Constitution and a Right to Privacy

[Dale Thorn]

Attila T. Hun wrote:
> on or about 970219:0722 Dale Thorn <dthorn at gte.net> said:
> +Simple, but....  In a right to jury trial of peers, are the peers the
> +peers of the defendant or the peers of the victim?  Both the Rodney
> +King officers and the O.J. cases were perfect examples of how, when you
> +switch the peer groups, you reverse the decisions.

>     you trying to be some kind of trouble maker? please remember that
>     *all* the fairweather dogooder liberals have been telling us for
>     years that everyone is equal.  yeah, right!
>     therefore, juries are obviously color blind, and not dazzled by
>     attorneys calling up racism.  yeah, right!

It just makes me a little nervous to see jurors getting so personally
involved that they come out of the box with a clenched fist as a
(I suppose) victory salute.  I didn't care to watch the charade in
Santa Monica recently, but I doubt it was much better.

>     as to Powell, he is/was an animal who should have been put away
>     permanently.

I watched most of the first trial live in '92, since I wasn't working
that year. My impressions at the time went along with the presentation,
which was fair to the officers.  It was stated by Koon and one of the
other officers as much as a year later, when many cities across the
U.S. had been using the King video for training for several months to
a year, "The LAPD has not to this date provided their officers with
new tools and techniques to handle this kind of situation without a
repeat of the same" (quote approximate). Of course, if you're willing
to consider an alternative scenario, one which would appeal primarily
to "conspiracy buffs" and the like, you might recall that L.A. was
getting ready to put in a new freeway from the airport across the
very line where the most fires were (6,000-plus fires, so extensive
that the big jets couldn't fly over to LAX), and I think the outcome
was to save them a lot of work, a windfall as it were.

>     Koon was an officer's officer (personal experience) and was in
>  the wrong place at the wrong time, not willing to step in. Koon lost
>  24 years of service without a mark, his pension, and all his benefits
>     with 5 or 6 kids at home --and they had to go into hiding until
>     found by the liberal press again and again who obviously felt the
>     family should be punished as well.  we wont even bother with the
>     issues of double jeopardy when they pull a federal civil rights
>     trial on all of them after the state court cleared everyone except
>     Powell who they hung on.  they had a clear right to try Powell,
>     noone else.

It's good if you don't read the L.A. Times.  One of their lead editor-
ializers (whores), a professor at USC law school named Erwin
Chemerinsky,
writes in relation to this subject "The federal government is an inde-
pendent sovereign that cannot have its powers diminished by a state
government's actions." (exact quote, 2/7/97).  Either that's a load of
BS doubletalk, or it's one of the more fascistic commentaries from the
Times, which is usually bad enough.
 
BTW, the Times printed a large picture (first time I've ever seen) of
the chairman, someone named Schlossberg, and I think it's spelled
slightly different than the one who married Caroline Kennedy.
Anyway, this guy could be Michael Eisner's twin brother.  Two bozos
if I ever saw 'em, goofy-looking dudes, which would explain much
about their newspaper editorial policy.

>     and the video played for evidence missed the first 90 seconds when a
>     very large animal (Rodney King can be described no other way) came
>     out of the car, dancing the jig, and went after Powell.  by the time
>     the prosecutors, particularly the Feds, were through itimidating the
>     witnesses, nobody told the truth.

The suppression of evidence that worked in the police officers' 2nd
trial has apparently become the precedent for a whole lot of trials.
The feds are sweating hard on this OKC bombing thing - latest is that
the initial witnesses seeing McVeigh here or there have admitted to
contradictory descriptions they've given before.

Note that there was some jury tampering (IMO, and others too) in the
grand jury proceeding in OKC; also note the flimsy excuse for throwing
out the grand jury in the Simpson case, since they weren't going to
indict Simpson.  I didn't even read close on the De La Beckwith case,
where the feds finally nailed him after 20-plus years of trying, but
maybe there's something on the internet....

