“Dick The Butcher,” a scheming killer in Shakespeare’s Henry VI, uttered these words to explain how one seizes control. While the line has been often misused and misunderstood to suggest that this would be a benefit to society, the point wasn’t missed in Pakistan.
From Slate,
The New York Times, Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal’s world-wide newsbox lead with the latest from Pakistan, where thousands of lawyers protested the imposition of emergency rule by President Pervez Musharraf. Hundreds of lawyers, along with political opponents and human rights activists were beaten and hauled away by police officers. Since Saturday, approximately 2,000 people have been arrested, although many say the real number is much larger.
While the politics of crime in America continues to devolve to the point where the Constitution is viewed as a threat to society, consider the round-up of Pakistani lawyers as irrefutable proof that the law, and its proponents, are the greatest safeguard against totalitarianism we have.
To anyone who would happily hand over his rights and freedoms in blind faith to an executive branch, take a hard look. You may love the power and politics so dearly that you have no fear that a president, whether this one or some other one in the future, could ever change the rules of our society, whether bit by bit or wholesale, to the point of a dictatorship that you refuse to believe that you could ever lose your freedom.
Notice that our President is very angry with Musharraf. But they’re still friends.
The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers. What we do every day, on behalf of the people you despise, we do for all of us. Including you.
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The Criminal Trial Lawyers Association of Northern California, the Bar Association of San Francisco, and the Office of the San Francisco Public Defender will demonstrate this Friday, November 9, 2007 at Noon at the San Francisco Federal Building in solidarity with the Pakistani lawyers. Frank Leidman, a San Francisco criminal defense lawyer, and an organizer of the demonstration as an officer of the Criminal Trial Lawyers Association, said “We will gather in front of the Federal Building to show our solidarity with the Pakistani lawyers and their stand against the dismissal of the Supreme Court in Pakistan. We support our sister and brother lawyers in Pakistan who have been beaten, gassed and arrested as they courageously risk their liberty and lives to stand up to tyranny and in support of judicial independence and the Constitutional rule of law in their country. We gather too in our own support for judicial independence and against torture in our name, recognizing that Constitutional rule of law in our country, just as in Pakistan, is ours to protect.” Leidman added, “We see parallels between the recent developments in Pakistan and the equally dangerous – albeit more gradual – moves by our Executive to strip power from our Judiciary. Searches without warrants, detentions without Writs of Habeas Corpus, torture and Gitmo; do we really need to let it get to the point of fighting on the streets between lawyers and police? Now is the time for us to be heard, not later.” Finally, in further solidarity with the Pakistani lawyers, Bay Area lawyers have been urged to dress [regardless of gender] in black (or dark) suits, white shirts, and black (or dark) ties. Leidman said speakers will include Randall Knox, President of the Criminal Trial Lawyers Association, Nanci Clarence, also a criminal defense attorney and the President of the Bar Association of San Francisco, and Jeff Adachi, the Public Defender of San Francisco. “We are asking lawyers from all over the City, all over the political map, from the criminal defense bar but also from the downtown firms, from the City Attorney’s Office, from the Attorney General’s Office, to show up. This is the time when lawyers live up to the reputation that we deserve … we have all sworn an oath as protectors of our Constitutional system and the values expressed in that document, and that is what we do, in courtrooms every day and in the streets this Friday,” Leidman added.
I think you should re-read Henry VI. It’s a lawyer joke, no more, no less. It has nothing to do with how you seize control.
The meaning of the language has been debated for years, though I now plan to ignore all else in favor of a comment on this blog by some anonymous person, just because you says so.