criminaljustice: November 2014

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Ferguson After Verdict

Ferguson experiences repercussions.
http://news.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/11/24/live-updates-from-ferguson-on-the-grand-jury-decision-in-michael-brown-shooting/?_r=0

Although there are, in the police population...as in the general population, people who have little to no ethics and morals...these bad apples are few...especially as time moves on and police candidates are expected to be better educated and to undergo testing and mental examinations.

All the evidence seems to exonerate the officer yet because he was not thrown to the wolves people all over the states are outraged.

Why?

IMO they needed a "sacrifice" for the pain they as a group have felt for far too long.
Innocence was not a variable to be examined by "the people".

From the NYT link above;
"...he (Mr Brown) looked up at me and had the most intense aggressive face. The only way I can describe it, it looks like a demon, that’s how angry he looked". said officer Wilson.

That is "RAGE", possibly murderous rage.

Why would anyone want to be a policeman in these times...?...I have few ideas about that.
The job is too dangerous. My graduate work was in Criminal Justice so I should have some idea...but I don't... at least not today.

Side note; "...he (Mr Brown) looked up at me and had the most intense aggressive face. The only way I can describe it, it looks like a demon, that’s how angry he looked". said officer Wilson.

I have seen such an expression recently. It was directed towards me but I think the fellow mistook me for the person (a woman) who complained to the BATF about his business (in the A. part of BATF) practices. He had a leaf blower clearing the sidewalk in front of his store. I approached a business next door when this man lunged at me, leaf blower going full blast into my face with an expression of such "intense aggression" I was astounded...for he is of slight build and likely had trouble holding on to the blower with which he "attacked" me. I think he surprised himself with his rage...it took me awhile to figure out that the woman made the complaint some weeks before and that her complaint had just hit...and was likely behind his rage, as he believed I had made the complaint.

Had this man been of Mr Brown's physical stature I might have been alarmed enough to use appropriate force which is never good, even in self defense...as the victim (that would be me in this example), if he fends off the attack...and survives will undergo what Officer Wilson did experience in the aftermath and may likely continue to undergo in some manner for a very long time. I know about such.

I try to be extra friendly to the officers I meet. If they are on beat I wish them to be safe. They appreciate that. They deserve that as do the citizens they are sworn to protect.

Monday, November 24, 2014

Another Innocence Project

Another Innocence Project;
Please Support ... "Justice" is a rare commodity......see http://ourcriminaljusticesystem.blogspot.com/2014/10/paper-required-for-graduate-degree-in.html

Help us bring Belynda home for the holidays, David!

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Dear David,

On June 12, 1994, Belynda Goff walked out of her bedroom, where she had been sleeping with her three-year old son, to find her husband, Stephen, lying unconscious just inside the doorway of their apartment. She immediately called to request emergency medical assistance. The paramedics arrived ten minutes later. Despite the quick response by both Belynda and the paramedics, they were unable to find a pulse.

An autopsy revealed that Stephen's cause of death was blunt force trauma to his head. This is a fact. When it comes to Stephen's death, very few other facts have been conclusively established. No murder weapon has been found, no witness could identify Stephen's killer, and no physical evidence has linked anyone, much less Belynda, to the murder. Yet Belynda Goff has languished in prison for two decades for a murder she has always maintained she did not commit. We are currently conducting DNA testing that could prove Belynda's innocence, but crucial evidence in her case has been lost, so testing may never be able to provide the results we need.

Urge Arkansas Governor Beebe to have his appointed parole board vet Belynda's clemency petition and grant it!

Multiple witnesses have come forward to say that Stephen’s murder was the result of his involvement in an arson scheme and that Belynda had no involvement in his death. We believe testing on all of the crime scene evidence could have conclusively proven Belynda had no involvement, but with crucial evidence going missing, we may never be able to fully vindicate Belynda through DNA testing alone. An order of clemency from Governor Beebe may be Belynda’s only chance at justice.

I ask you to join me in calling on Governor Beebe to grant our clemency request for Belynda Goff and release her from prison. Let’s make sure Belynda gets to spend the holidays with her family this year.

