Honestylog.com

"a conviction and killing machine"

That's exactly what it was.

And the people loved it; and cheered.

My Wonderful Sweet Land of Liberty

...Where self-sufficient entrepreneurs serving a market of mutually-voluntary trade now find it necessary to kill themselves rather take in all that American can be.

Well, I guess if you did the "crime," but can't do the time...right folks, you freedom-loving people, you?

Word

Karen De Coster contrasts the 'Andy Taylors' of yesterday with the Pigs of today.

...many years ago, a cop was a guy who strolled the neighborhood on his "beat," chatted up folks at the barber shop, and was thought of as a friend by many of the locals. Generally speaking, cops used to be guys who really did want to do some good for the community, and bring peace through a little neighborhood security. Good guys - for the most part - used to become cops. Confident, strong men used to become cops so they could hold a respected position in the community and provide leadership. Now, the bad, the bullies, the insecure, and the ugly become cops so that they can control, intimidate, militarize, and rule.

America: Love It or Leave It

SWAT raids of poker games. My heart swells with pride.

In the last couple of months, police have broken up games in Charleston, South Carolina (netting a poker playing cop and prosecutor in the process) and, no surprise here, in Dallas and Houston.

In the Houston case, prosecutors planned to file felony organized crime charges against the operators of a $300 buy-in tournament.

In the Charleston case, investigators went back more than a year to find names of players who may not have been playing on the night of the raid. They then went out and arrested them, too. They were eventually charged with misdemeanors.

Here’s a first-hand account of similar Charleston raid from a couple of years ago:

At the game in 2006, Chimento said there was a knock on the door and then “…all of a sudden it was like a commandos SWAT team raiding a bunch of crack dealers. It’s was like the SWAT team that you see on TV, busting into your home, guns drawn, ski masks on, full protective gear, and demanding we put out hands on top of our heads,” Chimento said. “At first we thought we were getting robbed, then we realized they had police written all over them, and we were like ‘Oh my God, check this out.’ Someone could have easily been killed that night.”

A 78-year-old grandmother was one of the players swept up that night. Police issued citations on the spot and seized about $6,000 in total from all of the players.

One of Balko's commenters issues a point of order.

“At first we thought we were getting robbed…

…Police issued citations on the spot and seized about $6,000 in total from all of the players.”

Guess what…

They were robbed.

Bonus: Just Brimming With American Freedom and Liberty

God, I love this country.

How could you not?

A Messsage of Freedom and Liberty

Wesley Snipes gets three years for "failing" to calculate what "The Land of the Free" demands of the time of his one and only life (money) and filing papers documenting it.

It's enough to get the "America: Love It or Leave It" crowds dancing in the streets.

(link: Balko, who has a few other links to spectacles of American freedom and liberty)

A Little Hasty?

In the interest of keeping my own self accountable and honest, I was compelled to revisit the Texas Polygamy case and my quick-draw post on the matter prior to taking in anything but the initial report.

Billy points to three posts by Wendy McElroy here, here, and here. It's the latter of those three he's referencing. I think she's dead on about the women from the perspective of 3rd party intervention. There's no plausible way they couldn't leave or explicitly call for help if they wanted.

Having read over what I posted, I still think my general point is valid, which is that rational men, unbound by "The People" fallacy, might have taken care of that mess long ago. Of course, they would have been totally accountable for whatever actions they took, and had they found it necessary to dispatch the rapists and those giving aid and comfort to the rapists (the adult wives), then they would have also been responsible for the well being of all the children as far into the future as it takes. Not saying that's what should have happened at all; just what if.

Ghastly? Perhaps, but the prospect strikes me as less arbitrary and less risky than the current situation. In the former, you have people sincerely acting upon conviction and principle to protect innocent people they have strong reason to believe are being abused against their will, and/or have been fraudulently denied a normal human will. In the latter, you have state and law enforcement authorities primarily out for headlines, camera face time whilst all dressed G.I. Joe, promotion files, commendations, and so on and so forth. Add to that, as Waco and Ruby Ridge proved: there's no real accountability for their actions when they become the predators.

I believe there are young girls there, lots of them, who though perhaps not being physically forced into sex with far older men (beyond the natural force that partly defines the act), are nonetheless indoctrinated into believing they have no choice. In my book, that's just a rape packaged in a fraud, both of which a rational libertarian ought to condemn. The reason these people put themselves and children into compounds is in part to grease the wheels of indoctrination, such that children literally have no concrete concepts of what is right and wrong stemming from their own perceptual integration. What does that mean? That means that if you, as a parent, shield your children from what the real stakes are in the real world so that they may grow to understand and act rationally within it, then you are neglecting your children. And if you then use their ignorance to take an advantage you otherwise would not be able to take, then you are being abusive.

