If you don't want to go to prison for lying on an immigration form, don't lie on an immigration form. How tough is it?
What I find interesting is that Mr. Jamal apparently has the intelligence to know when the cops are guilty of excessive force before an investigation is done (and knows how to get his face on TV any time he wants), but he can't seem to fill out an immigration form. Very interesting indeed. Mike Thompson Southwest Minneapolis ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jordan S. Kushner" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, January 09, 2005 5:52 PM Subject: Re: [Mpls] Mpls Somali activist found guilty of immigration fraud > I appreciate Greg Luce's expoundment on the issue of the underlying > motivations behind Omar Jamal's prosecution. The underlying injustice is > based on a combination of the government's motivation and the lack of > significance of the alleged false statments. At to the government's > motivation, it is clear that the government began its investigation of Jamal > after he became an outspoken, visible and controversial figure in the media. > Immigration authorities are lying when they deny any connection. Prior > Stribune articles which contain these denials also revealed that immigration > authorities responded to tips from people in the Somali community > communicated after Jamal was in the media. (I cannot find the articles in > archive; perhaps someone with more research access can find the earlier > articles). It would be impossible for the government to investigate and > prosecute all false statements on government documents, and is not even > possible to investigate all leads. There are millions of cases relating to > immigration documents and tax documents alone. The government singled out > Jamal because he is a political activist, and that is what is chilling. > > The prosecution is chilling not just the government went after a > controversial person, but bascially destroyed him for an act that did not > cause any real harm. Although all lies are bad, clearly not all lies are > equal. Here are three categories: 1) Despite some of the self-righteous > rhetoric on some previous posts, some lies are even justified. Example: > agents of an oppressive government go to a citizen's house to inquire about > activities of a neighbor in opposing the government. The citizen knows that > the neighbor is involved in such activities, but also knows that the > neighbor will be imprisoned and tortured for the activities, so he lies and > says he doesn't know anything. Does anyone want to argue that such a lie is > wrong? An example closer to this situation is a person who lies to get into > this country to escape persecution. It is not clear if Jamal fits this > description. 2) Another category of lies, however, is a lie that does not > harm anyone else. Jamal's alleged false statements would clearly fall into > this category. OK, we don't want people to lie, particularly to the > government, but in reality, do we really care so much as to make a federal > criminal case if it does not make a difference for anyone else? The > government can only prosecute a tiny percentage of cases where people lie. > Should that tiny percentage be based on lies that are really harmful, or > someone exercising a most valued constitutional right to be politically > active and question the government. 3) the other general category of lies > are those that really do cause harm, such as lying to get money that one is > not entitled to, or a government official lying to pursue or cover up a > hidden agenda, such as our current leaders blatantly lying to start and > pursue a war. It is disturbing that people who so harshly judge Mr. Jamal, > do not want to see or acknowledge any contradiction with the same government > that vigorously prosecutes alleged lies by a political activist that cause > no harm, is responsible for telling lies that cause deaths of at least tens > of thousands of people. > > Jordan Kushner > Golden Valley REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[email protected] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
