Coming February 6, 2024 . . .
MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
Pre-order at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop
Coming February 6, 2024 . . . MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE by Michael Wolraich Pre-order at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop |
A blogger at TPM notes a major difference in the way police officials and the media handled the Marion Barry case and that of a Rob Ford. Obviously, we are talking about different countries, but the tone of the coverage in the case of Marion Barry was much harsher. The city of DC was characterized as a viper pit.
Trey Radel is also receiving more kid glove legal treatment than Marion Barry. Like Rob Ford, and unlike Barry, the people who voted for Radel are not labeled "stupid". I think at one level we are seeing that race does play a part in how stories of drug a users get reported and the legal consequences. DC citizens were ridiculed to a level that we are not seeing in the case of Toronto or Radel's Florida voters.
Comments
Barry's setup was one of the more ridiculous forays of the FBI. Obviously there to get laid, a couple of puffs then ready to leave - they couldn't even get him paying for coke, much less dealing. What did the "bitch" say? That the father of one of her kids was caught with $18 million in drugs going through Heathrow. Quite the lady to lead your entrapment case. That they brought in a desperate compromised ex-lover as their Ace card shows a pretty horrid hand.
http://www.stuarttaylorjr.com/content/barry-sting
The FBI learned - now they can supply weapons or unworkable plans to dumb kids of minority persuasion and get them busted for "terrorism" that never could have happened. Entrapment - one of the many tools in the government toolkit, refined yearly. But don't worry about metadata, y'all, they'd never use that for entrapment.
by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 11/21/2013 - 5:27pm
Cognitive dissonance. You have obvious evidence of police state tactics, yet you are upset that people are not concerned about metadata. Governors and legislatures are using vote suppression in public. It is a tactic the GOP uses to win votes. Metadata is not required to intimidate voters, you can openly post signs in urban neighborhoods warning that those who try to vote without the proper "documents" will be prosecuted.
You tell the public that they will be safer if you just trample on the civil rights of the darkies in NYC and elsewhere. You have a separate type of prosecution for minorities versus Whites. You tell fearful, angry people that they can execute Black youth and get out of jail free because of rigged laws.
You are worried about the abuse of metadata. Real activists are fighting the police state in the here and now. The house is already on fire regarding the surveillance state. There are court battles going on daily. That is happening now. There are cases being filed regarding electronic surveillance.
Perhaps instead of claiming that people are not paying attention to surveillance, you should take a look at the current battles being fought. Many so-called Progressives have been MIA in the current battles, while yelling that nothing is being done.
by rmrd0000 on Thu, 11/21/2013 - 5:47pm
"You tell the public that they will be safer if you just trample on the civil rights of the darkies in NYC and elsewhere. You have a separate type of prosecution for minorities versus Whites. You tell fearful, angry people that they can execute Black youth and get out of jail free because of rigged laws."
What the fuck is wrong with you? Where am I advocating "trampling on the civil rights of darkies"? I'm for stop-and-frisk or marijuana busts to imprison millions of blacks or tasering unconscious/unthreatening people or for gerrymandering/voter ID/vote suppression or any of this shit?
Regarding "rigged laws", in the Zimmerman case the law wasn't rigged - it was followed. A 6'1" kid was seen beating up an adult and the adult shot him - surprise surprise. Just because you don't like the verdict, don't blame me. In the case of the woman on the porch and the guy vs. the police officer, the evidence and injustice is more clear-cut and the accused murderers will most likely be convicted or plea. In the case of Barry, the jury saw government misconduct and overzealousness, and mostly let Barry slide even though he was undoubtedly a drug abuser. Blacks usually unfairly have a tougher time in courts and with law enforcement, but that doesn't mean every outrage involving a black is actually justified - the Duke lacrosse case for example.
"Perhaps instead of claiming that people are not paying attention to surveillance, you should take a look at the current battles being fought." - I'll take a look at whatever the fuck I want, thank you. There are current battles being fought re: surveillance, and you're welcome to recognize them or not, to note how it ties into injustice to blacks or not, your call, but I'll keep noting my distaste for having my phone and internet and car and banking and library and online buying habits all part of file with every government agency I largely don't trust receiving very little oversight vs. the amount of abuse of information we see every day. They pushed and pressured anyone who knew Barry to give him up - should we give them more private info to be even more outrageous? The FBI teaches young punks how to make bombs and then busts them as terrorists making bombs. There are a lot of immoral people in government - we have some required functions of law enforcement, but seem to create a lot more Joe Arpaios than required.
by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 11/21/2013 - 6:48pm
Any sentient being noting the current behavior of George Zimmerman knows that he got away with murder. The child was unarmed and Zimmerman went on the prowl. I was actually talking about government action when addressing telling fearful people to go on the hunt. The You was not directed at you but the message the government, in Zimmerman's case local, that had him armed and hunting.
The bottom line is that people are fighting the in your face surveillance as well as electronic surveillance. Personally, I doubt the government cares one wit about your data. I don't think you are that important. The fight is insure that who are participating in civil rights issues are not intimidated. The government should not be free to look through our data at will. Corporations should not be able to sift through our data at will and store it in places where the government can get its hands on it.
The endgame will be in the courthouses of the US followed by voting out Governors and legislators who create the obtrusive laws.
by rmrd0000 on Thu, 11/21/2013 - 7:25pm
Look, the jury heard the evidence and decided. There was no obtrusive law used in Zimmerman's defense - it was about witness testimony and evidence. That's the legal system, and there was more review of the case for Trayvon than in most trials.
