Saturday, January 14, 2012

ESCONDIDO: Men whose car window was broken at checkpoint found guilty of resisting officer

It is clear that Escondido's new law against "Driving while Hispanic" will need to be tested in higher courts before it becomes a legal law. These two men apparently are attempting to test that law.
ESCONDIDO: Men whose car window was broken at checkpoint found guilty of resisting officer:

Are all Americans required to put their window down all the way when stopped by a police officer? Or is it resisting arrest to not do so? On our car, the driver's window didn't work for many years. Would we be accused of resisting arrest? Would the police break our window. I assume the police wouldn't pay to repair a window they broke either.

In this Escondido situation, the police aren't trying to find DUIs, Smugglers, or other violations -- they are only trying to find illegal immigrants to harass. Is that a crime worthy of further eroding our rights as citizens?

The requirement to open a window to avoid a charge of resisting arrest is a "slippery slope." Do we have to open our car door? Do we have to open our trunk? Do we have to show them the contents of our cell phone, ipod, laptop? Do we have to submit to a strip search?

It isn't clear to me that our law enforcers -- to include police, prosecutors, and judges, are using common sense.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Guantanamo's rule: Once a 'terrorist,' always a terrorist - chicagotribune.com

The US has always been a "beacon" of justice, and has shown the world how to treat people suspected of crimes fairly. We have acted as a yardstick for other countries to measure their justice system against. However over the past 50 or 60 years our justice system has gradually eroded. This editorial I found in the Jan 11 2012 LA Times points out how absurd our policy towards the Guantanamo Bay detainees has been. They've been there for 10 years! The right-wingers continually claim that the ones we have let go are now back at work as terrorists --and, of course, people believe those statement. Even though, there is no solid information--or even a system for collecting such information.

Guantanamo's rule: Once a 'terrorist,' always a terrorist - chicagotribune.com
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I think our country could do a lot better! And we could do it at a lot less cost to the taxpayer!