{"id":2266,"date":"2002-07-18T14:30:59","date_gmt":"2002-07-18T19:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=2266"},"modified":"2002-07-18T14:30:59","modified_gmt":"2002-07-18T19:30:59","slug":"speaking_of_thr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/07\/18\/speaking_of_thr.html","title":{"rendered":"Speaking of threats to civil liberties"},"content":{"rendered":"

A sad, sad article in the Telegraph <\/i>about the imminent proposals by the Blair government in Britain that threaten the four cornerstones of British law<\/a> — which, it should be noted, are cornerstones of US law as well:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The right to trial by jury<\/b>. Using dubious numbers that suggest juries acquit more often than judges, the British government proposes to do away with many jury trials, for both simple crimes and for complex ones. Right.\n
  2. Innocent until proven guilty<\/b>. This is being twisted in some cases by EU laws which (after the French model) presume guilt (certain discrimination laws, for example). It’s also being turned about by proposals to let judges inform juries more often of previous arrests and convictions.<\/p>\n
  3. No imprisonment without charge (habeas corpus)<\/b>. This one is tied to the EU, which would allow other member governments to demand arrest and extradition of Brits, regardless of whether there’s been a charge filed in court.<\/p>\n
  4. No second prosecution for the same defense (double jeopardy)<\/b>. After some well-publicized bungled cases, the proposed fix is not better prosecutors, but giving them unlimited chances “if new evidence is found.” Yeah, that should be difficult.<\/ol>\n

    All of these proposals only make sense if you live in an ideal world where individuals in the government would never dream of inappropriately using their power over the citizenry, i.e., where humans are perfect. <\/i> Since that same ideal world would mean no crime in the first place, one gets hint of how well such changes in the law can be expected to work. I have no doubt, of course, that more guilty people will go to jail. Is there any doubt that more innocent ones will go, too?<\/p>\n

    What’s scary is that there are plenty of people in this country who would be more than willing to advocate such changes, all in the name of “law & order,” “punishing the guilty,” “protecting our loved ones,” and, of course, “homeland security.” And not all of those people work in the current Administration.<\/p>\n

    Fortunately, we have something called the Constitution that protects us from willy-nilly changes to such laws (both by the difficulty in changing it, and by the relative sanctity in which it is held. Pity the Brits never adopted one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    A sad, sad article in the Telegraph about the imminent proposals by the Blair government in Britain that threaten the four cornerstones of British law — which, it should be…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":131527,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/09\/13\/double-jeopardy-double-trouble.html","url_meta":{"origin":2266,"position":0},"title":"Double Jeopardy, Double Trouble","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 13-Sep-16 11:20pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Double Jeopardy is trying someone twice (or more than once) for the same crime. It is expressly forbidden by the US Constitution because the Founders knew through hard experience how easy it is to exploit. The state (the courts and prosecutors) have unlimited resources compared to the average citizen. If\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31486,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/11\/26\/recording-the-police-is-not-a-crime.html","url_meta":{"origin":2266,"position":1},"title":"Recording the police is not a crime","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 26-Nov-12 9:19am","format":false,"excerpt":"So says (finally) the Supreme Court.There is no question that police have a hell of a job. And the potential of being audio- or video-taped probably doesn't make it any easier.That said, the police also wield a hell of a lot of power. \u00a0They can lock you up. They can\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29981,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/27\/the-applesamsung-decision-has-some-sketchy-jury-behavior.html","url_meta":{"origin":2266,"position":2},"title":"The Apple\/Samsung decision has some sketchy jury behavior","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 27-Aug-12 11:50am","format":false,"excerpt":"And by \"sketchy\" I mean things like disregarding jury instructions, bringing in outside knowledge from the jurors not presented in evidence, deciding to \"punish\" Samsung,\u00a0\u00a0and a lot of other even more dubious behavior.'In the long run, the jury verdict probably won't matter much, because this case would have been appealed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7452,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/03\/01\/kid_stuff_3.html","url_meta":{"origin":2266,"position":3},"title":"Kid Stuff","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 1-Mar-05 9:47pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I am inclined to agree with the Supremes that sentencing juveniles (those under age 18) to death is \"cruel and unusual.\" While I have no doubt that some 17-year-olds are...","rel":"","context":"In "Crime & Punishment"","block_context":{"text":"Crime & Punishment","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/crime-punishment"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":138533,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/04\/02\/should-someone-be-executed-because-theyre-gay-in-america.html","url_meta":{"origin":2266,"position":4},"title":"Should someone be executed because they’re gay? In America?","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 2-Apr-19 9:48pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Yup, right here in the good ol' U.S.A.","rel":"","context":"In "Crime & Punishment"","block_context":{"text":"Crime & Punishment","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/crime-punishment"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/supreme-court.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/supreme-court.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/supreme-court.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/supreme-court.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/supreme-court.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/supreme-court.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9912,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/10\/11\/ballot_propositions_for_c.html","url_meta":{"origin":2266,"position":5},"title":"Ballot propositions for Colorado","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 11-Oct-06 9:40am","format":false,"excerpt":"Got my Colorado ballot proposal book the other day. Here's what I think. Your mileage may (will almost certainly) vary. Amendment 38: Petitions: The thrust of this amendment is to...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2006"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2006","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2006"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2266\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}