Monday, November 15, 2010

This post is for my Jewish Readers. Dead Sea Scrolls trial of Raphael Golb



giant "menorah of freedom," lit around the world


תשע"א 
5771

Yud Kislev   י כסלו       
Wednesday November 10, 2010

Yud-Tes Kislev   י"ט כסלו
New Year of Chasidut
Friday November 26, 2010




פדה בשלום נפשי מקרב לי כי ברבים היו עמד
Tehillim 55:19  He has redeemed my soul in peace . . .
A webpage describing the detailed, day-by-day progress, from the Alter Rebbe's imprisonment to his release:

from the initial complaints of the Misnagdim of Vilna; day-by-day details of the interrogations and responses; simultaneous historical events; dates of specific documents and petitions, etc.:

___________________________________________________

You may recall this event in Brooklyn, exactly a year ago:


http://www.crownheights.info/index.php?itemid=22056

http://www.crownheights.info/index.php?itemid=22115

http://www.crownheights.info/index.php?itemid=22472


Why choose the most physically dangerous place to send skinny 125 lb bookworm Raphael Golb, fellow Jew, and son of an academic rival? In my understanding, please correct me if I'm wrong, even a felon can be eligible for rooming with other non-violent, minimum-security inmates.

Why criminal court? Isn't this a matter for the civil courts, a lawsuit? Where's the prison-punishable crime?

For some inmates, Rikers Island is as good as a death sentence (or nearly)- or at least, continual fear thereof. I was not aware that death, beatings and rape- or the torture of non-stop expecting it- are on the lawbooks as the punishment for blogging and emailing- or even "identity theft" for that matter. Or even (as they claim) begrudging a professor a $650 lecture.

I like to compare Raphael Golb's sentence to that of a man I once met who also served 4 years, in the same State Penitentiary, for the rape of a woman he noticed jogging along the parkway. The rest was parole.

The District Attorney's office sought up to 4 years for Raphael Golb, upstate in Reikers Island State Penitentiary. And in fact after the sentencing, rather than let Raphael wait for the Appeals office to open in 2 hours, it was ruled that Raphael should be shackled immediately and sent upstate on the very next bus to Rikers Island State Penitentiary. I wonder what horrendous crimes they thought Raphael Golb might have committed in those 2 hours.

I am an English teacher and have not studied law. 

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