Monday, March 21, 2005

THE SICK THINKING BEHIND THE ATLANTA TRAGEDY

Facing reporters after Brian Nichols’s homicidal rampage and escape from the Fulton County Courthouse, Howard was asked about the wisdom in having a lone female deputy sheriff escorting a large man accused of a violent sex crime. A sensible question, certainly, what with three people freshly murdered (a fourth soon would follow) and a madman now running loose on the streets of Atlanta. The gathered reporters and anyone watching on television might have anticipated a reasoned, thoughtful response, perhaps to include a call for the reevaluation of the relevant courthouse policies. Alas, no such response was forthcoming.

“I think that women are capable of doing anything that men are capable of doing,” Howard said. “And I don’t think it’s the weight, I think it’s the heart, the training, and the ability. I don’t think the weight has a whole lot to do with it.” In other words, if it were up to Mr. Howard, men accused of violent crimes would continue to be escorted through the courthouse hallways by female deputies half their size and twice their age. This is what passes for enlightened thinking in downtown Atlanta, where results, no matter how disastrous, count for less than one’s lofty intentions. Let the gutters run with blood, but we dare not show a lack of faith in our diminutive female police officers.

Let us now depart from the utopian fantasies of Paul Howard and turn our attention to the real world, where the typical man is stronger than the typical woman, and where no 100-pound woman, no matter how big her heart, how advanced her training, or how superior her ability, can go to Fist City with a 200-pound man and come out on top. Yes, it was a colossal blunder to leave Nichols under the supervision of a single female deputy, but it would be foolish to attribute Nichols’s escape simply to his escort’s sex and stature. It was complacency, that unseen killer of cops, that allowed Nichols to do what he did. He may well have pulled off the same feat had he been guarded by a man his own size or even larger, for Nichols had a plan, one he surely had worked out well in advance of putting it into action. The people guarding him, meanwhile, were merely going through the motions of their daily routine, moving the prisoners — the “bodies,” as they’re known in the argot of the courthouse — from the jail to the courtrooms and back again like so many widgets on an assembly line. Nothing bad happened yesterday, nothing bad will happen today.

But something bad had happened the day before, and it’s unconscionable that nothing was done about it. On March 10, the day before he escaped, Nichols was found in possession of two crudely fashioned knives, known to cops and cons alike as “shanks.” Prisoners can and do make shanks out of toothbrushes, plastic deodorant containers, pieces of their bunks, and just about anything else that can be melted or honed to a sharpened edge or point. It’s bad enough when a prisoner is found with a shank in his cell or in one of the jail’s common areas, but when he is found to be armed while in the “court line,” as was the case with Nichols, that can only signal an attempt to escape or to harm someone in the courtroom, either of which would justify such added security measures as shackles and extra bailiffs. Despite the recovery of these weapons from Nichols, nothing was done to ensure the safety of the courtroom staff the following day. Apparently, not even the female deputy whom Nichols attacked and overpowered was told of the potential threat. When you give a criminal an opportunity, don’t be surprised when he takes it.

Sadly, Paul Howard’s was not the only inane commentary on the Nichols matter. The cable-news channels were chockablock with talking-head attorneys who briefly turned their attentions from the momentous events of the Michael Jackson trial. Such is the demand for high-decibel discourse on these programs that the lawyers were paired off, prosecutors vs. defense attorneys, to all but scream at each other about Nichols’s case. “He should have been shacked,” the prosecutor says. “Rubbish,” answers the defense attorney, “he’s entitled to the presumption of innocence, and a defendant’s appearance in shackles is prejudicial.”

True, the Supreme Court has held that a defendant’s rights are violated if the jurors in his case see him bound in shackles or even dressed in his jailhouse garb. (Nichols was changing into his court clothes when he overpowered the deputy.) The solution to this is simple, and is practiced here in Los Angeles and elsewhere. Simply bring the shackled defendants into court while the jurors wait in the jury room. Once seated, the defendants can be secured with devices that immobilize them without being visible to jurors. When the jury enters, all they see is a meek and mild man holding a Bible and wearing in ill-fitting suit, not the snarling beast who has to be chained up to keep him from eating anyone who gets too close.

More here



Canada Clears Up What Is And What Just Ain't Hate Speech

Post lifted from Moonbat Central

From the National Post, we learn that calling for Jewish civilians to be murdered is protected academic speech in Canada, while reading the Bible is a hate crime.

Dr. Mohamed Elmasry, a University of Waterloo professor and president of the Canadian Islamic Congress, drew widespread public condemnation last October for telling a television panel discussion that all Israelis over the age of 18 should be targets for attacks by Palestinians because they are all members of the country's army. The Egyptian-born professor has said his comments were misunderstood. As you can see, there is a lot of ambiguity in the statement. He also came under investigation by the University of Waterloo, where he is a professor of computer engineering. Elmasry himself in the past led a campaign to indict evangelist Jerry Falwell for hate speech, and has campaigned to have Islamic religious law enforced in Canada. He claims Moslems inside Canada are living "under siege."

Police have decided not to charge a controversial Muslim leader under Canada's hate-crime laws for suggesting on a television talk show last fall that all adult Israelis are "legitimate targets" for Palestinian terrorists. Last November, the university's dean of science decided the professor's statements were "entirely unacceptable," but decided against formal disciplinary action. The local Islamofascists and jihadniks are pleased, while a true Moslem moderate condemned the "Doctor."

So if this is not hate speech in Canada, what is? Come now, grasshopper, don't you know? The Bible has been declared hate speech in Canada. Really! It says things about homosexuality that some PC profs may not like and it says the lands of Israel belong to the Jews.

That bill, passed 59-11 by the Senate, adds sexual orientation as a protected category in Canada's genocide and hate-crimes legislation, which carries a penalty of up to five years in prison. The House of Commons passed the bill in September, 141-110.

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