The Free Journal/ASCII Edition Volume I, Issue 3 Copyright 1991 Sameer Parekh (Individual articles copyright by author) Editor-in-Chief: Sameer Parekh (fj@infopls.chi.il.us) This is the Free Journal. Submissions are welcome. Some characters have the high bit set. Distribute at will; cite authors. (Or editors if no author is given.) _______________________________________________________________________________ The Sixth Amendment Amendment IV The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. I think this aspect of the Bill of Rights is one of the most hurt by the War on Civil Liberties. I will list a few examples. Many other examples can be found from the Pittsburgh Press's articles Presumed Guilty. Write to The Pittsburgh Press, 34 Boulevard of the Allies, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15230, and they will probably send it to you. The forfeiture laws that have been passed make a mockery of the rights outlined in the fourth amendment. On the mere suspicion of a law enforcement officer, someone is subject to lose nearly everything they own. In Volusia County, Florida, the police stop cars for contrived violations. If large quantities of cash are found, the police usually confiscate it, assuming that it is drug money, and if the person is a minority, you can be sure that the money will be taken. Victims can retrieve their cash by proving that they obtained it through legal channels. Makes a mockery of Rinnocent until proven guiltyS too. When warrants are issued these days, they do not specifically list what is to be seized or searched for. In the case of Bruce Esquibel of Chicago, the Secret Service had suspicion that illegal activities were going on on his Apple //e computer. The warrant gave the Secret Service permission to seize not only his Apple //e, but his 2 Macs, which were in no way related to their suspicion. In addition, no charges have been filed against him yet he still lacks his expensive equipment. In the case of Steve Jackson Games, an Austin, TX-based role-playing game publisher, the Secret Service had the slightest suspicion that one of his employees was a close friend of Legion of Doom member Craig Neidorf. The Secret Service then stole all of Steve Jackson Games' computers, and the manuscript for the new game which would be their main offering for the new year. Steve Jackson had to lay off approximately 8 of his 17 employees. In addition to lacking any solid evidence, the raid was abysmally planned; for example, a laser printer was taken because they Rneeded the ribbon for evidence.S In Hudson, New Hampshire, the police broke into the home of Bruce Lavoie at 5 A.M. and shot him dead. An anonymous informant told them that they should expect guns at his house and thus should enter with guns drawn. Mr. Lavoie had no guns. --Sameer Parekh The Fifth Amendment Amendment V No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject to the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation. People are deprived of life, liberty, and property every day in the War on Rights. As I stated in my previous article about the fourth amendment, people lose their homes, cars, and farms on the slightest suspicion that any wrong-doing was going on. In one case, Willie Jones was flying to purchase supplies for his nursery business. He carried cash because his suppliers liked to deal with cash. At the airport, an agent suspected that he would be a drug dealer and searched him, finding the cash. It was taken because the agent assumed the money was from drugs. We all KNOW that blacks don't have large amounts of money unless they are drug dealers, don't we? In a report by the San Francisco Examiner, it was reported that 80% of the people whose property is stolen are NEVER CHARGED WITH A CRIME. Some people may say, RMost of those people must've been drug dealers.S I say, RInnocent until proven guilty.S In the case of the Detroit police, during raids in which they steal people's homes, they give the children teddy bears. in order to Rreduce the painS of the their new status of homelessness. In addition, the money received by public auctions of these forfeitures are used for many purposes by police departments, including but not limited to, better squad cars, paid vacations, recreation activities, and similar Rperks.S The more they steal, the better their chances of getting another pool table in the rec. room. --Sameer Parekh A Taste of 1776 RWe hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute and new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, then to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, IT IS THEIR RIGHT, IT IS THEIR DUTY, TO THROW OFF SUCH A GOVERNMENT, [Emphasis added --SP] and to provide new guards for their future security. . ." --Thomas Jefferson An Apology for the 200th Anniversary This is an apology. Last week I thought I could organize a rally for the 200th anniversary of the Bill of Rights. Until Friday, I had the secure support of one other person. Friday, after school, some people said that they would support me. I apologize to these people. Saturday night I was very depressed. I spoke to the one person who supported me before Friday and he said that he would be unable to make