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Law and Disorder is a weekly independent civil liberties radio program airing on more than 150 stations and on Apple podcast. Law and Disorder provides timely legal perspectives on issues concerning civil liberties, privacy, right to dissent and practices of torture exercised by the US government and private corporations.
Law and Disorder March 1, 2021
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- Commentary By Attorney Jim Lafferty: Christian Nationalism
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Activists Face Felony Charges In Action Denouncing Elijah McClain Murder
On September 17, 2020 at least six anti-racist activists were arrested in an action denouncing the Colorado police, notably for the murder of Elijah McClain. In the summer of 2019, three Aurora Colorado police officers put 23-year-old McClain in a chokehold and medics injected him with ketamine. The young violinist and massage therapist went into cardiac arrest, was pronounced brain dead, and died three days later.
The social justice activists now face a litany of felony charges, and possible decades in prison, on charges that include “kidnapping.” Four of those arrested — Russel Ruch, Lillian House, Joel Northam, and Eliza Lucero — are considered protest leaders and are members of the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
Police made a spectacle of the arrests, sending what many assert is a threatening message to other activists. Police followed Russel Ruch to Home Depot where they arrested him in the parking lot; five police cars surrounded Lillian House as she was driving; and a S.W.A.T team was dispatched to Joel Northam’s home. According to the 30-page arrest affidavits, the police used livestream footage, call transcripts, and social media posts to build a case against those arrested.
Guest – Lillian House, one of the four protest leaders. More information at Denverdefense.org
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The Current Risk of Nuclear War And Treaty Restoration
When Donald Trump was president, the Democrats called him Putin‘s poodle. They falsely claimed that Russia influenced the election and caused Hillary Clinton to lose to Trump. Clinton famously said “all roads lead to Russia.“
But the truth of the matter was quite different. Despite Trump seemingly adoration of Vladimir Putin as a strong man, American policy towards Russia was not completely friendly. The question now is what will Biden do?
The risk of nuclear war with Russia has been a grave concern since the cold war of the 1950s. Under Presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama American nuclear policies were such that the threat of war including accidental war was never reduced. With Biden as president will this change? Will there be a restoration of nuclear treaties and a de-escalation.
Guest – Ray McGovern former CIA intelligence analyst, Ray briefed President George H. W. Bush every morning on intelligence matters, particularly with respect to Russia. He is a founder of VIPS, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity and a contributor to the blog Common Dreams.
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Law and Disorder February 22, 2021
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Chris Hedges: Donald Trump Acquittal, Going Forward
Before going to prison Trump’s attorney and fixer Michael Cohen testified to Congress that Trump would never leave office peaceably. He sure didn’t. He instigated an insurrection on January 6th. His premeditated coup almost succeeded.
His plan appears to be that he would get his followers to prevent the ballot certification of Biden as president and cause enough mayhem to declare martial law. The marauders he sent to the White House hunted for Nancy Pelosi and Mike Pence. They roamed the Capitol chanting “Hang Mike Pence. Hang Mike Pence.” A sturdy gallows was constructed near the Capitol for that purpose.
Reportedly Trump took delight in all of this as it was going on and refused to call off the Capitol sackers or bring in the National Guard. The horrors of that day were dramatically presented by the House trial managers. Comprehensive videos were shown to a national audience. A totally convincing presentation was made. Any right thinking person watching would necessarily conclude that Trump was responsible for what happened. Trump’s defenses were demolished.
It was explained that Constitution allows for illegal and prior cases had established that Trump could be tried even after leaving office. The argument that he had free speech rights was effectively countered. Nevertheless he was not found guilty although seven Republicans refused to go along with their party’s defense of the indefensible. A number of Republican Senators, who were supposed to sit as impartial jury, met with Trumps defense lawyers. Twelve others did not even attend the last day of trial.
After the vote Mitch McConnell, voted to acquit on the spurious grounds that Trump could not be tried since he was no longer in office. He spoke of the possibility of Trump being tried for his crimes. The Republican lead acquittal of Donald Trump will be appreciated as a turning point in American history. The vote to acquit him will be understood as a moment that democracy and the rule of law were trashed allowing the former president to retain his control over a transformed Republican Party which has become an instrument of demagoguery and white supremacy.
Guest – Chris Hedges, a Pulitzer prize winning journalist and considered by many on the left to be an American moral philosopher. He was forced out of his job at the New York Times for opposing the war in Iraq. Hedges is the author of many books including “American Facists: The Christian Right‘s War on America.“ He is the host of the RT show “On Contact”. His latest book is “America: the Farewell Tour.” He writes a weekly column for “Scheerpost” the latest is titled “Cancel Culture: Where Liberalism Goes to Die.”