Government intrusiveness is a problem whether for civil rights, drug war, terror, whatever. The treatment of Jose Padilla is scandalous whatever his intent. Whether the government cares about my data or just rolls through my data on the way to abusing someone else, it's unconstitutional, and one day maybe we'll vote in Governors and legislators who respect the constitution, whatever the laws they may create or the secretive executive interpretations that gut the intention of those laws.
by PeraclesPlease on Fri, 11/22/2013 - 12:59am
Two of the jurors stated that the wording of the law made it impossible to convict the guilty man. Zimmerman acted in the exact way that those who crafted the law intended. The law was created to allow fearful citizens like Zimmerman to have a legal basis for ending a perceived threat from someone who looked "out of place" to the fearful person". The law is geared to keeping minorities in their place. The law deputizes fearful citizens to do the job that the Governor and Republican legislators want done.
Regarding trials, I doubt that you think the jurors in the O.J. Simpson case made the correct. You could mount an argument that his post-trial behavior confirms your opinion that a guilty man went free. Zimmerman is a hothead.Jurors knew he was a hothead but the way the law was constructed prevented the conviction.
by rmrd0000 on Fri, 11/22/2013 - 8:09am
He was getting his face pounded by someone on top of him - it had little to do with "someone being out of place".
by Anonymous PP (not verified) on Fri, 11/22/2013 - 11:50am
Zimmerman always seems to be just minding his business and gets assaulted.
by rmrd0000 on Fri, 11/22/2013 - 1:06pm
These concerns are not either/or options. One obvious way to abuse metadata is for voter suppression.
by Verified Atheist on Fri, 11/22/2013 - 9:10am
It does appear some are suggesting that it is an either or proposition. There is hair pulling that people are not focused on metadata while there is a raging battle going on dealing with the actual voting suppression going on in plain sight. It does seem like some are oblivious to the direct connection between the open assault on civil rights with voter suppression, union busting, vaginal probes and special masters for beleaguered cities.
It is not the people on the front lines of the above battles who are not engaged. In the electronic surveillance battle, the true fight is going to be in the courts, It is clear that the current Congress will not enact any important legislation. Stop and Frisk is going to be settled in court. Voter suppression is going to be settled in court. The fight for women to determine what happens to their bodies including the right not to undergo forced rape by a state government will be decided in the courts.
There seems to be a failure to recognize that the war is already being engaged coming from those who seem focused only on metadata. The idea is that others are sitting on the sidelines doing nothing.
by rmrd0000 on Fri, 11/22/2013 - 10:20am
It's not just metadata - they're grabbing everything, then pooling it together. Phone calls, emails, camera videos, bank records, whatever.
by Anonymous PP (not verified) on Fri, 11/22/2013 - 11:49am
If you cannot vote, they have taken way your voice. If the police can demand that you undergo a physical search, they have the right tons use you. They can demand that you show your papers.They demand that you prove that you belong in the country,This is no different than the practice of Blacks who traveled from place to place having to document that their master was ok with their travel. The stop and frisk is identical to practices under apartheid.
The state gets the general citizenry involved by telling them that if they see unarmed Blacks as threats, pull the trigger. They know that there will be willing supporters of the murder in the general public. They have made Blacks into a threat through legal maneuvers.The police state is here.
Once it is okay to demand that Blacks submit to police searches and to questions from vigilantes, monitoring of mosques is not far behind. Latinos have to prove that they belong.Once you have Blacks, Latinos and Muslims under surveillance you move on to monitoring what women are doing with their bodies. Just as there are citizens who support vigilante monitoring of Blacks, you will have vigilantes outside of women's health clinics. You will have government officials telling women they will be raped (vaginally probed) if the women demand control of their own bodies.
While this goes on social media outlets and communication companies store your data and keep it on hand.AT&T will profit by selling your data to the government. Electronic data is a late stage symptom
Government overreach is multi-leveled. They already have control over a huge swath of the public before they get to electronic surveillance.electronic data mining is a case of severe asthma that is complicating a pus-filled pocket of pneumonia that is causing sepsis a diffuse infection in a part of the United States public. The asthma can be treated, the bloodstream infection will still kill the patient even if the asthma goes away.
In short, electronic data surveillance has to be contained, but the country will still be headed downhill as long as people's civil rights remain under assault. If you are in a city with a special master, they don't neede your electronic data, they have taken away the impact of your vote and they have taken away your ability to protest the action of your local government.you are still controlled even if your electronic data is not being monitored.
by rmrd0000 on Fri, 11/22/2013 - 12:33pm
Trey Radel was eventually going to cause a scandal. I have an over the air TV antenna that picks up Ft Meyers. He married Fox 4 news caster in Ft. Meyers and he did some RW talk radio.also. He owned a domain address company that sold domains such as pornography domain addresses. He won the primary with only 30% because there was 5 people running but because it is the only gerrymandered ruby red district now left in South West Florida. They would have voted for a insect if it had a R behind it, so he won the general 61%. The commercials that the opposition run was very clear about his background. He was also in trouble during the election for not disclosing all his wealth. He is a trust fund baby and really didn't earn his wealth. He had bought a local news paper then sold it.
I just didn't think the scandal would come so soon. He had a lot of business friends in low places.
http://www.jrn.com/fox4now/news/Details-of-Radels-bust-and-expert-explains-Radels-addiction--232766271.html
My guess the wealthy Republicans in FL-19 is looking for some one to primary him. Also Rick Scott lives in this district. We have a running joke about Scott's drug use and have been wondering when he would get busted.
http://www.jrn.com/fox4now/news/Political-expert-Radels-political-future-and-the-future-of-the-district-19-congressional-seat-are-uncertain-232744501.html
Here is his old talk radio show. .
by trkingmomoe on Fri, 11/22/2013 - 2:54am
Thanks for the background information
by rmrd0000 on Fri, 11/22/2013 - 8:11am