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Today's
Stories
March 19, 2004
Vicente Navarro
The End of Aznar, Bush's Best
Friend
March 18, 2004
Gila Svirsky
Rachel
Corrie, One Year Later: She Never Lost Faith in Decency
Christopher Brauchli
Drilling a Hole in the Sanctions: How Halliburton Made $73 Million
from Saddam
William Kulin
Report from Iraq: Just Another Baghdad Car Bombing
Mike Whitney
Resistance: a Moral Imperative
Rep. Ron Paul
Broadcast Indecency Act: an Indecent Attack on the First Amendment
Josh Frank
The Nader Question
Jack Random
They Lied & They Lost: Madrid and the Lessons of Democracy
Greg Bates
What Makes a Nader Voter Tick? A Survey
Sam Hamod / Alfredo Reyes
Contempt of the World: Hastert, Bush and Cheney on Spain
Gary Leupp
The
Madrid Bombings: the Chickens Come Home to Roost
Website of the Day
Privatizing Armageddon: Buy Your Own Doomsday Key
March 17, 2004
Marjorie Cohn
Spain, the EU and the US: War on
Terror or Civil Liberties?
David MacMichael
Untruth
and Consequences
Michael Donnelly
Wear the Green, But Skip the Green Beer
Tom Stephens
"Steady Leadership": Let the Buyer Beware
Wayne Madsen
Sen. Kerry, Let Me Help You Out
Karyn Strickler
Who Owns the Sierra Club? Anonymous Donors and Rigged Elections
Peter Linebaugh
Bush:
Blanc Blanc
March 16, 2004
Lenni Brenner
James
Madison: the Anti-Clerical Father of the Bill of Rights
Scott Boehm
Madrid
Diary: How to Change World Order in Four Days
Alexander Lynch
From Franco to Aznar: the History
Behind the Spanish Elections
Sam Hamod and Alfredo
Reyes
The Truth About the Spanish Elections: Aznar Was Going Down Anyway
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
You Wouldn't Do a Dog This Way:
Executing David Clayton Hill
Mike Whitney
The Case for a Nuclear Iran
Robert Fisk
The Bloody Price of the "War
on Terror"
Bill Christison
The
Aftershocks from Madrid
CounterPunch Photo Wire
The Passion of St. Teresa
Website of the Day
Join the War on Art!
March 15, 2004
Harry Browne
Terror Nothing New to Europe
Mike Whitney
Justice
Not Murder: the Tragic Symmetry of Terrorism
Lidice Valenzuela
Haiti: a Coup without Consultation
Greg Moses
Lessons
from the Texas Primaries: Looking for a Coalition with Legs
Mickey Z.
Depraved Indifference: C-Sections, Patriarchy & Women's Health
Asaf Shtull-Trauring
AWOL
in New York: From Refusenik to Organizer
CounterPunch Wire
Gen. Gramajo Executed by Bees!
March 12 / 14, 2004
Gabriel Kolko
The
Coming Elections and the Future of American Global Power
Saul Landau
Oh, Jesus...It's the Movie!
William Blum
Neo-Con(tradictions)
William S. Lind
Why They Throw Rocks
Rahul Mahajan
The Meaning of Madrid: War on "Terrorism" Makes Us
All Less Safe
Neve Gordon
Demographic Wars
Kurt Nimmo
Kerry and the Progressive Interventionists
Mickey Z.
The "New" UN Blames the Poor
Mike Whitney
War Games: the American Media Leads the Charge
Helen Scott and Ashley
Smith
Aristide's Fall: What Led to the Coup?
Justin E.H. Smith
Loïc Wacquant: Against a Sociodicy
of the American Prison
Brandy Baker
Him Again? Al Gore Needs to Move On
Robin Philpot
Nobody Can Call It a "Plane Crash" Now: the Report
on the Assassination of Rwandan President Habyarimana
Mokhiber / Weissman
The Meat Monopoly Takes a Rare Pounding
Dave Zirin
She Turned Her Back on the War: an Interview with Toni Smith
Daniel Wolff
The Lord's Pier
March 11, 2004
Ron Jacobs
Bedtime
for Democracy
Bill Kauffman
Hey,
Ralph! Why Not Another Party of the People?
