This is my very charge, obstructing and resisting.
TheyAlready criminalize, or try to criminalize civil rights here in
Michigan.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Miriam Vieni" <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2016 8:52 AM
Subject: [blind-democracy] NYPD: Resistance Is Felonious
Kiriakou writes: "New York Police Department commissioner Bill Bratton is
asking state lawmakers to pass a law that would make resisting arrest a
felony, which in turn would allow city policemen to lock up almost anybody
who looks at them cross-eyed. A felony conviction, in addition to carrying
the potential for significant prison time and loss of civil rights, would
allow any crooked cop to act under cover of law against virtually anybody."
NYPD arrest Occupy Wall Street protesters. (photo: Bebeto Matthews/AP)
NYPD: Resistance Is Felonious
By John Kiriakou, Reader Supported News
07 March 16
New York Police Department commissioner Bill Bratton is asking state
lawmakers to pass a law that would make resisting arrest a felony, which in
turn would allow city policemen to lock up almost anybody who looks at them
cross-eyed. A felony conviction, in addition to carrying the potential for
significant prison time and loss of civil rights, would allow any crooked
cop to act under cover of law against virtually anybody.
The resisting arrest law, as it's written, is designed to allow the state to
further punish suspects who endanger the safety of police officers. But it's
easily abused. Let's say you are photographing a traffic stop and the cop
tells you to put the camera away. You don't do that. Even though you are
completely within your constitutional rights to film or take pictures, the
police want to now arrest you for "resisting arrest," and you have to mount
a felony defense.
Boing Boing reported recently on the identities of several recent would-be
felons. They included:
. Chaumtoli Huq, a former general counsel to New York Public Advocate
Letitia James, who was charged with resisting arrest for "blocking the
sidewalk" while waiting for her family to finish using the restroom inside a
Times Square restaurant. Huq has filed a civil rights suit against the
Police Department.
. Denise Stewart, a Brooklyn grandmother, who was charged with
resisting arrest after several policemen dragged her naked out of her own
apartment and into her building's lobby. (They had the wrong apartment.)
Stewart is also suing.
. Jahmil El-Cuffee, who was charged with resisting arrest after a cop
beat him senseless and stomped on his head for rolling a joint, all the
while shouting, "Stop resisting!" The cop has been indicted.
When I was serving time after blowing the whistle on the CIA's illegal
torture program, crooked prison guards used similarly lax rules by charging
prisoners with "insolence." Disobey a direct order? Insolence. Talk back to
a guard? Insolence. It leads to a stint in solitary and loss of
good-behavior time and commissary, visiting, phone, and email privileges.
It's the prison version of "resisting arrest."
Commissioner Bratton has the same idea. The courts are just supposed to take
the cops' word for it. If the police don't like your attitude, if you object
to something you see them do, they will be able to charge you with a felony.
And whom will the judge believe - a uniformed cop with his shiny badge, or
you?
This is part of a bigger problem, one that is not confined to police
brutality and overreach. It is one of over-criminalization,
over-legislation, and over-regulation. Harvard Law School professor Harvey
Silverglate, in his book Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the
Innocent, argues that we are so over-criminalized that the average American,
on the average day, going about his or her normal business, commits three
felonies. Every day. The bottom line is that if the cops really want to get
you, they can get you.
Meanwhile, in just the five years from 2008 until 2013, according to the
Congressional Research Service, Congress created 439 new criminal offenses.
That makes for a grand total of 4,889 federal crimes. And that's in addition
to the growing number of state and local crimes for which Americans can be
prosecuted.
To make matters worse, many of these new federal laws lack any mens rea, or
"guilty mind," requirement. That means you can be prosecuted even without
having any criminal intent. Didn't mean to break the law? Tough luck.
Americans can't rely on friendly judges or on the occasional politician who
realizes that our civil liberties are going the way of the dodo bird. It's
up to us to ride our elected officials to force them to act. And if they
don't, we should take a lead from Chaumtoli Huq, Denise Stewart, and Jahmil
El-Cuffee. We should sue.
