Saturday, June 26, 2004

House Passes 'National Concealed Carry for Cops. The House of Representatives today overwhelmingly passed H.R. 218, legislation that would allow qualified off-duty and retired law enforcement officers to carry their firearms concealed in all 50 states. Originally drafted by Rep. Randy 'Duke' Cunningham and Law Enforcement Alliance of America (LEAA) Executive Director Jim Fotis in 1992, the 'National Concealed Carry for Cops' legislation has been a 12-year fight that has been embraced by nearly every association representing rank and file police officers and a significant bipartisan majority in the House and Senate. At a press conference marking passage of the life-saving legislation in the House, Fotis remarked, 'After more than a decade of fighting, a major victory has been won for America's men and women in blue. For 12 years the Law Enforcement Alliance of America has backed Congressman Cunningham in his efforts and helped lead the fight to pass H.R 218. In that time Duke has proven himself, time and time again, to be a good friend and the greatest ally a good cause -- and cops -- could ever have. We owe a debt of gratitude to Law Enforcement's 'Top Gun' on Capitol Hill. Thank you Congressman Cunningham.' [FirearmNews.com] The cops are obviously happy about this, but it's bad news for us peasants. This is just one more step on the way to making cops into the new samurai class. 10:40:20 PM    comment () # Harvey Silverglate at LewRockwell.com - Ashcroft's Gulag - on the Communist Russian tactics of the Busheviks' "justice" department. [lew] See the emerging picture? It's an endless series of faux prosecutions in which defendants are threatened to "cooperate" and plead guilty, or face indefinite incommunicado imprisonment, with all the physical and psychological terrors that accompany finding oneself in a bottomless legal pit. Like a Ponzi scheme, the structure of these prosecutions resembles a pyramid: defendants are pressured to testify against other friends, associates, and cohorts, who are then indicted regardless of whether the testimony, given under enormous pressure, would ever stand up in a real trial -- and, in fact, it never will have to stand up at a real trial. Those new defendants are then, in turn, subjected to the same pressures. None of the "evidence" ever gets to be heard and evaluated by a jury of honest Americans, but the march of prosecutions and guilty pleas rolls onward, and the Bush administration's war on terror is palmed off on the public as a huge success. [End the War on Freedom] There were some other cases, not mentioned in the article, that ended in plea bargains that looked suspiciously coerced; for example, the guys who were sent to prison for playing paintball. 9:51:04 PM    comment ()

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