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The U.S. system of "justice" is a tragic joke,
and everyone knows it.
Police abuse, and sometimes kill, innocent persons
at will. Cops plant evidence, they lie, they coerce
confessions and they commit perjury. Many are,
simply, criminals.
Prosecutors suborn perjury. They introduce "evidence"
they know is false, they fail to disclose and try to
suppress exculpatory evidence and they knowingly
prosecute innocent people.
The laws against some drugs are primarily a means
to give the cops an open-ended warrant for search
and seizure and a mechanism to keep poor people,
young people and especially poor, young *black*
people fearful, off-balance and easy to control.
The law that mandates heavier penalties for crack
cocaine possession than for the powdered Hollywood
variety is an outrageous act of oppression aimed at
ensuring that blacks are punished more harshly than
whites for the same offence.
Criminal court judges, for the most part, are in
collusion with the cops and prosecutors and many
wouldn't know justice if God came down from Heaven
and handed it to them on a golden platter.
The result is that almost one in four (23 percent)
black men in the age group 20-29 is either in prison,
jail, on probation, or parole on any given day (four
times that of whites). The number of young black men
under the control of the criminal justice system
is greater than the total number of black men of all
ages enrolled in college as of 1996.
That the system is a blunt weapon for the continued
oppression of black people -- and, in a larger sense,
poor people -- is so obvious it needs no further
assertion.
The prisons are overflowing with people who have
never harmed a soul, and uncounted thousands
who are innocent of the crimes they were convicted
of.
The system must be brought down. It must be
strangled, clogged and made so unworkable that it
collapses under its own corrupt weight. Once the
system grinds to a halt, the powers-that-be will
panic, the legislators will be forced to act and the
laws will change.
Accomplishing this may not be as difficult as it
sounds. What it will take is to educate young people
-- and especially young BLACK people -- to follow a
few simple rules when dealing with the authorities.
The rules should be posted in foot-high letters on
billboards in every city. They should be scrawled as
graffiti on every ghetto wall. They should be taped
to lockers in schools and carved into police-cell
walls and posted all over the Internet. They should
be set to a beat and turned into a hip-hop song.
They should be seen wherever people who are the
system's favourite targets gather.
If everyone followed the rules to the letter, the
system would stumble to a halt under its own ponderous
weight. And then, either the laws would change in
an attempt to eliminate injustice, or the system would
be forced to cast off its mask and reveal the monster
police state lurking underneath.
If that happens, there can be only one response, and
that's to take it to the streets, dismantle the
mother@$#*er and start afresh.
The rules fall into two categories: Stymie the Cops,
and Get Your Rights -- ALL Your Rights.
You've waited long enough. Here are
THE RULES OF RESISTANCE
NEVER tell the police anything the law doesn't require
you to tell.
(Unless you're driving a car, that means
your name only. Practice these words
for all other cop questions: "I'd rather not
say.")
NEVER consent to a search of your person, your
vehicle, your possessions or your residence.
(Insist they get a warrant. If they
search without one, they generally can't
use as evidence whatever they might find.)
NEVER confess. To anything. Never admit to anything.
(If arrested, say "I want to speak to a
lawyer." Say nothing until you have. Never
believe the cops when they tell you things
will "go easier with you" if you give a
statement, turn in your partner or point them
towards evidence. This is the biggest lie
cops tell, everyone knows it and yet, dumb
mother@$#*ers fall for it every day. Don't
be a dumb mother@$#*er.)
NEVER discuss your case with cellmates or others
in or out of jail.
(Assume everyone you meet in jail is a
police informant. Many of them are.)
NEVER plea bargain.
ALWAYS demand a lawyer.
(From the moment you are arrested,
tell the cops you want to speak to a lawyer.
At the police station, tell everyone you
come into contact with that you want a
lawyer. Don't talk to the cops until you've
spoken with a lawyer.)
ALWAYS plead not guilty.
(Even if you're guilty as hell. Make them
prove it. Often, they won't be able to
if you don't help them.)
ALWAYS demand a full jury trial.
(Use the rights you have. Challenge
jurors. Drag out the process. Make it
as expensive as possible for the State.)
ALWAYS appeal, if you are convicted.
ALWAYS pass on these rules to everyone you know.
===
There they are. Ten simple rules that hold awesome
power.
Skeptical? Good. But think about it.
Can you imagine what the impact would be on the
system if every single mother's son picked
up by the cops refused to co-operate? Refused to
tell them where he threw the dope, declined to
identify the other dudes who were hanging out
on the street corner, withheld permission for a
search, demanded a lawyer, refused to confess or
make a deal and insisted on a trial, complete with a
jury of his peers? Do you think the system could
withstand that for long?
It could not. The system sustains itself only because
it is a revolving door into which the vast majority of
its victims are sucked into the vortex of arrest,
bargain, confession, guilty plea, prison --
with most of them failing to put up a serious
fight.
But there are not enough public defenders
to represent even a small percentage of charged
persons if *everyone* demanded a lawyer and pleaded
not guilty, not enough prosecutors to prosecute them,
not enough courtrooms to try them in and not enough
judges to fall asleep during their trials. Just
finding enough people to sit on the vastly increased
number of juries that would be required would throttle
the system into paralysis.
And consider the effects on the police, if they knew
that every single sonofa#@&@
they charged would
eventually face them in court, demanding to see their
evidence, with a lawyer at their side to challenge
their every lie.
The costs of running the system would rise
astronomically. It coul
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THE RULES OF RESISTANCE
NEVER tell the police anything.
NEVER consent to a search.
NEVER confess.
NEVER discuss your case with others.
NEVER plea bargain.
ALWAYS demand a lawyer.
ALWAYS plead not guilty.
ALWAYS demand a full jury trial.
ALWAYS appeal, if you are convicted.
ALWAYS pass on these rules.
Rack 'em!
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