Sincerely,

Karen Thompson
Staff Attorney

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Feguson awaits a decision from the grand jury- The Rashomon effect

http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/10/us/ferguson-michael-brown-shooting/

People are afraid in Ferguson, gun sales are soaring.

From above link

"The increase in gun sales reaches across racial and ethnic lines, he says.

"A lot of black people coming in saying they are afraid of the hooliganism," he says.

"But not all of Ferguson is hooliganish. The media portrays us that way. If the world can just see this is one little street in Ferguson going crazy, they'd understand that we're not just one big burning city."

At Metro Shooting Range in nearby Bridgeton, Missouri, manager John Stephenson says gun sales are up 40 to 50% as of last week.

And lots of folks are coming in to the gun range for training, which he says is important for new gun owners.

"Every time that door opens, we're seeing new faces," Stephenson says. Many new customers tell him they're concerned about the response to the grand jury decision."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/09/10/ferguson-shooting-witnesses/15423143/

Partial from above seems to condemn the police officer

"The comments from the workers differ from those made by St. Louis County Police Chief Joe Belmar, who said Brown physically assaulted Wilson and reached for Wilson's gun. Some witnesses also have said Brown assaulted the officer.
Benjamin Crump, an attorney for the family of Michael Brown, said the newly released video of witnesses should be presented to the grand jury as crucial evidence.
"The video is of paramount significance, not just because these two construction workers are not Ferguson residents, not because these two construction workers are Caucasian, but because this is a contemporaneous recording of their immediate reactions after what they just witnessed," Crump told USA TODAY. "It captures their raw emotions and their outrage over what they just witnessed. It is like you are watching a live play by play of what just happened."
Crump said it is also important to note that the construction workers seem to be unaware that they are being recorded because they are filmed from behind.
"Nobody can say they have been influenced by anything, any media, or anything like that," Crump said. "And it corroborates what everybody is saying. That he put his hands up. That he was running away and the police kept shooting as he was running away. And that the police kept shooting when he put his hands up."

from
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/witness-adds-new-perspective-to-ferguson-shooting/article_ab6e1e03-c49a-5c7f-8786-b0e88ec79349.html

"HONEST ACCOUNTS CAN DIFFER

Differences in witness accounts are no surprise to researchers, who even have a name for it: the Rashomon effect. It’s derived from the title of a Japanese movie in which four witnesses’ accounts of a rape and murder differ notably.
“That’s why anyone who wants to put complete faith in his statements is foolish and anyone who wants to completely discount what Dorian Johnson saw, is foolish,” said David Klinger, a University of Missouri-St. Louis criminologist. “It is entirely possible that multiple witnesses will recall different things. That’s why it’s critical to wait and see what all the evidence shows.”
Klinger, who has testified as an expert witness in numerous police shooting cases, recalls one in Houston in which one eyewitness said she saw an officer handcuff a teen, hogtie him and shoot him. Another witness, standing in nearly the same place, testified that the officer handcuffed the teen after he was shot, but the witness did not see him shot again or hogtied. “They’re not lying; they just have different stories,” Klinger said."

This is important....eyewitness accounts can be very different and be very off.
The blog author has experienced this in a Citizen Police Academy course where he and other students simulated a situation which called for firing a gun at a video scenario....while other students watched.
Those who shot had remembrances of the scenario action that usually almost always differed from what the other students related. And the other students often differed in relating what they remembered to have happened.

The prisons are filled with people who were convicted on inaccuracies.

The mission of this blog is to change our system which has proven to be totally inadequate towards "Justice".

The author posits a treatment plan here; http://ourcriminaljusticesystem.blogspot.com/2014/10/paper-required-for-graduate-degree-in.html The treatment plan is the last section of the paper, skip the degree mandated discussion on drugs as the heart of the matter is near the end.

