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Free Lunch 1
When the title of a post is 30 words long, sentence case would be easier to parse than title case.
Posted by Free Lunch on December 21, 2012 at 5:50 PM
2
This may not be the complete answer to the question posted in the headline, but I suspect it may be the case that, in the federal system, they can't prosecute people for felonies without a grand-jury indictment (or waiver of indictment), and witnesses keep refusing to answer questions in front of the grand jury (which is the stated reason for putting the recalcitrant witnesses in jail). State courts (in Washington, anyway) don't use grand juries to bring criminal charges; the prosecuting attorney can file an information, there's a hearing in front of a single judge, and you're off to the races.

But I'm sure it's really because the FBI and the US Attorney's Office are just dicks and like putting people in jail for political reasons. That appears to be everyone's take on the situation, so it must be true.
Posted by Oliver W. Holmes on December 21, 2012 at 6:43 PM
3
Well there's also the fact that they're trying to find the culprits of different crimes...

The county has been going after the people vandalizing shops downtown (Nike Town etc.), while I'm assuming the feds are trying to find the people who broke windows on the US Federal Courthouse.
Posted by notthesame on December 21, 2012 at 8:44 PM
Will in Seattle 4
Police State.
Posted by Will in Seattle http://www.facebook.com/WillSeattle on December 21, 2012 at 9:05 PM
5
@2 That is total bullshit. None of the questions that the feds have been asking in the grand juries are about specific testimony they know would lead to charges. Everything points to this being political fishing to put on a show to distract from the most interesting question of all: why are there never charges brought against any of the core organized vandals? The charges like those of the county are always against side actors. This isn't a case of acts done in the dead of night, like building arson. These acts are in broad daylight in situations and conditions where law enforcement knows there will be property destruction. Yet, the black clothes group ALWAYS slips away after their actions have done their work of discrediting the open public protestors. Hmmm....
Posted by cracked on December 21, 2012 at 9:32 PM
6
@5

Could you perhaps tell us how you know what questions are being asked in that closed grand jury?
Posted by robotslave on December 21, 2012 at 11:56 PM
watchout5 7
The county's tactic is, hey, you people in the local area, look at this face, do you know this face? You know this face! What else about this face do you know? Thank you kind citizen, we will use your information to put bad people behind bars. The people who have caused a harm to our community will be let known that this behavior is not tolerable.

The federal tactic is, YOU'RE A HORRIBLE HUMAN BEING IF YOU DON'T TELL US EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO TELL US AND EVERYTHING YOU DON'T NEED TO TELL US AND GIVING US ANY ANSWER WE DON'T LIKE A LITTLE BIT MEANS WE WILL NOT HESITATE TO THROW YOUR ASS IN FEDERAL RAPE ME IN THE ASS PRISON. NOW SIT DOWN. I SAID GET UP. SIT YO ASS DOWN.

I'm amazed anyone takes our federal government seriously, they're inept and terrible at nearly everything they do. They're making a really great case for cascadia here, go home feds, we don't need you anymore.
Posted by watchout5 http://www.overclockeddrama.com on December 22, 2012 at 2:26 AM
8
Mr. Kiley has evidently not heard of the latest development in our police system . . .
Posted by Ken Mehlman on December 22, 2012 at 9:43 AM
9
Do a public disclosure request on the SPD and LIEU and the city's intelligence audits. Juicy stuff there.
Posted by hmmmmm on December 22, 2012 at 10:50 AM
10
When subjects hide their identities....

Hmmmm....like John "the brainless" Boehner, who washed out of Navy bootcamp, then fraudulently, and illegally, claimed military service during Vietnam when he first ran for congress?

Hmmmm....like George Weasel Bush, who only made it halfway through enlisted USAF basic training, before washing out (referred to as "phasing out") then returning to Houston where his daddy Bush pinned a couple of officer bars on his uniform? (Evidently, I'm the only person who bothered to check out his "military record" some years prior to his run for the presidency --- the time he first announced for govenor of Texas.

Hmmmm....like the director of the FBI, Robert Mueller III, who was the grandnephew of Richard Bissell while his wife is the granddaughter of Gen. Cabell (those would be two of the three top CIA doods who President Kennedy fired before he was assassinated).

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-12-22…
Posted by sgt_doom on December 22, 2012 at 10:51 AM
11
@6 The people being questioned are telling us what they are being asked.
Posted by cracked on December 22, 2012 at 2:42 PM
12
@11

Well, no. There are people telling us what questions they claim they were asked, but they are not "the people being questioned," are they? The people telling us these things (which the question-askers can not legally confirm, primarily, and ironically, to protect the witnesses) are the people actively resisting the grand jury, and vigorously publicizing their resistance.

Do you know what questions Leah Lynn-Plante was asked, and what questions she answered?
Posted by robotslave on December 22, 2012 at 10:53 PM
Will in Seattle 13
The grand jury can go jump in a lake.
Posted by Will in Seattle http://www.facebook.com/WillSeattle on December 22, 2012 at 11:56 PM
14
Yes, #13, they can do that. But those who refuse to answer its questions can go sit in jail. And the "progressives" who are encouraging the refusal can kick and scream and whine and stamp their little feet all they want, but it won't change a thing.
Posted by Mister G on December 24, 2012 at 1:16 PM
15
Why do you act like the grand jury system is sacred? Why SHOULDN'T people defy it when it is clearly being unjust?

Has blind obedience to unjust institutions ever produced positive results for the human race?

And what business is if of the prosecutor's office what ANYONE's political views are? Your politics are supposed to be irrelevant in a criminal trial.

Really weird that you get THIS wound up over a few trivial broken windows...when you've never cared how many broken human beings the status quo produces in this country.
Posted by AlaskanbutnotSeanParnell on December 24, 2012 at 4:02 PM
16
I don't regard the grand jury system as "sacred," but the least you could do is have a look at the history of that system and why it was put into the constitution to begin with. Now, I'm perfectly willing to entertain the idea that it's been twisted out of shape, but to have that argument suddenly pop up here because some "progressive" hipsters are pissed off that their faux-anarchist pals are in jail for contempt of court is, well, not very serious.

I'm not "wound up" over anything, broken windows or otherwise. I'm just doing what I always do on the Slog, commenting. And I'm answering the comments because when I comment, I bookmark the thread and see how it's going. Call it lowbrow entertainment. I'm no more "wound up" than anyone else.

As for what I do, have, or will care about, you are in no position to know. But you do like to assume. See, the "progressives" of Seattle just go apeshit when they encounter anyone who won't bow to their superior humanity. Well, here I am. Keep going apeshit. It's good for some laughs, and not at my own expense.
Posted by Mister G on December 24, 2012 at 5:46 PM
Ian Awesome 17
I'm surprised Fnarf hasn't jumped into this to demand we offer our blind obedience and immediate capitulation to Our Glorious Leader the Prison-Industrial Complex yet...
Posted by Ian Awesome http://oneangryqueer.blogspot.com on December 24, 2012 at 8:16 PM

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