________________________________________
John Kiriakou is an associate fellow with the Institute for Policy Studies.
He is a former CIA counterterrorism officer and a former senior investigator
with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission
to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader
Supported News.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
NYPD arrest Occupy Wall Street protesters. (photo: Bebeto Matthews/AP)
/SRCURLONE/SRCURLONE
NYPD: Resistance Is Felonious
By John Kiriakou, Reader Supported News
07 March 16
ew York Police Department commissioner Bill Bratton is asking state
lawmakers to pass a law that would make resisting arrest a felony, which in
turn would allow city policemen to lock up almost anybody who looks at them
cross-eyed. A felony conviction, in addition to carrying the potential for
significant prison time and loss of civil rights, would allow any crooked
cop to act under cover of law against virtually anybody.
The resisting arrest law, as it's written, is designed to allow the state to
further punish suspects who endanger the safety of police officers. But it's
easily abused. Let's say you are photographing a traffic stop and the cop
tells you to put the camera away. You don't do that. Even though you are
completely within your constitutional rights to film or take pictures, the
police want to now arrest you for "resisting arrest," and you have to mount
a felony defense.
Boing Boing reported recently on the identities of several recent would-be
felons. They included:
. Chaumtoli Huq, a former general counsel to New York Public Advocate
Letitia James, who was charged with resisting arrest for "blocking the
sidewalk" while waiting for her family to finish using the restroom inside a
Times Square restaurant. Huq has filed a civil rights suit against the
Police Department.
. Denise Stewart, a Brooklyn grandmother, who was charged with
resisting arrest after several policemen dragged her naked out of her own
apartment and into her building's lobby. (They had the wrong apartment.)
Stewart is also suing.
. Jahmil El-Cuffee, who was charged with resisting arrest after a cop
beat him senseless and stomped on his head for rolling a joint, all the
while shouting, "Stop resisting!" The cop has been indicted.
When I was serving time after blowing the whistle on the CIA's illegal
torture program, crooked prison guards used similarly lax rules by charging
prisoners with "insolence." Disobey a direct order? Insolence. Talk back to
a guard? Insolence. It leads to a stint in solitary and loss of
good-behavior time and commissary, visiting, phone, and email privileges.
It's the prison version of "resisting arrest."
Commissioner Bratton has the same idea. The courts are just supposed to take
the cops' word for it. If the police don't like your attitude, if you object
to something you see them do, they will be able to charge you with a felony.
And whom will the judge believe - a uniformed cop with his shiny badge, or
you?
This is part of a bigger problem, one that is not confined to police
brutality and overreach. It is one of over-criminalization,
over-legislation, and over-regulation. Harvard Law School professor Harvey
Silverglate, in his book Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the
Innocent, argues that we are so over-criminalized that the average American,
on the average day, going about his or her normal business, commits three
felonies. Every day. The bottom line is that if the cops really want to get
you, they can get you.
Meanwhile, in just the five years from 2008 until 2013, according to the
Congressional Research Service, Congress created 439 new criminal offenses.
That makes for a grand total of 4,889 federal crimes. And that's in addition
to the growing number of state and local crimes for which Americans can be
prosecuted.
To make matters worse, many of these new federal laws lack any mens rea, or
"guilty mind," requirement. That means you can be prosecuted even without
having any criminal intent. Didn't mean to break the law? Tough luck.
Americans can't rely on friendly judges or on the occasional politician who
realizes that our civil liberties are going the way of the dodo bird. It's
up to us to ride our elected officials to force them to act. And if they
don't, we should take a lead from Chaumtoli Huq, Denise Stewart, and Jahmil
El-Cuffee. We should sue.
John Kiriakou is an associate fellow with the Institute for Policy Studies.
He is a former CIA counterterrorism officer and a former senior investigator
with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission
to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader
Supported News.
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
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