Revocation Certificates

[Robert J. Hansen]

Faramir wrote:
>   With due respect to USA, each time I read things like this, I am happy
> for not living there... my main concern here is if economy will be
> affected or not for things happening outside my country. But at least I
> know I can rely on justice to don't cause me problems for things I have
> not done or said.

At risk of continuing this thread more than it should be continued...

This is not a miscarriage of justice.  Even if everything Lawrence has
said is true.  Let's say that someone sends me a message in which they
threaten the life of the President of the United States.  I mention to
someone that I've received this, they tell someone else, and _bang_,
next thing I know I've got an appointment with some Secret Service
agents who want to ask me some very intrusive questions.

That's not a miscarriage of justice.  That's them doing their job.  It
would be a miscarriage of justice if I was indicted for a crime, much
less convicted -- but there's no miscarriage of justice in the police
seeing something which says "hey, something may be afoot here," and
deciding to follow up on it.

In '98, I went down to the sheriff's office to renew my firearms permit.
 While filling out the form I was chatting with the woman behind the
desk, whom I've known for some years.  She asked me how my
then-girlfriend was doing, and I said that I'd recently proposed and
she'd said yes, and we were figuring out a wedding date.

This was a perfectly normal conversation of the sort that goes on every
single day.  However, some sharp-eared deputy sheriff heard me talk
about my fiancée and noticed I was standing in line for a firearms
permit.  This deputy sheriff reported to his superior, and I wound up
with a thirty-day delay in the paperwork while the county sheriff made
sure that I didn't have murder afoot.  Were they overreacting?  Sure, a
bit.  But they were also doing their job.

Remember that we've only heard Lawrence's side of things, and even then
we haven't heard much about it.  What does Lawrence mean by he got in
trouble?  Did an officer stop by his house and say "hey, we heard
something about this, is there something I ought to know about?", or was
he actually put on trial?  The former is not objectionable; the police
are allowed to do their job.  The latter might very well be.

(Note: I am not asking to know the particulars.  I don't want to know
the particulars.  This entire thing is irrelevant.  But it really annoys
me to see people jump to such wild and unsupported conclusions based on
the flimsiest of evidence and the wildest of accusations.  It is one of
my biggest pet peeves.)