The United States: A Country Without Mercy
by Paul Craig Roberts
The Christmas season is a time to remember the unfortunate, among who are those who have been wrongly convicted.
In the United States, the country with the largest prison population in the world, the number of wrongly convicted is very large. Hardly any felony charges are resolved with trials. The vast majority of defendants, both innocent and guilty, are coerced into plea bargains. Not only are the innocent framed, but the guilty, as well. It is quicker and less expensive to frame the ...
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Posted by: Dee
Comment: #1
Wed Dec 17, 2008 7:20 PM
I think the American public would be outraged not to mention sickened if they were to know the truth regarding the torture that took place not only in American facilities around the world but also in Third World nations. All we ever hear about is waterboarding and maybe being placed in stress positions for long periods of time. Granted that is torture, but I dare say that if the public became aware of EVERY type of torture that happened to men, women and childeren, young and old alike, they would demand that those who knew and authorized such torture should at the very least be arrested and brought to trial. But then again any evidence, including videos, transcripts, memos, whistleblowers, etc. have "disappeared". We can all vow to never let it happen again but we don't even know exactly what happened and for all we know it could still be happening now.
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Posted by: James A, Sweeney
Comment: #2
Wed Dec 17, 2008 7:45 AM
Sir;... So what if some innocents suffer as guilty??? The numbers behind bars have a lot in common with those on the outside... We are all threatened by a system of law that does not serve us, and makes lawlessness all but certain.... The tragedy of the innocent entombed alive behind barbed wire and concrete is not so terrible considering how many people are made criminals through the failures of law every single day... What does law do to the young who are guilty of some crime???Often they do not know when they have over stepped their limits; but when they do, even by choice, they are as soon returned to their same environment with a slap on the wrist... They never learn of the short patience of society with adults until they are adults, and by that point they may have lost all respect for law, law enforcers, and society.... Look at how law attacks communities... Who knows of the child who has not once threatened to call 911 on the pretext that a spanking is abuse... No one wants to deal with the law because the cost of an attorney is enough to break any budget... So all parents are left with is influence instead of authority... Children are taught that they have power in relation to their parents, and parents learn that they have no power in relation to their children... What is left??? Bribery??? Mental torture??? Pleading, or begging??? When parents are made powerless to their children the first defense against lawlessness has been lost to society...Can the schools make up for this??? The teachers are as powerless in discipline as the parents... Law is made powerful in theory, but until the law wants to guide every step of a child's development it will suffer more failures than success... What works to make people good is not law, or social control... People bonded to people, emotionally connected, simply do not want to injure others... I think law does a better job of making the bad rotten than in making the bad better... People need communities, and communities down to the level of the family have got to have some control over their own... It is the law which should protect the criminal from his community, limit punishment to the rational and just... Instead, law has become a threat to the lawful, and a joke to the lawless... It does not work and should be reconsidered... Thanks...Sweeney
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