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What it Takes to Get Convicted for Inciting a Riot -- If Your Name's Not Trump

  A couple months ago, I came across the case of Thomas Hirschi while doing research on wrongful convictions for my current novel project. He was a member of People United to Fight Police Brutality, convicted of inciting a riot after police killed an unarmed man of color—a Vietnam vet the Houston cops beat savagely, twice, then threw in the river—all the way back in 1978. Hirschi was convicted on the testimony of a pathological ‘jailhouse informant,’ although he’d been arrested and charged after simply calling for the killer police to be “brought to justice” before the infamous Moody Park Riots. The interesting part for me, thinking about my novel project, was the jailhouse snitch. But I filed Hirschi’s case away in the back of my brain. Interesting, I thought to myself. That’s all it takes to be charged with ‘inciting a riot?’ Some angry words, without a specific command to go do something violent?   Well, as it turns out, yeah. That is all it takes—and sometimes muc...
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Another Myth: The Murderous Drug Dealer

Some months ago, right before the pandemic hit, I was happily ensconced in my housing unit’s dayroom in front of the TV, and the old Spielberg classic ‘The Goonies’ came on.  Now, this was a seminal movie that shaped much of my own childhood--I always wanted to be Data, and spent years afterwards crafting creaky ‘gadgets,’ which generally didn’t work--and I was excited, because I’d soon be headed home, and had been compiling a list of must-watch movies to share with my daughter. (Who better to introduce this youngster to the exciting world of '80s culture?)   So, with an array of cell-made, local-commissary-sourced healthy snacks spread in front of me, I settled in to relive a little of my own childhood. I cheered at the cinematic opening chase scene, la ughed when Chunk squished his strawberry shake against the plate-glass window, watching the Fratellis speed by, hapless cops in pursuit. I cringed a little when the next scene came on, the one I’d forgotten (and maybe you ...
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The Myth of the Hero Cop (and Prosecutor)

I learned during this last go-round with the justice system: the feds are a joke.   As much as they like to think they're the top echelon of law enforcement, fighting the most serious battles against crime in a crucial effort to keep society safe from law-breakers---and I do believe that's how they see themselves---the vast majority of what the FBI is doing these days is knocking off low-level drug users, guys for whom just having a gun is a crime, and credit-card thieves. *And* slamming them with double-digit sentences that even the worst state courts (like Virginia's) would balk at.   I’ve been in federal prison (if you’re reading my blog & you don’t know that by now, well…). So I’ve seen it. The breakdown of guys in the blocks I was on goes, roughly, like this: ·       40% Drug Conspiracies, of which: o    85% were conspiracies of 5 or less kilograms (Meaning that, divided by the number of ppl in the conspiracy, and divided again by th...
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I'm a Trumper Now.

  OK, I was wrong. I expected a different result on Nov. 3rd, but—unlike so many people—I can admit a mistake and recalculate my trajectory when I realize I’ve erred. Despite my most sober projections and hopes, it looks like Donald Trump will have another term as President. In my regrettable past, I had smugly believed that Americans would see through the made-for-TV shenanigans and vote for stability and experience in office once again. I really believed it, and, while volunteering for get-out-the-vote causes as much as I could, I projected my certainty to so many friends and family who trusted my prognostications.   But I was wrong. Trump looks like the winner. And in the rare cases where I contemplated this result, I sometimes jokingly made myself the promise: if Trump wins, I’ll become a supporter. It’s been such a damned hassle trying to talk and blog people into my way of thinking… And for what?   So, my new credo is this: Trump was (and *is*) right. I ...
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How the 4th District Rewrote the US SentencingGuidelines (Specifically @USATerwilliger & Judge Leonie M. Brinkema)

It’s a small thing, but it cost me a year-plus of my life. What’s worse, the precedent could cost hundreds of defendants thousands of years. And it’s blatantly wrong.   Section 2D1.1(b)(1) of the US Sentencing Guidelines provide for a 2-point sentence enhancement for “possession of a firearm or dangerous weapon” during the commission of an offense. This enhancement is applied in some 70% (*1*) of federal drug cases, and it’s no small thing--those two points can add anywhere from a few months to over six years to a sentence, according to the USSG Guideline Table (or they can be the difference between a thirty-year sentence and life in prison).   OK? Clearly, it’s a big deal. Now, how is it being misused? Well, in my case, the 2D1.1(b)(1) enhancement was applied for a toy BB gun, that was found in a closet during a search of my house, subsequent to my arrest elsewhere. (A BB gun --that, in fact, was broken, unloaded, and probably I should have thrown out years ago…but I...
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Another Snow Job from Big Pharma (and the US Justice System)

I’m pissed.   If you’re one of the 80-some people so far who’ve read my ‘novellita’ Blood in the Water (on Amazon - https://amzn.to/3liwiEv - or on this blog) , you know how I feel about Big Pharma. Particularly Purdue & the Sacklers, and their role in the opioid crisis that’s destroyed so many lives. Lives of friends and family. (Even my own setbacks, which I can’t directly attribute to the reckless and heartless marketing of OxyContin, were certainly at least exacerbated by the devastating dope culture Oxy helped create.)   Then, for a brief moment last week—vindication! “Purdue Pharma Pleads Guilty!” read the headlines. “$8.3 Billion in Fines!” Newspapers trumpeted prosecutors’ claims that the settlement would afford vast new resources to fight addiction, and that “past wrongs” are now redressed.   Sounds great, right? Maybe a little lopsided, given the $15 billion in Oxy profits the Sacklers made, and the 400,000(!) Americans who lost their lives since 2000, b...
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Casualty of War –A Point-by-Point Argument for Drug Decriminalization

      “I’m a POW, you know—a prisoner of war.” It was a joke I often made, while I was doing my little 5-year bid, probably disrespectful to the real POWs who went thru unimaginable stuff in ‘Nam and elsewhere, but that wasn’t my intent. Fact of the matter is, I  felt  like a casualty of war—America’s War on Drugs. I didn’t die, but I’ve often argued that caging people for some number of years is tantamount to murdering those years of their lives. After all, I lost those years, in every meaningful sense of the word. My business, too, was a casualty. (I was, at the time of my indictment, running a pretty successful small contracting company.) My home, my bank balance, my reputation—all lost to the War on Drugs. All casualties. My relationship with my daughter—a casualty of war. (Oh, we’re still close now, since I got home—thank God. But where I was once her primary caregiver, now I have to fight to get an occasional weekend with her. It’s not the same, not ...
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