Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of September 2018. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil.
Related posts
-
Senators call for audit of TSA’s facial recognition tech as use expands in airports | The Record from Recorded Future News
Source: therecord.media 11/22/24 A bipartisan group of 12 senators on Wednesday sent the Department of Homeland... -
-
SORNA Case Advances in Federal Court; PLF Files Motion for Summary Judgment
The Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) filed a motion for summary judgment on November 18 in its...
David’s story about Paris is distressing. Brings back horrifying memories of being pulled aside at Heathrow and interrogated and then sent back to the US on the next flight. But I thought from all previous reports that Schengen/European entry was no problem. Did you have a marked passport (but it sounds like that didn’t trigger it)? Do you live in a SORNA compliant state and did you give the 21-day notice? Are you on probation or parole? Why was this different? I am planning on several European visits so now I’m shaken.
The following story is significant as it comes from the corporate conservative paper of record, The Wall Street Journal. In the case of Kavanaugh, I hope that he doesn’t get seated on the Supreme Court but having nothing to do with his highschool hijinks but everything to do with his views on government authority and what I fear would be a far-less salutary regard for our rights as, say, Gorsuch who is, nevertheless, still to prove that to us. I’ve excerpted some of the article because it is behind a paywall. “The Presumption of Guilt: The new liberal standard turns American due process upside down.” By The Editorial Board of the Wall Street Journal
“Not only do women like Dr. Ford, who bravely comes forward, need to be heard, but they need to be believed.”
—Sen. Maize Hirono (D., Hawaii)
The last-minute accusation of sexual assault against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is an ugly spectacle by any measure. But if there is a silver lining, it is that the episode is providing an education for Americans on the new liberal standard of legal and political due process.
As Ms. Hill and Sen. Hirono aver, the Democratic standard for sexual-assault allegations is that they should be accepted as true merely for having been made. The accuser is assumed to be telling the truth because the accuser is a woman. The burden is on Mr. Kavanaugh to prove his innocence. If he cannot do so, then he is unfit to serve on the Court.
***
This turns American justice and due process upside down. The core tenet of Anglo-American law is that the burden of proof always rests with the person making the accusation. An accuser can’t doom someone’s freedom or career merely by making a charge.
The accuser has to prove the allegation in a court of law or in some other venue where the accused can challenge the facts. Otherwise we have a Jacobin system of justice in which “J’accuse” becomes the standard and anyone can be ruined on a whim or a vendetta.
Another core tenet of due process is that an accusation isn’t any more or less credible because of the gender, race, religion or ethnicity of who makes it. A woman can lie, as the Duke lacrosse players will tell you. Ms. Hirono’s standard of credibility by gender would have appalled the civil-rights campaigners of a half century ago who marched in part against Southern courts that treated the testimony of black Americans as inherently less credible than that of whites. Yet now the liberal heirs of those marchers want to impose a double standard of credibility by gender.
A third tenet of due process is the right to cross-examine an accuser. The point is to test an accuser’s facts and credibility, which is why we have an adversarial system. The denial of cross-examination is a major reason that campus panels adjudicating sexual-assault claims have become kangaroo courts.
It’s worth quoting from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling this month in Doe v. Baumon a sexual-assault case at the University of Michigan.
“Due process requires cross-examination in circumstances like these because it is ‘the greatest legal engine ever invented’ for uncovering the truth,” wrote Judge Amul Thapar. “Not only does cross-examination allow the accused to identify inconsistencies in the other side’s story, but it also gives the fact-finder an opportunity to assess a witness’s demeanor and determine who can be trusted. So if a university is faced with competing narratives about potential misconduct, the administration must facilitate some form of cross-examination in order to satisfy due process.”
***
Consider the limited facts of Christine Blasey Ford’s accusation against Judge Kavanaugh. It concerns an event some 36 years ago that she recalls in only partial detail. She remembers the alleged assault and rooms she entered with some specificity, but not the home where it occurred. She doesn’t know how she traveled to or from the home that evening.
