people think the law does it exactly right. Others think it’s wrong, and have many different reasons for thinking so. The law tries to strike a balance that reflects the right values for the right reasons.

      That’s one of the wonderful things about the law: it’s sort of an ongoing rulebook for society, encapsulating the mores and cultural beliefs of a vast and heterogenous population, and reflecting how they change over time. The study of law is nothing less than the grand study of the human condition.

      Keep contributing!

  2. Corruption says

    Victim of crime or victim of government? These days it can be pretty hard to tell the difference with the way the governments acts.

  3. LordGrey says

    I would say, my privacy IS part of my security. What if a Police officer does a search. He doesn’t find the expected evidence but uncovers the sex toys in my drawers? I’m not guilty of a crime, but my Position and Reputation in Society is damaged for good, despise the fact that all the others have sex toys drawers too…
    Yea, privacy is security.

  4. Robert Montrose says


    –Benjamin Franklin

  5. Eric says

    In my life, both are rather unlikely. A criminal is probably more likely to kill me than the government is, but short of that, the criminal doesn’t have nearly as much power to ruin my life with impunity.

  6. WJS says

    When I walk down the high street I don’t fear criminals at all, but I know that a cop could walk right up to me and demand to search me and there isn’t a damn thing I can do about it.

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