Updated: 12/10/01
Big Brother is Watching You!
Shouldn't You be Watching Big Brother?
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Leader Publicly Canes Naughty Daughter
06/02/01 Another public official who can't tell fantasy from reality
MONROVIA (Reuters) - Liberian President Charles Taylor has caned his 13-year-old daughter in public for lacking discipline, his office said. Taylor, a former warlord who has been censured by the United Nations for backing Sierra Leonean rebels notorious for their savage attacks on civilians, made the girl lie on a school bench for the punishment.
"President Charles Taylor administered l0 strokes of the cane," said a statement from the West African country's presidency.
"As president, I have the responsibility not only for my children but for all children in the country, to ensure that the responsibility of nationhood will be passed on to reliable custodians," it quoted him as saying.
The daughter had been suspended from school for one week. The statement did not say how she had broken the rules.
12/7/01
Why Did Police Arrest 734,498 Pot-smokers,
Instead of Tracking Murderous Terrorists?WASHINGTON, DC -- American law enforcement is guilty of something close to "criminal neglect" for arresting 734,498 people for marijuana violations last year -- instead of investigating and stopping murderous terrorists, the Libertarian Party said today.
"Thousands of innocent Americans may be dead because law enforcement considered it more important to raid college frat parties and arrest people for smoking marijuana than to find and stop the deadly terrorist 'sleeper' cells that were plotting the greatest mass murder in American history," said Steve Dasbach, the party's national director.
"You just have to wonder: If the tens of thousands of law enforcement officers, the millions of man-hours, and the billions of dollars that were spent monitoring, investigating, arresting, charging, processing, jailing, and bringing to trial non-violent marijuana users had been used, instead, for anti-terrorist activities -- could the September 11 atrocity have been prevented?"
That question has become especially crucial now that the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) has released new figures showing that marijuana arrests in 2000 hit an all-time record.
According to figures collected from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Report, police arrested an estimated 734,498 people for marijuana violations last year. That's up from the 704,812 Americans who were arrested in 1999 on marijuana-related charges.
Of the almost three-quarters of a million people arrested in 2000, approximately 88% -- or about 646,042 individuals -- were charged only with possession of marijuana.
The most chilling thing about those numbers, said Dasbach, is that every arrest for marijuana represents a "missed opportunity" for law enforcement.
"Local and state police, the FBI, and federal law enforcement agencies have only a finite amount of people, time, and money to investigate and stop crimes," he noted. "By directing so many of those resources to the War on Marijuana, law enforcement made the ill-advised decision that detecting murderous, fanatical terrorists was less important than arresting non-violent Americans who choose to use marijuana.
"The nearly 4,000 Americans who were killed in the World Trade Center, in the Pentagon, and aboard Flight 93 may have paid the price for that tragically misguided decision."
Of course, what law enforcement did last year can't be altered now, admitted Dasbach. However, such policies can be changed for the future.
"We can't bring back the thousands of Americans who were killed on September 11," he said. "And we can't bring back all the law enforcement resources that were squandered in the past. But we can learn from our mistakes -- and we can learn from the actions of other nations."
For example, noted Dasbach, Great Britain reclassified marijuana in October so it is no longer an arrestable offense.
"For the safety and security of our nation, it's time for the United States to follow the lead of Great Britain," he said. "Then, we could redirect law enforcement -- at the local, state, and federal levels -- to focus on preventing future barbarous acts of terrorism, instead of arresting marijuana-smokers who are no threat to anyone."
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Pinellas Fifth Grader Cuffed, Sent Home
Classmates Turn Him in for Drawing WeaponsFrom The South Florida Sun-Sentinel May 11, 2001
OLDSMAR, FL -- A boy was taken from his elementary school in handcuffs after his classmates turned him in for drawing pictures of weapons. The 11-year-old fifth grader was not charged with a crime in the Wednesday incident. His name is not being released to protect him, school officials said.
"There were some drawings that were confiscated by the teacher," Oldsmar Elementary School Principal David Schmitt said. "The children were in no danger at all. It involved no real weapons." Still, Schmitt refused to discuss details of the boy's case. "All I can tell you is it was a threat... against students," he said. "Nobody in particular, but students in general.
"We just need to get it through kids' heads that there are certain things you don't say and there are certain things you don't draw," he said. The boy was handcuffed by school police for his safety, according to Pinellas County School District spokesman Ron Stone.
"That's normal procedure in a situation like this," Stone said.
[What's the normal procedure with 10-year-old girls? Ball gags and duct tape? -- Red]
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/sfl-511gunboy.story?coll=sfla%2Dhome%
5/5/01 More people who enjoy their jobs a little too much!
Playful Judge Pays Price
From The National Law Journal April 30, 2001
In defending Ector County, Texas, Judge Robert Hollman, his attorney told the state Judicial Conduct Commission that the "little games" Hollman played with his secretary never interfered with official duties. Rather, they were consensual efforts to act out "vignettes from old cowboy movies and damsel-in-distress videos," it was explained.
One distressed damsel, however, identified only as A.H., filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleging that playing along was a condition of employment.
The Judicial Conduct Commission's reprimand of Hollman described the fun as one-sided.
"Judge Hollman would bind A.H.'s hands behind her back, tie her ankles together and gag her with a scarf," the document said. "Judge Hollman would sometimes carry the bound-and-gagged A.H. around the office. Other times, Judge Hollman would leave A.H. tied to a chair or lying on the floor for long periods of time."
While A.H. was bound and gagged, the reprimand continued, the judge sometimes would time her attempts to free herself, watch scenes from his personal collection of bondage videos or cruise adult Web sites.
Judge Hollman resigned after the EEOC complaint was made public.
[Bob, we tried to tell you, it's about romance, not employment. You have to start with flowers and candy... -- Red and shevette]
2/14/00
Reality Check
Can you imagine working at the following organization? It has a little over 500 employees all doing what is considered important work. Among them are people with the following statistics:
29 have been accused of spousal abuse
7 have been arrested for fraud
19 have been accused of writing bad checks
117 have bankrupted at least two businesses
3 have been arrested for assault
71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
14 have been arrested on drug-related charges
8 have been arrested for shoplifting
21 are current defendants in lawsuits
In 1998 alone, 84 were stopped for drunk drivingThese numbers total 373 out of 535 employees. That is a full 70%. And, do you know who they work for?
Can you guess which organization these undesirables work for?The are 373 members of your United States Congress, out of 535 members. This same group which perpetually cranks out hundreds upon hundreds of new laws every year designed to keep you and me and the rest of us in line.
From: Matthew Gaylor [freematt@coil.com]
Sent: November 18, 1999
Subject: Talk About Screwed Up Priorities:FBI Reports Marijuana Arrests Exceed Those For Violent Crime
http://www.natlnorml.org/news/archives/99-10-21.shtmlThe number of marijuana related arrests dropped slightly in 1998 to 682,885 from 1997's record high of 695,200, according to the latest FBI Uniform Crime Report released on Oct. 17. Eighty-eight percent of those arrests were for possession.
Forty-four percent of all drug arrests nationwide were for marijuana, and one out of every 25 criminal arrests in the U.S. were for marijuana possession.
There were 6,985 more arrests for marijuana offenses last year than for all violent crimes combined, including murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.
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