Links - 20th June 2019 (1) (Monica Baey)

NUSWhispers - Posts - "Machiavellian Lessons from the peeping tom saga:
1. Mob justice is sweet, effective, and efficient
2. Always have a call to action involving the greater community
Nobody's interested in personal vendettas (this guy owes me money, make him famous, anyone?). Instead, frame it in such a way that your problem becomes everyone's problem. By making others feel like they have a personal stake in the issue, you greatly increase the chances of making it go viral.
3. Always "hedge" against moral risk
You risk getting discredited once you lose the moral high ground you are standing on, so always be mindful to stay on top. Revenge and name-and-shames are morally dubious, so always add a disclaimer to say that these are not your intentions (even if they are - especially if they are). What Monica did is a textbook example of making the name-and-shame appear like an unintended side effect of a greater cause. Unfortunately, she made a rookie mistake by stating in one of her earlier stories that she's sick of Nicholas being able to live life normally (and apparently post on Instagram). Don't do that, it reveals the intention for revenge. However, this is not a critical mistake, as it is understandable for victims to desire revenge.
4. Always go for the easy targets first
Notice that Monica didn't go after the police, even though the case was theirs to handle, and maintaining a safe environment for all is their responsibility? Instead she pointed her guns at NUS, even making it seem like the lenient police punishment (or lack thereof) of a 12-month conditional warning was their doing. The answer is simple - NUS is a much easier target, because they love their reputation more than they love their students, and especially because they have already been in the public spotlight recently for sexualized orientation games, leaving them vulnerable to scandals of this sort. Throw in accusations of a cover-up to create a perfect storm of public outrage...
(Note: When apologizing, always make it seem like YOU didn't intend to do it, that some kind of sickness compelled you to do it, and that you hate yourself for that. This makes the victim feel sorry for you and paints the narrative that you are also a victim (of your sickness) in this incident, which puts the two of you on the same side. See Andy Hui apology for example)"
Friend: "Baey and her followers don't seem satisfied. They seem to relish in every blow being dealt to Lim. They seem to stop at nothing short of destroying his life, because he "destroyed" hers."

Alfie! on Twitter - "I think one of the saddest thing to emerge from the university Peeping Tom saga is the lack of awareness many people have of how justice works... As someone who formerly covered court cases, I used to find myself too, wondering why punishments for seemingly similar crimes varied. Then I learnt that it really depended on the facts of the case. Now the police had earlier today put out a statement to talk about why it arrived at what it arrived at (conditional warning). I think that is instructive, but I think the unfortunate timing (when public outrage is boiling over) means all this goodwill be shouted down... a lot of the anger I think comes from not knowing the full facts set out."
"Another thing is the "hang him now!" clamour pushes through bad laws. We already have very strict laws but in the heat of the moment the mob demands safeguards and discretionary powers be waived without any thought for future consequences."

NUS voyeur given conditional warning as he was 'assessed to have high likelihood of rehabilitation' - "in deciding whether to recommend prosecution for a criminal offence, "a number of factors are considered by Police in each case, including the age of the accused, the likelihood of reoffending/rehabilitation, the extent of remorse shown, whether there are aggravating factors (for example, like circulation of the offending images)"... the criminal justice system "seeks to temper punishment and deterrence, with giving offenders a second chance to reform, based on assessment of the relevant factors". "The approach in this case is consistent with the approach taken in other cases. There have been a number of similar cases, where such conditional warnings have been given," it said... The man's parents have agreed for it to be disclosed that his father is a driver in the public transport sector and his mother is a housewife... The authorities also said they were aware of comparisons being made between this case and a 2015 case involving a 23-year-old man who was jailed 10 weeks for filming a woman showering at Republic Polytechnic, and pointed out that the facts in that case were "quite different"."The accused in the RP case had committed multiple criminal trespass offences, taking deliberate action to avoid detection by covering up the CCTVs in the vicinity and covering his face with a towel, and did not own up voluntarily but was arrested following Police investigations to track him down."He was a former student of RP and had committed the offences over a period of four months""
Maybe people will say the father drives for the PAP. I've already seen people claim he has grassroots connections; getting the anti-PAP crowd on your side is a very effective way to unleash a mob

