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Re: Mr. Policeman is Your Friend
Tim May <[email protected]> wrote on 1 Oct 97:
> At 3:20 PM -0700 10/1/97, Martin Janzen wrote:
> >Electronic Frontier Canada's David Jones ([email protected])
> >posted the following to the EFC mailing list:
>
> >2. If cops can read E-mail, so can the bad guys
> > http://www.efc.ca/pages/media/gazette.24sep97.html
>
[much interesting exposition on the police as servants of government
deleted]
I have a question: has any jurisdiction (local, state, federal) in
the U.S. resolved the hyprocrisy--maybe better to phrase "double
standard"--wherein citizens who commit crimes against persons who
perform duties under the color and badge of authority--namely the
police--are charged with additional offenses specific for crimes
against govt officers--but govt officers who commit crimes against
citizens while in the performance of duties under the color and badge
of authority would suffer the same penalty as citizens who commit
crimes against "just" citizens? (hope you can follow that perhaps
awkward question)
It is my opinion that if I am charged with felony assault on a police
officer, and the judge gives me 2 years for the assault + 1 year for
doing it to an officer, that if that cop gets rough with me beyond
what is legally necessary (excessive force?) or does it in the
commission of other crimes and does so having informed others that
the officer is performing his duties (this resolves disputes between
the concept of "on-duty" and "off-duty"), then he should get 2 years
for the crime + 1 year for having violated the public trust vested in
him (i.e., doing while "under the color and badge of authority"). I
don't know why I think this way, but it's a concept I call FAIRNESS
or maybe JUSTICE.
Mitch Halloran
Research Biochemist/C programmer/Sequioa's (dob 12-20-95) daddy
Duzen Laboratories Group
[email protected]