She told no one about the incident for 30 years until a couples therapy session with her husband. Her therapist’s notes say there were four assailants but she says there were only two. Two of the three other people she says were at the drinking party that night say they know nothing about the party or the assault, and Mr. Kavanaugh denies it categorically.
Democrats claim that even asking questions about these facts is somehow an unfair attack on her as a woman. Her lawyer is demanding that Ms. Ford testify after Mr. Kavanaugh, and that only Senators ask questions—no doubt to bar Republicans from having a female special counsel ask those questions.
We’re told Ms. Ford even wants to bar any questions about why she waited so long to recall the alleged assault and who she consulted in finally going public this year. Such a process is designed to obscure the truth, not to discover it. None of these demands should be tolerable to Senators who care about finding the truth about a serious accusation.
We don’t doubt that Ms. Ford believes what she claims. But the set of facts she currently provides wouldn’t pass even the “preponderance of evidence”—or 50.01% evidence of guilt—test that prevails today on college campuses. If this is the extent of her evidence and it is allowed to defeat a Supreme Court nominee, a charge of sexual assault will become a killer political weapon regardless of facts. And the new American standard of due process will be the presumption of guilt. https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-presumption-of-guilt-1537570627
Not sure where to post this, but some people asked for a report. I have a 25 year old deferred adjudication record for sexual assault of a minor.
Me, my wife and adult daughter flew out of Houston on the 4th to Budapest Hungary (through the Netherlands) via KLM airlines.
I live in Texas so after trying to contact the officer in the county where I register about 3 or 4 times, I just sent him a certified letter informing him of my travel plans. We flew from there to Prague Czech Republic, then down to Bucharest, Romania all without incident. Then back home 17 days later, all without incident. When I got back into Houston, I was flagged for something they called a hard flag, or something like that, and had to wait in a room with a bunch of border patrol officers, who were mostly just doing nothing, along with about 20 other people. It reminded me of DPS. They had plastered all over the place, No Cell Phones, No Cameras. They were unpleasant people. I got called up to speak with one of the guys about 10 minutes later, and asked where I had been, and where I was headed. He never smiled, or showed any emotion except a frown, then he handed me my passport and said “you can go”, and that was it.
🤔 Hmm, perhaps the next time the French officials pull me aside, I will remind them about France’s WWII Vichy government’s collaboration with the Nazis and ask if they wish to repeat such deplorable collaborating with the facist regime of America …. you know, the one that officially marks the passports of some of its own citizens??
This comment is referring to reduction from felony to misdemeanor, and then expungement. Has anyone done this using recordgone.com? Thoughts and opinions… I have 311.11(a). Convicted March of 2010. Received a few months in jail and five years probation. I had to turn myself in a month after conviction. During that 30 day period I got a violation of probation. Caught a little extra time for that,but all jail time. I have been off probation since March of 2015. No prior convictions or anything. I’m thinking about hiring recordgone but wanted to check opinions first. Thanks guys.
https://alaska-native-news.com/governor-proposes-fix-to-loophole-in-alaskas-sex-offense-laws/37448/
Article about Alaska governor pushing for changes. This article should have it own caption and link I think.
I can see a lot of people going to jail over something like this.
Woman after consensual intercourse: “I told you not to finish on my face!” calls cops
Or god forbid it gets on their clothes. This could be applied to so many explicit videos also when the girl says not to finish in them and the guy does it anyway.
Not trying to make light of him strangling the lady. But unwanted contact of bodily fluids should go both ways as feminist protesters have thrown period blood on men and other women without having been charged of a crime such as this.