NUSWhispers - Posts - "most netizens agree that the sentence should be harsher, but few dare state how much harsher they think it should be. This is pretty important (think about it). Suppose the fair sentence is marginally greater than the actual sentence, for example 24 months warning/probation versus the actual 12 months. Then it is quite possible that current social justice efforts are overdone. Clearly there is an upper bound for harsh sentencing. I don't think it is fair to impose the death sentence or lifetime imprisonment for the culprit, for example. Finally, it is only mature and morally correct to state one's "price" in a negotiation. This only needs to be done based one's best ability (e.g. a range/interval might be sufficient). In this case, an upper bound for the culprits sentence. Otherwise you'd most likely end up in a trap (despite good intentions), where you are either: never satisfied, or just another cry baby seeking maximum revenge."
Comment: " if you upscale punishment for a student that isn't charged, you will also irredeemably doom anyone who has been convicted (e.g say someone who has been convicted of relatively minor crimes like shoplifting or causing hurt under provocation) due to the principle of proportionality, where a greater wrong (convicted versus not charged) must be matched with a greater punishment."

Becca D'Bus - Maybe this is controversial. But, if it is true that... - "Maybe this is controversial. But, if it is true that public pressure could result in an insurance agency suspending an employee for reasons that have nothing to do with his job, then I'm quite alarmed. Saying this as a queer person."

Of Punishment and Social Media | Facebook - "What is adequate punishment? Heck, I don’t know. If you’ve read my previous note, there’s a part where I ramble about how I felt that 10 or 20 years’ imprisonment weren’t enough for me to feel vindicated.I understand perfectly how she felt. I’ve been exactly there, caught up in all-consuming rage and hurt and thinking “I want him to suffer for what he’s done”. At that point nothing can satisfy the victim, nothing. And timing is crucial, because the initial rage that clouds judgment really does boil over.For me, since I only received news of my perpetrator’s punishments from both NUS and the police perhaps a year later, and I had so much time in between to sort out my thoughts and find my way. By that time, I was quite dull. My only thought was, well, I think he’s had his life shaken up already, if he is remorseful and he doesn’t do these things again, then I’m fine, because it means that the punishment did its work.You see, that’s the difference that time makes... Does she, and do all these armchair critics know what they think to be enough? There is currently a petition going around to have him expelled – don’t even get me started on the multiple issues I see with that – but expulsion is a big thing, it really, truly is. Thing is, I feel that the current punishment isn’t optimal either, and I think expulsion is too harsh, but I myself don’t know what could be in between that would satisfy me or most people... We are all humans. We all make mistakes. We should be responsible and bear the consequences of our mistakes. But punishment meted out should be proportional. It shouldn’t be decided in a fit of rage. And mob justice is a truckload of short-term, high-energy passion and rage... This guy isn’t the first, and most certainly won’t be the last, peeping tom. Let’s be real, there are lots of perverts around us. Some get caught, some don’t. and for those that get caught, how many do we hear of? There are only so few reported cases that come out in the news. Do any of us have statistics on the number of peeping toms caught and how many of them are given conditional warnings? Do we also have statistics on how many of them go on to reoffend after the conditional warning? I most certainly don’t.But what if this conditional warning really is the standard? What if the statistics showed that some 80 or more % of people with conditional warnings never reoffended again? Would it change people’s perspectives on this? It can never be 100%. There will ALWAYS be people bound to reoffend.It wouldn’t quite be fair to give everyone super harsh sentences just so less people will offend/reoffend, especially if there is a group of people there who would have been sufficiently deterred with less... If it really is the case that conditional warnings are generally ineffective then by all means, I wholeheartedly support a harsher punishment. The point is that no one really knows right now, but everyone talks as if they know for a fact that it doesn’t work most of the time. That’s what irks me. I know I’m doing a lot of theory-crafting here, and I’m also doing this as a third-party observer who happens to have experienced something similar some 5 years ago, distanced by space and time. I am not by any means an expert in conditional warnings or sentencing and punishment, but perhaps we could all take a step back and stop letting our initial outrage take charge... Once upon a time, I was a fan of mob justice. I thought, well, people who do wrong should expect backlash from society and this is how we signal that certain actions are inappropriate. This isn’t wrong, but the angry mob has shown time and time again that they have no sense of proportion and no limits. Naming and shaming, doxxing, targeting innocent loved ones, targeting companies they work for… some of these can be so extreme... I hope my readers are able to see beyond “if you are not for us, you are against us”. Life isn’t so simple, as much as I wish it was."