So I find myself in an odd attitude about it. I loath the state. I loath those people. I think it's anyone's business to reasonably assure that defenseless kids aren't being sexually abused when there's a very bright suspicion they are.

Your Attention, Please

Kyle Bennett has up an extensive post dealing with prosecution without the state. Definitely worth a read, though it could be tough for the faint of heart.

A question you might ponder: what's likely to result in a greater number of injustices; a private justice system, where everybody is a prosecutor and 100% accountable for the propriety of all prosecutions, or a state, where every prosecutor is 0% accountable, short of outright fraud?

Lead Balloons

First up this morning, Billy points to "A Bill." I agree with him. Although, I must say that Barney Frank's statement goes just about as far as any "lawmaker" can go without just cutting to the essentials of the matter, which is that it's none of your business..."voter."

Certainly, the implied insanity of the current state of affairs is pretty well reasoned out, within the context of the reality that the State is all powerful and it really owns "your" life & the time of it, and not you. Even so, the title above speaks to just how this will likely go over.

(Near) Triumph For Zero Tolerance

Well, there's been a new development since when I saw this earlier, but as I often do, I read this whole post before clicking on the link it referenced.

Then, upon seeing the photo of the man, j'ai tout compris. Good thing they found the sand grain-sized pot bit on his shoe (0.003g / 0.0001oz). With that Jamaican look and dreads, he might have had to endure a lung biopsy for any possible non-metabolized bits.

Looks like some sense has prevailed, though that would only be after putting the man through the ordeal of an arrest, prosecution and the prospect of a four year jail sentence. So I'm sure that Mr. Brown is just "thrilled to death." Still makes us look like a bunch of pussies when it comes to "zero tolerance" though, dontcha think?

Organization and Efficiency

I guess California is just better organized and efficient than these cluster fuckers. More here.

Saw it first at Billy's, then Radley's.

"Polygamy"

Then there's this news, which I happened to just catch splattered all over the TV at the local mini mart moments ago.

First off, the legal sense of the word means nothing to me. I couldn't care less if 400 people of whatever gender get together in whatever combinations suit them and make like rabbits all goddammed day long, for all the world to see.

What's it to me?

Now that that's out of the way, let me just say this: in a rational world, that mess would have been dealt with long, long ago, and definitively so. ...By real men concerned more that women and children, who may be rationally presumed not to want to endure rape at the age of 13 or 15 by 50-yr-old men, and who are unable to cry out for help, would have welcomed it. Those who didn't would have been free to carry on. This is telling.

Dressed in home-sewn, ankle-length dresses with their hair pinned up in braids, some 133 women left the Yearning for Zion Ranch of their own volition along with the children.

Yea. Fucking perverted, impotent bastards. Afraid of real, independent women with minds of their own.

So why weren't these women and children rescued from this gang of rapists a long time ago? The system. A case had to be built. What's a few hundred more late night visits to the bedroom of a terrified girl when prosecutors have their win records and promotions to consider?

Remember this: "justice" in our "system" is not about protection of the individual or the victim. That's what they say, to keep you interested. But it's really about maintaining the integrity -- such as it is -- of the system itself. You are but a function; a cog. A statistic.

Later: I ought to add: this would have been dealt with forever ago if the name of the compound was akin to "Bob's Garage." Or even "Bank of Eldorado," rather than "Zion Ranch" of the "Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints." Get it?

What You're Up Against

Top North Port police officials said that their agency handled the case appropriately, and that they would not have done anything differently had the victim been one of their family members.

"As a professional looking at it, yes, I would be satisfied," said North Port Police Chief Terry Lewis, who was out of town when Lee was kidnapped. He returned two days later. "As a dad or as a husband or as a family member, when your daughter doesn't come home, you're never satisfied.

"I'm confident in the response."

...

He noted that officials captured the man who allegedly kidnapped, raped and murdered Lee. And they found Lee's body.

Do you get it?

Billy linked that, and adds:

"When seconds count, the police are only minutes away." Or even hours. While you're being murdered.

Social Engineering

I was going to blog about this yesterday but just couldn't fit it in. No matter; Billy Beck has done what needed doing to the miserable prick Chris Benisch, principal of the Harris Park Elementary School in Westminster, Colorado.

For now, however, all he knows is that just being himself can land his ass in a sling: at his age, it's his job to integrate his senses and cognition (who here was never momentarily fascinated with the smell of a Magic Marker at his age?), and that is why he got stomped by this mindless punk commissar, Benisch.

Now, I don't know whether this sort of thing is all entirely new, or if it's more an effect of the Internet, being able to publicize far, wide, and instantly. I tend to suspect the latter, and if so, then at least there's that.

