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The War on the Police
Middle American News/A Different drummer ^ | December, 2002 | Nicholas Stix

Posted on 11/26/2002 11:43:30 AM PST by mrustow

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To: eno_
Deception to obtain confessions is a relative novelty, and is mostly needed due to the overload caused by the Drug War.

This is true. The WoD is also responsible for such evils as psoriasis, bad winter tides, Firestone Wilderness AT tires, Gilligan Island reruns, and that missed putt on the 17th.

When the WoD is ended, all evil and injistice will end. There will be harmony and understanding, sympathy and trust abounding, no more falsehoods or derisions, golden living dreams of visions, mystic crystal revelation, and the mind's true liberation.

I know. I read about it in a book of prohecies by Donovan.

81 posted on 11/28/2002 3:12:53 PM PST by Kevin Curry
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To: eno_
The Western tradition of laws is rooted in the Commandments.

The West has a number of legal traditions, rooted in: Judaism, ancient Athens, Roman Law, Christianity (papal decrees, philosopher-theologians, etc.), English Common law, the Code Napoleon, etc. (P.S. The Bible contains a lot more rules than just the Big Ten.)

Deception to obtain confessions is a relative novelty, and is mostly needed due to the overload caused by the Drug War. To me, this is a minor point, but I think Free Tally has a point: it is reasonable for reasonable people to have a problem with deception in interrogations in criminal cases. It does not rest on the foundations of our laws.

I'm glad you brought up the WOD, which to me is a major issue. Many probelms involving the police overstepping the laws stem directly from the WOD. The racial profiling hoax also derives whatever puny justifcation it has, from the WOD. The problem with even that puny, occasional legitimate point, is that black leaders -- the same folks who demand that cops kiss the behinds of black gangsters -- are the biggest supporters of the WOD.

However, Free Tally does NOT have a point. (I was hoping not to have to discuss FT again.) He first tried a veiled Biblical argument against using deception in police interrogations. Later, he admitted that he had just used the Biblical reference to get over, explaining that such arguments tend to be accepted at FR. Thus, FT used deception to try and win an argument against using deception. He then told us that his justification of the moment is the "common law." Whatever. Check back in 15 for his next justification.

Back at #24, Poobah said it simpler, and since he invoked neither "the Bible" nor the "common law," there's no danger of later finding out that he'd employed deception:

If you expect the citizenry to turn square corners in their dealings with the government, then the government must turn square corners in its dealings with its citizenry.

82 posted on 11/28/2002 3:47:52 PM PST by mrustow
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To: mrustow
bttt
83 posted on 11/30/2002 12:07:37 PM PST by Peacerose
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To: mrustow
And so I do not yet see a convincing argument against deception in dealing with the guilty.

What happened to "innocent-until-proven-guilty"? Tell us huh? Tell us why such manipulative techniques as can (and have) caused the innocent to "confess" should not be exposed on video for the judge and jury and all the world to see? Sunshine is the best disinfectant.

84 posted on 11/30/2002 1:03:22 PM PST by HiTech RedNeck
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To: mrustow
P.S. The Bible contains a lot more rules than just the Big Ten

Yes, it contains both ritual commandments and ethical commandments. Our system of government was founded on the latter. But even if it weren't, it remains true that no country can expect the blessings of God (who is not constrained by something as puny as a constitution) which country conducts itself as Satan. Lying to investigatees is the least of it; think about porn and drug stings where people who might otherwise not have been involved in any wrongdoing are lured by the very government which is supposed to be protecting them. This is vintage Satan.

85 posted on 11/30/2002 1:14:31 PM PST by HiTech RedNeck
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To: Peacerose
Bumpbackatcha.

BTW, FR is experiencing another one of its periodic "episodes." "My comments" says that I have posts, but none of the recent ones show up, and I only found the ones here when I checked up, after seeing that the last comment I made was "82 out of 85."

86 posted on 11/30/2002 1:55:06 PM PST by mrustow
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To: HiTech RedNeck
And so I do not yet see a convincing argument against deception in dealing with the guilty.

What happened to "innocent-until-proven-guilty"? Tell us huh?

Alright, alright! Mea culpa! Mea culpa!

I still think that we are talking about the guilty here, because I don't see someone confessing to a crime he didn't commit, but I realize that that position is unacceptable within our legal system.

Tell us why such manipulative techniques as can (and have) caused the innocent to "confess" should not be exposed on video for the judge and jury and all the world to see? Sunshine is the best disinfectant.

