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Ferre
Cannabis Sacrament Minister.
Joined: 14 Apr 2003
Posts: 7295
Location: Amsterdam
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 Posted: Wed May 25, 2005 3:55 pm Post subject: Neighbors forced spying on neighbors by law! |
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Just received this email from brother Steven...
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Dear Friends,
I called Hockstra,Stabenow,& Levin offices and confirmed that this was true. This bill was introduced on April 22,2005 and is currently sitting in sub-committee. If this bill were to pass,then I am selling and moving to Canada which would probably make a lot of people happy. Shame on this man to even call himself an American!!
This from Bill Piper director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance.
Neighbors spying on neighbors? Mothers forced to turn in their sons or daughters? These are images straight out of George Orwell's 1984, or a remote totalitarian state. We don't associate them with the land of the free and the home of the brave, but that doesn't mean they couldn't happen here. A senior congressman, James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), is working quietly but efficiently to turn the entire United States population into informants--by force.
Sensenbrenner, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee Chairman, has introduced legislation that would essentially draft every American into the war on drugs. H.R. 1528, cynically named "Safe Access to Drug Treatment and Child Protection Act," would compel people to spy on their family members and neighbors, and even go undercover and wear a wire if needed. If a person resisted, he or she would face mandatory incarceration.
Here's how the "spy" section of the legislation works: If you "witness" certain drug offenses taking place or "learn" about them, you must report the offenses to law enforcement within 24 hours and provide "full assistance in the investigation, apprehension and prosecution" of the people involved. Failure to do so would be a crime punishable by a mandatory minimum two-year prison sentence, and a maximum sentence of 10 years.
Here are some examples of offenses you would have to report to police within 24 hours:
You find out that your brother, who has children, recently bought a small amount of marijuana to share with his wife;
You discover that your son gave his college roommate a marijuana  ;
You learn that your daughter asked her boyfriend to find her some drugs, even though they're both in treatment.
In each of these cases you would have to report the relative to the police within 24 hours. Taking time to talk to your relative about treatment instead of calling the police immediately could land you in jail.
In addition to turning family member against family member, the legislation could also put many Americans in danger by forcing them to go undercover to gain evidence against strangers.
Even if the language that forces every American to become a de facto law enforcement agent is taken out, the bill would still impose draconian sentences on college students, mothers, people in drug treatment and others with substance abuse problems. If enacted, this bill will destroy lives, break up families, and waste millions of taxpayer dollars.
Despite growing opposition to mandatory minimum sentences from civil rights groups to U.S. Supreme Court Justices, the bill eliminates federal judges' ability to give sentences below the minimum recommended by federal sentencing guidelines. This creates a mandatory minimum sentence for all federal offenses, drug-related or not.
H.R. 1528 also establishes new draconian penalties for a variety of non-violent drug offenses, including:
Five years for anyone who passes a marijuana at a party to someone who, at some point in his or her life, has been in drug treatment;
Ten years for mothers with substance abuse problems who commit certain drug offenses at home (even if their children are not at home at the time);
Five years for any person with substance abuse problems who begs a friend in drug treatment to find them some drugs.
These sentences would put non-violent drug offenders behind bars for as long as rapists and they include none of the drug treatment touted in the bill's name.
At a time when everyone from the conservative American Enterprise Institute to the liberal Sentencing Project is slamming the war on drugs as an abject failure, Sensenbrenner is trying to escalate it, and to force all Americans to become it's foot soldiers. Instead of enacting new mandatory minimums, federal policymakers should look toward the states. A growing number have reformed their drug sentencing laws, including Arizona, California, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, New Mexico, New York and Texas, and they have proved it is possible to both save money and improve public safety.
Simply put, there is no way H.R. 1528 can be fixed. The only policy proposal in recent years that comes close to being as totalitarian as this bill is Operations TIPS, the Ashcroft initiative that would have encouraged -- but not required -- citizens to spy on one another. Congress rightfully rejected that initiative and they should do the same with H.R. 1528. Big Brother has no business here in America.
Proposed H.R. 1528 could even threaten the bar, night club and hospitality industry!
The Nazi Government passed a law that would make citizens guilty of the felony they did not report to police:
On paper this law sounded like a good idea until the Gestapo started using it to target innocent citizens Hitler deemed undesirable and/or frame political opponents of the Nazis. Senator Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.)proposed H.R. 1528 mirrors those fascist concerns: In Nazi Germany, Gestapo agents as an historical example would have their agents and informants target patrons sitting at tables and bars at German beer halls. Then after the provocateur initiated a conversation, he or she would tell the targeted person that they had or would commit a crime. This was usually false. Nazi provocateurs would also bring unwitting criminals to bar patron's tables who would talk about their past or next crime. If the targeted bar patron who may be drunk, did not report the crime the next day, he or she would be arrested by the Gestapo. If the bar patron did report the crime, he or she would be outcast by their friends and family as a government informant. Or blackmailed by the Gestapo because they reported criminal activity to police, something the patron would not want his family, friends and fellow workers to find out. Imagine what a bartender hears on the job. Some bartenders might have to become informants to keep their jobs and not be sent to jail. Drinking in a bar could be hazardous to your health if H.R. 1528 is passed.
