You are here
Announcements
Recent blog posts
- Male Sex Trade Worker
- Communities resisting UK company's open pit coal mine
- THE ANARCHIC PLANET
- The Future Is Anarchy
- The Implosion Of Capitalism And The Nation-State
- Anarchy as the true reality
- Globalization of Anarchism (Anti-Capital)
- Making Music as Social Action: The Non-Profit Paradigm
- May the year 2007 be the beginning of the end of capitalism?
- The Future is Ours Anarchic
Hoipolloi Cassidy, "Paris, Texas"
November 18, 2005 - 3:32pm -- jim
Hoipolloi Cassidy writes:
"Paris, Texas"
Hoipolloi Cassidy
In France all courts are kangaroo, at least potentially. As a rule the system works as well as any other: you're presumed to be guilty until proven innocent, but there are levels of presumption and therefore levels of proof throughout the whole process, from Jean-Pierre who witnesses and interferes to the gendarme who determines and passes you on to inspector Maigret, concerned to get the whole picture, to the investigating magistrate, the courts, the judge, the jury. As a rule there's a some kind of checks and balances, and as usual in France they're more a question of connections and individualism than a strict enforcement of rules. But the system goes wrong when these levels are by-passed: when legal professionals work against the community, not within it; when the inner circles and the political cliques take over; when ruling-class paranoia takes control. And the system's gone wrong in the suburbs of Paris.Here is a trial, reported by the French daily Libération. November 3rd, two tow-trucks coming to cart away burnt cars are pelted with rocks by masked young men. Later, two of the drivers identify Mamadou B., age 21, a student in Management, no police record. Description: "tall black man wearing a blue tee-shirt." No line-up. The other two drivers can't identify him.
Some of the attackers wore blue shirts (there's some confusion throughout between tees, sweats and "maillots," wife-beaters). But then, blue shirts are worn all over the 'nabe, so why was Mamadou singled out? The drivers claim (how did they know?) that the kids changed shirts after the attack. But then why did Mamadou keep his shirt? The judge explains: "But you, you kept the same shirt. The best way to exonerate yourself is to tell us who gave you the shirt. Someone gave you the shirt? You're going to have to tell us who." The prosecutor argues Mamadou's a bad sort, after ten days of preventive detention he still won't confess, and asks for five months' time. The judge in all his clemency hands down a one-month sentence. Mamadou's mom bursts into tears, upproar in the courtroom, cops clear the room with truncheons raised. Welcome to Paris, Texas.
Bless 'em, the French Left could always be counted on to turn out against Le Racisme américain. Will the American Left return the courtesy?
[Source: "Au tribunal de Bobigny, délit de sweat bleu ciel," by Karl Laske. Libération, mercredi 16 novembre 2005, here.]
Hoipolloi Cassidy writes:
"Paris, Texas"
Hoipolloi Cassidy
In France all courts are kangaroo, at least potentially. As a rule the system works as well as any other: you're presumed to be guilty until proven innocent, but there are levels of presumption and therefore levels of proof throughout the whole process, from Jean-Pierre who witnesses and interferes to the gendarme who determines and passes you on to inspector Maigret, concerned to get the whole picture, to the investigating magistrate, the courts, the judge, the jury. As a rule there's a some kind of checks and balances, and as usual in France they're more a question of connections and individualism than a strict enforcement of rules. But the system goes wrong when these levels are by-passed: when legal professionals work against the community, not within it; when the inner circles and the political cliques take over; when ruling-class paranoia takes control. And the system's gone wrong in the suburbs of Paris.Here is a trial, reported by the French daily Libération. November 3rd, two tow-trucks coming to cart away burnt cars are pelted with rocks by masked young men. Later, two of the drivers identify Mamadou B., age 21, a student in Management, no police record. Description: "tall black man wearing a blue tee-shirt." No line-up. The other two drivers can't identify him.
Some of the attackers wore blue shirts (there's some confusion throughout between tees, sweats and "maillots," wife-beaters). But then, blue shirts are worn all over the 'nabe, so why was Mamadou singled out? The drivers claim (how did they know?) that the kids changed shirts after the attack. But then why did Mamadou keep his shirt? The judge explains: "But you, you kept the same shirt. The best way to exonerate yourself is to tell us who gave you the shirt. Someone gave you the shirt? You're going to have to tell us who." The prosecutor argues Mamadou's a bad sort, after ten days of preventive detention he still won't confess, and asks for five months' time. The judge in all his clemency hands down a one-month sentence. Mamadou's mom bursts into tears, upproar in the courtroom, cops clear the room with truncheons raised. Welcome to Paris, Texas.
Bless 'em, the French Left could always be counted on to turn out against Le Racisme américain. Will the American Left return the courtesy?
[Source: "Au tribunal de Bobigny, délit de sweat bleu ciel," by Karl Laske. Libération, mercredi 16 novembre 2005, here.]