Yesterday and today I again visited the court room where Verbena, Kimberly Starr, is embroiled in a malicious law suit brought by Pacific Lumber Company. I had other obligations during much of last week so missed much of the excitement. Well not excitement. Today Jack Nounnan was on the stand for an hour or so. Pacific Lumber’s attorneys Mitchell, Brisso, Delaney and Vrieze represented by Russell S. Gans objected to nearly everything and Judge Watson sustained all but the most egregious objections. Mitchell Brisso Delaney and Vrieze have a very close relationship with the Humboldt County Superior Court and the ultra right wing faction of county government in this notoriously corrupt county where the number one industry is the manufacture and distribution of illegal drugs and automatic weapons fire can be heard almost constantly in much of this rural county.
Verbena, who is attempting to represent herself with the coaching of young attorney Tracy Herrin, against what can only be described as mafia style bullies tried to address the notion that the non-violent protestors are a dangerous and threatening group who have forced Pacific Lumber Co. to hire a security firm for $30,000 a month. This is not a hearing to get a restraining order, a trial to prosecute them for trespassing on the company owned town of Scotia (yes a 19th century company town for those not familiar with the local scene) or anything that might be construed as reasonable, setting aside the fact that there has been little legal recourse to address the clearly criminal activities of hostilly taken over Pacific Lumber Company. As this litigation has progressed it has become very clear that this is a SLAPP as the defendants have maintained. “SLAPP” is an acronym which stands for Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation they have been around for a while but have evolved rapidly in recent years with more and more ridiculous versions being propagated against people who are usually nearly defenseless in court against large corporations and government entities. A good source of information concerning this and attempt to control it and other malicious litigation by legislation may be found at the website of the California Anti-SLAPP project http://www.casp.net/ . Few doubt that our democracy is under severe attack at this point, that our gigantic prison system is full of petty offenders, political dissidents and even many absolutely innocent people. Few expect criminals to face appropriate justice and many believe that the “system” generally exploits the weak rather than protects them. Corruption in our society has become blatant with lobbyists going back and forth from K street to high government positions and bribes being given right on the floor of congress. Charles Hurwitz big cheese at the helm of Maxxam which bought Pacific Lumber and has escalated it’s destruction and it’s illegal and basically unsound forest practices has been indicted for fraud and is connected with Jack Abramoff, lobbyist charged with bribery of top Republican legislators.
Other upcoming malicious litigation against protestors include those brough against critical mass riders one of whom has been charged with brutalizing a CHP officer. I was in court on March 7th when Kathryn Zimmerman’s trial date was set for April 24th. This very young woman has a very slight build and the thought of her brutalizing a police officer is amusing at best. Witnesses say he blundered into her and fell on top of her. We may see… more likely there will be much legal wrangling at great taxpayer expense and we will not see. That’s how a courtroom works; keeping damning evidence out of view and perjury are the winning ticket. That and a form over content mentality that surpasses even the worst example of ugly Americanism. I have interviewed attorneys who all laugh when I ask about perjury and they say that police are the worst. One attorney told me he takes 3 or 4 criminal cases a month and his clients are always shocked when they see the police reports, that fake evidence has been added to make the case for law enforcement or simple lies told. They do this in most cases I think because they believe the end justifies the means and that they are taking guilty people out who would otherwise walk or get sentences they consider too lenient. They are well known for the process of “profiling”. Profiling started as a psychological analysis of a crime scene by trained psychologists. Generally we have the image of a brutal murder committed by a deranged serial killer but that has degenerated into little more than simply arresting people based on a dress code and skin color. I feel that many of the police officers engaged in this mean well and believe they are doing the world a favor…and keeping their jobs. Few prejudiced people are able to see their own prejudice. Meanwhile people engaged in real crime, big time drug dealers and so on, simply don 1950’s style dress and the trappings of affluence and become largely invincible while the police are set upon homeless people, drunks, political dissidents and so on more often than not at the behest of successful criminals who have purchased political power and or can otherwise afford grossly expensive litigation.
I have often been at odds with environmentalists and others who insist on civil disobedience and other confrontational methods of protest but I am now coming around to believe they are the true heroes of modern times where our corporate owned media has become a near monopoly and the information we receive more and more simplistic and propagandistic. My experiences and those of people I have known with the “justice” system, the debacle of Bush administration and Arnold Swarzenneger cohort Enron and the unopposed attacks of September 11th, 2001 have convinced me that our democracy and it’s underlying freedom is all but lost. The sheer number and rate of people incarcerated in America, which leads the world by a very wide margin in these fields is irrefutable evidence that our claim to be “free” and the notion that we are invading and destroying other people’s countries to bring this “freedom” to them is simply propaganda. Right out of Stalin’s Communist Soviet Union, Hitler’s Fascist Germany or another Bush administration buddy and major U.S. debt holder Communist China. This corruption is not brought about solely by the corporate owned Republican Party; the Democrats are perhaps bigger offenders as the supposed representatives of “the little guy”. Or the “mythical little guy” as latest Supreme Court appointee and career corporate attorney Samuel A. Alitto puts it.
I highly recommend that people go sit in on court proceedings once in a while just to see what goes on, who is there, who is not there and so that they might become better informed voters. While you’re there, say for instance in the drug court watching the parade of destitute pot heads and junkies, think “though people are responsible for their own actions, that junky is a victim of the Taleban and Al Qaida’s current unopposed attack on America the via their recently liberated Afghani opium industry”. We are not losing our freedom and democracy because of dark alien forces we are losing these most valuable human rights due to our own institutionalized ignorance, complacency and gullibility. While it is often said that Bush is “all hat and no cattle” I dispute that; we are his cattle and we are heading to the slaughter house while he and his terroristic totalitarian friends sit there openly smirking at us. To witness this cancer spread at the cellular level visit your local halls of justice. I have posted some of the times and dates of the political litigation at http://humboldtrevolution.org (see the calendar link at the top) and will try and get more posted there soon. Please don’t go to the court house to make an uproar. Do that later.
“The abuse of buying and selling votes crept in and money began to play an important part in determining elections. Later on, this process of corruption spread to the law courts. And then to the army, and finally the Republic was subjected to the rule of emperors:” Plutarch - Historian of the Roman Republic