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Waldorf Schools are enrolling students for the next year....Friends don't let friends enroll their kids in Waldorf Schools

I touched on this subject in this post http://ourcriminaljusticesystem.blogspot.com/2014/11/continuingcriminal-justice-immunity-and.html

Do MUCH research if you are considering the Waldorf School System...it is not like Montessori, far from it.

from above link;
I have been mandated never to mention the specifics of a particular school...so, instead I will go for the root cause; The International Waldorf School System.
There are Yahoo Groups and blogs for people who are not in line with the Waldorf School System.
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/waldorf-critics/conversations/topics/27816
http://thewaldorfreview.blogspot.com/
http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/2011/05/waldorf-school-supporter-in-us-uses-copyright-bullying-to-silence-swedish-waldof-critic.html
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/waldorf-critics/info

From; https://sites.google.com/site/waldorfwatch/my-sad-sad-story

"How I Deprogrammed Myself

After Waldorf

A friend once asked me how I managed to shake the cobwebs

out of my brain after graduating from a Waldorf school.

In an attempt to answer, I wrote the following (which I have revised slightly for use here).

I offer it only as a personal report, not as a guide for others.

Each individual affected by a Waldorf education probably needs to find her/his own path.

What is the path to recovery after a Waldorf "education"? Nowadays, there are support groups and services for Waldorf graduates and their parents, such as the Survivors List at People for Legal and Nonsectarian schools (http://waldorfcritics.org/ ). As far as I know, there was nothing of the sort in the dim, distant year of 1964, when I graduated from a Waldorf school. The upshot was that if I was going to get deprogrammed, I would have to do it myself. This, I think, is probably why it took so long."....and much more to be read in the link.

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

"Reflections on a Career" by an attorney INJUSTICE in our criminal justice system

"Reflections on a Career" by an attorney is a short 1.5 page article that was given to us in the MS program.

I have two TIFF files of the two pages which need examination...so I am searching from whence this article came. pp 239 and 240.... of "criminal justice organizations administration and management" judging from a search engine. Authors are likely Stojkovic/Klofas.

I need to further investigate and obtain a copy from the library if I cannot find the book and/or article on the web.

This article made a major impression on me at the time and now.

The synopsis I would offer is this;

Young attorney graduates from law school, passes the bar and is hired by a law firm.

S/he is given a low level case involving a man who had previously been convicted of a crime . A man who had no funds to pay for a good defense.

Therefore the man was not going to get one...he was not going to receive justice.

My tiff files are poor and hard to read with aging eyes. The attorney who writes this describes how s/he found deficiencies that would give the man a chance to not plea bargain as the prosecution, the detective, the judge and her/his law firm desired.

The criminal justice system (all players) wanted to make the case quick and easy...swept under the carpet.

The young attorney would have none of it and represented the man in court...and won. He was acquitted

The attorney's law firm wanted her/him to apologize to all these justice players for giving them so much trouble. She refused for obvious reasons...s/he believed s/he held the high ground. S/he was fired a month later. Again...the judge, the prosecutor, the detective and the defense law firm WANTED to plea bargain this away.

How often does this happen? No, not the attorney persisting in holding the high ground but in innocent people plea bargaining their lives away for the pleasure of the players in the system.

Often in my opinion...and personal experience...in the Warren County, Ohio criminal justice system.

I was lucky. I refused the plea bargains because the prosecutor was being used by four people to gain my assets...which I did lose...but I was acquitted of the trumped up charges...instead of pleading guilty to one of the two charges in order to have the more serious charge dropped.

Later my attorney who saved me in criminal court won for me a defamation suit against the two people, a couple who assisted in aiding the prosecution so they could be paid by the main character in this ploy, after I was convicted. Well, I was not and they paid much by going through the civil defamation charges in court. I received a pittance of what they had taken from me.

Going through "this" is NOT an anomaly in the system IMO...it is likely the general rule. At least I could afford the attorney who was smart and had a serious ego problem with the thought of "losing". Thankfully. Survival was not easy. The jury took two days on my misdemeanor charges, to find me not guilty. It could have gone either way I now realize. At the time I KNEW I was going to be found not guilty because I was NOT guilty.

It does not work that way.

