Of course. Surprising or shocking? Not in the least.
Nico Garcia raoul@tiac.net
Every day that I wake up, I'm amazed at how far this country has devolved. When rational people sit quietly and accept the abuses of the police and other authorities, it is a sign that society has truly turned belly-up.
I was shocked. I've had some dealings with the SS. Their behavior in court, painting Ed as a "terrorist" was to be expected, NOT condoned. What happened to Ed in prison is shocking. If Ed was a killer of little children, then I could understand. He wasn't. At his worst Ed's crime was no more than petty white collar fraud. Ed would not have been imprisoned in Australia. I've reviewed many US computer crime / toll fraud cases, including sentencing decisions. I found myself very unimpressed with US sentencing guidelines, which are extremely rigid and compartmentalised, leaving a sentencing judge with almost no disgression or ability to impose a sentence that fits the crime as a whole or the defendant as a whole. Whether Nico or anyone else found the violence against Cummings "shocking" or "to be expected" or not, is of no import. No one is surprised to hear that a pretty girl walking alone through central park in the middle of the night has been brutally raped. This makes the crime, and its effects on the victim no less hideous. Those that abuse their power and inflict grave violence on others must be held accountable and their crimes deplored and punished in the strongest manner. Failure to do so merely creates an environment where such behavior becomes predominant. This is not acceptable. -- "Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies, The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." - C.S. Lewis, _God in the Dock_ +---------------------+--------------------+----------------------------------+ |Julian Assange RSO | PO Box 2031 BARKER | Secret Analytic Guy Union | |proff@suburbia.net | VIC 3122 AUSTRALIA | finger for PGP key hash ID = | |proff@gnu.ai.mit.edu | FAX +61-3-98199066 | 0619737CCC143F6DEA73E27378933690 | +---------------------+--------------------+----------------------------------+