And I think that's a fair perspective. I don't believe in judging someone forever by it, and I think one of the most heinous things in our country is our prison complex. It's absolutely wrong that people go to prison in the first place for drug violations, and it's worse that because they're convicted they can't get jobs. Your smoking weed has no bearing on your ability to do a job, and then the system repeats because these people are forced back into illegal jobs because there's no way for them to get a regular one. We view criminals as 'other', not citizens. Put them away and assume the crime problem is fixed, and wonder why there is more crime when we do these things.

But if you look at my reply to steve above, I think the right to the information is important in many cases. I don't think there's really a good solution here, to be honest. Many people are rightfully accused because the suspicion honestly seems to be pointing in their direction, but they are innocent, and then their life can be more difficult. I think that's a bigger problem than malicious false accusations, so maybe the best answer truly is public figure vs. private citizen (where I personally believe those serving the public should always have complete transparency to those they serve). Doing that does take away a level of potential security for the people interacting with possible criminals, but it does provide deserved privacy for the truly innocent.

So the debate comes to what should be more important in our society: an individual's privacy or ability to gain security through information about those around us? I honestly don't know how to answer that for private citizens.