TheAgitator.com
The Blunt End of Morality Laws
Thursday, May 1st, 2008In San Diego, a woman is pulled from her family and two kids, extradited to Michigan, and will likely spend the next nine years of her life in prison because 32 years ago she escaped from prison. She had been convicted of drug distribution. There’s no evidence she’s committed any crimes since she escaped. In fact, it looks as if she started her life anew, and had put things back together. I’d be pleasantly surprised if authorities showed her any mercy.
Meanwhile, there are now early reports that “D.C. Madam” Deborah Jeane Palfrey has committed suicide. She was facing 55 years in prison for the crime of matching consenting high-end prostitutes up with the consenting rich, powerful men who wanted to have sex with them. Moral crusader and Palfrey client David Vitter remains a member in good standing of the United States Senate.
I saw this story yesterday. From what I could find it doesn’t appear she committed any acts of violence in regards to the crime she was convicted of. And she apparently pled guilty because she was only 19 and thought she’d get parole…instead the judge threw the book at her and gave her the maximum sentence.
Sad…especially since is seems she’s led a clean life since then (which is supposed to be the point of putting people in jail…rehabilitation).
Suicide, huh? Suicide by government, more likely — you know — two bullets in the back of the head.
Good for Her!
She got to live the bulk of her adult life as a productive, law-abiding citizen.
Whatever non-violent crime she did 32 years ago as a 19 year old should now be forgiven via pardon, commutation, or parole by the Michigan governor.
Wonder what Rat Fink ratted her out to the authorities?
Hope they are real happy.
I call BS on “suicide”. How quickly they are sure there is no foul play involved.
From the foxnews article
Frank Ruggiero, a public information officer with the Tarpon Springs Police Department. “There’s no question that it was a suicide.”
Really… Do you have video or something? Witnesses maybe?
I wonder if she got “Vince Fostered”?
If she got “Vince Fostered” then she killed herself. Ken Starr spent gobs of money looking into this whole thing, and ended up with the same conclusion of the police and coroner - he killed himself by shooting himself in the mouth.
Why is a prison spokeman the one giving details of her case to the paper? Can’t they find someone more connected? She should be arrested, and then given probation. To lock her up after 30+ years of good behavior is idiotic. Is she likely to commit her crime again? Seems unlikely. Does she need rehabilitation? Looks like she got it. Does she and her family need punishment? Apparently the prison guy thinks so.
Modern laws that declare the exchange of money for sex to be a crime are proof that just below the surface of civilized society exists the same mentality that drives children to burn insects with a magnifying glass.
A lot of the people who bitch about the government being in their bedrooms think nothing of laws prohibiting prostitution. A lot of people think that “my body, my choice” is only applicable if they personally approve of the choice.
Prostitution laws fall hard on people who can’t easily get sex any other way. It’s like depriving the crippled, sick, maimed, obese, house bound, and just plain ugly of one of the most pleasurable human activities there is. What kind of asshole does such a thing and then has the hair on his ass to insult intelligent people with the claim of a moral justification.
History will not treat these laws and those who support them kindly, but persecution is rarely recognized as persecution when it’s happening.
Maybe there is something to be said for the time before the modern era where it was sometimes possible to escape your past and start over. Especially for the non-violent crimes this woman was convicted of. I certainly would not feel that way about a murderer, a rapist or even a thief who sets out to intentionally cause harm to others.
There is no where to run to escape unjust laws or oppressive government. There is no border to cross where the government cannot come after you.
“Moral crusader and Palfrey client David Vitter remains a member in good standing of the United States Senate.”
I don’t want to sound like a Feministing commenter, but that fact sure does smell like patriarchism. Of course most feminists approve of prohibiting prostitution, only they think just the johns should be punished. Sad and insane.
Did you read the disgusting end of the AP story?
“One of the escort service employees was former University of Maryland, Baltimore County, professor Brandy Britton, who was arrested on prostitution charges in 2006. She committed suicide in January before she was scheduled to go to trial.
Palfrey said last year that she, too, was humiliated by her prostitution charges, but said: “I guess I’m made of something that Brandy Britton wasn’t made of.””
I strongly suspect that it was suicide. She was facing a virtual life sentence (which if you think about that for a second, you should get fucking angry as hell!) and didn’t want to die in a cage.
I hope the Federal prosecutors in her case are forever tormented by her cries and never again get a good night’s sleep. They are fucking animals.
MikeL: go ask Miquel Rodriguez.
You don’t know what you’re talking about.
Wait a sec. Are you implying prosecutors might have a conscience? Or are you just describing a kind of impossible futuristic fantasy of an alien society, far far away, populated with creatures of vastly superior intellect?
