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Why You Probably Have a Criminal Record · Stuff You Should Know

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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know
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Speaker 1: from House Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to
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Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W Chuck Bryant.
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Speaker 1: You have a migraine or something. Um, I don't get migraines.
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Speaker 1: Oh that's good. I don't either. You just knocked on
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Speaker 1: your head. Yeah, there's no wood nearby. I bet this
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Speaker 1: is woodish. Yeah. Yeah, we're good. Um do you put
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Speaker 1: us together? And you've got a little podcast called Stuff
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Speaker 1: you Should Know? That's right. Yeah, you've been doing this
0:42
Speaker 1: for four and I we bet we're very close. So
0:49
Speaker 1: not bad. I know it's not bad. We're I guess
0:51
Speaker 1: you could say we're um, we're starting to get our stride.
0:55
Speaker 1: Wait for someone to come take the keys away and
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Speaker 1: send me in my room. And I think that this
0:59
Speaker 1: is I think they stopped paying attention. They're not really
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Speaker 1: aware that we're doing this any longer. Any importance actually listen,
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Speaker 1: So that's always good. But who listens is important? That's right.
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Speaker 1: That's a good point. So, Chuck, you ever seen the
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Speaker 1: movie Scarface? Yeah? You know, like the whole beginning part
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Speaker 1: where he comes to Miami from Cuba. So that was
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Speaker 1: based um on an actual historical event called the Merriel
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Speaker 1: boat Lift. Yeah, I think I knew that. So between um, well,
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Speaker 1: then sit back and listen up to something you already know.
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Speaker 1: Between April fifteen and Halloween, a hundred and twenty five
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Speaker 1: thousand Cubans we're basically allowed to leave Cuba. That's a lot.
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Speaker 1: And they were also allowed to enter the United States
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Speaker 1: for how long was there a window like from April
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Speaker 1: to um Halloween? So yeah, there are a lot, I
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Speaker 1: mean a lot of them came um and a it was.
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Speaker 1: It was a huge deal. They basically put everybody in jail.
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Speaker 1: Remember the Fulton County Federal Penitentiary where Scarface was the
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Speaker 1: real Scarface al Capone, um, just down in Grant Park.
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Speaker 1: They put a bunch of them there and there was
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Speaker 1: actually an uprising there and Delta Force had to come
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Speaker 1: in I think, and the Delta Force, um, so uh,
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Speaker 1: it was kind of a big deal. One of the
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Speaker 1: reasons why they put everybody in jails because they wanted
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Speaker 1: to make sure that Castro wasn't just sending over the
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Speaker 1: dregs of his prisons. So, which would have been pretty smart. Yeah.
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Speaker 1: So they actually interviewed everybody, and twenty three thousand of
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Speaker 1: them confessed to having a criminal record back in Cuba.
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Speaker 1: And that's really saying something because you know, it's not
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Speaker 1: like Cuba was going to send over these people's records.
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Speaker 1: Like this was self confessed. And I think that right
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Speaker 1: there basically kind of tells you about that person they're
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Speaker 1: trying to fit in. Right, Well, they let me come
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Speaker 1: clean exactly. Maybe if I come clean, you I can
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Speaker 1: stay here. Right, Yeah, let's say that that's what it was.
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Speaker 1: That's what I'm thinking. Um. So, of these twenty three thousand, though,
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Speaker 1: they found that, um, only two percent were actually criminals
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Speaker 1: under US law. The other uh, let's see twenty one thousand,
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Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty four. Uh, that's just off the
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Speaker 1: top of my head, Um, we're we're criminals under Cuban law.
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Speaker 1: That that didn't have some sort of analog here in
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Speaker 1: the United States. I wonder what some of those laws were.
