Thank you.
First, there's been some really decent discussion around here about the relative virtues and flaws of various shades of capitalism to socialism. I think this situation well illustrates one of the pitfalls of the more socialist policies.
They had to be legitimate CHARGES. The state would throw out such charges if they found those charges to be trumped up, vague or not able to be proved.
That's not really a hard rule of thumb. In Tulia Texas, something completely ordinary and mudane happened. The local area taskforce hired a gypsy cop to make a bunch of busts. Some local threw a monkey wrench in the works, though, when he started beating the war drums and coordinating w/ activists accross the country to set things right.
Turns out, the cop had NO credibility, no evidence, no wittnesses and had been facing criminal larceny charges in the last town he "worked". All of the convictions but one have now been overturned, Tom Coleman is facing purjory charges and there's even talk of holding some of his superiors accountable for their crimes. And these were high crimes. People lost years of their lives. In many cases, it was those years when their babies started turning into adults.
But the only thing unusual about Tulia is that a bunch of activists have stayed on the case like stink on shit over the course of years to make things right and set an example. Otherwise, this happens all the time. People go to prison for years and years on the strength of no evidence but some snitch testilying for pay of some sort.
It depends on what you're accused of and whether or not you fit the role. This, I think, owes in large part to the sheer volume of cases threatening to squash what used to be the most admirable criminal justice system in the world. It's a great system, but it depends heavily on dilligance, public scrutiny and strict adherance to the law of the land, including all those naggling limits on Federal and State powers. So the end result is that there's so much going on, so many cases, so many laws that no one has the time to keep track of it all, far less give a reasoned opinion. Nobody's watching! This leaves far too much discretion in the hands of the prosecutors.
23 yo poor Black woman accused of selling crack? Guilty. Let's get this overwith. Preacher who works w/ troubled youths? Cut him some slack! How can we make this go away so this good man can get back to his good work?
That's they way career enforcers tend to think when left to their own devices. We need to cut their workload down to something we, the people, can properly manage and supervise. They should not be left to get creative while we're not looking!
And I've seen this before. Many times. The Seed and various Straights have been given similar admonishments by various regulatory and law enforcement agencies. Ask around and people will tell you about times when motivating or beltlooping were banned or, for very brief times before a place closed or things went back to normal once the heat was off, no restraining.
I agree w/ you completely, though. The primary value of this document is that, given the current political climate toward youth and the troubled parent industry, this at least demonstrates smoke of the variety that usualy indicates fire. It's bound to get
some people's attention. What they do from there is yet to be seen.
Madness takes its toll. Please have exact change.
--Anonymous