Tim May <tcmay@got.net> wrote on 1 Oct 97:
At 3:20 PM -0700 10/1/97, Martin Janzen wrote:
Electronic Frontier Canada's David Jones (djones@insight.dcss.McMaster.CA) posted the following to the EFC mailing list:
2. If cops can read E-mail, so can the bad guys http://www.efc.ca/pages/media/gazette.24sep97.html
[much interesting exposition on the police as servants of government deleted] I have a question: has any jurisdiction (local, state, federal) in the U.S. resolved the hyprocrisy--maybe better to phrase "double standard"--wherein citizens who commit crimes against persons who perform duties under the color and badge of authority--namely the police--are charged with additional offenses specific for crimes against govt officers--but govt officers who commit crimes against citizens while in the performance of duties under the color and badge of authority would suffer the same penalty as citizens who commit crimes against "just" citizens? (hope you can follow that perhaps awkward question) It is my opinion that if I am charged with felony assault on a police officer, and the judge gives me 2 years for the assault + 1 year for doing it to an officer, that if that cop gets rough with me beyond what is legally necessary (excessive force?) or does it in the commission of other crimes and does so having informed others that the officer is performing his duties (this resolves disputes between the concept of "on-duty" and "off-duty"), then he should get 2 years for the crime + 1 year for having violated the public trust vested in him (i.e., doing while "under the color and badge of authority"). I don't know why I think this way, but it's a concept I call FAIRNESS or maybe JUSTICE. Mitch Halloran Research Biochemist/C programmer/Sequioa's (dob 12-20-95) daddy Duzen Laboratories Group mitch@duzen.com.tr