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Speaker 1: I would imagine they would have a lot to do
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Speaker 1: with discent, political discent, yea, probably everything, or like hoarding,
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Speaker 1: uh items hoarding, Yeah, like you know, under communist rule,
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Speaker 1: if you toilet paper or you've got some smuggling operation
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Speaker 1: going for toilet paper. How swapping apparently is illegal in Cuba,
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Speaker 1: because they're like, we're gonna give you a house, but
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Speaker 1: we're gonna tell you which one it is. Um anyway,
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Speaker 1: So most of these people were allowed to go free,
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Speaker 1: and even some of them were allowed to go even
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Speaker 1: some of the actual criminals were allowed to go under
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Speaker 1: what's called immigration parole um. And then of those forty
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Speaker 1: six who were found to be real criminals, eight hundred
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Speaker 1: to nine hundred had to come back to jail, the
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Speaker 1: real pokey this time because they've broken the US law
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Speaker 1: while on immigration parole. But my point is this, without
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Speaker 1: criminal records, I would not have had this intro. That's
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Speaker 1: pretty good. I had a feeling that was going to
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Speaker 1: circle around like that, because we're talking about criminal records,
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Speaker 1: at least here in the United States. Yeah, and when
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Speaker 1: we say records, we don't mean the good time. We
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Speaker 1: mean like files. Yeah, not like a break, you broke
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Speaker 1: a record, or like let's listen to a record. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: those are good records. Yeah, there's a there's I can't
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Speaker 1: remember what Lisa's doing on the Simpsons, but she has
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Speaker 1: to go to the Hall of Records and then under
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Speaker 1: underneath and Parnses says, not a good kindly, that's good. Um,
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Speaker 1: all right, criminal record here in the US, at least
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Speaker 1: as and I didn't realize this, It starts with your arrest. Yes.
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Speaker 1: For some reason, I thought if you were arrested and
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Speaker 1: not convicted, then they would just say forget about it. Yeah.
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Speaker 1: Apparently once you have a charge and there are ways
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Speaker 1: for they can say forget about it, but you have
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Speaker 1: to go ask and they can tell you now because
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Speaker 1: they don't like your looks. Um. There's a few ways
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Speaker 1: these are used here in the States. Um. First and
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Speaker 1: foremost obviously to help out trying to catch bad guys
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Speaker 1: in the database, I ding suspects. That's kind of the
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Speaker 1: original point, I think. So. Um. They're also used for
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Speaker 1: sentencing now, which makes sense. Yeah, because like if you've
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Speaker 1: done something before and they know it, they have a
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Speaker 1: record of it, it's right they can say, you know what,
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Speaker 1: due to your past behavior, we think that we should
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Speaker 1: really throw the book at you, right, or if there's
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Speaker 1: like a three strike law, they have to Yeah, background checks,
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Speaker 1: that's the third thing there mainly used for. This is
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Speaker 1: the most controversial use of criminal records because with background checks,
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Speaker 1: if you enter the military, try to get a job
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Speaker 1: with the FBI, UM, if you are involved in elderly
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Speaker 1: or childcare. Um. Criminal background checks are pretty standard, but
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Speaker 1: they're also becoming increasingly used by corporations in what is
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Speaker 1: widely considered overbroad ways. Yeah, because the the original idea
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Speaker 1: of using a background check, a criminal background check for
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Speaker 1: a job was that they're checking that you're applying for
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Speaker 1: like a delivery driver job, and they're checking to make
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Speaker 1: sure that you don't have a history of like running
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Speaker 1: down the elderly with your car and driving off because
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Speaker 1: they'll get sued for that. Well, now companies are just
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Speaker 1: looking for any kind of criminal behavior whatsoever. And as
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Speaker 1: we'll see, they actually say like, no, we're not gonna
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Speaker 1: hire you because of your criminal record. They can discriminate
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Speaker 1: based on a criminal record, but you can also not
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Speaker 1: share that criminal record. You can correct Yes, okay, we'll
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Speaker 1: get to that. Um. Back in the day, obviously they
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Speaker 1: used to just handwrite these things, keep them at your
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Speaker 1: local cop shop. And that's why back in the day,
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Speaker 1: it was really easy if you're criminal, just to move
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Speaker 1: to a different state or city. Yeah, and like you're
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Speaker 1: sort of getting a fresh start online. Yeah, because if
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Speaker 1: you wanted to share this criminal record, you might have
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Speaker 1: to sit down and hand write it out. And who
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Speaker 1: wants to do that. Nobody not me. Basically, it was
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Speaker 1: just medieval monks who were cool with doing that and
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Speaker 1: they didn't have anything else to do. Cops had plenty
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Speaker 1: of other stuff to do. So right about now, if
7:45
Speaker 1: you're out there in podcast land and you're listening to
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Speaker 1: this and you think, dudes, why are you telling us,
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Speaker 1: you're awesome audience about criminal records, Because we're all have
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Speaker 1: clean noses and we're do gooders of the world, I
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Speaker 1: believe you. But here's a set. Six point five percent
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Speaker 1: of the US population has a felony record. Felony record,
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Speaker 1: which is higher than I thought it would be, and
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Speaker 1: one in fifteen people have actually been to prison in
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Speaker 1: the pokey in the pokey and uh, I think our
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Speaker 1: fan base would be on the lighter side of that. Um,
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Speaker 1: But hey, I know we've got people out there that
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Speaker 1: have been in prison because we did prisons. People rotus.
