Names Have Been Changed to Protect… Someone

We've all read those articles in magazines where there is a disclaimer saying that names have been changed to protect the innocent or the presumed innocent or whatever. There are times when I can see that this might be necessary. Perhaps someone witnessed a major crime and had to be protected against reprisals. My question is, are these names really changed or are they just telling us that? Maybe the names aren't changed at all. "When Jill (not her real name) was 12 years old she witnessed a butterfly stab a horse." Maybe Jill really is her name and they are just saying that the names have been changed to throw us off.

What got me thinking about this was a story in the news about a guy who is testifying against his former friends in a biker gang in a murder trial. The reporter referred to the witness using initials (JG or something like that) to protect his identity. Now feel free to correct me but why are we protecting this guy's identity from the public at large? Does the public at large have anything against this guy? Probably not. They bad guys he is testifying against are right there in the court room. They already know who he is. I'm sure that the other members of this biker gang who are still on the street already know who he is too. Seems to me that if they were trying to protect him they would come up with some other better way of doing it than just not saying his name. Perhaps some kind of memory erasing ray gun or an invisibility cloak or even just a bag to go over his head-- something.

I agree for the most part that some protection has to be provided for those who are willing to take a stand against the bad guys so that justice can be done. Maybe it makes the witness feel safer to know that his or her name is not being plastered across newspapers and websites from coast to coast. Maybe it helps to get the whole story out in court. Does it really help or not? I don't know.

The one thing that does occur to me about his biker gang story is that the only people who actually know who this witness is are the police and court officials – and of course the bad guys who might want to get him later on.