@ “Steve @David” and “Illinois Contact”:
1. No, I am not on parole or probation or any type of community or corrections supervision.
2. No, my 5-year old U.S. Passort is not marked. It does not contain the IML’s “Scarlet Letter”.
3. I have a felony conviction from 1996 for L&L with a teenager.
4. I was traveling by myself.
5. I live in a non-SORNA compliant State.
6. I submitted the Advance Notification of Travel form approximately 24 days prior to my departure. It was submitted – with receipt acknowledgement – to the Police Specialist who handles all the 290 Registrant matters in my city.
Differences:
1. I used the State Attorney General’s Advance Notification of Travel form this time, not the Angel Watch/IML’s Advance Notification of Travel form (which I had used for past trips abroad).
2. I provided all of the information I had available at the time I submitted the form. I still had not identified a few of the vacation rentals where I would be staying. (This had been the same situation as previous trips – late identification of rental addresses – and no hassles on those trips.)
I think the Advance Notification forms are ill-conceived and impractical. What if I arrive at my stay-rental apartment and it has flooded, collapsed, burnt down, or been infested by rats? Am I supposed to NOT find an alternate place to stay?? And, besides, who really cares about where exactly I am staying while out of the country on vacation? Or what if I miss my outgoing flight and won’t actually arrive in the foreign country until a day later??
I am unaware of French law enforcement documenting/recording any of the rental locations. Nor does foreign LE follow-up with some ridiculous version of a “vacation residency compliance check”.
The Advance Notification form is just government harassment, nothing more. (Besides when was the last time France suffered the scourge of “sex tourism” [which is purportedly the reason for the Advance Notification]??)
Next trip, I will anticipate this foolishness and ask for a copy of whatever notification they received from the U.S. government that lead them to detain and question me.
Man Tergets RC’s in shootings. Says he went on the registry to target RC’s.
https://www.wsmv.com/news/hendersonville-man-targets-sex-offenders-in-shooting-rampage/article_82f495d8-bd4f-11e8-92ce-3b758e2be959.html
The reason Cody Wilson was just extradited to the U.S. from Taiwan? Because the U.S. revoked his passport while he was there. It turns out that having your passport revoked constitutes an illegal presence in, at least in this case, Taiwan. I have not encountered this argument before. I suspect that we will see more like it as the U.S. continues to project its extraterritorial authority over our lives. https://reason.com/blog/2018/09/21/cody-wilson-3d-printed-gun-pioneer-arres
Now anyone – including those convicted of violent assaults and firearms offenses – can purchase a
3-D printer and print themselves a gun. So will LE be doing regular (10, 20, 30 years-after-the-conviction) compliance checks of those “offenders”? Will the offenders be barred from owning 3-D printers under penalty of felony conviction? I’m just thinking that if LE so enjoys showing us love, maybe they should start spreading that love to those with higher recidivism rates who pose greater threats to society? (Oh, that’s right, in America, you can shoot up an entire school of teenagers …. just don’t get caught peeking at a picture of one.) 🤯🔫🤷♂️
Reported on News radio:
A cell provider gave a # to a woman for new phone service. The phone was meant for her daughter. The # had been recycled from an online prostitute and the daughter was getting messages asking for services. The woman freaked, and the # was permanently trashed by provider.
Now, if she had reported this to police, would the unknowing “client” have been arrested?
I bet that Johnny Law would have tried to get him for some juvenile sex crime.