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Speaker 1: We have people out there who were in prisons right now. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: that's right. Let's do a little shout out to our
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Speaker 1: prison population. Listeners, everybody in there, stay up and uh
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Speaker 1: hanging there, get out soon. Okay. So even beyond that
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Speaker 1: surprising stat right, six point five percent felonies, right, that's right,
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Speaker 1: sixty five million, which is about a quarter of the
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Speaker 1: American population. Sixty million American adults have a criminal record,
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Speaker 1: which means they've at least been arrested. Yes, do we
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Speaker 1: need to talk about anything in our past? You know,
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Speaker 1: I don't talk about that, Okay. Uh, there are some
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Speaker 1: things if you do have a criminal record, that are
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Speaker 1: that are going to be there for the for the taking.
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Speaker 1: If you're in law enforcement, that is pretty much your name,
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Speaker 1: date of birth, alias, is what you look like, what
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Speaker 1: you're built like, where you live, what you've done, if
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Speaker 1: you've got any outstanding warrants, if you've been convicted, and
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Speaker 1: then the old stand by fingerprint and mug shot. It's
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Speaker 1: all right there. Basically what's keeping smoking gun dot com alive?
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Speaker 1: That mug shot to do the huffer with the gold face.
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Speaker 1: Have you ever seen that guy? He was arrested for
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Speaker 1: huffing and he's got like the glittery gold spray paint
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Speaker 1: around the nose and mouth. Now, my favorite was either
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Speaker 1: Nick Nolty or James Brown and they look like brothers
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Speaker 1: in their mug shots. Yeah, those are pretty close with
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Speaker 1: a crazy hair. Um. So basically you can see just
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Speaker 1: from those details of what's in a criminal record. The
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Speaker 1: idea behind them is we want to find now who
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Speaker 1: you are and what you've done before. Ye, And that's
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Speaker 1: pretty much it. It's aside from the fact that they're
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Speaker 1: not handwritten and just kept like you say, at the
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Speaker 1: local precinct, um anymore, they're stored on databases. That's the
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Speaker 1: idea behind them hasn't changed much over the century, very true. Um.
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Speaker 1: It starts at the local and state level. And if
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Speaker 1: you are going to have an arrest record or a
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Speaker 1: or a criminal record, that's who was in charge of
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Speaker 1: keeping up with it, Like if it was a state crime,
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Speaker 1: it was in a federal offense, then your state court
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Speaker 1: and state offices who's going to be in charge of that?
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Speaker 1: And then they can either report it to their repository
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Speaker 1: or not. I think not all states mandate that. No,
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Speaker 1: it's voluntary. And then the state repositories can either report
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Speaker 1: it to the national repository, right or I'm sorry, that's
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Speaker 1: voluntary within a state. In some states, it's voluntary whether
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Speaker 1: municipalities share their information. So it's all kind of voluntary,
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Speaker 1: right if you end up on a federal registry to
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Speaker 1: an extent, and you can have more than one record. Um,
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Speaker 1: I would imagine in a perfect law enforcement world, everyone
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Speaker 1: has everyone who has a record has one record and
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Speaker 1: it lives in the cloud and it's just accessed. You know,
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Speaker 1: when you do another thing, they just add another thing
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Speaker 1: to it. But from from the sound of this, you
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Speaker 1: can have a bunch of different records and they could
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Speaker 1: all have different stuff in them and maybe they'll never
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Speaker 1: be compiled into one. That's true. Well, it's because there's
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Speaker 1: a lot of people commit crimes, is one reason, is there?
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Speaker 1: And I think they're trying or does it disappear that
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Speaker 1: way because they have multiple records, I think we may
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Speaker 1: have stumbled onto something. You're right, there's only like eight
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Speaker 1: criminals in the US. They're just really prolific. So, UM,
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Speaker 1: the good news, Josh, if you have a criminal record
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Speaker 1: and you want it expunged or sealed as they call
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Speaker 1: it in some states, Uh, you can get that done
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Speaker 1: if you go through You can at least try to
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Speaker 1: get it done by going through very specific process in
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Speaker 1: the court in the state where you were convicted. So
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Speaker 1: you have, UM, you petition the court, and there's there's
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Speaker 1: lawyers that um specialize in this kind of thing, like
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Speaker 1: going before the court and saying, look, this guy, this
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Speaker 1: crime was a crime of passion. There's no recitativism involved.
