Date: Thu, 25 Feb 1999 19:50:47 -0500
From: Aaron Micheau <amaarchy-AT-compuserve.com>
Subject: Flag Desecration Act


Message text written by "Jerald Hellemeyer"
>
There are 535 members in the House.  200 isn't even half.  To get the 
2/3 majority they need, they would have to get 354 votes.  And they 
would still have to convince 2/3 of the senate (67 members) and 3/4 of 
the states (37 state legislatures).  No easy task. <

Umm... unless i have missed a lot of activity in the last few months, there
are 435 members in the House.  i guess that would make 2/3 290.

Speaking of the US Constitution, a little observation i picked up today.  i
am in training now to start public defender work in Manhattan.  One of our
lectures today was about litigating certain constitutional issues.  There
is all kinds of case law which regulates how the police can take
confessions from defendants, based on the right against self-incrimination
and counsel.  The general idea is that the authorities aren't supposed to
elicit a confession by use of threat or promise.  However, everyday, all
over the country, thousands of defendants publicly confess to guilt in
court under threat of increased jail time or other punishment from the
judge and prosecution.  The rights which supposedly are guaranteed to all
of us are meaningless in the face of the most common form of disposition in
criminal legal practice- plea bargaining.

Undoubtedly this is not surprising, or even news to many folks on this
list, though it is a screaming example of the fallacy of the concept of
rights that had never occurred to me.  One of the interesting things about
the organization i am working in, i am finding, is that it is filled with
people who try, to a greater, or lesser extent, to subvert and frustrate
the criminal justice system.  The lecturer who brought up the above point
told us that said system is essentially an organized extortion racket,
within which the defender's conventional role is that of the 'bagman' who
delivers the threat to the victim, and convinces the victim to give up some
measure of future liberty (or cash) to avoid said threat.

-apm