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I am sorry I have not previously mustered the courage or motivation to post an update. Frankly, I was frightened out of my wits for some time after I was arrested in Allentown, Pennsylvania on May 11 of this year. Only recently have I started to feel something approaching normal again.

The original charge that might have carried eight years in federal prison was dropped around May 28th. The probable cause hearing for that was supposed to be on May 25th I believe, but they canceled it. New charges were filed shortly afterward, much reduced charges, but the initial hearing for these new charges didn’t happen until June 22nd. So my family and I were subjected to the stress of 6 weeks of house arrest, complete with ankle monitor. Two of those weeks occurred while the state ran out the clock on showing probable cause for their May 11th arrest of me. The other four weeks transpired after the charge that prompted the house arrest had been dropped.

The June 22nd initial appearance for the new charges took place inside the Allentown federal building. The magistrate was the same one who signed both complaints against me and pre-sentenced me to house arrest. However, a mood change accompanied the reduction in charges. The ankle monitor was removed. The weekly drug test was removed. Bail was reduced from $50,000 to $10,000. And I was allowed to travel the continental United States without asking for permission. My passport and firearms were still retained by the same marshals who had arrested me. I still have to report to the court’s representative on a regular basis.

Trial for the reduced charges is set for August 26th. That’s where the case is at now.

Around 160 very generous people have raised more than $6,000 for my legal defense. I am in awe. I don’t know how I am going to repay you all. Thank you so much.

The community at Reddit has really backed me up. The majority of the donors found me through Reddit. Reddit is one of the best online communities around. Join them and participate.

I have received many expressions of support and large donations from libertarian friends. The ad hoc libertarian mutual aid network works! You guys rock.

Some very excellent friends visited and called me while I was under house arrest. They made the burden manageable and I thank them.

Around 30 passionate activists mounted a protest in front of the Allentown federal building on June 4th. They marched through Allentown and even secured media coverage, including a local TV station that videotaped at the same location where I was arrested.

There has been significant online coverage from libertarians and one notable civil libertarian. I’ll post a list of all the coverage later on. I am deeply indebted to all of these great people.

As a result of this incident, my family’s planned move to New Hampshire, which was only 6 days away at the time of my arrest, had to be postponed. My family and I are still committed to moving. We’re weighing our options but expect to resume our plans no later than May 2011.

Things appear to be improving. I hope to be done with this matter soon so my family and I can move on with our lives. Thanks to everyone for your support.

P.S. Rich Paul is currently suffering in a cage in Keene, New Hampshire, accused of rattling his chains in court (among other things). I know Rich. Rich is a kind, responsible man and an outstanding libertarian activist. Please read his story and donate to his legal defense if you are moved by the injustice being perpetrated against him.

Photo credit: woodleywonderworks. Photo license.

Convicted ex-hacker and now government informant Adrian Lamo has ratted on the US Army intelligence analyst who claims to have provided WikiLeaks with the “Collateral Murder” video (which shows US Imperium soldiers in Baghdad wantonly slaughtering innocent people).

According to Wired, via cryptogon.com:

[SPC Bradley] Manning came to the attention of the FBI and Army investigators after he contacted former hacker Adrian Lamo late last month over instant messenger and e-mail. Lamo had just been the subject of a Wired.com article. Very quickly in his exchange with the ex-hacker, Manning claimed to be the Wikileaks video leaker.

“If you had unprecedented access to classified networks 14 hours a day 7 days a week for 8+ months, what would you do?” Manning asked.

From the chat logs provided by Lamo, and examined by Wired.com, it appears Manning sensed a kindred spirit in the ex-hacker. He discussed personal issues that got him into trouble with his superiors and left him socially isolated, and said he had been demoted and was headed for an early discharge from the Army.

When Manning told Lamo that he leaked a quarter-million classified embassy cables, Lamo contacted the Army, and then met with Army CID investigators and the FBI at a Starbucks near his house in Carmichael, California, where he passed the agents a copy of the chat logs. At their second meeting with Lamo on May 27, FBI agents from the Oakland Field Office told the hacker that Manning had been arrested the day before in Iraq by Army CID investigators.

You utter bastard, Lamo!

But it gets worse:

Lamo has contributed funds to Wikileaks in the past, and says he agonized over the decision to expose Manning — he says he’s frequently contacted by hackers who want to talk about their adventures, and he’s never considered reporting anyone before. The supposed diplomatic cable leak, however, made him believe Manning’s actions were genuinely dangerous to U.S. national security.

“I wouldn’t have done this if lives weren’t in danger[...]“

Lives most emphatically are in danger every day in Iraq. And in Afghanistan. And in Yemen and Somalia and all of the 75 countries where President “Change!” Obama has either deployed or opted to continue the deployment of US Special Forces — that is, the American Imperium’s elite death&destruction squads.

But Mr. Lamo is worried about “US national security”, meaning the ability of the American Imperium to continue tax-harvesting its free-range chattel submittizens, legalizing massive privilege to favored members of the American and global ruling classes, carrying out wanton, unlimited bloodletting overseas and generally making life a living hell for millions upon millions of people, all without challenge.

