Bush Admin Lax on Civil Rights Enforcement

Timmy G

Timmy G

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Bush Admin Lax on Civil Rights Enforcement

This is an interesting article; It poses the question - do our liberties have to be taken away from us, for us to lose them?



New Report Says Bush Administration Lax on Civil Rights Enforcement

November 22, 2004

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: [email protected]

WASHINGTON ? The American Civil Liberties Union welcomed a new study of civil rights enforcement by the Justice Department, which found that government enforcement has sharply declined during the Bush administration. The findings, released today, contradict public statements made by administration officials that the nation?s civil rights laws are being strictly enforced.

?The actions of administration officials speak louder then their words,? said Laura W. Murphy, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. ?President Bush told the American people that the administration ?has vigorously enforced civil rights laws,? but we see today that this simply is not the case. As the Department of Justice moves forward, it has an obligation to uphold and enforce laws designed to protect our civil rights.?

The ACLU comments come in response to the release today of a new report by the non-partisan Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, or TRAC, a Syracuse University-based organization that analyzes information on government staffing, spending and law enforcement.

The report focuses on key data from the Justice Department and the federal courts from the last five years. Specifically, the TRAC report shows that while the reported number of civil rights complaints has remained steady over that period, the government?s enforcement of civil rights cases has sharply declined, from 159 defendants in 1999 to 84 in 2003.

During the same time period, the total number of federal prosecutions increased by about 10 percent, with sharp jumps in immigration and terrorism cases. The report states that these distinctly different trends suggest an unannounced policy shift by the government in choosing which cases to prosecute.

There has also been a steady decline in the number of civil sanctions imposed on violators. The government filed 740 civil actions in 2001, 644 in 2002, and 576 in 2003. Civil suits can involve voting rights violations, employment and housing discrimination and other matters.

According to the report, one factor driving these trends is U.S. Attorneys. In 2003, federal prosecutors filed charges in almost 90 percent of immigration cases presented to them, but they filed charges in only 5 percent of civil rights cases.

?The report today confirms what practically everyone in the civil rights community already knows: the Justice Department is not doing its job of enforcing civil rights laws,? added Christopher E. Anders, an ACLU Legislative Counsel. ?The Senate should ask the nominee for the Attorney General position, Alberto Gonzales, to commit to restoring the Justice Department as the nation?s top civil rights law enforcer.?

Complete article found HERE
 
Bush Admin Lax on Civil Rights Enforcement

Hey Tim,
I saw the same thing in the New York Times earlier this week. Doesn't seem too many people care, yet. Operative word being "yet."

Rather than paste the entire article here, I'll post a link for those who'd like to read it.

Enforcement of Civil Rights Law Declined Since '99, Study Finds


One of the study's authors, David Burnham, said the results showed that civil rights enforcement dropped across the board in President Bush's first term in office. \"Collectively, some violators of the civil rights laws are not being dealt with by the government,\" Professor Burnham said. \"This trend, we think, is significant.\"

It is unlikely the decline has occurred because of fewer civil rights violations occurring, the study suggests. The number of complaints about possible violations received by the Justice Department has remained at about 12,000 annually for each of the past five years.

The Justice Department had no comment about the study.
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Outstanding! Civil rights aren't being enforced, and the agency that's supposed to be enforcing them has "no comment."

Yeeha, into the abyss we go.

Cary
 

Bush Admin Lax on Civil Rights Enforcement

I would be interested to hear input on this topic. The thread is about Civil Rights Enforcement. On the other side of the coin, this post is about how our government is going too far in violating them.

There appear to be many intelligent ppl on board here - if anyone can (or cares to :D) help me out here; Don't the same rules, which apply to people being held for war crimes also apply to US citizens ~ via ~ the Patriot Act?

US constitutional rights lawyers say they have filed a criminal complaint against the US Defence Secretary. As well as Donald Rumsfeld, those named in the complaint include the former CIA director, George Tenet, and the former senior US commander in Iraq, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez.

The group says it chose Germany because it has legislation allowing the prosecution of war crimes and human rights violations across national boundaries.

So far, the Pentagon's response has been that it has had eight major inquiries into the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, with three more to come, and that criminal investigations continue.

But that is not good enough, according to the Center for Constitutional Rights, which essentially dismisses the investigations by the Pentagon and Congress as inadequate.

Complete Article found HERE
 

Bush Admin Lax on Civil Rights Enforcement

Rights!