Melissa Wix - "EDIT: Look at how vicious people can be in the comments just because they do not agree with my opinion. What a sad social media world we live in
My unpopular opinion on the Monica Baey case:
At this point of time I feel like she is just doing this for the wrong reasons be it attention seeking or out for the ultimate revenge. If you are really traumatised and emotionally very affected by this incident you won't take on a 1 to 1 media interview to talk about your incident. You would want to get over this incident as fast as possible and recover and move on or seek help if she is as affected by this as what she claims... I don't see a point to further aggravate the situation considering he got fired by his job, whole of Singapore is out to bash him and NUS taking actions on him as well as the police. I'm not defendinf the guy who did this to her. Neither do I think her 1 to 1 video interview is necessary. And to those people who keep Saying 'What if this happened to you or What if this happen to your daughter how would you feel', yes it did happen to me as well before in a way worse situation so I would know how it feels and how traumatic it is hence it doesn't make sense for me to see someone in a similar situation to be able to go for a 1 to 1 video media interview"

Critical Spectator - Posts - "I'm no lawyer but even from a distance what OnHand Agrarian did today could be a crime under the local Penal Code... in plain English, what it did, in public view, is an attempt at extortion or intimidation, to coerce National University of Singapore and Great Eastern Singapore, to do what they are not legally bound to do (and the company itself has no grounds to make any such demands).Nor has it any right to decide what punishment Nicholas Lim should face for his wrongdoings.Beyond direct threats, the company has cynically leveraged the heightened emotional state of the public in the country, to receive free publicity, portraying itself as a defender of justice - while, in reality, it has claimed for itself the role of the judiciary.Not only is this dubious legally but it would be a horrific precedent for the future, where corporations may indulge in circumvention of the legal system to wage public smear & blackmail campaigns to force other entities or individuals to act against their own will for the benefit of the perpetrators exploiting the public's sentiments.It does not take long to realize that such practices would erode the rule of law in the country, reducing the justice system to vigilantism and public lynchings by the angry mob... I understand that passions are high but the legal context - and consequences - of Nicholas' Lim's crime are to be defined and explained by relevant authorities.Not attention hungry farmers."
Friend in the US: "Odd to hear of singapore being accused of not being sufficiently punitive. And the language I’ve seen used is very Anglo American SJW-y"

Employment and Recidivism - "Reducing recidivism not only protects society at large, but also improves the life quality of individual ex-prisoners. Employment has long been recognized as having a negative correlation with crime"
So, trying to get offenders fired is a great way to increase recidivism and thus crime. Presumably the yellow ribbon project needs to be destroyed

First-time juvenile offenders, probation and recidivism: Evidence from Los Angeles - "how best to prevent youth from committing future crimes remains unclear. In a March 2014 paper, “First-Time Violent Juvenile Offenders: Probation, Placement and Recidivism,” published in Social Work Research, scholars Joseph P. Ryan (University of Michigan), Laura S. Abrams (University of California, Los Angeles), and Hui Huang (Florida International University) address this issue, asking whether secure confinement is effective at preventing future crimes. To answer this question, the authors compare rates of recidivism (re-offending, or committing another crime) among youths who were sentenced to (1) in-home probation; (2) group-home placement at a community-based facility; or (3) a probation camp, the most restrictive setting... Rates of re-offending varied significantly relative to youths’ punishment and treatment: “Compared with in-home probation, the likelihood of recidivism was 2.12 times greater for youths assigned to probation camp and 1.28 times greater for youths assigned to group homes.”"
Of course to some people even a 0.000001% recidivism rate is unacceptable, so offenders must be locked up for the rest of their natural lives