This Kavanaugh issue is soooo important for this country it cannot be stressed enough. This is the best opportunity, with the perfect candidate such as would be the case with Frank Lindsey for attacking the Registry, but that is a different story, to set the record straight on what constitutes a credible and legal sexual assault accusation and how it should be handled. The incredibly credible, accomplished, and impeccable record from this Justice should have never even been tarnished by these accusations and unless there was a conviction for a crime should never even been introduced into the equation in any setting let alone in such a setting as the senate conformation hearings. These women, and I mean all women that accuse individuals and go public with these accusations, or even brings them up at all in any way, with absolutely no corroboration or evidence, should be prosecuted and should serve prison terms that mirror the sentences for the crimes that they are alleging. I bet that would stop these character assassinations and put justice and the rule of law back into place when it comes to these type of issue. Innocent until proven guilty by evidence and facts, not unsubstantiated accusations is the foundation of our country and I can only imagine what the founders would think. This is defamation in the most extreme extent and if I was any of these people that are being targeted I would go after them in civil court with everything I had and unless they can show by the pro-ponderous of the evidence, which is the standard for civil court I believe which she be demolished and require the same as a criminal court, then these accusers need to be destroyed in every sense, financially, socially, politically if they are in public office. Such claims, despite what the left wing radicals think or say, do not even rise to level that should even be considered by any LE or DA as requiring even an investigation. They should be completely dismissed as hearsay and once again, the false accusations should be punishable by the same criminal liability that the accused would face if true. Also, these unsubstantiated accusations do an incredible disservice to actual sexual assault victims. You know these Dems keep stating the credibility of these women and there accusations are one and the same. They are not. I do not care how credible the person is the accusations are only credible if there is actually evidence……….
Steve, I hear what you are saying but that issue is not even part of my equation. This is a way bigger issue than the mere registry, even though the registry is our big issue, this is going to set the standard by which each and everyone of us Americans are going to have to live with. Our registry issue is the same thing but it only affects, and I am not down playing our issue in the least but, a fraction of the country. Kavanaugh and the character assassination attempt based on a mere allegation without any evidence is the synonymous to how men are being railroaded thru the criminal justice system in sex offense cases and this will help put a dent, for or against, this mob mentality coming from the radical left. I try not to be partisan but this is it appears. How can no Dems come out against this insane, not even a kangaroo court level, style of justice. I personally think Kavanaugh is the best we are going to get for us in particular because he is a constitutionalist and does not appear to mind going against precedent if he feels it was not decided correctly. Now that could be bad for Roe v Wade but I really do not think so. I think the Dems are just blowing smoke because Roe is well settled law and if he follows the constitution it will be upheld. Although now he might be so pissed off at the dems that he rules against it just because of what they are doing to him ( and his family) and I would not blame but I expect more from him. His record is impeccable and I have read some of his opinions and they are sound. Like I said, this is bigger then even the registry and will decide if we allow a mob rule society such as what we face now. If this is allowed to derail this man then I would think the judges whom are on the fence on this and have no character enough to take a stand, which could destroy them in the court of public opinion, are going to think twice before applying real justice such as the case with the ousted judge Persky here in CA. Do we want SCOTUS to be influenced by public opinion? NO we do not want any judge to be influenced in such a way and in CA where judges are elected there goes any type of republic.
My $0.02: FAC is trying to raise money to fight FL’s keeping out-of-state RCs on its rolls. Given it’s on a FL support site and addresses an issue for non-FL RCs, it’s slow to get funded. For the sake of court precedent that could be leveraged elsewhere, I encourage contributing any amount to the cause. WI, NY, ex-FL, MS, LA, etc, RCs should all be keen to chip in, IMO.
I won’t post a link to it out of respect to ACSOL, but it’s easily found via the “Donate” link on their site.
B___ C____, welcome to the price club! Remember, it’s not punishment.
I guess everyone has heard about Cosby by now.
I think the Judge took about 1 hour to determine whether to label him a Sexually Violent Predator.
This blind this 81 year old could not be violent with ANYYYY-ONEEEE
These Registration Schemas are SOOOO F****** OUT OF CONTROL in this country!!
Who in their right mind would want to continue to live in this country as a Registered Sex Offender.
I’ve been watching the breaking news on Fox News.
Nearly every single Reporter covering this story, cannot stop throwing around the words Sexually Violent Predator- like about how vile and disgusting Sex Offenders are considered in the United States.
The media is getting-off replaying and replaying the video of this 81 year old being led out in handcuffs.
Being here in the U.S. ? MAKES ME SICK TO MY STOMACH
YouTube video: Rozzi: Hold Child Sex Abusers Accountable
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY7RZB6NTSY
Rozzi said: “We are victims of doctors, coaches, scout leaders, teachers, ministers, neighbors, and even our own family members.”