U.S. Senator James Sensenbrenner 's proposed H.R. 1528 is more dangerous than the Nazi law because the USA Patriot Act permits the U.S. Government to indefinitely keep cell phone and other electronic communications. Communications that can be played back anytime in the future to incriminate citizens who may not have had control over what someone decided to say to them during a phone call. So if some idiot calls you on the phone, and leaves a voice message, or lays a story on you about drugs, against your wishes, that phone record can be retrieved by the government to prove you did not report something. When a government agent leaves such a message on your voice mail or lays a drug story on you during a phone conversation, there is no question you may be subsequently arrested if you did not report it within 24 hours according to proposed H.R. 1528. And if you evict a tenant or fire an employee because you believed the employee was involved in drug activity and you did not report it to police, under H.R. 1528 the landlord or employer has committed a felony that could make their property or business subject to forfeiture. After the Nazi's passed their version of Senator Sensenbrenner's H.R. 1528, the Nazi's and Gestapo began confiscating citizens' property for not having reported an alleged crime or conspiracy to commit a crime. Since the U.S. Government and police pay informants up to 50% of citizens' assets that they cause to have confiscated, it should be obvious that H.R. 1528 will open the door for mass forfeiture in the U.S. of people's property based on hearsay or other "low standard evidence" being used to prove they did not report a crime.
If H.R. 1528 is passed, it is hard to envision people wanting to talk to strangers anywhere. Especially in bars, political meetings, any public place. It is foreseeable a cast system may develop where millions of U.S. Citizens will be afraid to associate with other groups and political factions that could legally contaminate them by mere contact according to H.R. 1528 because someone might tell them something that has to be reported to the Government.
If Americans are so asleep that they allow H.R. 1528 to pass, they deserve what they get.
Professional informants will profit handsomely from the passage of H.R. 1528. The prison building, supplying and staffing industries will profit handsomely from the passage of H.R. 1528.
The United States Constitution will be a huge loser along with the freedoms of every American with the passage of H.R. 1528.
NORML and every other freedom loving organization and individual must make the defeat of this legislation it's and their top priority.
Write your representatives, not just the ones in Washington, DC, but all of them from your council member to Mayor to state legislators. It is likely that even if they have heard about this legislation they don't have a clue as to what it involves.
The title of H.R. 1528 alone is going to coerce most politicians to support it. How can any politician refuse to support legislation called:
"Defending America's Most Vulnerable: Safe Access to Drug Treatment and Child Protection Act of 2005"
It's up to us to get the truth out, you know the drafters of this legislation aren't going to broadcast the true intent of this legislation.
Rev.Steven B.Thompson,Director
6215 Smeltzer Rd.
Benzonia,MI 49616
(231) 882-9721
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IF THIS IS NOT A TOTAL FASCIST DICTATORSHIP LAW, WHAT IS? 
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Fyrefly1
Cannabis Sacrament Minister
Joined: 07 Sep 2004
Posts: 2209
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| Posted: Wed May 25, 2005 5:34 pm Post subject: |
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Pretty sick...
Thanks for bringing it to our attention.
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Fyrefly1
"All truth passes through three stages: first it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, 19th Century Philosopher |
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Torkel
Cannabis Sacrament Minister
Joined: 23 Nov 2004
Posts: 1396
Location: West Virginia, USA
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| Posted: Wed May 25, 2005 6:20 pm Post subject: |
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I just sent out a letter to my sen's/reps at the federal & state levels.
We gotta put a stop to the bullshit politics coming from washington, DC.
Peace,
Torkel
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Miller vs U.S. (230 F 2nd 486,489): "The claim and exercise of a Constitutional right cannot be converted into a crime."
Miranda vs Arizona (384 U.S. 436, 125): "Where rights secured by the Constitution are involved, there can be no rule-making or legislation which would abrogate them."
HAGANS vs LAVINE (415 US 533 N-3,note 5): "Once JURISDICTION is challenged it must be proven by the Plaintiff." |
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Stokes
Cannabis Sacrament Minister
Joined: 28 Nov 2004
Posts: 1426
Location: PA
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Fyrefly1
Cannabis Sacrament Minister
Joined: 07 Sep 2004
Posts: 2209
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| Posted: Wed May 25, 2005 7:12 pm Post subject: |
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Yep, yer right...
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Fyrefly1
"All truth passes through three stages: first it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, 19th Century Philosopher |
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Echo
Cannabis Sacrament Minister
Joined: 14 Apr 2003
Posts: 1899
Location: England
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| Posted: Wed May 25, 2005 7:46 pm Post subject: |
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hehe... Brother Ferre should learn to read my posts too, not only his own 
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In a world that keeps on pushin’ me around
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Ferre
Cannabis Sacrament Minister.
Joined: 14 Apr 2003
Posts: 7295
Location: Amsterdam
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| Posted: Wed May 25, 2005 8:17 pm Post subject: |
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Well, I did read that former post Echo but I kind of acted spontaniously and posted this when brother Steven had send it. It sounds pretty alarming and that's what it is I guess and looking back I don't think it hurts to remind people twice of this madness.
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Stokes
Cannabis Sacrament Minister
Joined: 28 Nov 2004
Posts: 1426
Location: PA
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| Posted: Thu May 26, 2005 4:32 am Post subject: |
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You guys are comical.
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