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Speaker 1: That this guy has had an exemplary life since then. Um,
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Speaker 1: he wasn't even convicted, he was just arrested. This was
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Speaker 1: twelve years ago. He hasn't done a single horrible thing. Um,
12:34
Speaker 1: and even if he had, if he had had a sentence,
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Speaker 1: he would have completed it. And um, he hasn't hadn't
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Speaker 1: been arrested since. And so the judge thinks about it. Uh,
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Speaker 1: they bring out a dog and if the dog likes you,
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Speaker 1: then your record is expunged. I think the judge sits
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Speaker 1: are the big expunged stamp or denied like in raising
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Speaker 1: Arizona just wham. Yeah. I think the expunged is the
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Speaker 1: isn't a don't think they should use that word because
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Speaker 1: it gives the impression that your record is white clean, yeah,
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Speaker 1: and that there's maybe a sheet of paper that the
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Speaker 1: stuff all used to be on, but there's nothing there
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Speaker 1: any longer. It's not the case sealed is a much
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Speaker 1: better term to describe what happens, because what happens is
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Speaker 1: your record remains, but only law enforcement has access to it. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: but it sort of is expunged in a way because
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Speaker 1: or I guess the key word there, you said the appearance,
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Speaker 1: Because you can still from that point on give the
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Speaker 1: appearance that you have a clean record to your employees.
13:36
Speaker 1: You can say employers, you can un employees. You don't
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Speaker 1: want them thinking ill of you, but you can say
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Speaker 1: I have a clean record, and legally you can say
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Speaker 1: that and get away with it. Yeah, if it's expunged,
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Speaker 1: although it still exists, it's just a law enforcement and
13:51
Speaker 1: also um government agencies have access to it, but no
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Speaker 1: one else does. If you're in Arizona, you're our luck.
13:57
Speaker 1: If you're in New York, I think and see the
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Speaker 1: to me should be automatic. If you are arrested and
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Speaker 1: convicted of something, then they found out someone else did it, right,
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Speaker 1: you have to still go through that process in New
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Speaker 1: York to get it expunged. And I guess in other places,
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Speaker 1: but I figured that would be automatic. No, in New York.
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Speaker 1: If you're arrested and you are UM not not you're
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Speaker 1: not convicted, you go to trial, but you're not even convicted,
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Speaker 1: you still have to petition to get your arrest record cleared. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: I guess that's everywhether right. Um. I am under the
14:32
Speaker 1: impression because New York where it's possible only if the
14:36
Speaker 1: case was decided in your favor, that that would mean
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Speaker 1: that if you were if you went to trial, your
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Speaker 1: criminal record would be expunged if you weren't convicted. I
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Speaker 1: have to admit I'm not sure about that one. New
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Speaker 1: York didn't play no, but Arizona seriously doesn't play like
14:52
Speaker 1: they have no process for expungement whatsoever, which is too bad. Um.
14:58
Speaker 1: And I think even with kids that's the case. What
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Speaker 1: in Arizona? Oh yeah, well with juveniles, Um, since you
15:06
Speaker 1: brought it up, everyone knows that if you're um under eighteen,
15:11
Speaker 1: generally you will be tried as a juvenile. Unless you
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Speaker 1: have murdered or raped somebody or some other really really
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Speaker 1: terrible crime, they will try you as an adult. But
15:21
Speaker 1: if you're under eighteen, they'll try you in juvenile court.
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Speaker 1: And here in this country, we have a little belief that,
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Speaker 1: you know what, we're gonna wipe your record clean once
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Speaker 1: you become an adult. You might have messed up as
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Speaker 1: a kid, but you're going to get a second chance
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Speaker 1: out there in life as an adult. Don't worry about
15:39
Speaker 1: your juvenile record anymore, which is great if you stay
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Speaker 1: on the straight and narrow. If you don't, then it's
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Speaker 1: uh still attached to you if you start committing crimes
15:49
Speaker 1: again and uh you actually, if you are the juvenile
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Speaker 1: convicted of an adult crime tried as an adult and
15:58
Speaker 1: you want to get that explained, you have to go
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Speaker 1: through the same process as any adult wood as well
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Speaker 1: as if you have a sexual crime, you have to
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Speaker 1: register for the sex offenders list, just like you would
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Speaker 1: if you were an adult, right, which is super important,
16:13
Speaker 1: I should say. Also, um and its defense, Arizona does
16:16
Speaker 1: have a process for destroying juvenile records. Yeah, okay, I
16:22
Speaker 1: guess it's just adults, gotcha. Um, So the the I
16:27
Speaker 1: guess the sex registry is kind of a version of
16:30
Speaker 1: the Specialized Criminal Record Depository, right. So, um, for many years,
16:40
Speaker 1: I I guess, until very recently, states weren't um mandated
16:45
Speaker 1: to have a sex offender registry. There's a girl named
16:48
Speaker 1: Drew Shedeen who is like twenty two year old North
16:52
Speaker 1: Dakota UM College student. I remember this very well, do you?