But if you've been paying attention over the past few years, here and elsewhere, have you been finally getting the sense that what you grew up to understand about justice, i.e., that it was about getting the bad guy, isn't the reality?

The reality is that it's either about the getting, for ego's sake, self promotion, attention, or whatever, with little regard to who'd being got, and why. Or, it's about social engineering and conditioning. Billy nails the point: "just being himself." This is what the social engineers have really been fighting all these decades. They're waging war against human nature.

They will loose, eventually, but the real question is how many get chewed up and to what extent in the meantime. As for that miserable fuckwad Benisch, I will hope that he never, ever gets let off the hook for this for the rest of his life.

The Wages of Sin

I guess this is what happens when you choose to don your leathers and mount your Harley, Indian, or other V-twin on an Easter Sunday morning rather than getting all clean cut and heading out to the local place of national imaginary friend worship to invoke the blessings of your magical spirits.

I just took these 10 photos in the space of just a few minutes over on Coleman avenue, less than a mile from my place. I headed out to breakfast (ironically enough, for ham & eggs) and on my way out, the San Jose Police were even more in force, and I saw more than one peaceful looking biker in handcuffs. I didn't think to grab my iPhone and begin snapping. But even after 45-minutes or so, there were still plenty. Looks like they were having some rally in a parking lot off on a side street. There were booths and such set up, so I guess it was something the city was aware of...just a sec...Ok, here you go. Here is your imminent danger to civil society, the Ancient Iron Motorcycle Club. Ooooh, scary. What's the world coming to, when evil can get hold of and restore old motorcycles and create websites?

Side note: my favorite bike of all time is the original Chief, by Indian (I just saw two pristine specimens). Until a couple of years ago, I owned one of the new ones and it was a pleasure.

These were all quick one-handed snaps while driving, but I've cropped them all to highlight the essentials. They're below the fold and I really have but one comment: why is this called for? Who were these people hurting, or going to hurt? Alright, one more comment. Do you have any sense that it might be a bit risky for me, living here in San Jose, snapping pictures of San Jose Police, posting them on my blog, and implying they're a bunch of pigs? Yea? Then my point is made. And indeed, it is risky.

An Exercise

Take a moment to begin reading through this. I say begin, because you really don't need to read the whole thing.

Brenda Harris/Ticketed driver “I absolutely positively stopped at that stop sign.”

Nicole Barksdale/Ticket driver: “I was angry, honestly, I was angry because I knew I stopped.”

Pam Smith/Ticketed Driver: “I’m positive I stopped. I am positive.”

...And so on and so on. Here's what sense I think you ought to begin to form, to understand, and to get used to: there's a presumption at work, and its unfounded.

Hint: you have absolutely no rational basis to assume that any cop will be honest. You count on it, just as you sorta count on all the other myriad people you come into contact with to behave with some reasonable, predictable, countable semblance of stock-human behavior. The difference is that those people don't come wrapped in the trappings of state authority.

They also don't get paid (with your money) to steal from you, and then lie about it.

(Link: Karen)

Spitzer

I'm sick of reading libertarian disclaimers, with respect to Elliot "Ness" Spitzer, that prostitution should not be illegal, nor should arranging your financial affairs in such a way as to cover your tracks. That's why I said nothing about it in my post.

The point is: it goes without saying. It also goes without saying that if a man raises vicious dogs that attack innocent people, destroy their property and fruits of their production, and wreak havoc on the lives of their families, that we should be tickled pink and overjoyed when the same dogs turn on their owner.

I am. I don't care what happens to Spitzer. The State could waterboard that fucker daily for the rest of his miserable life and I'd never lift a finger or brain cell to do anything about it.

"I would push for it in a case of injustice"

Note to the despicable Dale Franks: Here's how real men, who know and understand injustice when they see it, stand up to the state.

Later: While I haven't really the slightest clue of Obama's personal inner take on the drug war -- and I'm filled with foreboding about the whole upcoming mess -- if he does grab the presidency and does truly make serious headway in ending the evil war on drugs, I for one will be willing to overlook a whole lot of the other shit he's going to dump on America (which isn't going to be easy, but I'll give it a shot if he really demonstrates a commitment). It seems to me that the drug war would really be his big opportunity to demonstrate statesmanship.

Land of the Free Update

Good news for conservative, law & order Republicans:

New High in U.S. Prison Numbers

With more than 2.3 million people behind bars, the United States leads the world in both the number and percentage of residents it incarcerates, leaving far-more-populous China a distant second, according to a study by the nonpartisan Pew Center on the States.

Got that? We've more people in jail than China, which has over four times our population (more than a billion more people than us). In terms of percentage in jail, China isn't even on the map, while we exceed but keep such illustrious company as Russia, Belarus, Turkmenistan, and Cuba.

America #1!

