From: jake@bony1.bony.com (Jake Livni)
Subject: Re: Say it ain't so
Organization: The Department of Redundancy Department
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 92 21:50:08 GMT

In article <BypLs6.91E@world.std.com> srm@world.std.com (Stevens R Miller) writes:
>jake@bony1.bony.com (Jake Livni) writes:

>>After spending several weeks of defending the jury's verdict, you now
>>tell us that perhaps you actually believe somewhat differently from
>>what your postings might have suggested.

>No, Jake.  This is another example of an inference you drew when it
>would have been easier and more accurate (but probably not helpful
>to your agenda) to just ask me.  

My main agenda is to see to it that citizens and decent people are
protected by the law of the land.  When Jews can be frequently and
viciously attacked and the mayor restrains his condmenation of these
attacks in comparison to attacks on other constituencies, when the
police refrain from protecting Jews from this violence and then make
only one token arrest here and there, when the DA develops a record of
not being able to get a conviction in fairly straightforward cases,
THEN my agenda becomes more urgent.

>And, as I have apparently made only
>muddlingly clear, I have tried to defend the Nelson jury against your
>charges of prejudice, not the verdict itself.

Okay, the jury was OK but their verdict was stupid/prejudiced/biased.

>>I apologize - I forgot that
>>you are a lawyer and are entirely capable of vigorously arguing that
>>black is white for weeks on end even as you know that this is not
>>actually the case. 
>
>From a man who splits a proctections versus rights hair (above), this
>is not a particularly damning criticism.  

Not particularly damning?  Typical lawyer talk.  "Trust me."

>Even if it were, it would
>not apply to my arguments since I don't claim to know what the truth
>was on the night Rosenbaum died.  You are the only one who has done
>that.

No, the jury has, as well.  Many Jews in town feel that the jury got
the story all wrong and have to wonder how they did so.  Many of these
Jews also spent as much time in court as the jury.  People like Norman 
Rosenbaum, for example.

>>Okay, perhaps the jury acquitted because they fell for a good
>>performance.
>
>If so, then it wasn't because they were being racists.  I hope you
>are sincere in this concession, because it means we can finally
>agree that racism may not have been the reason for the verdict.
>That's really all I've tried to assert.

Agreed.  They may have been stupid.  Perhaps they didn't hate Jews,
perhaps they hated whites.  Perhaps they hated neither, just that
they hated cops.  Isn't this where the whole argument started?  The
jury was most likely NOT impartial, for discounting the entirety of
the evidence, eyewitnesses, confessions and all.

>>>>Now you tell us that there is no obligation to tell the
>>>>truth to the police.  How pathetic. 
>>>
>>>Pathetic that I state the truth?  Just because the rule is not to
>>>your liking doesn't mean I shouldn't state it.  Or do you prefer
>>>your own rules to the truth?  How pathetic.
>
>>My rules tell me to tell the truth.
>
>I salute you for living by a higher standard than our law requires.

Next you're going to tell me that I'm stupid for paying taxes, too.
After seeing the protection that the police offer me, I might agree
with you on taxes.

>>Your rules...
>>tell you that telling the truth isn't a requirement, at least not to the
>>authorities.  Did Nelson's lawyer advise his client this way about
>>denying the confession?   
>
>I don't know, and neither does anyone except Nelson and (maybe) his
>lawyer.  Regardless, please don't confuse what the law requires with
>my own personal standards; that would be blaming the messenger.

Say again?  The law doesn't require one to tell the truth?  What's all
this stuff about "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the
truth"? 

-- 
Jake Livni  jake@bony1.bony.com              10 years from now, George Bush will
American-Occupied New York                   have replaced Jimmy Carter as the
My opinions only - employer has no opinions. standard of a failed President.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish