Be Afraid ...Be Very Afraid!!
People we have gotten to the point where we have so many ridiculous laws on the books that just going through your everyday routine will find you in violation of one of them if there happens to be someone there watching. With camera's stationed all over town to take full advantage of your every little slip up and computers automatically printing out tickets like a casino to feed the systems lust for more money ...more power...less privacy ...
I was recently lucky (or unlucky) enough to sit as foreman on the grand jury for two full days each week for about 6 weeks. I got to play ring leader to the circus we call our criminal justice system. This system's caretakers are the DA's and the police who feed them, and while I have nothing bad to say about any of them individually...in fact by and large they were all very hardworking professionals…but folks they think differently than the rest of us do …seriously …they do ….a lot differently! What do I mean by think differently…I mean they see themselves (police ) as both law enforcement, judge and jury. They have very selective hearing and very selective memories designed to tighten the nooses around the necks of the innocent until proven guilty perps! As they will put the boot and the leather to your civil rights in a New York minute if they think you might be guilty of something or anything and once they have determined your guilt they then will change their stories and rewrite the whole script including what you said to them and what it meant etc. to put that rope on your neck.
You may think ..”I could care less as long as they put the bad guys behind bars”. The common slang term used for this revision of history is called “testi-lying” Cops do it, prosecutors let them and judges allow it and every single day people here in Oregon and all over the US go to jail based upon the court’s, and the jury’s reliance on it. Let me stop beating around the bush …Cops Lie! And they do it very well and they have everyone’s best interest (and some ego) at heart. The reality is this is a perfect example of people in a position of power and authority over other people knowing just enough to be dangerous and it should alarm everyone because I am here to tell you that our jails are over flowing with a lot of non criminals and if the law enforcement industrial complex machine has its way …and they seem to have no problem getting it one way or another…and slowly but surely …little by little…bit by bit they are encroaching and eliminating all of the rights we hold most dear away from us.
This isn’t President Bush and his people listening in on phone calls of middle eastern terrorists and terrorist wannabe’s, this is the Beaverton or Hillsboro city police coming to the door of a single mother on public assistance and telling her that they are there to do a wellness check on her kids because someone had phoned them …anonymously …that they may be victims of abuse. If she doesn’t let them right in to toss her place “with consent” then they tell her if she doesn’t give them consent to come in then they will be back tomorrow with DHS to take her kid’s away until they have a chance to “sort this whole thing out”. Then when the frightened mother under extreme duress thinking her kids might get taken lets them in it becomes a consensual search and they are not restricted like they would be with a silly old search warrant . They demand I.D. from anyone else who may be over visiting and question them like the German Gestapo. Our most basic constitutional right to be secure in our homes against unreasonable search and seizure is a myth. And it may be the other guy today but eventually the odds will catch up to you or me or someone you know and it will be their turn to host our city’s finest while they dig through your underwear drawers with no probable cause or reasonable suspicion necessary.…all you need to have is something …like a child …that they can use to apply enough leverage to extort consent from you.
Right now we are voting on some ballot measures one of which has gotten very little press and the reason for that is because it sounds so perfectly reasonable and since everyone is anti crime and anti criminal that it will pass on its own momentum unless someone stands up and says “What?? Absolutely Not!” That measure is the one that will allow local law enforcement to share in the spoils of the civil and criminal forfeiture game. That means that not only will a basically well meaning (but dishonest ) law enforcement officer be able to shake you down wherever and whenever they want to …but if they think you may have done something they now have an additional financial incentive to ‘cook ‘ their testimony. When the government takes something from you they will do anything to not give it back …ever! Wanting to be tough on crime can be a very seductive mistress, especially when it’s not you standing up on the scaffolding with your legs and hands tied !
Once we give up these rights that we are only the caretakers of for future generations …it will be nearly impossible to get them back! Why? Because no one wants to appear to be soft on crime that’s why …anyone who does that have no political aspirations beyond the here and now. What we will have is a bunch of law enforcement personnel who have already shown that they have absolutely no regard for the law s they are hired to enforce if they think you might have something of value or you have done something that you shouldn’t have. Proof or suspicion ..not necessary! With the huge financial incentives this ballot measure would create in these misguided well meaning thugs is too much for us to even think they would not abuse it. Why wouldn’t they?
Another civil right we used to enjoy that has slowly disappeared is the right to be to be secure in our cars and person against unreasonable search and seizure. If a cop wants to search your car and you won’t give him permission all he has to do is find some reason to have your car towed …suspicion of DUII, not convinced that old tattered insurance card is really valid or if it’s out of date like so many people’s are ….he will order you out of the car …he will order your car towed…but before it leaves on its way to impound (kiss $500.00 good bye to get it back!) he is now “required’ to inventory the contents of your car” …and I mean the whole car! What’s the justification for this warrantless search? To secure any valuables that may be in it. See, they are actually trying to protect you..not violate your civil rights!
One case that came through the grand jury while I was foreman was an incident much like this one but wrapped all of the things I have mentioned in this article together into one tidy little case. The driver of a car was seen leaving an area of high drug trafficking with 3 Hispanic males with her . The Beaverton Police can’t stand it and swear that she didn’t come to a complete stop and pulled her over …whether she did or not is immaterial because they said she did. The man the DA wanted us to indict was a passenger in the car and the first person to testify was the lady who was driving…we got her story through a translator and she said that “no” she had not rolled through the light and “no” she had not consented to having her car and passengers searched and detained by the police …facts that the other jurors and I got from our questioning of the witness and not the DA. After that we heard from one of the Officer’s who was the one who she had given consent to search too and as he was finishing his very practiced and polished testi –lying I asked him again about the consent and he again told me that yes she had consented to the search as soon as she was asked and I asked him if he spoke Spanish …and he said no he did not . I asked him if he had another officer there translating for the woman (who spoke no English) and he said no. I then asked him how it was possible to gain the consent of someone who didn’t speak English ? Silence…then “well when I asked her …she said “si” and I understand that much Spanish (yes you dummy but she doesn’t understand any English…doh!)
As grand jurors our just was not to concern ourselves with trying to figure out if the search was any good or not …our job was only to decide whether or not there was enough to indict the person and I only use this example to highlight the point I have been trying to make. Once law enforcement thinks you may be guilty of something they will then fit the crime to the suspect they believe has done something instead of looking at the crime and then looking for the suspect, and that includes the total disregard for your civil rights along with selective hearing and a very selective memory.
I will discuss how the domestic violence industry has made it illegal to be a man in Oregon in my next installment…and if you don’t think the pendulum has swung back way too far the other way and if you don’t think the non victims of domestic violence (women) are not using this powerful tool to manipulate well intentioned Judge’s to do their dirty work and to gain the upper hand in most custody disputed and in family court then prepare yourself to have your skirt blown up.
Folks in case you haven’t been paying attention …we don’t try cases anymore …the prosecutor over charges the suspect …scares the shit out of him …then they negotiate a conviction. Demand your right to a trial and to have the charges against you proven? If you do and lose you get double the prison time and no one in their right mind would want to leave their fate up to a jury in this day in age especially for a sex type crime.
People we have gotten to the point where we have so many ridiculous laws on the books that just going through your everyday routine will find you in violation of one of them if there happens to be someone there watching. With camera's stationed all over town to take full advantage of your every little slip up and computers automatically printing out tickets like a casino to feed the systems lust for more money ...more power...less privacy ...
I was recently lucky (or unlucky) enough to sit as foreman on the grand jury for two full days each week for about 6 weeks. I got to play ring leader to the circus we call our criminal justice system. This system's caretakers are the DA's and the police who feed them, and while I have nothing bad to say about any of them individually...in fact by and large they were all very hardworking professionals…but folks they think differently than the rest of us do …seriously …they do ….a lot differently! What do I mean by think differently…I mean they see themselves (police ) as both law enforcement, judge and jury. They have very selective hearing and very selective memories designed to tighten the nooses around the necks of the innocent until proven guilty perps! As they will put the boot and the leather to your civil rights in a New York minute if they think you might be guilty of something or anything and once they have determined your guilt they then will change their stories and rewrite the whole script including what you said to them and what it meant etc. to put that rope on your neck.
You may think ..”I could care less as long as they put the bad guys behind bars”. The common slang term used for this revision of history is called “testi-lying” Cops do it, prosecutors let them and judges allow it and every single day people here in Oregon and all over the US go to jail based upon the court’s, and the jury’s reliance on it. Let me stop beating around the bush …Cops Lie! And they do it very well and they have everyone’s best interest (and some ego) at heart. The reality is this is a perfect example of people in a position of power and authority over other people knowing just enough to be dangerous and it should alarm everyone because I am here to tell you that our jails are over flowing with a lot of non criminals and if the law enforcement industrial complex machine has its way …and they seem to have no problem getting it one way or another…and slowly but surely …little by little…bit by bit they are encroaching and eliminating all of the rights we hold most dear away from us.
