dharmabum
01-23-2008, 12:22 PM
Drugs are a medical problem, not a criminal one.
from here. (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/2/21/163434/267)
Another week goes by, and another American child is murdered by the government in their own bed, in the name of yet another losing war that Americans refuse to surrender.
This week, the victim’s name is Daniel Castillo Jr. (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/4555081.html), a seventeen year old who lived in the Houston suburb of Wharton, Texas. He was killed eight days ago, on Feb. 13th, when armed SWAT officers executed a no-knock warrant on his family’s home. He woke when his twenty year old sister with whom he shared a room screamed at an officer not to shoot the year-old infant she held in her arms, rose in his bed and was shot in the face by six-year police veteran Don Falks. He was shot in the head in his own bed in the middle of the night, feet away from a crying one year old child, in America. I can hardly bring myself to even write this, since after all, what’s the big deal anyways? This story is so ordinary by now, it is hardly even worth the bother.
Or this one from here. (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/1/23/33328/5768/829/441584)
Geneva France walked out of federal prison with $68 and a bus ticket home. That's all the government had to offer a woman who had served 16 months of a decade-long prison sentence for a crime she didn't commit.
The mother of three returned to her family, but her youngest child -- who was 18 months old when France was sent to prison -- didn't recognize her.
And France, 25, had no home to return to.
Her landlord had evicted her from the rental during her incarceration, and everything she owned had been tossed on the street.
France's case is the nightmare scenario for a system that critics say sometimes dispenses justice differently for rich and poor.
It shows how easy it is for the government to get convictions in cases built on shaky investigations.
Defense attorneys say a street-smart but dishonest informant and a federal agent working without oversight manipulated the system to convict France and dozens of others.
"They stole the truth," France said. "I don't think I'll ever trust people again. It's too hard."
"I don't know how a human being with a heart could stand up there and lie about another person," France said. "They stole part of my life."
from here. (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/2/21/163434/267)
Another week goes by, and another American child is murdered by the government in their own bed, in the name of yet another losing war that Americans refuse to surrender.
This week, the victim’s name is Daniel Castillo Jr. (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/4555081.html), a seventeen year old who lived in the Houston suburb of Wharton, Texas. He was killed eight days ago, on Feb. 13th, when armed SWAT officers executed a no-knock warrant on his family’s home. He woke when his twenty year old sister with whom he shared a room screamed at an officer not to shoot the year-old infant she held in her arms, rose in his bed and was shot in the face by six-year police veteran Don Falks. He was shot in the head in his own bed in the middle of the night, feet away from a crying one year old child, in America. I can hardly bring myself to even write this, since after all, what’s the big deal anyways? This story is so ordinary by now, it is hardly even worth the bother.
Or this one from here. (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/1/23/33328/5768/829/441584)
Geneva France walked out of federal prison with $68 and a bus ticket home. That's all the government had to offer a woman who had served 16 months of a decade-long prison sentence for a crime she didn't commit.
The mother of three returned to her family, but her youngest child -- who was 18 months old when France was sent to prison -- didn't recognize her.
And France, 25, had no home to return to.
Her landlord had evicted her from the rental during her incarceration, and everything she owned had been tossed on the street.
France's case is the nightmare scenario for a system that critics say sometimes dispenses justice differently for rich and poor.
It shows how easy it is for the government to get convictions in cases built on shaky investigations.
Defense attorneys say a street-smart but dishonest informant and a federal agent working without oversight manipulated the system to convict France and dozens of others.
"They stole the truth," France said. "I don't think I'll ever trust people again. It's too hard."
"I don't know how a human being with a heart could stand up there and lie about another person," France said. "They stole part of my life."