FC: More on arresting reporters and Florida case, by Paul McMasters

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

*********

From: Paul McMasters <Pmcmasters () freedomforum org>
To: "Declan McCullagh (E-mail)" <declan () well com>
Subject: Another journalist arrested
Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2001 08:46:46 -0400

Declan,

        People are right to be concerned about the arrest of the Florida
journalist for his reporting on problems in the local police department. But
this sort of willingness by public officials to arrest reporters first, ask
questions later is not all that uncommon. For example, a couple of weeks
ago, a small-town reporter in Prince William County, Virginia, was invited
onto public property by a public official for an interview about a matter of
public concern and then arrested by a county police officer wearing a
"relaxed uniform." She now faces a criminal trespass charge carrying
punishment of a year in jail and a $2,500 fine.

        For an account of that incident, see
http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp?documentID=14158.

Paul McMasters

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Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2001 07:17:51 -0700
To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
From: John Young <jya () pipeline com>
Subject: Re: Police arrest newspaper editor for criticizing Florida cops
Cc: Office () KWTN com, postmaster () KWTN com, SSolares () keywestcity com,
        Attorney () keywestcity com, JAvael () keywestcity com,
        BDillon () keywestcity com, JWeekley () keywestcity com,
        TomO () oosterbooster com, merilimccoy () compuserve com, cpcjr () webtv net,
        HBethel () keywestcity com, JAnthony () keywestcity com, carmenturn () aol com,
        emc () artifact psychedelic net, cypherpunks () cyberpass net

Declan,

Three Key West The Newspaper articles by Dennis Cooper
about the Key West government scandal:

  http://cryptome.org/kwtn-bust.htm

John

*********

Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2001 01:50:25 -0700
To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>, politech () politechbot com
From: Tim May <tcmay () got net>
Subject: Re: Police arrest newspaper editor for criticizing Florida cops
Cc: Office () KWTN com, postmaster () KWTN com, SSolares () keywestcity com,
        Attorney () keywestcity com, JAvael () keywestcity com,
        BDillon () keywestcity com, JWeekley () keywestcity com,
        TomO () oosterbooster com, merilimccoy () compuserve com, cpcjr () webtv net,
        HBethel () keywestcity com, JAnthony () keywestcity com, carmenturn () aol com,
        emc () artifact psychedelic net, cypherpunks () cyberpass net

At 10:32 PM -0400 6/26/01, Declan McCullagh wrote:
> Police in Key West, Flordia have arrested a newspaper editor for printing 
> an article that criticized an internal police investigation, according to 
> an Associated Press report. This brutish action by police and prosecutors 
> should be widely denounced.

I would denounce it, but the fact is that our denouncements don't matter.

Political prosecutions and trials have become the norm.

Personally, I have been closely involved in two serious criminal trials. In 
both of these criminal cases, those charged either were found guilty or 
would have been had they gone to trial (one of them died before the trial). 
In the case of the guilty person, he received no prison term for 
perpetrating a very serious crime. Why? Because there was no political 
interest in his case, so the usual excuse about how "overcrowded our 
prisons are" was used to let him avoid a prison sentence. When there is no 
interest in a case, a rap on the knuckles is the worst fate most street 
criminals ever face. However, if there is political interest, then charges 
are magnified and hyped and information is leaked to "U.S. News and World 
Report" about the horrible terrorist who awaits prosecution by the 
protectors of our freedoms. Even though our jails and prisons are said to 
be so crowded that violent felons are given bullshit "be a good boy" 
releases, political trials such as the cases of Parker, Bell, Henson,  and 
others are the focus of cop activities  and aggressive prosecutions.

We let murderers, arsonists, and kidnappers go free so that the prisons can 
be filled with people who write fanciful essays about the "Circle of 
Eunuchs" and those who criticize local doughnut eaters.

Keith Henson faces much more prison time than does the violent criminal in 
the case I am involved with. Because Henson is a thought criminal, while 
the violent criminal is just an ordinary criminal. And in these beknighted 
states of America, being a though criminal like Bell, Parker, or Henson is 
far worse than being a rapist, murderer, arsonist, or thief.

