The Day the Barrett Brown Hotline Went Dead
by Urizenus Sklar on 04/09/13 at 9:18 pm
Barrett Brown
It seems like just today that I published a long article explaining the strange case of Barrett Brown and how a beloved Second Life alumnus was looking at 105 years in prison for sharing a link to an online document dump. Come to think of it, it *was* today! And this afternoon, I received the news that a gag order has been issued for Barrett Brown and his defense team. A gag order? Let’s reflect on that.
The prosecution, to make the case for a gag order, offered up a number of articles that had been published in places like the New York Times, The Nation, The Huffington Post, etc – seven by that mild mannered tweed wearing lovable professor Ludlow! The view of the prosecution was that given all the people in Texas that read The Nation and the annual NYT articles on Barrett Brown it just would not be possible to find a neutral jury pool. Because you know, all people in Texas do is read The Nation.
Let’s put this in even more perspective. This is the judicial system that convinced itself that there was not too much publicity for OJ, or for Jodi Arias, or for really any trial that shows up on Nancy Grace. But OMG someone publishes a story in The Nation and the scales of justice are out of balance. You just can’t find a neutral jury anymore.
Allow me to opine: Barrett Brown was exercising his constitutional right to *defend* himself against charges for which he has not been convicted. And, by the way, these are charges which he believes, as do I, that are not just false, but absurdly false. Ditto for the lawyers. If they can’t defend their client in public against false charges then the public will be ignorant of the specifics of the trial and will not be able to judge whether justice is being served or whether it is being miscarried. Of course that is probably the point – if justice was being served there would be no point in a gag order; there would be no reason to fear open discussion of the specifics of the case.
And so, as the Herald yacht powers its way towards Long Island New York, I stare at the now dormant Barrett Brown hotline wondering: Is this how the American system of justice finally collapses into a system for oppression and tyranny? Not with a bang or even a whimper, but just a dial tone?
MK
Sep 5th, 2013
Let’s face it, our country is run by a bunch of fascists who could care less what they do to anybody or which laws they avoid, destroy or ignore as long as they get their payoffs. It is sickening. Bravo to you for writing about Barret Brown. Maybe the mainstream press is silent, but it is the independents and the Internet that will make things right again.
edinblack
Sep 5th, 2013
Kick-ass piece. People, donate to Barrett Brown’s defense fund! Every bit helps. Let’s kick this case in the ass.
http://freebarrettbrown.org/
Chris
Sep 5th, 2013
“The Kook Who Knew Too Much – Crazed ‘famewhore’ Barrett Brown becomes a symbol of our paranoid era”
http://spectator.org/archives/2013/06/27/the-kook-who-knew-too-much?nomobile=1
Edna
Sep 5th, 2013
Thrilled to see two nice articles added to the Herald this week.
Going along with the Second Life parallel then, I see the mega corporations as being the equivalent of the Fetid Inner Core (FIC). It would be great to have Prok do a guest post on the Herald fleshing out this FIC aspect. While we’re at it, I can’t yet figure out where the Scion Chickens might fit into this parallel. Maybe Pappy could speak to that.
Not docking in the Turks and Caicos possibly saved you some disappointment. I spent my vacation this summer on Grand Turk after hearing all the buzz about it. It was nice, but more industrial than I expected, and I much prefer Aruba or Bermuda for the beaches and nightlife.
Your mother
Sep 5th, 2013
Should I give money for the defense of the biggest asshole trolls I have ever seen? Maybe, I’m still debating. This is truly a violation of his rights