I am not one to praise soldiers, but Bradley Manning did one of the most admirable things he could do as a volunteer member of the gang of evil thugs calling itself the “United States Army” by leaking the video and the other information. Maybe we’ll find out what his reasons were, some day when he’s out of whatever dark hole the US Imperium’s “justice” system throws him into, but he did say some things in his chats with Lamo which interest me:

“Hillary Clinton, and several thousand diplomats around the world are going to have a heart attack when they wake up one morning, and find an entire repository of classified foreign policy is available, in searchable format, to the public,” Manning wrote.

[...]

“Everywhere there’s a U.S. post, there’s a diplomatic scandal that will be revealed,” Manning wrote. “It’s open diplomacy. World-wide anarchy in CSV format. It’s Climategate with a global scope, and breathtaking depth. It’s beautiful, and horrifying.”

Somehow, Adrian Lamo doesn’t think this is a good thing, and feels so strongly about it that he’s quite okay with Bradley Manning being kidnapped and caged with real criminals, possibly for a very long time.

Adrian Lamo, go die in a hole. Alone. Screaming. And take your “national security” with you.

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Tags: Adrian Lamo, Bradley Manning, Hillary Clinton, Iraq, Obama, United States Empire, WikiLeaks

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From the comments on the CNN story of a 7-year-old girl killed by Detroit police raiding the wrong home:

“Good cops are about as common as honest politicians.”

You called it, buddy.

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Tags: Aiyana Jones, Michigan, SWAT

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• I can’t count on anybody to understand. (Blogging Against Disablism Day 2010) amandaw, three rivers fog (2010-05-01). (Cross-posted to FWD/Forward. See more BADD 2010 at Goldfish’s blog.) I’m pretty open about my health issues. To be honest, I don’t know any other way to be. I know how to strategically hide my disabilities from strangers in passing interactions, but from the people with whom I interact on... (Linked Monday 2010-05-10.)

• Prison Rape. myglesias, Matthew Yglesias (2010-04-22). (cc photo by amandabhslater) Excellent post by Liliana Segura: In 1994 in the case Farmer v. Brennan, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a prison official’s “deliberate indifference” to the risk that a trans woman prisoner named Dee Farmer would be raped when placed within the general population of a... (Linked Monday 2010-05-10.)

• Welcome: Japan Council Against A&H Bombs. mom_in_las_vegas, Las Vegas Anarchoblogs (2010-05-07).  Welcome: Japan Council Against A&H Bombshttp://pjep.org/actions/?id=4618&t=1273035600The Japan Council against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs (Gensuikyo) was established in September 1955. Since then it has waged various kinds of campaigns for: the prevention of nuclear war; the total ban on and the elimination of nuclear weapons; and support and solidarity with Hibakusha... (Linked Monday 2010-05-10.)

• It's just like the time I got confused and accidentally went on an interstate bank-robbing spree. John Markley, The Superfluous Man (2010-05-03). You know, the frequent attempts I see to excuse flagrant police misbehavior as honest mistakes are seldom very convincing, but at least the excuse is usually applied to acts committed in the field. It's still usually a weak and often absurd excuse, and often applied to situations where the officer's... (Linked Tuesday 2010-05-11.)

• A Statement from SubRosa concerning May Day. JC, SubRosa - a community space (2010-05-06). SubRosa was not involved in the events in downtown Santa Cruz on May Day. SubRosa is a community space that offers literature, art, coffee and performances. Like many businesses downtown, SubRosa provides a public bulletin board for people to post fliers. Jimi Haynes is not and has never been a volunteer... (Linked Tuesday 2010-05-11.)

• NYT: ‘Attorney General Eric Holder Backs Miranda Limit for Terror Suspects’ John Gruber, Daring Fireball (2010-05-10). Disregard for the Bill of Rights is not limited to Republicans: Mr. Holder proposed carving out a broad new exception to the Miranda rights established in a landmark 1966 Supreme Court ruling. It generally forbids prosecutors from using as evidence statements made before suspects have been warned that they have... (Linked Tuesday 2010-05-11.)

• Theories as Maps. Will Wilkinson, Will Wilkinson (2010-05-11). David Schmidtz says theories are like maps; they help us get where we’re trying to go. John Rawls’ theory of justice posits a closed society as a simplifying assumption. If theories are like maps, as Schmidtz says, a simplifying assumption in a theory is like leaving current patterns of traffic... (Linked Wednesday 2010-05-12.)

I found something extremely curious on Wikipedia (fount of all knowledge) the other day: Lal Bihari (or Lal Bihari Mritak, लाल बिहारी “मृतक”; born 1961) is a farmer from Uttar Pradesh, India who was officially dead between 1976 and 1994. He founded Mritak Sangh or the Association of the Dead in Uttar Pradesh, India. He [...]

Continue reading at nostate.com …

Over at A Division by Zer0. And be safe.

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Tags: fraud, psychology

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The recession is dealing body blows to the rationale of many great society programs, that poverty leads to crime. First, there was the unmasking of a large part of the most affluent part of the country, its financial elites, as little better than a criminal class. Now, comes news that crime rates are down as [...]

