At 10:32 PM -0400 6/26/01, Declan McCullagh wrote:
Police in Key West, Flordia have arrested a newspaper editor for printing an article that criticized an internal police investigation, according to an Associated Press report. This brutish action by police and prosecutors should be widely denounced.
I would denounce it, but the fact is that our denouncements don't matter. Political prosecutions and trials have become the norm. Personally, I have been closely involved in two serious criminal trials. In both of these criminal cases, those charged either were found guilty or would have been had they gone to trial (one of them died before the trial). In the case of the guilty person, he received no prison term for perpetrating a very serious crime. Why? Because there was no political interest in his case, so the usual excuse about how "overcrowded our prisons are" was used to let him avoid a prison sentence. When there is no interest in a case, a rap on the knuckles is the worst fate most street criminals ever face. However, if there is political interest, then charges are magnified and hyped and information is leaked to "U.S. News and World Report" about the horrible terrorist who awaits prosecution by the protectors of our freedoms. Even though our jails and prisons are said to be so crowded that violent felons are given bullshit "be a good boy" releases, political trials such as the cases of Parker, Bell, Henson, and others are the focus of cop activities and aggressive prosecutions. We let murderers, arsonists, and kidnappers go free so that the prisons can be filled with people who write fanciful essays about the "Circle of Eunuchs" and those who criticize local doughnut eaters. Keith Henson faces much more prison time than does the violent criminal in the case I am involved with. Because Henson is a thought criminal, while the violent criminal is just an ordinary criminal. And in these beknighted states of America, being a though criminal like Bell, Parker, or Henson is far worse than being a rapist, murderer, arsonist, or thief. Time for another Revolution and for about a hundred thousand dishonest cops and judges to face trial for and be put before firing squads. --Tim May -- Timothy C. May tcmay@got.net Corralitos, California Political: Co-founder Cypherpunks/crypto anarchy/Cyphernomicon Technical: physics/soft errors/Smalltalk/Squeak/agents/games/Go Personal: b.1951/UCSB/Intel '74-'86/retired/investor/motorcycles/guns