My comment on the video: He never mentioned registered sex offenders. Why? Because 95+% of registered sex offenders NEVER commit another sex crime. So why are registered sex offenders even registered? Not for safety, for sure. Why are they checked on continuously and made to follow 100’s of restrictions? Why can’t they sponsor someone from another country? Why are their passports marked as they were by the Germans? Why are they targeted and sometimes murdered by vigilantes? Political and monetary reasons, that’s why! End the registries; they only cost taxpayers unnecessary money… lots of money. Money that could be used for actually protecting children.
Judge facing controversy over light sentence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ge_mDS7GyKE
Yep, another judge probably gonna be outed.
I hope to god Cosby makes it to SCOTUS because the precedent that has been set by all of them Nassar, Weinstein, Charlie Rose, O’Riely, and now Cosby should scare the hell out of any man out there. As long as there is corroborating witnesses then your toast, regardless of evidence. This crap has got to stop, under the constitution and the rule of law there is absolutely no way this is constitutional. I guess they never heard of insufficient evidence claim. This is a big BS+ convictions with NO evidence. I am not privy to any evidence but if there is no EVIDENCE NO CONVICTION. End of story…………………………..Disgusting, and I really hope one of these cases makes it to SCOTUS and they put a stop to this BS+++++……. I do not know if anyone can tell but I AM OUTRAGED over this crap. These Kangaroo courts are scary. AJ, is there SCOTUS precedent allowing these types of convictions that you know about?
@MikeR
When did I ever criticize or even mention anything about the founding fathers?
Women like me? Have you ever met me? Or are you too chicken sh*t to come to any of the NorCal meetings that I attend? Say that to my face next time. I guarantee you wouldn’t have the cajones to do so; and let me tell you, there are plenty of fellow RCs I’ve met that are willing to stand behind me against you. Believe you me, I KNOW how to stand my ground.
And really? I hate men? That’s the conclusion you come, to? You don’t know how I live or how I think. Speak only for yourself instead of trying to project…yes you project…your feelings onto me.
Yes, please do ignore me. Not once had I ever responded to your rants before yesterday nor had any other interaction with you. Now I know why I should continue scrolling past your nonsense.
Geez. It’s too bad we can’t employ a block button.
So I am confused on the Cosby case, and all of them for that matter, was there DNA involved, how about teeth marks, scratches from being fought off, any eye witnesses, how about a weapon that may have been used, any evidence in the accusers possesion like, rope-duct tape-gags of some kind that match what Cosby had in his possesion? I believe those used to be the types of evidence for a conviction but now it’s he did this to me and all my freinds say he did it to them so he GUILTY, prison time SVP status, oh and who cares that he is blind, as old as dirt can barely lift a pickle jar, he is a danger to society and must pay retribution to these accusers. What the hell happened to reasonable doubt? I can name a million doubts about this case dependent upon the limited knowledge I have about his case or evidence. From what I understand though it is a he said she said no physical evidence or eye witnesses to the crime. Man I have to stop watching news….
“Texas Laws Extend Sex Offender Registry Beyond 100K” “The number of registered sex offenders in Texas climbs by nearly a dozen every day.”
https://thecrimereport.org/2018/09/25/texas-laws-extend-sex-offender-registry-beyond-100k/#
How is everyone feeling about Kavanaugh? If he’s confirmed, will his near-burning at the stake make him more sympathetic to those accused of sex crimes, or will he instead seek demonstrate how supportive he is of women and their claims, taking their side in any case that makes it’s way to SCOTUS?
As for me, up til the hearings I’ve been cautiously optimistic toward him, but after all this BS I pray to God he’s confirmed just to see the looks on the faces of Feinstein and Harris, not to mention the the pussy hat-wearing horde. It will be like Election Night 2016 all over again. Utter bliss.