At 12:00 PM -0700 8/20/97, Paul Pomes wrote:
At 10:49 PDT on Wednesday, August 20, 1997, Tim May wrote:
|>Maybe for the simple reason that some people might not have the money to |>defend themselves ? | |And what of those without the money to feed themselves? Etc.
The difference is that the lack of means to feed oneself is usually self- selected. Political criminals, or people simply unaware that they're felons under an increasing number of laws, seldom have a choice whether they will be arrested and tried.
Certainly the preferred solution is to junk most of the laws on the books. However until committing a felony is an explicit conscious act, we will need court-appointed attorneys for persecution victims.
I don't buy this. You are, of course, welcome to join Patrick Oonk in funding lawyers for those unable (or unwilling) to pay. Demanding that I pay for your charitable desires is, of course, theft.
I am glad I live in the Netherlands, where there's at least of bit of social consciousness left. -- | Patrick Oonk - http://patrick.mypage.org/ - patrick@pine.nl | | PGP Key ID 0xDA2E93FA - Internic PO59 - <clicketyclick> | | Pine Internet B.V. Consultancy, installatie en beheer | | Tel: +31-70-3111010 - Fax: +31-70-3111011 - http://www.pine.nl/ |