Joe,
This is what happens when a system becomes so overloaded with trivial
regulations, rules and counter laws, that true Justice is seldom
handed down. When we talk about the need to replace our form of
government, our Corporate Capitalist Oligarchy, we need to remember
that there are many components such as the legal maize that need
replacing, too.
The legal tangle in America is not due to clumsy bumbling. It is due
to the careful manipulation of the legal hirelings of the Ruling
Class.
As we've seen time and time again, the Ruling Class usually takes care
of its own. That includes those whom they've hired to protect them.
But from time to time their "Protectors" behave so outrageously that
they are punished for their acts of violence. In the case of the
murders on the bridge and the cover up, the system has so muddled the
laws that no one has received real Justice...remember that lady with
the blindfold? Whether or not the officers involved wind up serving
reduced sentences is not meaningful. Their carreers have been ended,
rightfully so, and they will live out their lives on the outer fringe
of society. The families of those two murdered Souls will never
receive the same treatment prof erred to their wealthy overlords. The
community still suffers from the devastation of Katrina. Countless
lives have been ruined, dreams will never be fulfilled, and only
grinding poverty to look forward to.
Although this American Corporate Empire tells me what to do, and when
to do it, nonetheless it is not My government. I never forget that I
am a nobody to those who rule. Anything that I consider to be mine,
they can take away from me through the very laws that too many of us
believe are set in place to protect us.
Carl Jarvis
On 4/28/16, joe harcz Comcast <joeharcz@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
5 ex-cops to plead guilty in shootings after Katrina Michael Kunzelman and
Kevin McGill, Associated Press New Orleans ' Five former police officers
said
in court Wednesday they intend to plead guilty to lesser charges in the
deadly shootings on the Danziger Bridge in the days following Hurricane
Katrina.
If the guilty pleas are accepted by a judge, the ex-officers could see
drastically reduced prison time. The officers were convicted in 2011 in the
shootings
but U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt set aside the jury's verdict two
years later because of federal prosecutors' misconduct ' including anonymous
online
comments about the case. Four of the former officers have been locked up for
nearly six years while the fifth has been out on bond. The plea deal calls
for them to get credit for time served and they could be released from
prison anywhere from the next one to six years. The court hearing was still
ongoing
Wednesday afternoon and the judge had not yet formally accepted their guilty
pleas. On Sept. 4 2005, days after the levees failed and water swamped the
city, police gunned down 17-year-old James Brissette and 40-year-old Ronald
Madison, who were both unarmed, and wounded four others on the Danziger
Bridge.
To cover it up, the officers planted a gun, fabricated witnesses and
falsified reports, prosecutors have said. Police said at the time the
officers were
responding to a report of other officers down when they came under fire.
However, after hearing from five dozen witnesses and examining 400 pieces of
evidence
during a monthlong trial, a federal jury convicted the officers for opening
fire and trying to cover up wrongdoing. Former officer Robert Faulcon was
sentenced
to 65 years in prison; ex-Sgts. Kenneth Bowen and Robert Gisevius each
received 40 years; Anthony Villavaso got 38 years; and Arthur Kaufman, now
out on
bond, received a six-year sentence. Under the new plea agreement, the
sentences would be significantly reduced to a range of 12 years to three
years for
the defendants. A scandal involving Justice Department employees unraveled
the convictions and sentences. In September 2013, the judge said the case
had
been tainted by 'grotesque prosecutorial misconduct,' including leaks to
media and posting of anonymous comments by at least three government
attorneys
on a New Orleans newspaper's website. Prosecutors have argued that there is
no evidence the misconduct affected the verdict. Copyright 2016 The
Associated
Press.