It is one of the greatest aspects of legal systems derived from the English common law that a defendant should be presumed innocent until proven guilty. The presumption of innocence is a massive check on state power, especially when combined with a jury system in which freely-acting members of a community may discover the facts and judge both the law and the circumstances for themselves.

In our current situation, would that this basic protection of man against state even be applied consistently and forcefully.

Even so, I hold that the presumption is fundamentally lacking so long as it is not attached to another, very important consideration. And so, I rephrase:

Let no person be held guilty until proven innocent, except insofar as when that person is a privileged actor of state (or other similarly socially privileged group), they shall not enjoy such presumption.

Photo via Distributed Republic.

I hold that none of the uniformed men in this photo should have ever enjoyed a presumption of innocence.

I might not gun them all down myself. I might not assist in doing so. But I decidedly would oppose anyone who aimed to get in the way of that happening.

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Tags: innocence, jury, law, presumption

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• Nokia Sues Apple, Claims iPhone Infringes on Slew of Patents. Daring Fireball (2009-10-24). In which government-imposed patent monopolies once again promote science and the useful arts by rewarding innovative research and development. (Linked Saturday 2009-10-24.)
• Would-be bounty hunters nab innocent woman in Bristol. State & Regional Politics for Richmond Times-Dispatch (2009-10-25). 1. The bounty hunters didn't just "nab the wrong woman." They strip-searched and sexually assaulted her. 2. As a result, these three rampaging rapist thugs are facing arrest and multiple charges of abduction, robbery, and sexual battery. As well they should be -- and I hope they rot. But care to guess how many charges they would be facing if they really were on that government police "drug task force" they pretended to be on, and did exactly the same thing to exactly the same innocent woman?
  
  (If your guess is "any," guess again.) (Linked Sunday 2009-10-25.)
• Sexist Beatdown: The Happy Hooker, Or Why Doesn’t Steven Levitt Suck Dick For a Living? The Sexist (2009-10-25). In which Econo-Creep Central Junior Partners Levitt and Dubner examine the economics of sex work with a sample size of N=2. (Linked Sunday 2009-10-25.)
• Soviet Shoes, by David Henderson. EconLog (2009-09-30). I mentioned in Tuesday's post that one of my favorite passages from Scott Shane's Dismantling Utopia is the passage about shoes. Commenter Bill asked me for the passage. Here it is: My informal survey suggested that some of the longest lines in Moscow were for shoes. At first I assumed... (Linked Sunday 2009-10-25.)
• Miroslav Pašek’s work, in pictures. Mike Gogulski - nostate.com, Anarchoblogs in English (2009-10-23). A couple of post-police attack photos, taken on 6 September 2009, the day after. Bruising to right upper arm showing finger impressions of Miroslav Pašek Slovak State Police hired thug Miroslav Pašek has learned how to inflict great pain with his hands while leaving few if any marks on the... (Linked Sunday 2009-10-25.)
• How an insurance mandate could leave many worse off. Marginal Revolution (2009-10-26). In which it is discovered that forcing working folks to pay for big corporate health insurance, whether they want to or not, and whether they can afford to or not, might turn out to prop up big corporate health insurers at the expense of working folks. (Linked Monday 2009-10-26.)

I have for long years been influenced, impacted and affected by the suffering of people who are and who have been the victims of violence — be it at the hands of states, spouses, parents or random monsters on the street.

I have done my best, in those years, to understand and to relate to what happens to them. I have cried with them, cried for them, and cried for the awful horror that is our common, human milieu.

I have cried and felt, especially, for those women — far too many — whom I have met, who have told me their stories of rape, spousal abuse, imprisonment at the hands of “lovers”, ongoing exploitation and debasement. And I have tried to relate. I have related to the level where, as above, I have cried not only for them, but for all of them who suffer these horrors — especially when, for whatever reasons, they feel they must remain silent.

And then, without being raped specifically, I’ve become a victim, too.

I haven’t been in a physical confrontation, prior to seven weeks ago, since the playground days of the mid-1980s. Those, always, I lost in short order. Some sand to the face, a punch in the belly, or, later, a deft evasion on my part, and the confrontation dissolved rather quickly.

I found myself, though, seven weeks ago, facing a monster far greater than any playground bully. I ultimately have no idea whatsoever what a woman trapped by her circumstances into either remaining silent about rape or deciding to tolerate daily abuse undergoes.

I do, however, map some of my own feelings in reaction to those I have come to known from those of my friends who have been there. The correspondences are not always perfect. I did not have to face the situation that Miroslav Pašek would continue living in my home, continue to pretend to be my protector or lover, or continue to play a part in my life.

Even so, I ran. I ran from Pašek’s territory. I ran from his hunting grounds.

I have never really understood before recently what it is to be a victim. I’m not entirely sure that I understand now, especially to the depth that the victims of rape and domestic violence I have known have been.

If I have gotten even the slightest taste, however, by means of what I have experienced, then I know that their reality is, in fact, far worse than I ever imagined.

This realization, along with my own emotions, makes me want to sleep all day, and shut out the world.

And, yet, I cannot.

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Tags: Gangsters in Blue, police brutality, rape, victimization

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