Time for another Revolution and for about a hundred thousand dishonest cops 
and judges to face trial for and be put before firing squads.

--Tim May


--
Timothy C. May         tcmay () got net        Corralitos, California
Political: Co-founder Cypherpunks/crypto anarchy/Cyphernomicon
Technical: physics/soft errors/Smalltalk/Squeak/agents/games/Go
Personal: b.1951/UCSB/Intel '74-'86/retired/investor/motorcycles/guns

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Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2001 07:07:32 -0700
To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>,
        Eric Cordian <emc () artifact psychedelic net>,
        Matthew Gaylor <freematt () coil com>
From: spiker <spiker () ev1 net>
Subject: Re: Police arrest newspaper editor for criticizing Florida cops

Here is an organization in Florida that needs to be notified about this 
Police State tactic.

The Police Complaint Center in Tallahassee, FL
http://www.policeabuse.com/

The Police Complaint Center
4244-223 W. Tennessee St. Tallahassee, FL 32304
Ph: 850-894-6819

The Police Complaint Center Complaint Forms  (Adobe Acrobat Reader required)
http://www.policeabuse.com/pccform.htm

Click below to download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html


You also need to contact Alex Jones in Austin, Texas.
He is an expert on exposing police misconduct.
He may schedule you as a call-in guest on his show.

INFOWARS  (Alex Jones home page)
http://www.infowars.com/

Alex Jones Videos
http://www.infowars.com/videos.html

Alex Jones
3001 South Lamar
Suite 100
Austin, TX 78704

E-mail: alex () infowars com (Alex Jones)

E-mail the Producer:  violet () infowars com (Violet Nichols)

Listen to Alex Jones M-F, Noon-3pm EST,  11am-2pm CST, 10am-1pm MST, 
9am-Noon PST.
http://sce.m2ktalk.com:8000/listen.pls

(Second show) M-F, 10pm-1 am EST, 9pm-Midnight CST, 8pm-11pm MST, 7pm-10pm PST.
http://www.shoutcast.com/sbin/shoutcast-playlist.pls?rn=8041&addr=207.126.64.52:8010&file=filename.pls

Archived Alex Jones shows
http://www.m2ktalk.com/infowars.htm

Callers to all of GCN's shows can use a toll-free number  800-259-9231

Sincerely,
David E. Parsons
Denver, CO

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Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2001 16:48:18 +0800
Subject: Re: [itlizard] Re: FC: Police arrest newspaper editor for
        criticizing Florida cops
From: John bell <dingdong () highway1 com au>
To: itlizard discussion list <itlizard () list to>, <declan () well com>

Declan,

Thanks for your comments.

I agree with your draconian analysis, but the editor obviously knew the law
existed and new the risks he was taking.

One wonders why he took the risk and what his agenda is.  Why not get a web
site not based in Florida to publish instead ?

Here is Western Australia, we are not allowed to refer to investigations by
the Official Corruption Commission, est. by the state Govt., to inquire into
allegations of civil service personal corruption and corruption of the
process.

It seems rather like defenceless and unarmed Australian journalists at
Balibo in Timor some years ago, who where were murdured invading Indonesian
forces.

The TNI (Indon Armed Forces) were either seeking to avoid international
scrutiny of their invasion, or in a country where life is cheap, shooting
anyone who got in the way and anyone remotely associated with those
resisting their invasion.

The old law of war correspondents when I went to Viet Nam was never to get
between the two front lines, as it is hard to debate immoral behaviour when
being targeted by riflemen.

What upsets me is that their editors knew the ground rules and appear to
have been more interested in a good stories.

Cheers  John Bell

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From: "R. v. Head" <4whp () home com>
To: <declan () well com>
Subject: Re: Miami Herald reports Florida cops knew law is unconstitutional
Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2001 12:13:23 -0400

Mister Cooper may not have major newspaper bucks behind him, but he surely
has access to a telephone, with which he can contact any of hundreds of
lawyers who'll ably and gladly handle the criminal defense for the
opportunity to prosecute the 42 USC 1983 action ("depriving any person of
his civil rights while acting under color of state law ...)

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