16:56
Speaker 1: I I didn't remember um who was abducted and and
17:01
Speaker 1: I believe raped and murdered by a guy who was
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Speaker 1: a Level three sex offender. And level three is like
17:08
Speaker 1: where the justice system is basically like, this guy's gonna
17:11
Speaker 1: do it again. Yeah, he had raped another woman, he
17:15
Speaker 1: kidnapped and stabbed a woman, and he had just gotten
17:17
Speaker 1: out of jail for twenty three years for those crimes,
17:20
Speaker 1: and he did it again, did it again. And one
17:21
Speaker 1: of the ways that he was able to do this
17:23
Speaker 1: is because North Dakota didn't have a sex offender registry.
17:26
Speaker 1: Well they do now. All states do now, and this
17:28
Speaker 1: is I think like two thousand two or two thousand three,
17:31
Speaker 1: that long ago. But they named the National Sex Offender
17:34
Speaker 1: Public Registry after Drew shedein UM. So it's very appropriately
17:40
Speaker 1: called the Drew Shedein National Sex Offender Public Registry. And
17:43
Speaker 1: basically this is uh a publicly accessible database. Yeah, you
17:49
Speaker 1: let me go to it and type in where you
17:51
Speaker 1: live and it'll be like, here are all the sex
17:53
Speaker 1: offenders in the neighborhood. It's pretty disconcerting. It there's apps
17:57
Speaker 1: out there where you can like see who lives where,
18:01
Speaker 1: and you'll find also that they're very frequently there's a
18:04
Speaker 1: like will be one apartment complex or something where there's
18:06
Speaker 1: a bunch of them. And the reason being is because
18:09
Speaker 1: most states have laws where like, you can't live X
18:12
Speaker 1: number of yards within a bus stop, you can't live
18:16
Speaker 1: X number of yards within a school, what have you.
18:19
Speaker 1: And in states like Florida, they're so restrictive that, um,
18:23
Speaker 1: the sex offenders frequently have to like live under overpasses
18:26
Speaker 1: in the middle of nowhere. Well, that happened in Georgia
18:29
Speaker 1: and that camp camp. Yeah, I think it's still there,
18:33
Speaker 1: is it, I believe? So Yeah, Well, I think probation
18:36
Speaker 1: off officers too will set people up in housing and
18:40
Speaker 1: uh a lot of times they'll you know, that's like
18:43
Speaker 1: the apartment that they go to the apartment complex. Um.
18:47
Speaker 1: But obviously that's a really important thing to have because uh,
18:50
Speaker 1: sex offenders had the highest recidivism rates of I think
18:54
Speaker 1: all criminals. Yes, I read that somewhere too. It's very scary. So, um,
19:00
Speaker 1: now they're stored on databases. Obviously we've talked about interpoll before,
19:05
Speaker 1: and they're shared you know, internationally. They're getting better about
19:10
Speaker 1: that at least. But it's not like an open book, right,
19:13
Speaker 1: it isn't an open book. And in fact, um, you
19:16
Speaker 1: have a legal right to access your criminal records through
19:20
Speaker 1: the Freedom of Information Act. And I went and looked.
19:23
Speaker 1: The FBI will give you whatever they have on yourself,
19:26
Speaker 1: or else they'll send you something that says you have
19:29
Speaker 1: no FBI record. Yeah, I think you're only uh in
19:34
Speaker 1: the National Crime Information Center database if you have been
19:40
Speaker 1: booked and fingerprinted by the FBI, or the FBI has
19:44
Speaker 1: your record, right, I'm sorry, the Interstate Identification Index. I
19:51
Speaker 1: think that's the one where h you're only innered if
19:55
Speaker 1: the FBI obtains your fingerprint data, so like somebody has
19:58
Speaker 1: sent it to the FBI at least. But FBI, do
20:00
Speaker 1: they maintain a national database of criminal records. I don't
20:05
Speaker 1: know if they maintain it or not. It doesn't say, um,
20:09
Speaker 1: I know the d O the d O T maintains
20:11
Speaker 1: one for traffic violations like big ones. We we should
20:14
Speaker 1: have mentioned that if you've been convicted of some sort
20:17
Speaker 1: of traffic offense, speeding ticket, what have you, or anything,
20:21
Speaker 1: it's not on your criminal record. Yeah, unless it was
20:25
Speaker 1: like vehicular homicide or something like that. That would that
20:27
Speaker 1: would be in there, right, UM, yeah, I think so. Instead,
20:31
Speaker 1: it's things like d u I, suspended licenses, driving without insurance,
20:35
Speaker 1: fatal accidents. Um, there's they're maintained on the National Driver Register,
20:40
Speaker 1: which is separate from your criminal record. You could have
20:44
Speaker 1: two records out there. And maybe perjury about the operation
20:49
Speaker 1: of a vehicle. That's if you've ever like you're getting
20:53
Speaker 1: a wreck and you're a drunk driver and you get
20:56
Speaker 1: your best friend to switch with you who wasn't drunk,
21:00
Speaker 1: which is they should have been driving to begin with,
21:02
Speaker 1: that's perjury. That's felony. Yeah, that's a big deal. Um.
