Excellent post, Jon.
-Mark
************
{American jurors have complete Constitutional authority to vote
"not guilty" based on nothing more than a disagreement with the
case, no matter the evidence - despite the judge's instructions.
There is absolutely no obligation to vote "guilty" to arrive at a
unanimous verdict. Get on a jury, stand your ground, and fulfill
its other main purpose: to counteract abusive government and
unjust lawsuits.
See www.fija.org
[Please adopt this as your own signature.] }
_____
Without knowing the individuals personally, but knowing people
that
appear to be like them, we can conclude that they did indeed want
both
Peter McWilliams and Steve Kubby dead, because those dissenters,
like
many libertarians, are a challenge to the career, institutions,
and
belief systems into which they have invested their lives. It is a
tribal
thing, a factional interest, what we sometimes call in legal
discussions
"reliance interests", reliance in continuing some practice, and
resistance to those who try to change it. Of course, they would
deny a
desire for those dissenters' deaths, and might even feel regret
such
outcomes at some level, but by and large they just don't care.
They
imagine themselves as the center of the Universe, on which All
Good
Things Depend, without whom Darkness will Descend on the World.
For such
True Believers those who resist them, and challenge their
authority and
position, are Evil that Must be Destroyed, and thereby to be
dismissed
as not really human or worthy of compassion or protection.
Keep in mind that this is not about ridding society of the
Scourge of
Drugs. The Drug Warriors are intimately involved with the Drug
Lords,
not only because without the Drug Lords they would have no role
to play,
but also because they are complicit in the distribution of
narcotics,
and profit from it as co-conspirators as well as for fighting it.
Their
problem with McWilliams and Kubby is not that they encourage the
use of
drugs, but that they encourage the use of drugs their people
aren't
supplying. People who grow their own are competitors to the
Warriors'
own business.
So were they actively pursuing the dissenters' deaths? Of course,
whether consciously or not. Probably mostly unconsciously,
because these
are not reflective people. If they really reflected on what they
are
doing they would probably leave the field. They exhibit that
callousness
and indifference to reflection that is the reason that reason
doesn't
prevent wars of mutual extermination, and that attribute of
humanity
that inspired my epitaph for humanity: "They were smart enough to
create
problems for themselves they weren't smart enough to solve."
Geof Gibson wrote:
>Are you saying that law enforcement officials wanted Peter, or
want
>Steve dead? Are you accusing them of actively pursing Peter's
death?
>
>
_____
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