You mean they can’t spell that one right, either?
We should feel lucky they aren’t spelling it prisoun.
That’s what you get when the IWW unionizes Starbucks.
It’d be fun to see the real-world version of the events Smash is relating to us.
The OPU isn’t just “a bunch of homeless people.” We have street artists, buskers, a few prostitutes, a pot dealer, and so on among our members. Anyone who makes their living on the street is welcome to join. When we hold actions like pickets, it’s not just our members who show up, also. We get ex-members who have since gotten off the street, the members of the IWW local, and the usual crowd who turn up when you put a call-out up on Indymedia. Also, bear in mind that the workers at the prison are unionized. Many unions have a formal policy that they will not cross picket lines, for any reason. A Teamster who crosses a picket line to make a delivery, for example, is fined heavily by the union. While it’s unlikely guards would be deterred, support staff might, and likewise deliveries.
Picketing a prison is also good for a lot of media attention, something they well know, and they admitted to us that what they were doing to our members was in all likelihood a violation of the Charter. You seem to think we go into negotiations with guns blazing and spittle flying. We are polite and reasonable when we make our demands. It’s when those demands aren’t met that we turn up the heat. The prison wardens were mostly in agreement with us that it was not reasonable for our member to be crawling on his hands and knees, and that it was also not reasonable to expect him to live in total isolation. Incidentally, there was no library because the detention centre was undergoing renovations to expand it due to chronic overcrowding (largely as a result of police and the courts using it to warehouse the poor). Unlike federal prisons which hold long-term inmates, the detention centre is not required to have any kind of support services like a library or treatment programs.
You’re confused because there weren’t two, there were three arrests. The first arrest was for a different set of charges. (He’s almost always up on charges for something, whether it’s possession, shoplifting, creating a disturbance, or violating bail conditions. That’s life on the street.) If you’re arrested multiple times, you get what the lawyers call “fries with that.” Your bail conditions always have a clause which states, “Keep the peace and be of good behaviour.” If you are charged again, they count it as a violation of that condition and slap you with “fries on that.” And of course, if you’re currently facing multiple charges, each of them gets its own side of fries. If you are seen to be consistently violating your bail conditions, they judge will refuse to grant bail on other charges.
In Kanada, there are three reasons they can deny you bail: (1) If the court believes you to be a flight risk, (2) if the court believes you to be a potential threat to yourself or others or others’ property, or (3) if releasing you would “bring the law into disrepute.” It is this third condition that the judge uses to justify denying bail to someone who has, in the past, been seen to violate conditions of bail. So you don’t actually have to be facing those charges right now in order to be denied bail. If it’s happened in the past, the Crown will certainly bring it up and try to convince the judge it’ll happen again.
During our discussion with the wardens (which was quite cordial, incidentally), we tried, collectively to find possible solutions. One of the things I suggested was that he can’t be the only wheelchair-bound person in the prison system, and surely there are prison-safe wheelchairs. They scratched their heads and admitted they’d never heard of such a thing, but that they’d investigate. The other option we put on the table was to have a full-time assistant for our member, so that if he needed to go to the toilet or wheel over to the tables, he need only call for the assistant to bring the chair from outside the cell. Given that they had already admitted that denying him the use of his wheelchair was probably a Charter violation, and that giving him his wheelchair wasn’t an option (they said they guards’ union would scream bloody murder about workplace safety if they allowed it), the full-time assistant may have been the only option left to them. This is what makes me believe they pressured the court to release him. He was not even scheduled for a court appearance, much less release, and then two days before the deadline we gave them, they contacted his lawyer and informed him they would be releasing him, without explanation. Their choices were either (1) pay for a full-time assistant for a single prisoner charged with a petty crime, (2) have a picket line outside their gates with attendant media circus and then be on the losing side of a Human Rights Commission complaint to boot, or (3) release him. It’s pretty clear why they chose door #3.
Even mimes? No wonder the cops hate you.
Just thought I’d throw this in for the entertainment value.
And I’ll throw this one in for the educational value.
That’s deep.
Do you really think you’d feel safer walking around 5th century BCE Athens at night than a town of similar size in modern North America?
Me, personally? Yes, yes I would. The only people who have ever assaulted me with weapons wore guns and badges. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes.
You’re wasting your time. I tried earlier in this thread to get him to view a more complete appraisal of the nature of Athenian society, and he refused to acknowledge it. He cherry-picks things he likes about past societies, while ignoring their darker aspects. Much like he cherry-picks things he hates about modern Western democracy, while refusing to acknowledge its benevolent aspects.
I sure as hell wouldn’t. Nor would I in Rome, which was also in essence a self-policing type of place. Just because there were no police and private citizens were responsible for bringing people to court doesn’t mean that there wasn’t lots of violence.
Not to mention that the Athenian system could not have worked in a modern city just based on the difference in community structure. Part of self-policing is knowing who lives next door to you. This is much easier in an ancient city of, probably, somewhere around 120,000 total inhabitants, including women and slaves.
Well, I do sort of disagree that just because Athens had slaves, nothing they did can be considered admirable. Obviously they aren’t a good model of society as a whole, but it’s fair to pick parts that one likes.
You prefer being beaten up by Scythians with Bows and Whips somehow?
Not to mention Athens would have banished you. Ain’t ancient life grand?
Juvenal, Satire 5
I never said that, nor would I. I’m a big fan of Athens, warts and all, much like I’m still proud to be an American citizen, despite the fact that the country was founded on African slavery and aboriginal genocide.
It’s only fair to pick parts one likes if one also honestly acknowledges how good they have it now, and how much worse things could be (and are, in much of the world).
As a male member of the native-born, property-owning class, you’d be safer in old Athens than many would.
But your Latin wouldn’t help much…
Are the Scythians going to tell me I’ve been a naughty, naughty boy during the whipping?
Stay safe, use a Trojan.
I still haven’t seen this objection addressed, and I’d really like to. (This was always one of my main objections to anarchy–I think it’s great in theory, and it works well in at least some small groups, but that it breaks down once the population gets big enough.)