(Balko link)

Land of the Free Update

Here's a guy determined to get himself fined $2,500 and potentially subject himself to jail time in Illinois because he audaciously claims that his business belongs to him, and that smoking is allowed.

What nerve. Freedom comes with responsibilities, you know.

(Balko link)

The Scrofacracy: Public Enemy Number One

First, to preclude the emails.

Second, a little "Law & Order," complete with a pool of blood. The World's Most Important Blogger has the details.

Next up, something I was going to blog the other day when I first saw it, but didn't get to it. Here, the Scrofacracy, numbering seven "men" and "women," rape the female victim of an assault in a jail cell. They go about it real pro, latex gloves and all.

Here's Part II of that news report. I think this is actually the one I saw the other day, and it includes one of the male assailants gingerly slipping her panties off her ankles and feet. You draw your own conclusions about what was in it for them, later, in their own private space. I'm pretty sure I get it.

Now do you understand why I think "conservatives" and their incessant "thin blue line" Scrofacracy cheerleading can all go straight to hell?

Better Safe Than Sorry

...all the travel documents were in order.

That's right, and it was "the job" of the Borderbots to make sure. No life is as important as "the system," not even a baby's with a heart condition. All hail the system.

Stay calm, relax.

(Balko)

The Scrofacracy

Billy comes up with another video of that pig creep.

Never Ever Cooperate With Police. Always Lawyer Up

You're an absolute fool to ever willingly cooperate with police, even in the investigation of a crime you know you had no involvement in. Even if lawyering up invites heightened suspicion, I say it's worth the risk. And make sure it's a lawyer versed in criminal prosecutions.

DNA evidence frees a man who had done ten years in prison for a murder police say he committed when he was 15. They pursued him for 12 years, won a conviction, then kept in prison for a decade until the DNA evidence pointed to someone else. The evidence against him seems to be that (1) the victim was found in a park near his home, and (2) police found a series of violent drawings in his home. It looks like his mistake was cooperating with the police on the assumption that if he was innocent, he had nothing to worry about by answering their questions.

And another one.

Note that in this case, Scott was convicted largely because of a taped recording of him admitting to participating in the crime. False confessions are much more common than you might think. They happen for a variety of reasons (police brutality, the desire to end a marathon interrogation, the belief that evidence will surface proving innocence), but tend to occur most frequently with young people (Scott was 15 at the time) and suspects with a low IQ or mental handicap (Scott was learning disabled). In this case, Scott appears to have been tricked into confessing by an investigator. What’s unforgivable is that not only was there evidence exonerating Scott that was never introduced at trial, but the DNA evidence could have been tested years ago.

This is part of why I consider the police and the prosecutorial machine Public Enemy Number One, and that's not hyperbole, nor am I unserious. I think you have far more chance of getting unjustly wrapped up in the system at some point in your life than you ever have of being assaulted by a stranger.

Scrofacracy Update

Wherein Officer Salvatore Rivieri of the Baltimore Police Department finds himself with half a million views on YouTube. Now, of course, the only pertinent matter in all of this -- other than Rivieri's appalling behavior -- is that those kids weren't harming anyone and didn't appear as though they were posing an imminent threat of doing so.

He demanded, and then commanded, respect. What he was certainly able to do was intimidate, assault, and ultimately commit battery on one of the boys, then take his property; but he couldn't force that respect he believed himself entitled to, could he? And doesn't that respect continue to allude Officer Rivieri?

So, Officer Rivieri? How's that working out for you? You know what? Any real man should find it the easiest, most wholesome, and rewarding experience in the world to earn the respect of teenage boys like that. Sure, there are exceptions, but I know I could have done it. It could be as simple as asking them to explain the relative merits of their transportation equipment and what makes it so special to them. You might have asked them how they go about ensuring they don't run into and harm anyone. I'm betting they'd have been more than happy to demonstrate their competence.

This is pure pretense. Do you see it? The pretense goes to who's the good guy and who's the bad guy; to who's innocent and who's guilty. The pretense is in the constitution (i.e., in how it is constituted, made up, fundamentally constructed) of the state itself. By pure "virtue" of office holding, of uniform wearing, of badge wielding, of citing writing upon scraps of paper, the State is presumed right and innocent and the one coming in conflict with its constitution is presumed wrong and guilty. But the reverse is true, and it's true because those kids weren't hurting anyone. Rivieri is the bad guy.

And you know why? Because if those kids were actually hurting people, it would not have required office holders, uniforms, badges, or writings upon scraps of paper to stop them. The very best thing that can ever be said about the State, at its very best (which was certainly not the case here) is that in the context of protection, i.e., of stepping in to stop and prevent clear and present harm, it's entirely superfluous. That the best that can ever be said for it.

Update: Ok, some people didn't get the title.