He went to jail for stealing someone's identity, but it was his all along

Credibility, Mental Illness, and Being Believed

• Many focus on how “problematic” or psychotic behavior (rambling, 9/11 claims, delusions) makes even true statements easy to dismiss.
• Several share experiences with paranoid or psychotic relatives whose constant false allegations make it practically impossible to investigate the occasional true one.
• Others note this is structurally similar to divorce and civil disputes: courts often default to whoever makes the most vivid accusations because sorting truth from lies is hard and under‑resourced.
• The Rosenhan experiment and “boy who cried wolf” are cited as parables of how systems stop listening once someone is labeled “crazy” or untrustworthy.

Authority Bias, Police, and Medical Systems

• A long subthread describes people being forcibly taken to hospitals on law‑enforcement say‑so, subjected to invasive exams, then personally billed despite negative findings.
• Commenters argue this reveals deep authority bias: courts, hospitals, and regulators default to believing police and protecting institutions, not individuals.
• Some compare US healthcare and policing unfavorably to Europe, pointing to qualified immunity, asset forfeiture, and unbilled medical coercion as a “victim tax.”
• There’s debate on whether making police/departments financially liable for collateral damage would improve accountability or just create new bad incentives.

Identity Systems and National Registries

• One camp argues a strong, canonical population registry (like Nordic systems) plus secure IDs and photo checks would have made long‑term impersonation much harder.
• Others counter that registries don’t eliminate identity fraud, may be abused by authorities, and wouldn’t help much with homeless people or long‑ago paper records.
• US‑specific issues like non‑unique SSNs, Real ID, birth certificates as weak identity proofs, and political resistance to national IDs are discussed.
• Disagreement remains over whether the core failure here is weak identity infrastructure or officials’ refusal to do basic verification once a conflict arose.

Justice System Failures and Accountability

• Strong anger that judges, prosecutors, and even the public defender faced no apparent consequences, while only the original impersonator is punished.
• People highlight how the court literally ordered the real Woods not to use his own name, revealing a system that prefers paperwork and assumptions over evidence.
• Several call for an NTSB‑like body for injustices and for sanctions against professionals who don’t do due diligence. Others see this as part of a broader pattern affecting divorce, minor criminal, and civil cases.

Evidence, DNA, and Identification

• Many are baffled that DNA comparison with a known family member was a last‑resort move rather than step one.
• There’s discussion of alternatives (relatives visually identifying, fingerprints, newborn footprints) and their limits if records are missing or relatives are estranged or deceased.
• Some note that without living relatives, proving identity to this standard might be effectively impossible, which is considered “scary.”

“Identity Theft” vs “Identity Fraud”

• A semantic thread argues “identity theft” wrongly implies something is taken from the victim, shifting blame onto them, whereas “identity fraud” correctly frames the bank/institution as the defrauded party.
• Related complaints target US payment practices (card culture, signatures, CVC) as structurally inviting fraud and then socializing the fallout onto individuals.

Harm and Who the Victims Are

• One view: absent prosecution of Woods, the impersonation was nearly “victimless,” especially decades later.
• Others push back: false identity used to dodge earlier crimes, mislead employers, banks, and partners is inherently harmful, and the real Woods’ later ordeal is a direct consequence, not a fluke.