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“Arrests Soar in Giuliani Crackdown”
Letter re: NY Times 2/2/99
The reason New York City’s Criminal Court system is backed up is not that defendants,
“manipulate the system until they get the charges dismissed”, as Manhattan D.A.
Robert Morgenthau claimed [NY Times 2/2/99 “Arrests Soar in Giuliani Crackdown”].
Mayor Giuliani and DA Morgenthau might like the tens of thousands of defendants
falsely arrested or the hundreds of thousands unnecessarily arrested for non-criminal
violations each year to voluntarily convict themselves. Unfortunately for Mayor
Giuliani’s ever-evolving police state, New York City is still part of America.
Defendants are entitled to due process. To get a conviction the City has to
prove that a crime was committed. The Mayor and the DA’s office put tremendous
pressure on cops to falsify police reports or perjure themselves in the rare
instance a trial in these “quality of life” cases takes place. That the City
almost never brings these cases to trial is because they can’t make a case not
because defendants are manipulating the system.
I’ve been falsely arrested 34 times and received close to 40 additional Criminal
Court summonses since Mayor Giuliani was elected. All of the arrests and summonses
were for protesting against Mayor Giuliani or selling my art. I’ve had one three
minute trial on one arrest case in which I represented myself and was acquitted.
All but three of the other cases have so far been dismissed, not because some
legal genius outmaneuvered the DA but because the City failed to make any case
against me. My story is the rule not the exception. How can we solve the backlog
in Criminal Court? It’s simple. Impeach Mayor Giuliani! Robert Lederman
President of A.R.T.I.S.T. (Artists’ Response To Illegal State Tactics)
(718) 369-2111 e mail ARTISTpres@aol.com
http://www.openair.org/alerts/artist/nyc.html
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