>     Rodney King had been busted for public intoxication, controlled
>     substances, and disorder enough times that he was well recognized
>     for what he was  --and easily identified.

Let anyone say whatever they want to about cops, but I'm glad it's
not me out there facing 220-lb guys on dust.  I heard first hand
from one who shot a guy twice, and he just kept coming.  If a .38
won't stop 'em, maybe that's where the big dogs come in handy.
It would've been interesting if the King video had a minute or so
with a couple of K-9's...

>     in the spooks, we called Powell's actions "the red mask" --once you
>     start staring the beast in the eye, you are so wired on there is no
>     stopping until your opponent is jello. 'shocktroops' or
>     'Stossentruppen' should never be used in civilian police forces,
>     except possibily on SWAT teams, not an average street cop.

When I went into the Army for combat training, I stood 5-10 and
weighed 120 lbs.  I weighed 130 when I came out.  I guess I could
have gone on patrol looking for Charlie, and maybe kept alive, if
I didn't have to take on some well-fed crazies whose lives were
turning to shit because of their enormous stupidity.  In any case,
I couldn't go out on the street in L.A. and face guys like King,
so I lean toward the cops as much as I can.  BTW (and speaking of
stupidity), the Christopher Commission named 44 or 45 cops out of
the LAPD's 8,000-plus as problem officers, and two(!) of the 45
went to the Simpson home the night/morning of the murders.

>     and why did we have the trial in the first place? simply because the
>     LA Times and KABC decided there was going to be a trial.  I dont
>     know whether to chalk it off to their bleeding heart liberals, or
>     just the usual greed for money to be made on high profile news.
>     or is it just more of the usual politically correct beat down of
>     the oppressive whiteface?

Big Money, Big Fame, Big Fortune.  Look at Dan Rather, Robert McNeil,
Bill Moyers, and others who profited handsomely from their on-the-
scene experience in the JFK killing.  Remember Netanyahu, who spent
all those hours on the telly during the Gulf War, playing the role
of the ultra-conservative Israeli leader who could step right in and
take command in a crisis?  Well, he did, and have you seen any recent
pictures of him?  Even when he's with Yessir Yurafart, he's beaming
broadly, like the cat that just ate the canary.  Big, big money.

>     it is sometimes difficult to defend the LA Police department when
>     you knew Daryll Gates and his predecessor, "Big Ed" Davis. Both of
>     them are cowboys; Big Ed is now a state senator from the far west
>     Valley, what was horse country when I lived there.  they had a job
>     to do, and LA is a mean place. the city itself is 2/3 poverty, half
>     of that extreme ghetto and barrio problems.
>     Big Ed is the man who proposed the fitting ending to airline
>     hijackings, and set up his display in plain sight: in front of
>     the American Airlines terminal building 4 at LAX before LAX was
>     double decked.
>     Big Ed parked a 40 ft flat bed trailer out there with a judge's
>     bench at one end and a gallows at the other end with the jury box
>     and dock in between.  yes, sir, justice by the hijackers' peers;
>     take the next 12 citizens coming out the doors.
>     perfect and swift justice on someone who has no defense for his
>     actions.

[heh heh]

The people of L.A. really liked Gates, because he kept the peace.
And they liked (Uncle) Tom Bradley just as well, since he kept the
city really clean.  No trash on the streets, no dirt, all the
beautiful shrubs lining the freeways well-watered - you ought to
see Hollywood since they started putting in the "subway" under
Mayor Riordan.  Anyone with any sense of pride at all would be
aghast at what's happened. Streets caving in, wooden planks covering
big holes on lots of streets that you have to drive over, it's a mess.
Even a lot of the old stars on the Walk of Fame were badly damaged.
Riordan must be a Communist, or Mafia or something.  Funny that when
he ran for mayor, his huge billboards all over town had his name in
big letters, and the next-to-last letter (a) was replaced with a
large red star, looking exactly like the ones they used under Mao.

[remainder snipped]