Thanks, Marcy. The activist I spoke with did seem like a nice, well-
meaning person, and not hostile to hearing other viewpoints (for the
record, she did not accuse me of being a social Darwinist or lacking
compassion, I merely mentioned those things as arguments I've heard
before about libertarians). I think we can make progress by what we
might call trickle-down philosophy -- first show that libertarian
solutions are more compassionate, idealistic, good for the underdog,
etc., than statist solutions. Once we have claimed the moral high
ground and opponents are mostly arguing along the lines of "that won't
work, that's naive, that's not politically realistic," etc., then our
approach will become the most attractive to the idealists, thinkers,
and activists, and from there gradually "trickle down" into real
public policy.
Speaking of real public policy, after the Public Defenders Office
event at the library yesterday, Jeff Adachi, several folks from his
office, and at least one of the panelists went over to Soluna
restaurant on MacAllister to hang out, and I invited myself and tagged
along. 
It was the kind of shoulder-rubbing opportunity Mike
Denny in particular would have loved, he being such a natural
schmoozer in those kinds of situations which is part of what makes him
a good candidate (sorry you couldn't be there Mike!). There were
multiple conversations going on around the table so I didn't catch or
get to participate in everything, but hopefully I did manage to seed
some ideas and good practical suggestions to help them in their
institutional struggle with the police and the DA's office.
They have a public information person who typically sends out press
releases when they win a case, and I spent some time trying to
encourage her to do something to counter the "police blotter" columns
which run in local papers and are basically PR for the police
department (you can search in vain for reports of police misconduct in
those items -- in most cases, I think the police either do the write-
ups themselves or spoon-feed the info to the press). I noted that some
criminal defendants would like to talk to the press, and although
defense lawyers being cautious almost always discourage this and often
with good cause in terms of individual cases, not getting their side
out is bad from the perspective of educating the public and jury pools
in the long run. My suggestion (which was politely received, but I'm
not sure they'll act on) was to write something like a rebuttal to
some of those blotter columns, featuring speculation if not outright
evidence from police reports (which the cops often don't release even
to the PD's office in a timely manner) on what might have *really*
occurred in these incidents where the police always mysteriously seem
to appear to have acted appropriately.
One encouraging thing that came out is that Jeff Adachi (the elected
Public Defender who heads the office) is apparently planning to launch
a pension reform ballot initiative! That would be him personally, not
his office, but for him to do this as a high-profile, self-identified
"progressive" is terrific, and could be instrumental in getting folks
on the left to be more receptive to reining in government financial
abuse. Perhaps he is planning this as a springboard to running for
higher office, but the doing is what counts. I invited him to come
speak to us, and he seemed receptive, asking me to send him an email.
I suggest that we try to get in on the ground floor of this and secure
a hand in writing or shaping the content of this measure if at all
possible. Perhaps Marcy as chair could write up a short invite for me
to pass along to invite him to one of our upcoming meetings. I may or
may not be back in town by June 12 myself, but I would suggest we try
to get him to that meeting, since this could be a sooner-the-better
thing in terms of us having input on whatever initiative he's planning.
Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))