21:05
Speaker 1: So Chuck, you can get your criminal record, n um.
21:11
Speaker 1: The government can look at it any time they want. UM.
21:16
Speaker 1: And employers can she talked about at the top of
21:18
Speaker 1: this podcast. With permission. With your permission, you can't give
21:22
Speaker 1: anyone else besides a potential employer or an employer permission
21:26
Speaker 1: to get your record, Like you can't, I can't get yours.
21:29
Speaker 1: Even if you said no, really he can get it.
21:30
Speaker 1: It's fine to say no, but an employer can. UM.
21:35
Speaker 1: And like we said, originally this was this was something
21:38
Speaker 1: that was just very targeted, where like if you were
21:42
Speaker 1: a driver, they wanted to know if you had any
21:44
Speaker 1: vehicular homicide record or that kind of thing. Um. And
21:47
Speaker 1: it's getting more and more broad. Um. And apparently because
21:54
Speaker 1: criminal records um weren't protected, you weren't a member of
21:58
Speaker 1: a protected class. Yeah. Um, so you could be subject
22:02
Speaker 1: to job discrimination based on the fact that you're a
22:05
Speaker 1: criminal record. They used to be like freewheeling, Like they
22:08
Speaker 1: would tell you to your face and maybe smack you
22:10
Speaker 1: in the mouth when they told you that you weren't
22:12
Speaker 1: getting the job because you were a crook. Um. Courts
22:17
Speaker 1: have started to rule in people's favors, finding that, uh,
22:21
Speaker 1: some laws or some convictions have been shown to disproportionately
22:25
Speaker 1: affect like black people Hispanics, so that job discrimination based
22:30
Speaker 1: on these kind of convictions amounts to racial discrimination. And
22:35
Speaker 1: some courts have found in the favor of people who
22:38
Speaker 1: are turned down for jobs even though there's no law
22:42
Speaker 1: defends against job discrimination based on criminal records. Interesting. And
22:46
Speaker 1: you could also be discriminated against for like public housing.
22:50
Speaker 1: Um and I love in the article and in general
22:53
Speaker 1: treated differently. Yeah, people can be a jerk to you
22:58
Speaker 1: if you have a criminal record with no retribution um.
23:03
Speaker 1: And the The one exception which I thought was interesting
23:05
Speaker 1: was that UM, if you have a felony for drug use,
23:08
Speaker 1: they can't use that against you to not give you
23:11
Speaker 1: a job. It's part of rehab, is it the rehab process? Yeah,
23:16
Speaker 1: that makes sense. You know, the very powerful rehab lobby
23:19
Speaker 1: got that loophole put in there. Well, it certainly strikes
23:22
Speaker 1: a a notch on the side of people who believe
23:26
Speaker 1: that people drug problems are like, you know, have addiction problems,
23:30
Speaker 1: and that they're not necessarily bad people, so good for them.
23:33
Speaker 1: So let's say you you talk to your employer and
23:37
Speaker 1: they're like, look, we know you have a criminal background,
23:39
Speaker 1: but the dog, the test dog we brought out likes you,
23:43
Speaker 1: so we're gonna take a chance on you. But we
23:46
Speaker 1: want you to pony up some money. They're going to
23:48
Speaker 1: tell you to go get what's called a fidelity bond.
