Missing the Gunpoint

[Updated to note that this comment appears to have been removed.]

Sheriff: Girl, 12, unlikely to be charged as adult after allegedly stealing gun, holding up store

Group W Bench helpfully obscured a Word You Can't Say on the Airwaves, but that's not the obscene part of the sentence.

I initially misread this comment and assumed he hoped the cops had roughed up the girl. Actually he's referring to the store employees. Slightly less horrible, still not good. First, beating the shit out of a child in the name of vigilante justice won't teach her ethics or respect for the rule of law. It will teach her that laws are enforced by the powerful for their own convenience, with violence if necessary. Second, does he want the girl punished for lawbreaking? Charging a 12-year-old as an adult is a perversion of the justice system. For stupidity? Last I checked, "doing something retarded" did not, in and of itself, merit a beating.

He Is Judge, Jury, and Executioner

Four suspects in Lansing drug-related killing could face federal death penalty

It's not clear to me why the crime is being prosecuted at the federal instead of state level. To the commenters, however, these are petty distinctions.

I'm sure that's what Shayla Johnson's family had engraved on her headstone: "Member of the Herd. Culled July 23, 2010." Cloverville may intend to condemn the murderers, but in doing so he invokes the worst kind of eliminationist rhetoric. In his world, there are good people and bad people. The bad people will kill each other and be killed by the state. Sure, there'll be some collateral damage, but none of the victims are really people anyway, not like you and me.

Civil Rights Are Only for People We Like

Attorney for Essexville man charged as part of Bay City drug conspiracy asks federal judge to suppress evidence

To clarify: at the time of his most recent arrest the man in question was on parole for kidnapping and assault. He was in fact carrying drugs. He sounds like a shady character who has done nasty things. That does not, however, deprive him of his rights, one of which is the right not to be randomly stopped, questioned, and searched by police with no warrant or immediate probable cause.

Ah, for the days when Bay City was full of white Catholics who mowed their lawns! Back then, law-abiding Polacks could rough up and detain anyone, at any time, for the crime of Looking Suspicious. perles appears unaware that there is a distinction between "municipal police force" and "vigilante justice."

We Will Tell You Which Rights You Deserve

Muskegon prison inmates forced to give DNA in state police sweep authorized by Tony Tague

Taking DNA samples by force without a court order, even from convicted felons, is in fact illegal in Michigan. State prison officials are working on a bill that will make it legal, but the Muskegon county prosecutor decided he didn't need any silly state law and swabbed everybody's spit anyway.

If prisoners have no rights, what's stopping guards and wardens from staging gladiatorial contests in which inmates fight to the death? And if capital punishment is cheaper than lifelong incarceration, isn't a bullet to the back of the head cheaper than a trial?

I think active members of the military would be surprised to learn that they have no rights. On the other hand, Pfc. Bradley Manning no doubt agrees with this assessment.