On Sat, Jul 3, 2021 at 6:54 AM Karl <[1]gmkarl@gmail.com> wrote:

   You wouldn't know you hadn't received it if you didn't.  You reply to
   most of my emails.  Did you receive an email from me that you did not
   reply to, in which I referenced MOVE?

   I'm sorry, I'm not intentionally ignoring it, I just don't know which
   you are referring to.  Please repeat the point so I don't miss it.
   Thanks!

   I'm not trying to make a grand point, other than it's hard to criticize
   the justice department's treatment of Assange given that he has done
   everything in his power to avoid it.  Any perceived wrongs against him

   If it is illegal to try to avoid an appeal, it would be a separate
   crime.  If we were to punish people for unrelated crimes at trials,
   everyone would have their suffering mathematically squared.  That is
   definitely not the intent of the law.  The law defines the punishment
   for crimes, not the irritation of its enforcers, David.

   I'm sorry, I'm not quite understanding your point.  Can you re-state it
   succinctly so I can respond to it better?
   To repeat my point, I'm merely saying the US has done precisely nothing
   to punish Assange yet: he hasn't been on US soil, in US courts, or
   really touched by the US at all.  The US has *attempted* to extradite
   him for trial, but so far has been unsuccessful.  Assange has been
   accused of breaking a variety of laws in different countries (sexual
   abuse, immigration violations, etc) , and has done his best to run from
   all of them -- going so far as effectively imprisoning himself in an
   embassy for nearly a decade -- all to avoid showing up in *any* court
   for *any* of these.   To a very large degree, nearly all of Assange's
   suffering has been entirely self-imposed hardships caused by running
   from the long arm of the law.
   Again, the only point I'm trying to make is that you can't blame the US
   court system for being unjust when it's been denied the ability to do
   anything at all.  This isn't to say that Assange is guilty/innocent --
   I genuinely have no idea.  And thanks to his extraordinary efforts to
   avoid trial, nor does anybody else either (at least, nobody who
   believes in the concept of justice being decided in courts, and not in
   the press).

     Yes, let's make sure those laws are properly interpreted and
   enforced.  But all of that *starts* with him showing up in court so we
   can all actually hear the charges and see the evidence for real, and
   see what our institutions actually do about it.  Running

   This of course rarely happens.  Trials are held half-privately and then
   people are locked up in prison and communications with them are
   censored.  By the time they come out they are totally different people.
   That is the situation right now.  Julian has no way to prepare for a
   trial fairly because he is imprisoned elsewhere.  Can the USA get him
   his writings so he can prepare a defense with his lawyers that is
   backed by evidence?

   "This of course rarely happens" -- are you sure?  There's something
   like 400 thousand federal trials every year; and *millions* of state
   trials.  Are you saying that it is *rare* for people to get justice?
   My sense is that the overwhelming majority of cases are executed
   competently and reasonably -- even if imperfectly -- and are just so
   boring that nobody talks about them.  We are talking about single-digit
   numbers of court cases in this thread; we are explicitly talking only
   about the most extreme of the most extreme outliers.  Please don't
   misinterpret these extraordinary edge cases to be the common case.

   Unless of course you have just given up on our nation entirely and
   think even attempting to enforce our laws is inherently unjust.  But at
   that point, you've taken such an extreme position, nothing less than
   revolution will satisfy you.

   We actually have restorative justice programs in many areas.  There are
   cities and states where an accused criminal can opt for mediation
   rather than punishment today, David.

   I'd love to learn more about this; I'm not familiar with mediation as
   an alternative to trial for criminal cases (I thought that was only an
   option for civil suits).  Can you link me to some good resources you
   recommend to read more?  Thanks!
   -david

References

   1. mailto:gmkarl@gmail.com