23:50
Speaker 1: I had never heard of this. I had neither like
23:52
Speaker 1: I've heard about it in the case of like Robert
23:56
Speaker 1: Downey Jr. Needing extra insurance after he went through is
24:00
Speaker 1: like bad drugs phase. It's probably the same thing. It
24:04
Speaker 1: probably is. But but movie companies UM production companies would
24:09
Speaker 1: have to like purchase this massive extra insurance or not
24:12
Speaker 1: be allowed to work with him at all. He was
24:14
Speaker 1: too big of a liability. Not anymore of course. No,
24:17
Speaker 1: he's really cleaned up his act. Yeah he's great. Um
24:20
Speaker 1: so yeah, there's a regular people, not just Robert Downey Jr.
24:24
Speaker 1: Regular people can get fidelity bonding to which amounts soon
24:28
Speaker 1: insurance policy that you get or your employer gets on.
24:31
Speaker 1: You're saying, we think you're kind of a screw up maybe,
24:35
Speaker 1: and we want to make sure of our bets are
24:38
Speaker 1: heads you're not fired, right, but think you might really
24:41
Speaker 1: screw us up one day. That's what else you got.
24:45
Speaker 1: Um firearms, Uh, you got to go through background check
24:50
Speaker 1: when you purchase firearms here in this country. And don't worry,
24:54
Speaker 1: you won't have to wait very long for your firearm. Yeah,
24:57
Speaker 1: how long is that? It's like instantaneous, is it? Yeah?
25:00
Speaker 1: But if you have a criminal record, if you've been
25:01
Speaker 1: indicted for a crime of more than a year in prison,
25:05
Speaker 1: you are ineligible to purchase a gun, which means you're
25:09
Speaker 1: just going to have to buy one off the street
25:11
Speaker 1: like other ex criminals, which is said, Um, it doesn't
25:16
Speaker 1: preclude you from traveling to other countries necessarily, but as
25:20
Speaker 1: everyone who's ever been through customs knows they can deny
25:24
Speaker 1: you whenever they want in any country. Pretty much. You know,
25:27
Speaker 1: they have to allow you to come in. They have
25:29
Speaker 1: to invite you in like a vampire, right. And it
25:34
Speaker 1: doesn't preclude you from coming to this country if you
25:36
Speaker 1: have a criminal record either, unless you're on a boat
25:38
Speaker 1: from Cuba. That's right. But the same deal we can
25:41
Speaker 1: deny people coming in. They suggest to get a visa
25:45
Speaker 1: if you're coming to this country to work and you
25:46
Speaker 1: have a criminal record, Good luck with that, That's what
25:49
Speaker 1: I say. I say the same thing, good luck everybody.
25:53
Speaker 1: You got anything else? No, there's another one down in
25:56
Speaker 1: our endless string of law enforcement podcast that we definitely
26:00
Speaker 1: have a suite of, like ten at this point at least. Yeah. Um,
26:05
Speaker 1: if you want to learn more about criminal records and
26:07
Speaker 1: all that kind of thing, How stuff Works won't judge
26:10
Speaker 1: you if you search for that. You can just type
26:12
Speaker 1: it into uh the search bar, like I said at
26:15
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. Um, and I said search bar.
26:19
Speaker 1: So it's time for Facebook questions, Josh. We have two
26:31
Speaker 1: and thirty of these, and so uh yeah, let's go
26:35
Speaker 1: ahead and start here. Um. Doug Callahan if you were
26:39
Speaker 1: to dive into a pool filled with any kind of fruit,
26:42
Speaker 1: what kind of fruit would you choose? Pineapple? Um, Jerry
26:47
Speaker 1: thought that was funny. How does being a team mask
26:50
Speaker 1: at work? That's a crazy question. I think that's a
26:54
Speaker 1: request for a show. Okay, like Team Mask guys, Um,
27:00
Speaker 1: Shelleen Chuck Chook Chook the best, best favorite theme park
27:07
Speaker 1: in the US? I mean, there's no question. What are
27:09
Speaker 1: you going? Cedar Point? Yeah, yeah, I guess you're right.
27:15
Speaker 1: I've only been there once. It was pretty good, but
27:16
Speaker 1: Magic Mountain was pretty awesome in l A. Cedar Point
27:20
Speaker 1: is the greatest in the world. I'm kind of sucker
27:23
Speaker 1: for the the studio ones too, like Universal Studios, Like
27:26
Speaker 1: the Rides are Lane, but I just like, you know,
27:29
Speaker 1: the old Wet Show in the Miami by Boat Show.
27:31
Speaker 1: Who still be the Miami? But I don't think so.
27:33
Speaker 1: I think the Night Riders, Yeah, the the n c
27:37
Speaker 1: I S Boat Show. Oh h yasdn Nadery The Fifth
27:42
Speaker 1: Element good or bad? I wasn't a fan. I know
27:44
Speaker 1: people love that movie. I didn't think it so good.
