Potential Role of a Special Advocate in a Criminal Case
In the following essay all names, date and locations have been changed to assure anonymity.
Judge Will Gibbons is a senior jurist who is highly regarded across Colorado. On Monday of Thanksgiving week 1996, I received a call from Judge Gibbons; clerk saying the Judge Gibbons wanted to talk with me. Judge Gibbons told me that a case had come before him involving James Forrest who had allegedly drawn a revolver on a peace officer and made verbal threats. The officer and hos partner had responded by ordering the man to drop the gun and surrender. Forrest allegedly refused and raised the weapon, whereupon one officer had fired, wounding him slightly. Forrest was then arrested and jailed after aid treatment in a nearby hospital’s emergency room.
Subsidized growth or subsidized housing:Whats it going to be, Denver?
The city of Denver is showing a great deal of concern for those who are priced out of Denvers housing market. So why does the city of Denver continue to subsidize growth that has helped pushed housing prices up?
Costs and Benefits of Domestic Violence Laws
Years ago I was doing the dishes. My wife and I had had an argument; or I should say were having one since it apparently was not resolved quite to my wife’s satisfaction. Don’t ask either one of us what it was about. My wife, in a mood, closely observed the job I was doing and proceeded to comment on what a very shoddy job it was. This, mind you, was not the trunk of our argument, rather a branch, a minor offshoot of the main dispute. I was also in a mood. So, by the third comment involving a dinner plate in my hand I turned and flipped it to an unoccupied corner of the kitchen where it shattered in a most satisfying way. “There,” I said, “that one’s done well enough I think.” She glared at me for a few seconds, then stalked out of the kitchen leaving me to finish the dishes and clean up the breakage in peace.
Drug War Casualties
Americas war on drugs stopped being a metaphor long ago. It is a literal war, with militarized police units, high tech intelligence gathering and surveillance, an enemy, and, as with most wars, lots of casualties.
As the North Metro Task forces pursuit of the Tattered Covers bookstore’s sales records winds its way through Colorados courts, it seems a good time to look at some of the damage done in the name of the drug war in terms of both lives and liberties.
Carnivore: The Government Wants Your E-Mail
It is getting hard to find an elected official who doesnt have a plan to protect Internet users from being followed around by the likes of Doubleclick and other online advertisers desperately hoping to send you a banner ad you might actually click on. But while politicians seek to protect web users from Internet marketers, who is protecting web users from government snooping?
Making Booksellers into Drug Felons
The first amendment scored a recent win in a Denver book store, but new federal legislation expanding the war on drugs and supported by both of Colorados U.S. Senators may make that victory ring hollow.
Forfeiture Laws Harm Crime Victims
Sometimes, a law intended to punish the offender ends up punishing the victim. That’s the problem with Colorado’s forfeiture law which permits seizure of property by the state, often without the need to prove that a crime has been committed, and without recompense to persons who have been injured.
Secret Tax on Your Telephone
If you are a Colorado telephone customer, you should know that a portion of your U.S. West and long distance telephone bill is being used to subsidize someone elses telecommunications usage.
The Public Housing Mess in Denver
The old Arapahoe Courts public housing project in Denver has been demolished; all that remains are six blocks of dirt along Arapahoe Street, from 27th to 33rd streets in Denvers Curtis Park neighborhood. The barracks style project was demolished by the Denver Housing authority with the help of a hefty grant (read tax dollars) from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Having provided the money to tear down a failed public housing project, the federal government is ready to pay for the construction of a new public housing project.
State Government Sells Your Private Information
Why is the state legislature leaving fingerprints all over contracts entered into between mature, adult business people who sell cars and their suppliers, the car manufacturers? The answer is easy. If the car dealers can’t hack it at the bargaining table, they can get the legislature to do the dirty work because they have friends in Capitol places.
The Drug War Kills Innocent People
It seems the ends justifies any means in the ‘war on drugs’ these days, even if that means civil rights are trampled and innocent people killed.
The mental gyrations law officials and politicians engage in to support their draconian drug policies are crazy. Take, for instance, the case of Golden doctor James Metzger, whose $ 40,000 Lexus was taken by the Drug Enforcement Agency in April because the agency thought Metzger might have illegally filled drug prescriptions.
“Social Justice” is Tyranny
According to Robert Conquest writing in the February 1999 issue of The New Criterion, a liberal is “one whose aim is the furtherance of ever greater political liberty, freedom of thought, and social justice.”[1] Nice principles, except for one thing. Advocates of “social justice” have historically ended up pimping for the most bloodthirsty, lawless, and tyrannical regimes the world has ever known.
