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L. Neil Smith's THE LIBERTARIAN ENTERPRISE Number 201, December 2, 2002 MINE'S A MODEL 21
LibBytes/LibBits
AEROSMITH GOT A GUN A top NYPD official is being probed for helping rockers Steven Tyler and Joe Perry obtain pistol licenses in return for alleged VIP treatment at an Aerosmith concert and ritzy after-party, The Post has learned. ... Sources said the flap arose in the fall of 2001 when Tyler, Aerosmith's lead singer, and Perry, the band's lead guitarist, approached the NYPD License Division for gun permits, sources said. At the time, the rockers - whose fame and wealth has attracted stalkers over the years - already held gun licenses in Massachusetts and several other states, a source said. Most applicants are required to show up at Police Headquarters to detail why they deserve a license, demonstrating they carry large sums of cash, work in dangerous jobs or had been the brunt of credible threats. But insiders say some celebrities and other powerbrokers have quietly had the bureaucratic process streamlined for them. ... Both rockers were soon issued carry permits, though an NYPD spokesman declined to say what guns they're licensed to carry. ... YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO BLEED DURING INTERROGATION Maybe you don't have a right to remain silent after all. [The Miranda Rule] is about to be reconsidered in the Supreme Court in the case of a California farm worker who was shot five times after a brief encounter with police. Legal experts say the case has the potential to reshape the law governing everyday encounters between police and the public. While the farm worker lay gravely wounded, a police supervisor pressed him to talk, to explain his version of the events. He survived, paralyzed and blinded, and sued the authorities, alleging, among other things, coercive interrogation. But Oxnard police assert that the Miranda ruling does not include a "constitutional right to be free of coercive interrogation," only a right not to have forced confessions used at trial. Bush administration lawyers have sided with police in the case. The Supreme Court will hear arguments Dec. 4. BIG (CITY) BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU Arguing that this city faces a far more perilous world than once imagined, New York's police commissioner wants to toss aside a decades-old federal court decree governing the limits on police spying and surveillance of its own citizenry. City officials argue that officers need more elbow room to photograph, tape and infiltrate political and social organizations to uproot terror networks. But civil libertarians warn of a return to the unsavory days of old, when New York's police department acquired a reputation for police "black bag" break-ins and spying on political dissidents. It's a battle with echoes in other cities. In Chicago, officials have already weakened a court decree limiting police spying. In San Francisco, officials have reversed their own 1997 decision and have now joined an FBI terrorism task force, even though FBI surveillance of mosques and peaceful protests could violate the California constitution. Taken together, these steps suggest a cultural and legal shift driven by fear of terrorism in cities where a civil libertarian impulse once was widely shared. ...
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