Frank Z. Leidman has been kind enough to  post here about a protest in support of the Pakistani lawyers who have risked their own safety and security to fight the budding dictatorship in Pakistan.  I want to make sure that everyone sees this:

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.

As lawyers, we tend to be awfully good at making noise amongst ourselves about things that we disagree with or don’t believe in.  Getting off our butts and actually doing something, not as good.

The opportunity to show solidarity with our counterparts in Pakistan may not be the same as going there and standing side by side with them, but it’s critically important that we do something to show our country, our President and the world that we share the belief that the law is what separates democracy from totalitarianism.  I applaud Frank and the San Francisco bar for standing up and being counted.

While there has been no word on similar demonstrations in New York, I’ve forwarded Frank’s comment to Dan Arshack, President of the NYSACDL, in the hope that it will inspire a similar demonstration in New York.  I will speak to Dan today to see how this can be quickly organized.

While Pakistan may be a world away, what is happening there could not be closer to us, both in the existential sense as well as the very real sense, though somewhat more subtle as we are beaten into non-existence through laws like the USA Patriot Act and FISA, which was an outrage until things got so much worse that FISA began to look good.

If you’re anywhere near San Francisco and have any belief in democracy, the rule of law and the Constitution, join the lawyers of San Francisco.  The more people, the more effective the demonstration will be.