James Hollander
Slaughter
in Madrid: Consolidating an Ally?
Norman Solomon
They
Shoot Journalists, Don't They?
Patrick Gavin
The Salvation of Dan Quayle: Family Values Return
Becky Burgwin
You're
Messing with the Wrong Generation
John Sugg
The FBI is on My Trail
March 10, 2004
Hammond Guthrie
Read
This Book!: "Who the Hell is Stew Albert?"
Chris Floyd
Operation Enduring Sweatshop: Another
Bush Brings Hell to Haiti
Elizabeth Corrie
Remembering the Death of Rachel Corrie
Mike Whitney
US Press Torpedoes Aristide
M. Junaid Alam
An Anti-Civilizational War?
Bob Feldman
The Occupation of Haiti: Recalling 1915-1934
John L. Hess
An Overload of Crises
Gary Leupp
On Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi and the Uses of al-Qaeda "Links"
March 9, 2004
Greg Weiher
The
Zarqawi Gambit, Part 2
Ben Tripp
Word Up! Let's Have a Conversation
Tom Barry
Neo-Cons Target Syria
Sharon Smith
The Hypocrites in the Catholic Church
Robert Fisk
The Same Old Iraq
Doug Giebel
The Bush Strategy: Laughing All the Way
Ralph Nader
Pension Rights, the Trail of Broken Promises
Daniel Estulin
In Memory of Ricardo Ortega: a Great Journalist, Killed in Haiti
Dave Lindorff
Martha Stewart's Cloudy Day
Saul Landau
Will the Filthy Rich Dump Bush?
Website of the Day
Imperial Armies in the Garden
March 8, 2004
Amy Goodman
An
Interview with Aristide
Eric Ruder
An Interview
with Robert Fatton on the Coup in Haiti
Robert Jensen
The Presidential Library Terrorist
Connection
Mike Whitney
Expel the US from the Security Council
Jason Leopold
How Cheney Helped Cover Up Pakistan's
Nuclear Proliferation
Mazin Qumsiyeh
Why is Apartheid Touted as a Solution?
Kevin Alexander Gray
The Legacy of Strom Thurmond
Derek Seidman
Radical Continuity: an Interview with Paul Buhle
Steve Perry
Kerry Fiddles While He Could be Burning Bush
Website of the Day
Patriot
Act Game
March 6 / 7, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Understanding the World with
Paul Sweezy
Robert Pollin
Remembering Paul Sweezy
Jeffrey St. Clair
The Politics of Timber Theft
Tom Reeves
Bush's Mass Deportations: 63,000 and Counting
Charles Lewis
Who Mugged Howard Dean in Iowa:
Kerry, Torricelli and a Mysterious Frontgroup
Tom Jackson
My Breakfast with Sen. Judd Gregg
Kurt Nimmo
Is Venezuela Next?
Alan Cisco
A Report from Caracas
Jack Random
Haitian Democracy be Damned
Colin Piquette
Oh, Canada: the Coup Coalition
Lee Sustar
Labor's State of Emergency
William D. Hartung
Iraq and the Costs of War
David Sally
Rebuilding
Amérique
Mark Scaramella
When God Mooned Moses: Test Your Bible Knowledge
Mickey Z.
What We Can Learn from Ashcroft's Gallbladder
Ron Jacobs
Politics and Baseball
Dave Zirin
The Longest Jump: the Blackballing of Phil Shinnick
Poets' Basement
John Holt and Larry Kearney
Website of the Weekend
National Day of Action for Rachel Corrie
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click Here
for More Stories.
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March
19, 2004
Beat the Heat
So
Protesters, How Well Do You Know Your Rights?
By ANN HARRISON
Let's say you've just been detained by police
at an anti-war demonstration and the cops begin asking you questions.
Perhaps they want to look in your bag. Maybe you're already under
arrest and officers are encouraging you to "tell your side
of the story." What should you say?
Before you head off to another protest
march - or just a night on the town--bone up on your constitutional
rights with a useful new book entitled "Beat
the Heat: How to Handle Encounters with Law Enforcement."