As I said, I don't believe that such techniques have caused the guilty to confess. The reporters who are claiming that innocent people routinely confess to crimes they didn't commit, seek to undermine ALL confessions.

87 posted on 11/30/2002 2:00:06 PM PST by mrustow
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To: mrustow
that position is unacceptable within our legal system.

Any idea why? I mean like the ACLU was not to come onto the scene for years so they are free from blame. Surely the founding fathers must have been smoking weed.

88 posted on 11/30/2002 10:41:00 PM PST by HiTech RedNeck
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To: HiTech RedNeck
I see where you're going, and you're can't there from here. The Founding Fathers were deists, not Evangelicals, and philosophically were much closer to John Locke's agnostic theory of natural rights, than they were to the Old Testament.
89 posted on 12/01/2002 4:32:36 PM PST by mrustow
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To: Lloyd227; mrustow
re: "Jury Nullification": technically, Jury Nullification has to do with juries deciding to nullify an objectionable LAW by refusing to convict. For example, pre-Civil War, many Northern juries refused to convict people for the crime of helping runaway slaves, because they disagreed with slavery. Their refusal to convict had to do with their refusal to uphold an unjest LAW, not from any favoratism towards any particular defendent.

When black juries decide they will refuse to convict BLACK defendents just because they are BLACK and are accused of harming whites, that's not Jury Nullification. There is another term that is used when a group explicitly sanctions the commission of violence by its members against members of another group -- it's usually called War.

90 posted on 12/01/2002 5:15:40 PM PST by SauronOfMordor
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To: SauronOfMordor
Thanks for the explanation, SOM, and for providing the technical term I'd forgotten, that sums up the whole matter: w-a-r.
91 posted on 12/01/2002 5:23:34 PM PST by mrustow
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To: SauronOfMordor
Hi Sauron,
I understand thoroughly what Jury Nullification is and the history behind it.

While I certainly do not condone the actions of a jury refusing to convict due to racial reasons(or any other thing to do with the person of the defendant), I am very concerned anytime anyone discusses placing controls on the jury decision.

I realize that what is described here as "a black jury refusing to convict a black defendant" and this is certainly wrong and technically, not really Jury Nullification per se. However, Jury Nullification has been under continual attack for so long that we need to be very cautious allowing this type of example to open the door for those who would remove Jury Nullification from our legal system. This tactic is not unlike those who take a sad story about a young child accidentally killing another child with a handgun and using that story to further their own anti-gun agenda.

On the day that we lose the rights of a jury to refuse enforcement of bad laws, we will have lost forever the "fourth and final check & balance" on our government.

Just be careful what you let slip by. I'm only trying to defend the rights to Jury Nullification.

92 posted on 12/01/2002 9:25:31 PM PST by Lloyd227
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To: mrustow
When I read Thomas Jefferson, it impresses me that this confessed non-Christian still knew and preached more of the bible than about 50% of today's orthodox trinitarian Christian Baptist pastors. If that doesn't say something about the spiritual tenor of the time and place of the founding fathers I don't know what does.

Anyhow bible or no bible it's moot. The founding fathers were fed up to "HERE" with the shenanigans of the English Crown. They would not countenance dishonesty on the part of government, even dishonesty with good intentions.
93 posted on 12/02/2002 4:02:10 AM PST by HiTech RedNeck
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To: Lloyd227
"a black jury refusing to convict a black defendant"

Blacks today suffer far more crime from other blacks, than they do from whites. Unless there is some reason for them to believe racism is behind the charges, black jurors have no reason to be unusually lenient on black defendants.

94 posted on 12/02/2002 4:05:43 AM PST by HiTech RedNeck
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To: HiTech RedNeck
I agree
95 posted on 12/02/2002 9:27:16 AM PST by Lloyd227
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To: HiTech RedNeck
Anyhow bible or no bible it's moot. The founding fathers were fed up to "HERE" with the shenanigans of the English Crown. They would not countenance dishonesty on the part of government, even dishonesty with good intentions.

On that much, we can agree.

96 posted on 12/02/2002 4:07:55 PM PST by mrustow
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To: Demidog
Of course, if you fight back, they put you on a gurney.
97 posted on 12/03/2002 2:12:58 PM PST by Bob Quixote
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To: mrustow
their media shills insinuate that there is no such thing as an uncoerced confession.

Dangerous ground, that. Folks might infer the potential existence of Conscience.

98 posted on 12/06/2002 9:13:32 PM PST by Askel5
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