it. I realized that I did not plan enough. I feared that the death of the Bill of Rights would be the death of me on this 200th anniversary due to my depression. I am still depressed. Today I gave up. I thought no one would be going. I felt an incredible lack of meaning in my life. Then at 9:20, I got a call. Someone was at the station with a few people. However, she said that it would be futile going because most of them had to leave. I apologize to these people. I fear that I lack the inner strength to go about my plans. However, I hope that this failure will not stop us from planning better next time and succeeding. However, I do not apologize towards those who only said, Rmaybe.S You may have been more truthful than me, but I was planning on going, although I may have failed in that respect. I hope that the next time such a situation arises I will not fail so grievously. I have decided to plan our next action far in advance. Thus, our next action will be in the spring. In the spring more people might be willing to stand outside to demonstrate. Upon discussion with others, I will decide the specifics. I will probably choose a more important location where we know of specific violations of our rights. Meanwhile, this is still a free forum for people to air their ideas. If you have an idea, write about it, and give it to me. I will not make my decisions based upon the opinion expressed in the document but whether I and others whom I ask to comment think it expresses the point well. And let us mourn the passing of the Bill of Rights on this its 200th anniversary. --Sameer Parekh Do We Have a Future? The massive cutting of trees occurs most often in the now densely forested region of the Pacific Northwest. This practice is now devastating sizable portions of forests daily. It boggles my mind that there are actually inhabitants there who are against the perpetuation of these forests. It is all about the future. Do we want posterity to experience lavish timberlands? Do we want those few white-collar overseers to receive paper money to produce wastelands? Money is in no way comparable to the natural beauty of earthly forests. It is true that the groves do grow back, but they are clearcut once again in another 100 years; the cycle then continues from there. These forests are artificially replanted in rows. How can this be natural? The process makes things easier for the companies to come back and clearcut once again. Another issue concerning this topic is the wildlife involved. Should we humans knock down the homes of the spotted owl, or any other animals for that matter? I might be considered a RBambi Lover,S but I would like to know why one RsuperiorS race should kill out another, and if in fact we are superior then cannot we use our heads to figure out substitutions, rather than who has the most powerful bombs? There has to be ways of preserving this natural splendor and all of its creatures. These thoughts of magnificence in nature will soon be thought that live only in the past. We need to transfer our technology from firepower to preservation. Something must impel accomplishment soon. --Dave Maurath [Ed. note--in a book review in the Fall '91 issue of Whole Earth Review a chart is given illustrating total military expenditures of the world in one year s. the amount of money it would take to fix the environment. It would only take approximately one quarter of the one trillion dollars spent on the military to fix the environment. -SP] First they came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up, because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me. -- Rev. Martin Niemoller, 1945. The Reverend Neimoller was a German who constantly was criticizing the Nazi government from 1933-37. He was arrested for treason in 1937, and after the war played a major part in the reconciliation of the powers. He recieved the Lenin Peace Prize in 1967, and died in 1984. Amendment VI In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining Witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defence. In the case of Manual Noriega, a government needed to be overthrown in order to get him and try him very far from Rthe district wherein the crim shall have been commited.S The War on Drugs is trying to apply its draconian laws to other countries now too. I would also assume that it would be sort of tough to get an impartial jury for his trial. In addition, in the Steve Jackson Games case, he was not Rinformed of the nature and cause of the accusation.S Many people assumed that the government was trying to exercise prior restraint on their new role-playing game. This was not their intended purpose, but for all intents and purposes it could have been, due to the even shakier nature of the real reason. (In fact, one of the pieces of RevidenceS that lead to the seizure was the discussion of RKermitS on a bulletin board system. Kermit is a program which enables simple file-transfer over phone lines, but the Secret Service thought it was some sort of Rpassword-guessingS program.) --Sameer Parekh RI sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.S -- Walt Whitman RI donUt think that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots.S -- George Bush