Social Media and Hasty Punishment

“I just think I’d look guilty if I hired a lawyer.”

“Actually, it’s getting arrested that makes people look guilty.”

— “Uno,” Better Call Saul

Being arrested can be one of the worst moments of someone’s life, especially if it’s something they’ve never experienced before. The uncertainty of what will follow and the fear that permeates one’s psyche can create immense stress. While arrests are typically thought of as legal or criminal events, they are true psychological events as well. Many times, getting arrested takes someone down a road that can very likely alter the course of their life. Relationships get damaged, mental well-being deteriorates, and stigma is levied.

All of this can happen, I should note, without the arrestee ever doing anything wrong. Getting arrested does not mean you did anything wrong, and the fact that this even needs to be made clear shows how entrenched the notion of arrest equating guilt is in our society. In order to arrest you, the police only need to meet the standard of probable cause. Put plainly, probable cause asks whether the facts an officer knows would lead a reasonable person to believe a crime probably occurred. That is a far lower bar than the proof beyond a reasonable doubt required to convict you—lower, even, than the more-likely-than-not standard used in civil cases. Probable cause is also incredibly elastic and situational. In most cases, there doesn’t need to be any hard proof that you did anything. Given that police have so much power and discretion, it’s not unreasonable to posit that sometimes mistakes are made and some people are wrongfully arrested.

Despite this low barrier of proof, an arrest can cause immense public shaming. Many jurisdictions post arrestees’ mugshots for the entire internet to ridicule, despite the fact that they are legally innocent. That is, innocent until proven otherwise. Take the El Paso Police Department, which releases photos of DWI-related arrests every week. These photos are then posted on social media, and the comment sections are brutal. Imagine how seeing your face plastered on Instagram might look to an employer, or how it might affect close personal relationships. This, again, can happen without the arrestee ever actually doing anything wrong. To illustrate the point, a DWI arrest in Texas can rest on nothing more than an officer’s roadside impressions—an odor of alcohol, bloodshot eyes, an unsteady performance on a field sobriety test—none of which is proof of intoxication. Refusing a breath test won’t spare you either; in Texas, refusal carries an automatic license suspension of its own.

This online public shaming ritual is reminiscent of the public punishment of a bygone era. We’ve swapped our pitchforks and torches for internet comments. Instead of hurling tomatoes, we now hurl hate at the accused and at every corner of their personal lives. The difference is that in the days of the stocks and the pillory, a person was subjected to ridicule by their local community. In today’s age, this humiliation transcends borders and follows the arrestee wherever they go. In the most publicized cases, it can be enough to damage one’s self-image beyond repair. Take, as an extreme example, the Michael Jackson trial. Though a jury acquitted him on all counts, he faced public backlash and shaming until his untimely death. His case is a striking study in how an arrest and the shaming that follows can mark a person the law never found guilty.

Arrests, by design, strip you of some level of humanity. Your freedom and autonomy are restricted. But while this reduction of rights might be temporary, the internet allows the shame that comes with arrest to become constant and enduring. As the saying goes, “once you put something online, it’s there forever.” Lauren M. Goldman highlights this issue in her article “Trending Now: The Use of Social Media Websites in Public Shaming Punishments.” Goldman emphasizes that online shaming can be its own form of punishment, one that starts far before guilt is found in the courtroom and lasts far beyond any adjudicated sentence. She further explains that online mugshots, news reports, and public comments can stick with a person for years after their arrest, and that the damage goes well beyond self-esteem. It has tangible effects on a person’s business, employment opportunities, and familial relationships.

The internet is an insatiable beast, but we control its diet. We, as a collective, have the means to control what we give our attention to. The arguments advanced here give good reason to be cautious about levying harsh judgment on others. After all, they could very well have done nothing wrong. Make no mistake, arrests are a meaningful mechanism of justice. However, they are just one type of mechanism that fits into the larger machine of justice. Arrests get the process started, but they in no way are indicative of actual guilt. It’s great that we expect our law enforcement to only arrest those who have actually done wrong. This is not always the case, however, and when it isn’t, the internet should not be the one handing down the sentence.