Billy Beck: The coroner’s report clearly states that Vince Foster died from a single gunshot to the mouth, with the exit wound at the back of the head. There was gunpowder residue on his hand. This points to a suicide. Even Ken Starr, with millions of dollars in the his investigation budget, couldn’t come up with more. Can you point to anything to the contrary?
Miquel Rodriguez gets alot of play on the usual conspiracy sites, but all we have is his word. The physical evidence is saying something different.
I get really tired of having to say this, but just because someone has a different opinion doesn’t mean they are ignorant.
This Vince Foster was murdered story has about as much too it as the John Kerry wasn’t wounded in the ‘Nam story. There are more important things to worry about.
I actually was a prosecutor in Baltimore City (State not Federal) for a while and yes a few of us are real people and not monsters. Still I wonder how a lot of prosecutors can sleep at night.
“The coroner’s report clearly states that Vince Foster died from a single gunshot to the mouth, with the exit wound at the back of the head.”
Have you ever read that report?
“Can you point to anything to the contrary?”
I could wear your ass out with contrary evidence. Example: do you know where your left posterior oropharynx is? Try this experiment: locate that spot and touch it with the muzzle of a pistol. Then, try to imagine exploding a .38 caliber shot where the weapon is now positioned without getting any blood on the gun. Go ahead.
Look: the pile of resources that Starr (and everybody else) shoveled down that rat-hole of an investigation has nothing to do with it. Accounting references have nothing to do with the facts.
If you can prove that Foster shot himself in Ft. Marcy Park with that Colt .38, you’ll be the first one ever to do it.
Billy Beck:
“I could wear your ass out with contrary evidence.”
I’m sure you could. But, I don’t swing that way. Try craigslist, there are lots of people who like their asses worn out there.
Look: the pile of resources that Starr (and everybody else) shoveled down that rat-hole of an investigation has nothing to do with it.
Look: Ken Starr, the special persecutor, couldn’t make anything out of it. Declaring that irrelevant is not an argument. Sorry, you need evidence, Kenny couldn’t find any, and he was motivated more than anyone else to find it. He screamed about things there was no evidence for, he would have screamed about this if there was any.
If you can prove that Foster shot himself in Ft. Marcy Park with that Colt .38, you’ll be the first one ever to do it.
Again, not an argument, a declaration. The corner’s report is pretty clear, you have anything other than blah blah blah? If so, then lets see it. I don’t need to prove it, it’s already been proved.
As for the only real argument in your post - no blood on the gun - entry wounds are small, and don’t bleed much at first. Exit wounds are large and messy. By the time blood is coming out of the mouth, he’s already on his way to the ground. No blood on the gun is common with suicides. The gore travels in the same direction as the bullet.
So, other than the usual-and-easily-dismissed no blood on the gun argument, got anything else?
Glenn… err I mean Billy Beck:
Have you ever read that report?
Report on the Death of Vincent W. Foster, Jr.
by Office of the Independent Counsel
http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/usa/vince-foster/foster-report/
“The available evidence points clearly to suicide as the manner of death. That conclusion is based on the evidence gathered and the analyses performed during previous investigations, and the additional evidence gathered and analyses performed during the OIC investigation, including the evaluations of Dr. Lee, Dr. Blackbourne. Dr. Berman, and the various OIC investigators.”
They even found a suicide note, torn up into 27 pcs.
Billy, why do you hate Dr Blackbourne so much?
Billy, it’s been fun, but I’ve wasted enough time on this. And so have you. I’m going to go do something much more fun - chew on tinfoil while shaving my head with a cheese grater.
Sentence her to time served, cut her loose, and let her go back to her family. Yes, they can! Yes, they can! yes, they can!
“Ken Starr, the special persecutor, couldn’t make anything out of it. Declaring that irrelevant is not an argument.”
You’re not paying attention: that’s not what I dismissed. The idea that Starr arrived at the truth because he “spent gobs of money looking into this whole thing” is ridiculous, and that’s why it’s irrelevent. (It’s the labor theory of value applied to the investigation, and I say it’s worthless.)
“Again, not an argument, a declaration.”
Tough. If you have a case to make, then the obligation of argument is yours.
“No blood on the gun is common with suicides.”
Okay: I now know that I am involved with someone who knows nothing about the case, and there is no point in that.
“Have you ever read that report?”
I was the very first person to publish that report on the internet, sonny. I typed it up from a PDF that came to me the day after it was released, and published it at alt.current-events.clinton.whitewater within seventy-two hours.
“They even found a suicide note, torn up into 27 pcs.”
{hah!} Guess whose palm-print they found on that note.
Do you know anything about this stuff?