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ICC Investigation Into War Crimes Proceeds
In 2015, the State of Palestine became a member of the International Criminal Court and granted the Court jurisdiction over crimes committed on the territory of Palestine, including East Jerusalem, since June 13, 2014. The Prosecutor of the ICC opened a preliminary examination into crimes committed in Palestine on January 16, 2015, and the State of Palestine referred the case for investigation in May 2018. During the preliminary examination, Palestinian human rights organizations and victims made submissions describing war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Israeli officials, including in relation to the 2014 military offensive on Gaza.
In December 2019, the Prosecutor found a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity committed on the territory of Palestine – the Gaza Strip and West Bank, including East Jerusalem. victims were invited to submit observations on the Prosecutor’s requests and Center for Constitutional Rights attorney Katherine Gallagher submitted on behalf of twenty Palestinian victims of persecution from all parts of Palestine and the diaspora. A year ago April, CCR joined more than 180 Palestinian, regional, and international human rights organizations in signing an open letter to the ICC prosecutor in support of opening the investigation.
Guest – Attorney Katherine Gallagher, senior attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, has appeared before the ICC in the Hague in Holland. She represented two men indefinitely detained in the US offshore prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Katie works on universal jurisdiction ad international criminal law cases involving US and foreign officials and torture and other war crimes.
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Law and Disorder February 15, 2021
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Attorney Jim Lafferty On Trump’s Impeachment Case
According to a study by The Chicago Project published last week in the Atlantic magazine the Capitol rioters weren’t like other extremist. Most of them were middle-aged and middle class. Forty percent of them were business owners or had white-collar jobs as CEOs, shop owners, doctors, even lawyers. Only 9% of them belong to paramilitary groups like the 3 Percenters, The Boogaloo Boys or The Proud Boys. Most of them did not come from deep red states.
The article stated that “the overwhelming reason the rioters cited again and again in court documents was that they were following Trump’s orders to keep Congress from certifying Joe Biden how’s the winner of the presidential election. They believed Trumps big lie that the election was stolen.
When Trump spoke at the rally before they marched on the capital he advised them to “show strength“., that “we fight. We fight like hell. And if we don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore… So let’s walk now to the capital.“ For this he has been charged with inciting insurrection and is being tried by the United States Senate. If found guilty he would not be able to run again in 2024.
Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell said that the crowd was “provoked by the president“ and that “the mob was fed lies.“
Liz Cheney, The house Republican conference chair, broke with her party and summed up the case against Trump: “The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing. None of this would have happened without the president. The president could have forcefully intervened to stop the violence. He did not. There has never been a betrayal of a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.“.
In his defense, Republican say that his speech was protected by the First Amendment. Secondly, they argue that since he has left office he can’t be tried.
Trump’s lawyers argued before the Senate on the first day of the trial that a guilty verdict against Trump will tear our country apart. Others have argued that the country is already torn apart and that there is an American fascist movement That has contempt for democracy and the rule of law. They see it as congealing, getting stronger, and it looking to Trump as its leader.
Guest – Jim Lafferty, the Executive Director Emeritus of the National Lawyers Guiid in Los Angeles. He is a member of the governing board of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California and an elected fellow of the Institute for the Humanities at the University of Southern California. Mr. Lafferty is a founding member, and steering committee member, of the national Julian Assange Defense Committee and the recent chair of the Office of the Americas. Jim Lafferty is the host of The Lawyers Guild radio show on our sister station in Los Angeles, KPFK. For the past 60 years Mr. Lafferty has been a recognized national leader in various movements against the US wars of intervention such as in Vietnam, Central America, and the Middle East.
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Chris Hedges Interviews Michael Smith On Michael Ratner’s Autobiography
We hear the interview Chris Hedges conducted with Michael Smith on his RT show On Contact.
On the show this week, Chris Hedges talks to Michael Smith about civil rights attorney Michael Ratner’s recently published memoir, “Moving the Bar – My Life as A Radical Lawyer”. Smith was a close friend and collaborator of Ratner’s for over three decades. Michael Ratner was one of the most important civil rights attorneys in our era. He spent his life fighting on behalf of those who state and empire sought to crush, from the leaders of the prison uprising at Attica to Muslim prisoners held in Guantanamo, to Julian Assange.
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