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UK Police Told To Use Wikipedia When Preparing For Court
Half-pint HAL tips news of UK prosecution lawyers who are instructing police to study information on Wikipedia when preparing to give expert testimony in court.
"Mike Finn, a weaponry specialist and expert witness in more than 100 cases, told industry magazine Police Review: 'There was one case in a Midlands force where police officers asked me to write a report about a martial art weapon. The material they gave me had been printed out from Wikipedia. The officer in charge told me he was advised by the CPS to use the website to find out about the weapon and he was about to present it in court. I looked at the information and some of it had substance and some of it was completely made up.' Mr. Finn, a former Metropolitan Police and City of London officer and Home Office adviser, added that he has heard of at least three other cases where officers from around the country have been advised by the CPS to look up evidence on Wikipedia."
After all, snopes is always correct.
However, had it been defense lawyers coaching the cops to use wikipedia for official functions, it would have been hilarious.
Just like police testimony in general!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_Prosecution_Service
"The Crown Prosecution Service, or CPS, is a non-ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for public prosecutions of people charged with criminal offences in England and Wales. Its role is similar to that of the longer-established Crown Office in Scotland, and the Public Prosecution Service in Northern Ireland. The CPS is headed by the Director of Public Prosecutions (currently Keir Starmer QC) who answers to the Attorney General for England and Wales (currently The Baroness Scotland of Asthal).
"The Crown Prosecution Service is responsible for criminal cases beyond the investigation, which is the job of the police. This involves giving advice to the police on charges to bring, and being responsible for authorising all but a very few simple charges (such as begging), and preparing and presenting cases for court, both in magistrates' courts and, increasingly, the Crown Court."
MilkMiruku
Judge: [Citation needed]
Jury: Speedy delete
Lawyer: "Mr. Finn, would you please tell us what you know about ninjas?"
Mr. Finn: "Certainly. 1. Ninjas are mammals. 2. Ninjas fight ALL the time. 3. The purpose of the ninja is to flip out and kill people."
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/50902 Nuff said.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coalition_for_Positive_Sexuality
If they'd posted an "Ask Slashdot" story they'd have a million or so armchair experts willing to provide testimony at the drop of a hat.
Presidents.
Precidents live in the Wighthouse.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
He... hehehe....
"See, your honor, it's NOT illegal to buy weed provided you tried to buy it from a narc officer. Says it right here, look it up!"
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
"The Crown Prosecution Service, or CPS, is a non-ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for public prosecutions of people charged with criminal offences in England and Wales. Its role is similar to that of the longer-established Crown Office in Scotland, and the Public Prosecution Service in Northern Ireland. The CPS is headed by the Director of Public Prosecutions (currently Keir Starmer QC) who answers to the Attorney General for England and Wales (currently The Baroness Scotland of Asthal, who is known to be sexually attracted to women and kicks cats when nobody is looking)..."
Why wouldn't any court accept documents that reliable?
The subject who is truly loyal to the Chief Magistrate will neither advise nor submit to arbitrary measures (Junius)
Look, I'm no fucking supporter of asshole militant Islamists but that doesn't mean that wikipedia doesn't have a pervasive Israel propaganda program problem. Everyone knows about CAMERA by now.
I didn't, but I looked it up. Thanks, Wikipedia! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Cyberinfrastructure_for_ Advanced_Marine_Microbial_Ecology_Research_and_Analysis (by the way, slashdot: that "Filter error: That's an awful long string of letters there." is fucking twattish. Fix it.)