27:45
Speaker 1: I've never made it all the right through. Okay, right,
27:47
Speaker 1: when I see Gary Oldman and it's stupid haircut. I'm like,
27:50
Speaker 1: I'm done. Comes down. Then what do you got? I'm reading? Uh?
27:57
Speaker 1: We want to read that one. Let's see. Is there
28:01
Speaker 1: anything worth not knowing? That's a going from Craig Jacquette. No,
28:06
Speaker 1: there's well, no, I don't know. That's a really great
28:09
Speaker 1: question on its face. No, of course there's nothing that
28:13
Speaker 1: we shouldn't know. But I also believe there is such
28:16
Speaker 1: thing as knowing too much, like personal stuff about people.
28:19
Speaker 1: There's a lot that you shouldn't know, right, But also
28:22
Speaker 1: even beyond that, chuck like, do we really need nuclear weapons?
28:26
Speaker 1: Do we need nuclear capabilities? What if we didn't know that?
28:30
Speaker 1: It's a great question, Craig Jaquette, you get you get
28:33
Speaker 1: first prize today. Uh. James Hamilton's which sport has the
28:38
Speaker 1: fittest athletes? Clearly Nascar? What do you think the fittest athlete?
28:45
Speaker 1: I would say high lie or soccer? Um, Jody Jackson,
28:49
Speaker 1: I have good news for you. We've done how China
28:51
Speaker 1: is one child policy works. Another person thought this was
28:55
Speaker 1: called for a quest That's right. It is not. It's
28:58
Speaker 1: really called for silly questions. Uh, Cody Quimby, who's your
29:01
Speaker 1: favorite Beatle? And why. Josh's answer would be none of them.
29:06
Speaker 1: Mine would be George Harrison because you know, yeah, he's great. Yeah,
29:11
Speaker 1: his soul was like like I love John Lennon, but
29:14
Speaker 1: he was sort of a whiny little baby and a
29:18
Speaker 1: bit of a pretentious artist. Paul McCartney's great, but Paul
29:22
Speaker 1: was a bit of a power control freak. George Harrison
29:26
Speaker 1: was just like there, dude, what about Ringo Ringos? He
29:30
Speaker 1: placed down a nice back, but and he's fun. I
29:33
Speaker 1: love ring Good too. Let's see one all right. Andrew
29:37
Speaker 1: Jordan's what current TV shows? Do you recommend? Stuff you
29:42
Speaker 1: should know? Coming to Science Channel January? That's so current
29:47
Speaker 1: it's not even out yet. Um. I mean I watched
29:50
Speaker 1: obviously Madman is is to me the best show on
29:53
Speaker 1: TV right now. I disagree. I think Dirty Rock is
29:56
Speaker 1: the best show on TV. Thirty Rock is great, and
29:58
Speaker 1: Louis to me is like a tie for the best
30:01
Speaker 1: show on TV. He's like, dude, he's making like French
30:05
Speaker 1: art house movies every week on television. It's pretty amazing.
30:10
Speaker 1: I watched The Killing. I watched True Blood. Do you
30:12
Speaker 1: watch the Killing? Yeah? Well, Taxing isn't it? I watch
30:16
Speaker 1: He's bounding down. The killing isn't taxing. I mean, it's
30:20
Speaker 1: kind of depressing walking Dead. I don't watch a ton
30:23
Speaker 1: of TV, but there's like me, like eight shows. I
30:26
Speaker 1: like Dexter still Man. Man, that one went off the
30:30
Speaker 1: rail so bad the past couple of years. I needed
30:31
Speaker 1: to give it. I haven't seen the past couple of years,
30:33
Speaker 1: and it's way pretty come on DVD. Good luck man,
30:37
Speaker 1: spoiler alert off the rail. All right, So that's it
30:40
Speaker 1: for now. I think we have one more addition to
30:42
Speaker 1: this and then we'll wrap it up. Okay, Thank goodness.
30:45
Speaker 1: If you want to catch up with me and Chuck
30:47
Speaker 1: digitally speaking, you can send us a tweet to s
30:52
Speaker 1: y s K podcast. You can join us on Facebook
30:54
Speaker 1: dot com slash stuff you Should Know, and you can
30:57
Speaker 1: send us a good old fashioned email to Stuff Podcast
31:00
Speaker 1: at Discovery dot com. For more on this and thousands
31:09
Speaker 1: of other topics, visit how Stuff works dot com. MHM
31:18
Speaker 1: brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
31:21
Speaker 1: It's ready, are you