The Cautious Approach - Police cautions and the impact on youth reoffending - "Previous research into youth diversionary practices has shown that diverting young people away from the formal court system leads to a positive impact on youth reoffending behaviour. A number of studies have examined the impact of police cautions or youth conferences compared to formal court proceedings. However, there is a paucity of studies which focus purely on the impact of police dispositions at the pre-court stage. The current study examines the characteristics that impact on a young person receiving a caution as opposed to a charge from police and the impact this has on reoffending within a twelve month follow up period. A cohort of 5,981 young people who were recorded as allegedly committing an offence between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2016 were included in this study. Fifty-six percent of the cohort received a caution and the remaining 44% were charged by police. A logistic regression model was constructed to examine the differences between the cautioned and charged young people for demographic, offending history and incident characteristics. This model was used to develop a propensity score for each young person which was then used to match a group of cautioned young people to a group of charged young people. Consistent with findings of previous studies, young people who were cautioned were less likely to reoffend than those charged"
"The criminal justice system in sg is one that tries to divert as many people as possible. Most of the time that means 1st time offenders either get conditional warning or probation but there may be additional conditions attached such as they might have to attend offence-specific programmes, e.g., sex offender programmes, violent offender programmes, etc. We are only hearing one side of the story. SPF and AGC probably decided that this person could be rehabilitated without the need for an actual charge and a jail sentence. But we are not sure cos we don't know the full story. There must be a reason why they decided with this and let's not put our own spin to it saying how NUS and the perp's parents pulled strings without knowing whether this is really the case.Can we please maintain our composure and hear everyone's side of the story before we join in the crazy witch hunt?"

Penalties for crime must reflect public opinion: Shanmugam - "A deputy public prosecutor, who declined to be named, had reservations about reviews being announced soon after a case concludes in court.“When the Government says these things, it ties our hands,” he said.A former prosecutor, who wanted to remain anonymous, said that while public perception is a “relevant” concern, it “must not be the overriding consideration”.“Otherwise we may run the risk of undermining the rule of law with mob justice ... In my view, it would help if the AGC engages the public more actively and explains its decisions”"
No wonder 377A persists!

Wei Hong - According to the logic of some posts I've seen, the... - "According to the logic of some posts I've seen, the only acceptable punishment for any crime (no matter how severe or light) is the death penalty or life imprisonment. They probably think we should scrap the Yellow Ribbon Project. Oh, and not only should the criminal suffer, his entire family and anyone related to him should be punished too. Must be nice to be these people, to have never committed any wrong-doing their entire lives."
"I thought of deploying a mental experiment for anyone seeking expulsion as the new normal for NUS' disciplinary board.Suppose Parliament says one day, that as part of their "get tough on sex crime platform" that it is implementing a universal 40 year long prison sentence for all sex crimes, from the most simple S.509 (eg a spur of the moment peeping case of a nipple by a young offender) to the worst rape ever that can still be captured in a single charge (premeditated, prolonged, severe humiliation of victim).What would be the reasoning *against* such an approach?It will likely be along the line of the total lack of proportionality of sentencing, and the observation that if "restraint" (for want of better expression) in a crime does not lead to any mitigation in sentencing downstream, then there is no restraining effect against the perp from going all the way and exploiting the victim to the maximum, since he is going to get a 40 year sentence no matter what he does anyway.With this in mind and going back to the current case, won't one then find the same reasoning of proportionality of punishment also stands as strong argument against a global punishment of expulsion (which is what I think the crowd wants) for any sex related wrongdoing adjudicated by NUS (or other quasi-judicial or disciplinary body)?"
"that's why a few Singaporeans cough blood when they experience the rehabilitative philosophy behind the NZ criminal justice system. The sentences are very soft and aim more at giving offenders a chance to rehab than to deter them from re-offending. It is the total opposite of Singapore's criminal justice philosophy."

Renson Seow - Most people don't know how to punish. I've written... - "1) If you use your worst punishment for something that is not the worst wrongdoing, you end up not being able to punish appropriately for a more severe transgression.
2) If you don't allow apology and regret to reduce the punishment, you encourage the other side to fight instead of cooperate, since he's doomed even if he surrenders.
Somehow, folks are able to appreciate this when they are trying to encourage a toddler to own up to wrongdoing by giving a lesser punishment, or when they are trying to get defenders of a city to surrender peacefully in exchange for mercy. But they can't when it's about a case about a NUS student with 3 significant mitigating factors (youth, lack of premeditation and contrition). Instead it is ultimate punishment of expulsion all the way."

