[5830] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: LA wiretaps -- full details available
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Greg Broiles)
Sun Oct 3 20:56:14 1999
Message-Id: <4.2.0.58.19991002001142.009ddba0@mail.wenet.net>
Date: Sat, 02 Oct 1999 00:26:19 -0700
To: John Gilmore <gnu@toad.com>, David Wagner <daw@cs.berkeley.edu>
From: Greg Broiles <gbroiles@netbox.com>
Cc: cryptography@c2.net
In-Reply-To: <199909280046.RAA25362@toad.com>
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At 05:46 PM 9/27/99 , John Gilmore wrote:
>[...]
>When sworn officers of the law and the courts violate the law with
>impunity, concealing their activities by making fraudulent statements
>under oath, and filing all incriminating information under seal, the
>law-abiding public cannot trust the justice system.
Last Saturday's LA Times had an article about the growing wiretap scandal.
The reporter talked to Gil Garcetti, LA County District Attorney; this
quote from the article is particularly telling -
>Garcetti defended the use of the so-called handoff practice, saying
>that the technique is used around the country. Kalunian disputes the
>assertion.
>"To my knowledge, no court has said you can't do that," Garcetti
>said.
(Kalunian is an assistant LA County public defender, who apparently still
has faith in the honesty of law enforcement officers outside of the LAPD.)
Apparently, Garcetti hasn't darkened the doorstep of a law library since
the mid 1960's, when the federal wiretap statutes were passed. He also
seems distressingly unfamilar with California state law on the topic, which
is somewhat problematic, given that he's a prosecutor.
I believe his comment about the widespread use of the tactic will prove
prophetic.
--
Greg Broiles
gbroiles@netbox.com
PGP: 0x26E4488C