Written by criminal defense attorney Katya Komisaruk, "Beat
The Heat" teaches you how to invoke your rights and resist
police pressure to say things that can be used against you in
court. It can't guarantee that you'll win your criminal case,
but it will certainly increase the odds in your favor.
Dissecting the rules of law enforcement,
Komisaruk explains why a person under arrest should remain silent
and ask to see a lawyer. She offers sample arrest and search
warrants so you can practice looking for information that tells
you whether a warrant is valid. Other chapters review safety
tactics during arrest, the rights of minors, the rights of non-US
citizens, grand juries, and how to report police misconduct.
"Beat The Heat" covers legal
concepts, such as the level of proof needed by police to initiate
a conversation, detain and arrest you. It lists the protections
offered by your Miranda Rights. But Komisaruk also provides direct
advice and teaches you how to use the law to protect yourself.
Stopped by an officer who wants to talk? Ask whether you are
free to go, and if so, leave immediately. Never give consent
for law  enforcement
officers to search. When served with an arrest warrant, Komisaruk
advises that you close the door behind you and do not admit police
into your house. And as soon as you perceive you are not free
to go, say those Magic Words. "I'm going to remain silent.
I would like to see a lawyer." Do not, says Komisaruk, attempt
to win at word games with the police.
Other authors have published "know
your rights" manuals. But "Beat the Heat" make
this information accessible by offering a series of law enforcement
scenarios presented as cartoons. Just when the suspect does or
says something that will hurt their legal defense, a cartoon
narrator named Sibyl Rites intervenes and discusses how to handle
the situation correctly. Sibyl then sends the suspect back to
the moment when the mistakes began so they can act appropriately
the second time.
One cartoon, entitled "Narc In The
Park," points out that undercover officers are allowed to
lie about their identity, buy, sell and consume illegal drugs
with you. The chapter discusses entrapment and reminds readers
that there is no reliable way to determine who is informant or
political infiltrator. Another cartoon entitled "My
Lawyer Made Me Do It" demonstrates how a minor can resist
interrogation when police, probation officers and parents are
all demanding that she answer questions. In the "Five-Finger
Discount" cartoon, Sibyl Rites explains to a young woman
accused of shoplifting why she should not sign a merchant confession
form. The text then lists tricks used to coerce people into giving
up their Miranda Rights. It includes a sample "Waiver of
Rights," "Promises To Appear" and other forms
to help you understand what and what not to sign.
If you only read one chapter of "Beat
The Heat," turn to Chapter Four "Resisting Interrogation."
While it's unlawful for police to beat you into confessing, Komisaruk
notes that it is perfectly legal for police to lie while they
are interrogating you, lie about evidence and even create false
documents to fool you into talking. In a cartoon called "Good
Cop Bad Cop" a young man finds out that the game is rigged
when he comes up against a team of officers. Komisaruk also cautions
reader to be aware of the paranoia that tends to set in when
people are separated. In the "Rat Jacket" cartoon,
two defendants in separate jail cells run into an officer who
dupe them into thinking each has snitched on the other and then
gets them to talk.
This chapter also features some classic
interrogation lines such as, "You're not a suspect, we are
simply investigating here. Just help us understand what happened
and then you can go."And the most common trick of all, "Look
if you don't answer my questions, I won't have any choice but
to take you to jail. This is your chance to tell your side of
the story." Komisaruk notes that here the cops have already
made up their minds to take you to jail. She reminds readers
that the time to "explain everything," is when you
have an attorney with you to make sure you won't be misled, misunderstood
or misquoted. Not when you are alone with a cop who is building
a case against you. While few people want to irritate an arresting
officer by asking for a lawyer, Komisaruk notes that the truth
is not your shield, at least not when you are being questioned
and arrested." Beat The Heat" includes a transcript
of an actual interrogation where a suspect does not effectively
invoke his rights.
Komisaruk is especially skillful at debunking
two common misconceptions about remaining silent. The first is
that once people invoke their rights, nothing they say afterward
can be used against them. The second is that it's OK to make
informal conversation as long as you "don't give a confession."