If you have ever had the pleasure of being detained in one of the correctional facilities within the United States, you would know that your "rights" only guarantee that you will receive some kind of "due process" before you are locked up, beaten, or killed. If you have the "due process" thing done, then prepare yourself for locking up, beating and gettin' killed. You don't have a right to anything once you have tangled with "the system" and "the system" has determined that you are a convict. That is the end of your "rights." :angry:

The more rules and regulations there are (such as the rules enforcing your rights), the more likely you are to find the heavy hand of "authority" resting on your shoulder. "Due process" follows and then your "rights" disappear like magic. The truth is, your "rights" are "privileges" as far as "authority" is concerned. Blink and they are gone. :blink:

When I was a young and callow fellow, I thought that I was one of the "good guys" who would NEVER EVER be mistaken for a BAD GUY. I would have "rights" to protect me and to make sure that "the bad guys" were hauled off to jail (YAY). But I found out that there are no "good guys" and "bad guys." There's just guys. Some guys have money and wear suits and have "connections" (aka "juice"). They have "expectations," and they are usually not disappointed. :devil: Some guys have no connections and they should expect nothing. :dry:

Our "system" spends a lot of time and money trying to convince us that prisons are run by the prisoners and that they are full of homosexual rape and prisoners torturing and killing each other. "Oh no! I can't go to PRISON!" Actually (surprise) the prisons are run by the prison administrators, and any killing or raping or anything else that goes on is sanctioned by those same administrators-- unless a riot occurs, which is pretty darned rare.

Welcome to reality! :D
 
Bush Admin Lax on Civil Rights Enforcement

Rights?

I'll only deal with the prisoners charged with the crime of Murder. They took another persons life. Stop and think about that for a moment, they took life from another human being. What about the dead persons' rights? When you take another persons life, through an act of murder, you have stated that you have no respect for life, yours included, thus giving up any type of claim to rights. This above has nothing to do with a war time situation.

I would like to hear from as many countries that care to post, about the conditions in their countries prisons. If I am not mistaken, American prisons are a cake walk compared to many other prisons in the world. They should be so lucky.

The prisons are full of "Innocent" people. prisons are not a home away from home. If you did the crime, you should expect to do the time. Who cares WHO runs the prison system. The fact remains, you put your self there if you broke the laws that caused you to be charged and sent to prison.

We are carefully watching for the rights of truly innocent people that have NOT broken any laws and how they are treated. That is a whole different kettle of 'scofflaws'

Now THATS Reality.
 
Bush Admin Lax on Civil Rights Enforcement

would be interested to hear input on this topic. The thread is about Civil Rights Enforcement. On the other side of the coin, this post is about how our government is going too far in violating them.

There appear to be many intelligent ppl on board here - if anyone can (or cares to ) help me out here; Don't the same rules, which apply to people being held for war crimes also apply to US citizens ~ via ~ the Patriot Act?

US constitutional rights lawyers say they have filed a criminal complaint against the US Defence Secretary. As well as Donald Rumsfeld, those named in the complaint include the former CIA director, George Tenet, and the former senior US commander in Iraq, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez.

The group says it chose Germany because it has legislation allowing the prosecution of war crimes and human rights violations across national boundaries.

So far, the Pentagon's response has been that it has had eight major inquiries into the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, with three more to come, and that criminal investigations continue.

But that is not good enough, according to the Center for Constitutional Rights, which essentially dismisses the investigations by the Pentagon and Congress as inadequate.

Complete Article found HERE
Click to expand...


This is a frightening precident. IMHO its exactly what that mysterious THEY want us to do. The "evil neocons" are here so that we run to the "international community" and give them ever more power and legitimacy in our own country. Problem response solution. Sounds like these lawyers are diving head first into the trap. Wonder if they know it. Any problems that we have with how our leaders do things need to be handled in house.
 
Bush Admin Lax on Civil Rights Enforcement

Originally posted by StarLord@Dec 2 2004, 01:21 PM
We are carefully watching for the rights of truly innocent people that have NOT broken any laws and how they are treated. That is a whole different kettle of 'scofflaws'

Now THATS Reality.
​
Click to expand...

Now let me get this straight.

We have "lawbreakers" (convicts) and we have "truly innocent people" (non-convicts).

"Truly innocent people" are rare indeed. I've never met one. The Christian faith (for example) claims that this type of person does not exist (except for Jesus). But there are other sects that will allow for the existence of various "saints" that are more-or-less innocent-- so I'll allow that these extremely rare persons are out there-- somewhere. I assume that you belong to this group?

Now the subject of "rights" is an interesting one from a legal point of view. "Rights" is a very difficult philosophical concept, and it comes from a Christian tradition. But even if we toss aside the idea that "all have sinned" as well as the notion that "all human beings are children of God and deserving of respect" then we have a problem establishing a legal system that is not based on revenge and retribution. Suffering my help to purify the soul, but I'm going to assume that you do not want to scourge the devil from evil-doers with hot iron (as in The Inquisition).

So if revenge and retribution is what you want, then the proper philosophical basis for that system would be that of Nietzsche-- "i.e., what does not kill me makes me stronger." This does seem to be the current secular foundation for the prison system, in that convicts forfeit all claims to humanity and are, in fact, schooled in the methods and means of the enslaved.

The problem with this view of the world, as Nietzsche so clearly pointed out, is that when you "gaze too long into the abyss" the "abyss gazes back into you." If you take all of the small time crack-dealers and pimps and prostitutes and drunks and pistol packers out there and force them through the "system"-- you will create monsters, not "reformed citizens" or "saved souls" or even "dead bodies." You create a better criminal-- with more skill and a new outlook, taught by your prisons, to live in a brutal, kill or be killed manner that I'm sure no sane person would actually endorse as a good way to educate the millions who enter our prisons.

If you are going to hold the point of view that criminals deserve no consideration, then you should be sensible enough to recommend that they all be hanged, as was the custom for centuries. Abandon the pretense that you have mercy, and embrace the merciless choice you have already made.
 
Bush Admin Lax on Civil Rights Enforcement

If you are going to hold the point of view that criminals deserve no consideration, then you should be sensible enough to recommend that they all be hanged, as was the custom for centuries. Abandon the pretense that you have mercy, and embrace the merciless choice you have already made.
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Actually Dansho, you have a point. Now I'm not for hanging every shoplifter who comes down the pike. I am for public flogging and such. It is more immediate and probably would do a better job of teaching minor criminals a lesson than stuffing them into a cage with a bunch of other criminals would.
 
Bush Admin Lax on Civil Rights Enforcement

Really? You have a better way to treat people that have no respect for the law?
Laws didn't just fall out of trees. Also now you seem to be making excuses for people that CHOOSE to break the law. I am not talking about victimless crime, I am talking about those fools that take lives. Save the background chat about what may caused them to have done this. Deal with the facts. They broke the law when they took life. They lost.

If It was me I would televise during the news casts daily executions of those convicted of Murder and send their family a 32 cent bill for the bullet. Bet you in a year the prisons would be less full. Or did you wish to argue the niceties of Murder and why society should be nice to murderers?

If our society didn't guarantee "3 hots and a kot" with TV and HEAT, do you think crime would have escalated the way it has if they knew that life in prison was 100% worse than being out on the street? Try a prison system where you barely get fed, no heat, certainly no friggin TV, no library, no possible way to turn yourself into a lawyer and spend the rest of your incarceration wasting the states money with legal battles, no ciggarets, no sodas, no canteen, only enough water to drink-forget bathing, nada, zip,zilch, zero. Prison is like that in other places in the world. Why do you suspose that is???

Please save the crap about how the system drove most of the people into prison in the first place. I don't buy it. I'll tell you why I don't buy it, I have seen way too many po folks choose to be honest and make their humble way through life WITHOUT resorting to a life of crime. Was it a miracle? Nope! just a matter of choice. Play with dogs and you will find the fleas.

Sure you can buy that Benz with the bomb rolly hub caps that spin forever a lot faster selling crack than you ever could working for McDonalds, but its your choice isn't it? Once you start a life of crime you can't use any excuses, it was your choice and your choice alone to get into crime.

My first job was washing dishes, from there it was always a step up. It was all on me. Getting an education and going through the military did not hurt either.
 
Bush Admin Lax on Civil Rights Enforcement

The problem with this view of the world, as Nietzsche so clearly pointed out, is that when you \"gaze too long into the abyss\" the \"abyss gazes back into you.\" If you take all of the small time crack-dealers and pimps and prostitutes and drunks and pistol packers out there and force them through the \"system\"-- you will create monsters, not \"reformed citizens\" or \"saved souls\" or even \"dead bodies.\" You create a better criminal-- with more skill and a new outlook, taught by your prisons, to live in a brutal, kill or be killed manner that I'm sure no sane person would actually endorse as a good way to educate the millions who enter our prisons.

If you are going to hold the point of view that criminals deserve no consideration, then you should be sensible enough to recommend that they all be hanged, as was the custom for centuries. Abandon the pretense that you have mercy, and embrace the merciless choice you have already made.
Click to expand...

Points well made dancho. Our current penal system is at all time highs for occupants of "the system" in number and percentage terms, with jails and prisons bursting at the seams. We've already started "outsourcing" the task to private enterprise. Check out Wackenhut, a firm that builds and manages jails and prisons for a fee. I agree that our prison system just makes better criminals, where the "newbies" get trained by the pros. Keep the great posts coming.

StarLord, I have no idea about the conditions of foreign jails, but I've some horrific stories. Doesn't make our penal system "right." No disrespect pal. But I think dancho has a point here.

Cary
 

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