Jim Bell "Disappeared" by Feds?

[Eric Lee Green]

On Tue, 21 Nov 2000 18:10:27 GMT, Eric Cordian <emc at artifact.psychedelic.net>
 wrote:
>Bell has been jailed.  Here we see the real use of Federal anti-stalking
>laws - to protect government whores from the citizens they harrass. 
>
>http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,40300,00.html

Interesting. Couple of things: 

1) Jim Bell dont come across as the brightest of bulbs. Of course,
its difficult to tell whether this is true, or whether its just a
smear job (inadvertant or otherwise -- Ive had my own problems with
Wired reporters misquoting me in order to "add color" to their
reporting). Still, publicizing a system for assassinating political
figures, and expecting said political figures to abide by the 1st
Amendment protections regarding free speech, is stupidity beyond
stupidity. If the government wants to squash you, they can do so --
they can seize all your assets under RICO (including all assets that
would be needed in order to hire a lawyer to get your property back),
crooked cops can lie under oath and say they found drugs in your
possession with little recourse, and innocent people are sent to jail
every day because it allows some harried police lieutenant to close
out a file and look like a hero to the general public for "solving a
crime" -- according to one study by a university law school, up to 70
of the people convicted of crimes are actually innocent, and were
convicted because they were (illegally) deprived of the opportunity to
conduct a defense (due to rampant underfunding of public defenders
offices, and the RICO statutes which allow the government to seize all
funds that could be used to conduct a defense, most people who are
arrested do not even get to see their lawyer before the start of the
trial -- in blatant disregard of the Constitution of the United
States). And nobody cares, because the police are careful to target
"those" people -- people who are poor, who are ignorant, or whose
actions can be easily spun to make them appear dangerous or
insane. Jim Bell wants to take on the Feds? What a moron!

2) Jim Bell also comes across as rather paranoid. Of COURSE hes being
observed (at least occasionally) by federal law enforcement
agencies. He is an ex-con, for cryin out loud, whenever a law is
broken, the law comes looking at ex-cons first cause theyre the most
likely cause of a law being broken. Its not paranoid to notice this,
but its certainly paranoid to take the actions he has taken about
that observation. I guess being held on trumped-up charges for his
first conviction (i.e., possession of household chemicals now
illegal!) warped his head, but what did he expect when he published a
paper describing a system for rewarding assassination of political
figures? I mean, what, he thought the 1st Amendment was something
other than toilet paper that law enforcement officers wipe their rears
with every day? (Actually, they usually dont care about the 1st, its
the 4th, with their unconstitutional seizures of property under the
RICO statute, that they wipe their rears with every day, but
still...).

3) He is being held without bail. This appears to be a new tactic used
by law enforcement to punish people that they know they dont have
enough evidence to convict. For example, in Wilmington, North
Carolina, a student commented about the Columbine killings, "those
kids were stupid, if they wanted to kill jocks they should have
started at the gym, not at the library." He was jailed without bail on
charges of "making threatening statements". His parents were irate,
because typical punishment in North Carolina for first offense of
"making threatening statements" is a $500 fine and probation. The
judge and sheriffs office kept him jailed without bail as "being a
dangerous threat", in full defiance of the Constitution of the United
States and its constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech and due
process, because they wanted to "teach a lesson". They taught a
lesson, alright -- thats one kid who will never trust government
again.

4) Its interesting that federal law enforcement agencies view the
identification of their officers as a threat. It reminds me of fascist
police officers in Serbia who taped over their badges so that the
demonstrators could not identify the people who were depriving them of
their rights. It appears that even identifying and filing a public
complaint against a federal law enforcement officer (i.e., publishing
a copy of that complaint on your web site as well as via "official
channels") could be construed as a "terrorist threat" under the
federal statute that was quoted.

I think that many Americans are rather sanguine about their freedoms.
We have forgotten that only fifty years before, a
government-sanctioned and government-enforced system of apartheid
systematically and with full government force deprived civil rights
from a full 1/5th of the population of the United States. We have
forgotten that, only 30 years ago, citizens of the United States were
being killed by the National Guard for the crime of being near a
demonstration against a war they disagreed with. Freedom is not
something that is built into our country.  Freedom must be purchased
with blood, the blood of four little girls killed by those who bombed
a church in Birmingham Alabama, the blood of civil rights workers
murdered in cold blood in Mississippi with the full knowledge of
government officials of the State of Mississippi, the blood of
anti-war demonstrators in Ohio. Today we have forever deprived a full
1/5th of the black male population of many cities of the right to
vote, with full government sponsorship and enforcement, but for some
reason nobody seems to see it because government has been careful to
target "those" people, people whose skin color is "not like ours",
those nasty smelly poor people, and other such "undesirables".
Apparently Americans believe that civil rights guaranteed by the
Constitution only apply if youre white and middle-class.

I think that many Americans are also sanguine about their continued
freedom. All I have to note is that in 1984, Yugoslavs rejoiced in the
afterglow of the Sarajevo Olympics, a glowing testament to their
democratic government and modern attitudes and sensibilities.
Yugoslavia rejoiced in joining the community of modern European
nations. Their booming economy even sold cars here in the United
States (the infamous Yugo). A scant 10 years later, Yugoslavia was in
the grip of a fascist dictatorship who used "ethnic cleansing" to
tighten his grip on power, its economy was in ruins, and the nation
had broken up into ethnic pieces warring upon each other. The lesson:
a booming democracy can turn into a fascist dictatorship in almost no
time at all.

Whoops, I guess this message puts me on the governments "terrorist
hit list". Note to feds -- the only guns I own are a couple of antique
shotguns inherited from my father and my grandfather, the only
dangerous chemicals I own are normal household cleaners, the only
cyber-terrorism Ive ever advocated is the ghastly notion of calling
public officials damned liars on the Web when they lie to us. I am a
liberal in the classic sense, who believes that government has a
purpose and is necessary for the furthering of the general good but
that its powers must be limited and carefully controlled by the people
in order to avoid turning into a fascist dictatorship that only
pretends to be a democratic republic (thus my distaste when our
government violates the Constitution of the United States with willful
disdain). I am also a committed pacifist who believes that all killing
is morally wrong, even when done in self defense or in war time (I do
recognize that man is an animal who like all animals possesses a
survival instinct and thus killing in self defense must be expected,
but animal instinct is not a moral defense). Good luck painting me as
a crazed Unibomber out to murder folks.

-- 
Eric Lee Green      There is No Conspiracy
eric at badtux.org     http://www.badtux.org