Handling of NUS offender's case was fair, say legal experts - "While some have taken issue with the police's explanation for why undergraduate Nicholas Lim, 23, was let off with a conditional warning, legal experts that The Sunday Times spoke to said they believe the matter was handled fairly. Considerations such as the age of the offender and the prospects of re-offending - which were cited by police - are applied to all cases in deciding whether to prosecute suspects, said law professor Eugene Tan. He added that, while deterrence is crucial to fight such crimes, "it is not a one-size-fits-all legal concept"."The law is an ass if it dishes out a prescriptive set of punishments. If that's the case, we might as well let a computer determine the punishment tariffs," said Associate Professor Tan of the Singapore Management University School of Law... This was echoed by criminal lawyer Gloria James-Civetta, who said that the 12-month conditional warning given to Mr Lim was sufficient, given the police's explanations. "A conditional warning is like a 'curfew' imposed on him for good behaviour and not to re-offend," she said.Prof Tan added that the police would have consulted the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) in meting out the conditional warning, and the prosecutorial discretion on the AGC's part is not something that would be taken lightly... "As there was no discriminatory treatment in favour of Nicholas Lim, we should not be dictating what the state's sanction ought to be. The law should be allowed to take its course even if we disagree with it and/or its application""

Wilbur Lim - I followed the recent campus voyeurism incident with... - "Michael Moore identified the two different ideals of rehabilitation in his book “Placing Blame: A Theory of the Criminal Law” in 1997:-
“Rehabilitation involves two quite different ideals of rehabilitation that are usually confused. These two rehabilitative ideals can best be separated by thinking about two different ways of rendering offenders non-dangerous. First, imagine that what is done is to place offenders in extraordinary awful places of detention, with harsh treatment by inmates and guards. Here, non-dangerousness is achieved because such offenders either become ‘penitent’, or they are no longer willing to commit crimes because they are unwilling to risk such awful treatment. For comparison, imagine that the same level of non-dangerousness can be achieved if prisoners are placed in much nicer facilities, with kinder personnel… a place in which extensive therapy programs are undertaken… not only makes the offender non-dangerous but also makes him a flourishing, happy, and self-actualizing member of our society.”...
As a practitioner, I had secured conditional warnings and even discharge amounting to acquittals for deserving accused persons. I had remained in contact with many such individuals both on social media and in person. I see them reintegrating into society as useful members, with some even taking on volunteering work on a regular basis. Of course, rehabilitation may not work in every instance even when a second chance is given, and for most cases deterrence may be a better option. However, the possibility of change for certain cases is undeniable and should be embraced if an individual is found to be suitable for rehabilitation.The danger is that public anger and outcry may genuinely impede the process of rehabilitation and reintegration. Public outcry may very often be rightly or wrongly reasoned based on the principle of retributivism"

NUS Students’ Union to do hostel spot checks to make sure no same or different sex students inside - "The patrol will involve the deployment of a male and female member from NUSSU’s executive committee, together with a campus security guard... They will patrol the corridors and toilets of multi-purpose rooms, residential colleges and residence halls where freshmen and orientation leaders will be living during the orientation period.They will also be ensuring that students are not drinking, smoking or having two or more students in a room prior to sleeping... NUSSU’s plan will also involve the establishment of a 24-hour hotline for first-year undergraduates to call in the event they need help or are in distress."
I wonder how many NUS students are now upset at and cursing Monica Baey. Not to mention this will make school fees go up even more

Dorm spot-checks: NUS welcomes initiative by students’ union, but undergrads say it’s ‘like the military’ - "Plans for night patrols by the students’ union to deter peeping toms and other “inappropriate behaviour” at the National University of Singapore (NUS) were welcomed by the university administration this week, but the move has not been well-received by all students... Mr Ryan Leow, 21, a second-year law student said that checks of the students’ rooms will “infringe their privacy” and “instil a culture of fear”. “Enforcing rules is one thing, but turning NUS into a surveillance state is another.”"
This is like how CCTVs in MRT stations were justified on security grounds, but are mostly used to catch people for eating and drinking

Renson Seow - Anyway folks might find it useful to know that even... - "folks might find it useful to know that even for other crimes, a prosecution doesn't always happen. E.g. for voluntarily causing hurt, just 9% are charged. The rest probably get conditional warnings. Police, agc and courts would be overwhelmed if every case gets charged.
This nugget of info can be found in this 2014 hansard."

Stefen Chow - I have been silent about the peeping tom saga in... - "The punishment NUS has meted out is actually consistent with similar cases in the past. If this is the case, wouldn't slapping him with a harsher penalty be considered double standards?... The problem here is not so much that Nicholas has gotten away "scot free" as Ms Baey wrote - because he has indeed been dealt a punishment... It would be somewhat naive to think that she's nothing but a saitn who just wants to raise awareness"