Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Have you read your constitution today? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (241)	10/23/2002 9:44:12 AM
From: Thomas M.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 403

That one was found by Jttmab on the Impeach Bush thread. He found it by clicking on the links in my previous article (clever devil)! ============================================ In late August of this year the California legislature passed a bill put up by state Senate Majority leader Richard Polanco intended to encourage peaceful protest and civil disobedience by clarifying and codifying limits of prosecution, given the fact that much so-called "crime reform" has clearly been deliberately designed to limit peaceful protest. Peacefully demonstrate and you risk big trouble. Here are some examples, as offered on justdissent.org, a site that lobbied for Polanco’s bill. Excessive fines...Exorbitant bails–some as high as $1 million–keeping peaceful protesters in prison. Felony charges used to threaten or punish protesters with loss of voting rights and jobs. Federal RICO and domestic terrorist legislation employed to stigmatize peaceful protesters. Permits to protest denied for legitimate protests... Trespass and other false charges fabricated by police. Charges of "Interfering with a religion" used to prosecute protesters. Police granted immunity from lawsuits, leaving them free to abuse protesters’ rights. Adults prosecuted for bringing minor children to protests. "Zero tolerance" rules which expel students who participate in nonviolent protests. Use of court orders to stifle future legitimate and nonviolent protests. Long sentences in overcrowded and inhuman conditions meted out to protesters. Seizure of organizations’ bank accounts so that members who protest can be fined. Protesters arrested and held without charge, preventing them from further protest. Use of racial and other biases in the arrest and prosecution of protesters. Unjustified force (tear gas, pepper spray, bean bags) is used against peaceful protesters. Legal distinctions blurred between violent and nonviolent protest, so that all protesters are demonized as "anarchists," "hoodlums" and "domestic terrorists." Pre-protest surveillance, infiltration and investigations to identify, arrest and detain nonviolent protesters prior to protest. Police entrapment used to fabricate grounds for arrest and charges. To try to redress the balance, Polanco introduced SB 1796 in Sacramento last February, designed to roll back all these dire inhibitions against peaceful, nonviolent protest. Essentially, it provided that the punishment for the commission of, or for a conspiracy to commit, certain misdemeanor offenses (ones that didn’t cause physical harm to people or property) would be a fine not larger than $100, imprisonment in a county jail for a period not to exceed two days, or both that fine and imprisonment, if the motive for the violation is found to be political expression. Polanco’s bill cleared the legislature near the end of August and went to Gov. Gray Davis for signature. Davis, prime whore for the enforcement and corrections officers’ lobbies, vetoed it a month later. nypress.com justdissent.org