[lbo-talk] Strauss Kahn

[// ravi]

On Aug 24, 2011, at 11:52 PM, SA wrote:
> On 8/24/2011 11:31 PM, // ravi wrote:
>> On Aug 24, 2011, at 11:50 AM, SA wrote:
>>> I'll answer your question, but it's interesting to me how many leftists are willing to do a 180-degree U-turn on the basic principles of criminal justice the minute the issue has to do with rape. If this was some street kid facing life in prison for a liquor store robbery, and the case was plagued with holes and unreliable witnesses, I would expect only a right-winger to greet the news that the case was dismissed with the complaint: "hey, he was no angel."
>> 
>> I think you are missing something here. There is no 180-degree turn since the guiding bit is not (for me, and I would guess for many others) “the basic principles of criminal justice” but rather the “basic realities of criminal justice”. The reality is that the [criminal justice] system protects the rich and preys on the poor.
> 
> So, to paraphrase the old lawyer's saw: When the facts are against you, pound the law. When the law is against you, pound the facts. When the facts and the law are both against you, pound the "realities.”
> 

Nothing is against me. So it is not clear what this bit of clever turn of phrase achieves.

	—ravi