UK Police Told To Use Wikipedia When Preparing For Court 180
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."
They would be better off using snopes.com. (Score:5, Funny)
After all, snopes is always correct.
This is sad. (Score:5, Funny)
Heh... (Score:5, Funny)
Just like police testimony in general!
Re:Heh... (Score:3, Funny)
Just like police testimony in general!
Nah, that tends to be made up ABOUT a substance.
Re:CPS? (Score:4, Funny)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_Prosecution_Service [wikipedia.org]
"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."
Re:They would be better off using snopes.com. (Score:5, Funny)
Do you have any evidence of snopes.com being incorrect? I've never heard of anyone challenging their credulity.
Lawyer: Objection (Score:5, Funny)
Jury: Speedy delete
Re:They would be better off using snopes.com. (Score:5, Funny)
The Wikipedia article on Snopes confirms its veracity. Unfortunately the Snopes article on Wikipedia does not reciprocate.
Next week in court... (Score:5, Funny)
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."
Wikipedia Celebrates 750 Years Of American Indepen (Score:5, Funny)
Found it on Wikipedia (Score:5, Funny)
Re:They would be better off using snopes.com. (Score:3, Funny)
Do you have any evidence of snopes.com being incorrect? I've never heard of anyone challenging their credulity.
Ahem... I believe that in this situation someone is supposed to say "whoosh [xkcd.com]".
Re:They would be better off using snopes.com. (Score:5, Funny)
Snopes posted a couple of purposefully incorrect things once, in order to prove a point about not blindly trusting people. The fake stories backfired (or worked, depending on your view) and became real urban legends. Hilarious.
I heard that too, but I checked and it turned out to be just an urban legend.
They should have just posted an "Ask Slashdot" (Score:5, Funny)
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.
Re:the sum is greater than its parts. (Score:4, Funny)
Presidents.
Precidents live in the Wighthouse.
Re:Well... (Score:5, Funny)
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!"
Re:They would be better off using snopes.com. (Score:2, Funny)
Snopes posted a couple of purposefully incorrect things once, in order to prove a point about not blindly trusting people. The fake stories backfired (or worked, depending on your view) and became real urban legends. Hilarious.
[citation needed]
Re:Next week in court... (Score:4, Funny)
Lawyer: And what about pirates?
Mr. Finn: Oh no, you won't get me there.
Re:CPS? (Score:3, Funny)
"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?
Re:They should have just posted an "Ask Slashdot" (Score:4, Funny)
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.
Yeah but this is only helpful if they have questions about armchairs.
Re:This is sad. (Score:3, Funny)
Are you saying that Johnnie Cochran got that stuff about Chewbacca living on Endor from Wikipedia?
Re:How stupid (Score:3, Funny)
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_ [wikipedia.org] 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.)