Judge and Jury: Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald

Patrick Fitzgerald, a Federal Prosecutor, was known for the Scooter Libby trial. Held a press conference about the charges and arrest of then Governor Rod Blagojevich. Fitzgerald started with, “This is a sad day for government. It’s a very sad day for the Illinois government. Governor Blagojevich has taken us to a truly new low.” As he delineated the alleged crimes of the accused and did it by including ‘exact’ quotes from the wiretap recordings (excluding the bleeps). In addition, Fitzgerald made a special note that none of the evidence points to President Elect Obama.

On a personal note from the Prosecutor, he expressed how horrified he and his staff was about the amount of corruption they witnessed and that “The conduct would make Lincoln roll over in his grave.” To his credit Fitgerald noted that he didn’t want to pre-try the case. (too late) A reported asked him to compare the FBI breaking into a governors office with the Nixon Watergate scandal. He said that everything they did was legal.

Introducing: Governor Rod Blagojevich

Rod Blagojevich, the former Governor of the State of Illinois. Governor Blagojevich was removed on January 29, 2009 by the Illinois State Senate based on alleged charges and accusations that have yet to be proven by Federal Prosecutors. Governor Blagojevich maintains his innocence and has challenged the government to play all 500 hours of wiretapped phone calls during the trial. This could generate a political fall-out for many politicians related to the state of Illinois, including President Obama and members of his administration.

My Opinion:

In the words of Patrick Fitzgerald, “This is a sad day for government.”

First, I loath it when prosecutors hold a press conference and fill it with personal opinions and attacks. They need to give the facts and answer questions truthfully. It appears that Fitzgerald is after publicity. This is a perversion of the justice system, his office is not there for personal gain or publicity, he is suppose to be a servant of the government. We also saw this with District Attorney Thomas W. Sneddon’s comments “We got him” and “Wacko Jacko” during the Michael Jackson prosecution. Again in the incessant desire for the police have the accused (not guilty) ‘perp-walked’ before the press.

Second, what happened to the presumption of innocences? Fitzgerald’s personal comments and reading of selected quotes from the wiretap recordings crosses the line. This evidence has not been challenged in a court before a judge, defense attorney and jury; some of it can be thrown out. Moreover, this is going to be a difficult case to prove and get a conviction; especially after boring and confusing a jury for 500 hours.

Third, why did Fitzgerald make a special note to proclaim President Elect Obama innocent? Why did he wait until after the election to indict Blagojevich? Why doesn’t he want to play all of the tapes to the jury, who else on the 500 hours of phone calls will suffer politically? Fitzgerald said that everything they did was legal, that remains to be seen once it’s been tested by the defense.

Fourth, the end result is something that should shake up the states, the Federal Government succeeded on forcing our a democratically elected Governor without due process, based on allegations and without the presumption of innocences. The impeachment was done by the state legislature which is legal; however, it was all based on Federal Government allegations which swayed public opinion against the Governor.

Now that they have success in doing it, they can do this to any governor they like, or dislike.

According to Harry Wu, “Mao killed just as many people as Hitler, maybe even more, He intentionally sought to destroy the traditional Chinese family system because it is inherently subversive to the collective Communist utopia.” Moreover, Mao was responsible for millions of deaths “as a result of his lunatic agricultural policies.” (Newsmax.com)

What is troubling is the alignment of this administration with socialist (Communist) philosophies and tactics. Obama speaks about changing the fabric of America. What does this mean? Does it mean that we will be moving away from capitalism and democracy and toward socialism and totalitarianism?

The quotes:

• Ron Bloom, agreeing with Mao Zedong, “that political power comes largely from the barrel of a gun.”
• Anita Dunn, “one of my favorite political philosophers is Mao Zedong.” and quotes Mao, “You fight your war, I’ll fight mine.”

As we move away from freedom and democracy in the United States we can expect that human rights abuses will increase as illustrated by R.J. Rommel in the preface of the book, ‘Death By Government’, “These results also well illustrate the principle underlying all my findings on war, collective violence, and democide, which is that the less freedom people have the more violence, the more freedom the less violence. I put this here as the Power Principle: power kills, absolute power kills absolutely.”

Death By Government, R.J. Rummel, University of Hawaii.

I believe that the Fraternal Order or ‘Brotherhood’ that is promoted among officers does indeed ‘spoil the whole bunch’. This brotherhood at times is held above-that-law and leads to perjury, obstruction of justice and police brutality. For example, what do you see in the video. Did the police arrest their own? Were they forthcoming with the evidence? Why did it take the video to go public before something was done? Why did the officers present proceed to confiscate cameras and cellular phones to keep the video out of the public eye? There is not such thing as a few bad apples as claimed by ‘good officers’, they will break the law to protect the ‘bad apples’.

Elliot Madison, 41, is the subject of an intriguing — and in my view compelling — constitutional fight with both federal and state authorities. A self-described anarchist, Madison was arrested for using Twitter to send messages on the location of police during the G20 protests. Pittsburgh has been accused of excessive measures and this case appears to be one such case.

Madison says that he was arrested because his tweets were assisting people to evade the police. FBI agents executed a search warrant Thursday at his home in Queens and seized computers, political writings, anarchist literature, gas masks and a pound of liquid mercury. The mercury could suggest additional charges are to come.

However, arresting someone for communications based on public observations is an abuse of authority and a violation of the Constitution. The scene is uncomfortably reminiscent of the Chinese police seeking people with pictures of publicly viewed abuses, here. Likewise, the Iranian government arrested bloggers viewed as supporting the protests over the presidential election, here.

This case involves a more sophisticated assault on free speech rights: claiming that the tweets assisted criminal conduct. It is a theory that would gut the first amendment and create a chilling effect on citizen communications. We will see in the days to come if the police offer a different theory for the arrest.

The involvement of the FBI only deepens the concern over the first amendment. Citizens are allowed to share publicly available information, even if it assists people engaged in unlawful protests.

You can read more at Jonathan Turley’s Blog.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Article

Associated Press Article at KDKA Pittsburgh

Congressman Ron Paul (R) Texas

Congressman Ron Paul of Texas, presented a speech to Congress on June 27, 2002, titled “Is America a Police State?”

In the speech, the congressman admits that the the “vast majority of Americans” would not agree that we are living in a police state and most would trade freedom for security. We no longer live in a nation of freedom and liberty, but we live in a nation where we are watched and monitored to catch us in wrong doing. When caught for violating a law, whether inadvertently or not, the punishment is “denying disobedient citizens such things as jobs or places to live, and by levying fines and imprisonment.”

Congressman Paul makes several observations about the our situation that include monitoring, information gathering, unreasonable search and seizure and public officials carrying weapons. Some quotes from the speech are included below:

• “Our government already keeps close tabs on just about everything we do and requires official permission for nearly all of our activities.”
• “Because government pays for much of our health care, it’s conveniently argued that any habits or risk-taking that could harm one’s health are the prerogative of the federal government, and are to be regulated by explicit rules to keep medical-care costs down. This same argument is used to require helmets for riding motorcycles and bikes.”
• “Not only do we need a license to drive, but we also need special belts, bags, buzzers, seats and environmentally dictated speed limits- or a policemen will be pulling us over to levy a fine, and he will be toting a gun for sure.”
• “Over 80,000 federal bureaucrats now carry guns to make us toe the line and to enforce the thousands of laws and tens of thousands of regulations that no one can possibly understand. We don’t see the guns, but we all know they’re there, and we all know we can’t fight “City Hall,” especially if it’s “Uncle Sam.””
• “All our financial activities are subject to “legal” searches without warrants and without probable cause.”

Congressman Paul closes the speech with:

• “Mr. Speaker, what, then, is the answer to the question: “Is America a Police State?” My answer is: “Maybe not yet, but it is fast approaching.” The seeds have been sown and many of our basic protections against tyranny have been and are constantly being undermined.”

Full text: Is America a Police State – Congressman Ron Paul, Texas.

Update: Police State USA

Trapster.com released an iPhone Application in early 2009, soon to be released on the Palm Pre, named after it’s own website. The Trapster app is a GPS enabled anti-ticketing technology to remind errant drivers to slow down. As stated in the iTunes store description, “FREE app that alerts you as you approach police speed traps, red light cameras, and speed cameras.”

While many states have outlawed radar detectors this application is almost a replacement. We, Police State Observer, believe it could help reduce your encounters with law enforcement offices, traffic related crimes and accidents. It also does what law enforcement fails to do on their own, to make their presence know so that people do not break the law.

According to the Washington Examiner, police chief Cathy Lanier was quoted as saying that using the application was a “cowardly tactic.”

Nothing is more cowardly than an officer hiding behind a bush on the interstate waiting for a speeder to happen by. Its seems their philosophy is hope that drivers speed so that they can give them a ticket and gain revenues. Is it not safer for all drivers for the police to make their presence know, patrol the interstate and keep speeding to a minimum?