Voice Of Justice
May 23rd, 2008Voice Of Justice
Be Careful What You Ask For
As any reader of this blog should already know, I am continuing to follow the Angela Garbarino case as closely as possible, and I will support Angie in any way possible.
Yesterday, Katie brought to my attention an online petition demanding the prosecution of Officer Willis for crimes committed against Ms Garbarino. I assured her that I would check it out, and plug it here with a link.
I just visited the link to the petition, but refuse to add my name to it, despite the fact that I personally feel that Mr Willis should be strung up by his balls. There’s no doubt that the person originating this petition has the best intentions, and her goals are admirable. But, there is something very disturbing about it - in particular, this line:
“We feel that if Officer Willis is innocent of Police Brutality then he needs to prove it in a court of law.”
Mr Willis does not need to prove his innocence. This isn’t Iran or China. This is the United States. In the eyes of the law, Mr Willis is, and should be considered, innocent. It is up to the prosecution to prove his guilt, not the other way around.
Clearly, this shouldn’t be very difficult to prove.
Nonetheless, I can not conscientiously add my name to a request to deny an American their Constitutional rights regarding due process, no matter how obvious the outcome may be.
I do call upon the state of Louisiana to bring Mr Willis to trial, aggressively prosecute him, find him guilt, and then castrate him. But the burden of proof lies in their hands, not his.
One For The People
May 22nd, 2008One For The People
Justice
The Texas 3rd District Court of Appeals today decided in favor of 38 women who had appealed the removal of more than 460 children from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) sect.
The three-judge panel said “The existence of the FLDS belief system as described by the department’s witnesses, by itself, does not put children of FLDS parents in physical danger” and that the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services “did not present any evidence of danger to the physical health or safety of any male children or any female children who had not reached puberty.”
The court concluded, “Evidence that children raised in this particular environment may someday have their physical health and safety threatened is not evidence that the danger is imminent enough to warrant invoking the extreme measure of immediate removal prior to full litigation of the issue.”
Now, I’m certainly no fan of the FLDS (except for the whole multiple-wives thing), or any organized religion in general for that matter – but I am even less of a fan of out-of-control government agencies. Clearly, the Texas DFPS had overstepped their boundaries and jurisdiction in this case, not at all unlike similar Protective Services departments do in other states.
Far more dangerous than any religion in the United States, even polygamist ones, is a government that is ready and willing to ignore the rights of its citizens.
This is yet another reason for less government.
