Rob
Sherman Advocacy
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Rob
Sherman Advocacy
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"Fighting injustice, one victory at a time."
The New York Times on Friday published an article entitled You Are A Suspect, by William Safire. The gist of the article is that conservatives want the Homeland Security Act to permit the federal government to invade every aspect of our private lives, even though the Bill of Rights, at the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, is intended to guarantee the right of citizens to privacy with respect to their personal lives.
Here's why that Homeland Security Act proposal is such a bad idea:
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Most people think that it doesn't matter if the government snoops on them if they have done nothing wrong and have nothing to hide. What hardly anybody realizes is that our government regularly engages in the practice of faking evidence against law-abiding citizens for the purpose of oppressing minorities and retaliating against dissenters.
If government is allowed to spy on law-abiding citizens, we give them the opportunity to pretend, through faked incriminating evidence, that a completely innocent person supposedly did something improper. One way to impede government from faking evidence against dissenters and minorities is to prohibit government from spying on law-abiding citizens. That way, the government is less likely to get away with a false claim that they supposedly found incriminating evidence while spying on a law-abiding citizen, if they aren't allowed to spy on law-abiding citizens to begin with.
Here's an example of what I'm talking about:
As you know, I have published Liberal News & Commentary for many years. I've often used as a slogan, "Bringing you the Democratic landslide of [this year]." In 1998, a Cook County, Illinois prosecutor named Peter Karlovics put me on trial for engaging in completely lawful conduct. After the trial concluded, in which my defense consisted of, "Your honor, I have neither committed a crime nor been accused of a crime. What I'm accused of is completely legal and lawful conduct." The judge said that he agreed with me that the accusation against me consisted of lawful conduct, but that the issue wasn't whether the accusation in the Written Complaint was true or whether that accusation consisted of lawful or unlawful conduct. Rather, said the judge and the prosecutor, the issue was whether I had engaged in other conduct that exceeded the bounds of reasonableness. The judge proclaimed that I did and that I therefore was guilty, but not guilty of anything in particular. For the crime of Nothing, I was sentenced to 120 days in the Cook County jail.
I demanded to know what conduct it was that I supposedly engaged in that exceeded the bounds of reasonableness, but since no such conduct ever took place or ever was alleged, the prosecutor and judge simply replied that they didn't have to tell me.
Since an allegation of crime must be alleged by a Complainant and not by the judge, I demanded to know who the person was that had alleged that I had engaged in conduct that exceeded the bounds of reasonableness. Once again, since nobody had ever alleged that such conduct ever took place, the prosecutor and judge simply replied that they didn't have to tell me that, either.
Since an accusation against a Defendant must allege that a specific law was violated, I demanded to know what law exceeding the bounds of reasonableness violated. Same answer: They don't have to tell me nothin'.
You might think: No problem. Just file your appeal with the Appellate Court and, surely, they will reverse the fake conviction.
The judge and the prosecutor had a solution to that little dilemma. Eleven days before my appeal brief was due, they sent me to jail for 120 days for refusing to comply with the court's demand that I create an accusation against myself and confess to it.
They said that I was being uncooperative with the court's attempts to help me. If I refused to commit professional suicide by inventing a fake accusation against myself and confessing to it while my appeal of their fake conviction was pending, they would attempt to commit professional homicide against me by sending me to jail to try to make it look like I'm a criminal.
Fortunately, in the four years since the fake conviction, not one person has ever maintained that they thought the court had any credibility, whatsoever. They may have the power to send me to jail on a fake conviction, but they've proven unable to attach any credibility to their fake conviction.
Sixty-five days after I was sent to jail, after the time to file appeal briefs with the Illinois Appellate Court, the Illinois Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court had expired, I was let out on an appeal bond, but not until it was too late to appeal.
I've been attempting to get my case back before the courts ever since, but since I'm Rob Sherman, the most effective atheist social activist in the country today, no court has been willing to give me the time of day.
Remember, early in today's report, I mentioned that the prosecutor's name was Peter Karlovics? It turns out the Karlovics is also the Chairman of the local Republican Party. Isn't that an amazing coincidence?
Here's a Letter to the Editor, entitled Cal and Libertarians Are Spoilers, that Karlovics published in the Illinois Leader, an ultra-right-wing cyber publication. The article is about the race for Illinois Governor, in which Karlovics expressed concern that Libertarian Cal Skinner would siphon away votes from the Republican nominee, Jim Ryan. The relevant comments are from the third paragraph, where the Republican Party Chairman / Prosecutor of Liberals launches the following tirade about the Democratic nominee for Governor, who actually is a moderate to conservative Democrat: "Rod Blagojevich is a leftist liberal activist. Our state cannot afford a liberal activist at the helm."
Amazing coincidence, isn't it, that the very same liberal-hating Chairman of the Republican Party of Warren Township in Lake County, Illinois, chose to prosecute a Democrat who publishes Liberal News & Commentary? Even more amazing was that I was prosecuted for the crime of nothing, as alleged by nobody, in violation of no law; and then sent to jail whenever an appeal brief was due to keep me from appealing the fake conviction.
As of right now, my appeal bond is scheduled to be revoked on January 14, 2003. If that happens, I'd be in jail from January 14th through March 8th of 2003 to complete the sentence for the crime of nothing, as alleged by nobody and in violation of no law. Five years later, Karlovics and the judge still have been unable to come up with any specific crime that I am supposed to have committed. They have never been able to come up with a Complainant to subscribe to their fake accusation, and they certainly haven't been able to specify any law that "exceeding the bounds of reasonableness" is supposed to have violated. However, since Illinois, as Governor George Ryan stated in his Press Release of January 31, 2000, has a "shameful record of convicting innocent people," I may be off to jail, yet again, for the purpose of punishing me for be an effective dissenter and to discourage others from engaging in dissent, even though I've never either committed a crime nor been accused of committing a crime.
That's the sort of thing that would happen more often under the language supported by Republicans for the Homeland Security Act, and that's why you should support my efforts to stop the passage of such a law.
There is still some hope for my situation. The people of Illinois have elected a new Attorney General, Democrat Lisa Madigan. Lisa truly is a leftist liberal activist, just like me. Her Number One campaign theme, Restoring Trust in State Government -- Public Integrity Plan, is to put a stop to the kind of blatant prosecutorial fraud that has resulted in so many completely innocent Illinois citizens being convicted of crimes that they either never committed or that simply never even occurred. Lisa is the "new sheriff in town," which is just what we need to put the likes of Pete Karlovics out of business.
I've already been in touch with Lisa's contact person for the proposed Division of Public Integrity. It turns out that the contact person was a guest on my radio show in 2000, and she remembers how well I treated her on the show, so there's hope of a dramatic, two-out-in-the-bottom-of-the-ninth-inning comeback on this deal. I told her that the two-minute (or, in this case, the two-month) warning has already been sounded, so please hurry. She's working on it.
Stay tuned. Your financial support would be especially helpful right now. Here's how to help. Meanwhile, if that Homeland Security Act goes through, you could end up being my cell-mate, even though you've done nothing wrong, either.
Rob Sherman P. O. Box
7410
Buffalo Grove, IL 60089-7410
A post office box is used
because
the street address uses a curb mail box,
which is not secure.
Telephone: (847) 870-0700
Fax: (847) 870-1156
E-mail: rob followed by the at symbol followed by robsherman dot com