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02/27/2004 Archived Entry: "Deadlining while the world goes by/Ramona Miller/R-Party sellout"

I'VE BEEN DEADLINING IT SO HARD that I've had to let much of the week's news -- including updates on the inevitable Republican Second Amendment sellout -- flow right over my head. Though I'm sorry to have been somewhat blogless the last few days, I'm glad to have been clueless.

I was aware of the week's bad news, both from my own a.m. news scanning and from items sent by Friends of Liberty like Rick, Sunni, and Katherine Albrecht. But I didn't have time to become paralyzed by the latest horrors or even righteously angry about the latest outrage. They were just ... things happening out there in Somebody Else's World.

The one newsbit that, oddly, stuck in my mind wasn't one of the big ones about RFID chips (whose capabilities and implementations seem to be spreading faster than a Michael Crichton virus) or about plans to renew the Clinton "ugly-gun" ban (the only surprise will be if they don't do it). It was a local story sent from Vetzine about a Missouri doctor named Ramona Miller. She was just sentenced to jail for six months for resisting arrest after a traffic stop, despite a recommendation for probation, and despite being found not-guilty of the speeding and other acts for which she was allegedly stopped.

Miller had earlier blown a whistle on what she perceived as bad medical care at the county jail. She was just returning from visiting a seriously ill prisoner at the jail, and said she feared to cooperate fully with the county deputy during the late-night traffic stop because she suspected retribution. She did stop. And it sounds from some of the news accounts as though she showed her drivers license and did everything else right, but just wouldn't open her window so the cop could take the license and wouldn't get out of her truck when the officer ordered her to. For that, her window was smashed, she was dragged onto the ground, handcuffed for six hours and severely injured.

Although it's been more than a year since the stop, she's still unable to practice her trade due to injuries inflicted on her during her arrest.

What struck me most was the judge's comment when he threw the book at her:

"To live in a civil society, it is necessary to have respect for law enforcement," he said. "To not show respect to authority would lead to chaos."

I just keep wondering why the judge didn't say:

"To live in a civil society, it is necessary for law enforcement and the justice system to respect citizens' rights. To not show respect to rights of citizens will lead to chaos."

The latter statement is far more true than the former. But just as Patriotic Republican Senators now believe that any and every agency of any and every state, no matter what their purpose should be able to purchase types of ammunition not available any ordinary citizen, no matter what his intention, the judge in the Miller case has turned the very concept of a free country -- the very concept of America -- upside down.

(Here's an advocacy page on the Miller case. Unfortunately, it's not very articulate. But it does give background and numerous links to news stories.)

After I posted this, Simon Jester sent a poem from and about this politically corrupt region of the country that just about says it all.

Posted by Claire @ 03:05 PM CST
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