Many people also worry that if they don't cooperate fully with
police and answer questions, officers will increase the charges
against them. Komisaruk points out that higher charges are more
likely if you give the police additional information. Prosecutors
can almost always find something in a suspect's statement that
can be used against them.
Komisaruk observes that far too many
people are in prison on this country - 2 million at the latest
count - and many are low income people of color and young men.
"Beat The Heat," which features characters of various
ethnicities, was written especially for these readers. The final
chapters of "Beat The Heat" review how to get out of
jail while your case is pending, how to work with your lawyer,
confidentially issues, representing yourself, and how much to
tell your lawyer. Komisaruk adds that the USA PATRIOT Act, has
greatly expanded the government's surveillance powers. She reviews
what type of surveillance requires a warrant or other court order,
and the kind of information that can be gathered from phone calls
and Internet activity. Celebrity defense attorney Johnnie L.
Cochran, Jr. has written an endorsement for "Beat the Heat"
in which he points out that "Such knowledge can cut back
on lawyers fees, possibly reduce jail time, and can help one
be an active participant in one's legal situation rather than
sitting in the sidelines in a cloud of confusion during this
stressful time."
"Beat The Heat" ends with several
appendices including very useful tips on how to behave when in
jail. Some of the advice in this book might be tough for certain
people to swallow, such as the recommendation that you use a
humble tone of voice and facial expressions when dealing with
police. Readers should also have been warned that statements
made to reporters can be used as evidence against them. And "Beat
The Heat" lacks a detailed discussion of whether or not
you have to identify yourself to police. Requirements for ID
is based on jurisdiction and the issue is now being reviewed
by the U.S. Supreme Court. Like all legal advice books, "Beat
The Heat" runs the risk of going out of date as laws change.
But Komisaruk has tackled this problem by posting an updatable
version of "Beat The Heat," on her Web site http://www.lawcollective.org/
together with streaming video of a police misconduct scenario
and audio clips of actual interrogations. The book can also be
ordered off this site or from www.akpress.org.
But overall, these flaws are minor. Komisaruk
knows the value of good legal advice. In 1987 she was sentenced
to five years in federal prison for protesting against nuclear
weapons. Applying to law school from behind bars, she went on
to graduate from Harvard Law School and is now a lawyer with
the Just Cause Law Collective in Oakland, California. Komisaruk
now works with activists and attorneys around the country
to develop legal strategies that protect citizens' civil rights
during large-scale demonstrations. She points out that
knowing your rights is especially important at this time in history
when the political climate is more accepting of police practices
such as infiltration and manipulative interrogation techniques.
Law enforcement increasingly rationalizes their actions as necessary
tactics in the war on drugs or terrorism. Komisaruk notes that
the primary casualties of these campaigns are people of color,
people who are poor and activists. It's up to all of us to defend
our rights. "Beat The Heat" shows us how.
Ann Harrison
is a reporter who has covered the deeds and misdeeds of law enforcement
for fifteen years. She writes the "At Liberty" column
from San Francisco. She can be reached at: ah@well.com
Weekend
Edition Features for March 12 / 14, 2004
Gabriel Kolko
The
Coming Elections and the Future of American Global Power
Saul Landau
Oh, Jesus...It's the Movie!
William Blum
Neo-Con(tradictions)
William S. Lind
Why They Throw Rocks
Rahul Mahajan
The Meaning of Madrid: War on "Terrorism" Makes Us
All Less Safe
Neve Gordon
Demographic Wars
Kurt Nimmo
Kerry and the Progressive Interventionists
Mickey Z.
The "New" UN Blames the Poor
Mike Whitney
War Games: the American Media Leads the Charge
Helen Scott and Ashley
Smith
Aristide's Fall: What Led to the Coup?
Justin E.H. Smith
Loïc Wacquant: Against a Sociodicy
of the American Prison
Brandy Baker
Him Again? Al Gore Needs to Move On
Robin Philpot
Nobody Can Call It a "Plane Crash" Now: the Report
on the Assassination of Rwandan President Habyarimana
Mokhiber / Weissman
The Meat Monopoly Takes a Rare Pounding
Dave Zirin
She Turned Her Back on the War: an Interview with Toni Smith
Daniel Wolff
The Lord's Pier
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