Ryan WIdmer is still in prison...in Warren County http://www.wlwt.com/news/local-news/news-warren-county/petition-asks-federal-court-to-free-ryan-widmer/24642264

https://www.facebook.com/FreeRyanWidmer

http://www.freeryanwidmer.com/

I have talked, in person, to some involved in that case, including the corrupt prosecutor Rachel Hutzel (unfortunately deceased). Widmer is innocent according to the justice system mandate concerning Beyond a Reasonable Doubt...additionally there is NO motive for Widmer to murder, and no evidence of such...however there was MUCH motive for Rachel Hutzel to convict him. Hutzel was running for office. Embarrassment for malfeasance would likely ruin her chances. Ryan went to prison so Hutzel could be elected. She was elected. Then she died of cancer. Ryan rots in prison, still, I believe, although there have been recent efforts (actually efforts never stopped) to release Widmer.

I never believed what happened to me and what happened to Widmer COULD EVER happen.

Do you feel the same way?

If so read

This book should scare the hell out of you.

"If our criminal justice system is to be a true justice system, then due process must attach at all stages. Right now, prosecutors run riot. That needs to change. " Glenn Harlan Reynolds,

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

...continuing...Criminal Justice Immunity and the International Waldorf School System

*"If our criminal justice system is to be a true justice system, then due process must attach at all stages. Right now, prosecutors run riot. That needs to change. "

I left off here;..... BTW any attorney specializing in the constitution and would like to "fix" the problem of allowing immunity and unethical discretion for prosecutors in their doing harm to innocents can certainly find me and talk to me. Obviously I do not want to post a phone number etc. If you can't find me then it is likely I would need an attorney who could. It needs brilliance and tenacity to change a system. The Supreme Court would be the obvious venue for this end-game.

I am thinking a "donation Box" towards paying for this outcome may be necessary unless there is such an attorney who is personally outraged by the system and really desires to end the injustice.

I left off here;
http://ourcriminaljusticesystem.blogspot.com/2014/11/httpourcriminaljusticesystemblogspotcom.html

which included this link to the source of much that ills the criminal justice system and other courts within the justice system http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/03/19/law-enforcement-clue-jury-criminal-column/6490641/
From above link; "If our criminal justice system is to be a true justice system, then due process must attach at all stages. Right now, prosecutors run riot. That needs to change. "

The immunity protections of the prosecutor allows them to do whatever s/he desires within some bounds that usually do not exclude that which are unethical...criminal bounds; sometimes but not usually...

....and therein lies the problem.

It should be criminal for a prosecutor to prosecute ONLY for conviction rates regardless of the facts of the case which are often barred from the case where an innocent could be spared much grief or his/her life) if only the prosecutor did not give a damn about his conviction rate.

The original argument was that if a prosecutor feared penalties, severe penalties brought against her/him then how could the prosecutor do his job.

Most "reformers" with a passion... are the end result of injustice.
The specific matter of "immune prosecutors" is my experience of "injustice". One of several reasons I went for a MS degree (Criminal Justice).

I used to have a blog that was about the details of my case....I named names...but I took it a step further by branching into a personal level that I regret entering. It included a corrupt private school system...and a teacher at that school...it was all true. I still, if I desired, could resurrect that old blog. A few clicks and it would be "out there again".

The consequences of doing so have been relayed to me.
If I still had the financial assets I had before the criminal Justice System allowed four criminals to get away with too many felonies I would choose freedom of speech and "fix" that facet of my problem.

When I "attack" the corruption mentioned in this link http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/03/19/law-enforcement-clue-jury-criminal-column/6490641/ by Glenn Harlan Reynolds, a University of Tennessee law professor,I mean to address the entire system. However my focus is my experience in Warren County Ohio Criminal Justice System.

I have been mandated never to mention the specifics of a particular school...so, instead I will go for the root cause; The International Waldorf School System.
There are Yahoo Groups and blogs for people who are not in line with the Waldorf School System.
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/waldorf-critics/conversations/topics/27816
http://thewaldorfreview.blogspot.com/
http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/2011/05/waldorf-school-supporter-in-us-uses-copyright-bullying-to-silence-swedish-waldof-critic.html
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/waldorf-critics/info

From; https://sites.google.com/site/waldorfwatch/my-sad-sad-story