This isn’t President Bush and his people listening in on phone calls of middle eastern terrorists and terrorist wannabe’s, this is the Beaverton or Hillsboro city police coming to the door of a single mother on public assistance and telling her that they are there to do a wellness check on her kids because someone had phoned them …anonymously …that they may be victims of abuse. If she doesn’t let them right in to toss her place “with consent” then they tell her if she doesn’t give them consent to come in then they will be back tomorrow with DHS to take her kid’s away until they have a chance to “sort this whole thing out”. Then when the frightened mother under extreme duress thinking her kids might get taken lets them in it becomes a consensual search and they are not restricted like they would be with a silly old search warrant . They demand I.D. from anyone else who may be over visiting and question them like the German Gestapo. Our most basic constitutional right to be secure in our homes against unreasonable search and seizure is a myth. And it may be the other guy today but eventually the odds will catch up to you or me or someone you know and it will be their turn to host our city’s finest while they dig through your underwear drawers with no probable cause or reasonable suspicion necessary.…all you need to have is something …like a child …that they can use to apply enough leverage to extort consent from you.
Right now we are voting on some ballot measures one of which has gotten very little press and the reason for that is because it sounds so perfectly reasonable and since everyone is anti crime and anti criminal that it will pass on its own momentum unless someone stands up and says “What?? Absolutely Not!” That measure is the one that will allow local law enforcement to share in the spoils of the civil and criminal forfeiture game. That means that not only will a basically well meaning (but dishonest ) law enforcement officer be able to shake you down wherever and whenever they want to …but if they think you may have done something they now have an additional financial incentive to ‘cook ‘ their testimony. When the government takes something from you they will do anything to not give it back …ever! Wanting to be tough on crime can be a very seductive mistress, especially when it’s not you standing up on the scaffolding with your legs and hands tied !
Once we give up these rights that we are only the caretakers of for future generations …it will be nearly impossible to get them back! Why? Because no one wants to appear to be soft on crime that’s why …anyone who does that have no political aspirations beyond the here and now. What we will have is a bunch of law enforcement personnel who have already shown that they have absolutely no regard for the law s they are hired to enforce if they think you might have something of value or you have done something that you shouldn’t have. Proof or suspicion ..not necessary! With the huge financial incentives this ballot measure would create in these misguided well meaning thugs is too much for us to even think they would not abuse it. Why wouldn’t they?
Another civil right we used to enjoy that has slowly disappeared is the right to be to be secure in our cars and person against unreasonable search and seizure. If a cop wants to search your car and you won’t give him permission all he has to do is find some reason to have your car towed …suspicion of DUII, not convinced that old tattered insurance card is really valid or if it’s out of date like so many people’s are ….he will order you out of the car …he will order your car towed…but before it leaves on its way to impound (kiss $500.00 good bye to get it back!) he is now “required’ to inventory the contents of your car” …and I mean the whole car! What’s the justification for this warrantless search? To secure any valuables that may be in it. See, they are actually trying to protect you..not violate your civil rights!
One case that came through the grand jury while I was foreman was an incident much like this one but wrapped all of the things I have mentioned in this article together into one tidy little case. The driver of a car was seen leaving an area of high drug trafficking with 3 Hispanic males with her . The Beaverton Police can’t stand it and swear that she didn’t come to a complete stop and pulled her over …whether she did or not is immaterial because they said she did. The man the DA wanted us to indict was a passenger in the car and the first person to testify was the lady who was driving…we got her story through a translator and she said that “no” she had not rolled through the light and “no” she had not consented to having her car and passengers searched and detained by the police …facts that the other jurors and I got from our questioning of the witness and not the DA. After that we heard from one of the Officer’s who was the one who she had given consent to search too and as he was finishing his very practiced and polished testi –lying I asked him again about the consent and he again told me that yes she had consented to the search as soon as she was asked and I asked him if he spoke Spanish …and he said no he did not . I asked him if he had another officer there translating for the woman (who spoke no English) and he said no. I then asked him how it was possible to gain the consent of someone who didn’t speak English ? Silence…then “well when I asked her …she said “si” and I understand that much Spanish (yes you dummy but she doesn’t understand any English…doh!)
As grand jurors our just was not to concern ourselves with trying to figure out if the search was any good or not …our job was only to decide whether or not there was enough to indict the person and I only use this example to highlight the point I have been trying to make. Once law enforcement thinks you may be guilty of something they will then fit the crime to the suspect they believe has done something instead of looking at the crime and then looking for the suspect, and that includes the total disregard for your civil rights along with selective hearing and a very selective memory.
I will discuss how the domestic violence industry has made it illegal to be a man in Oregon in my next installment…and if you don’t think the pendulum has swung back way too far the other way and if you don’t think the non victims of domestic violence (women) are not using this powerful tool to manipulate well intentioned Judge’s to do their dirty work and to gain the upper hand in most custody disputed and in family court then prepare yourself to have your skirt blown up.
Folks in case you haven’t been paying attention …we don’t try cases anymore …the prosecutor over charges the suspect …scares the shit out of him …then they negotiate a conviction. Demand your right to a trial and to have the charges against you proven? If you do and lose you get double the prison time and no one in their right mind would want to leave their fate up to a jury in this day in age especially for a sex type crime.
No comments:
Post a Comment