LA Times Op-Ed Column - Think You May Enjoy This ! ,
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'Hi, My Name Isn't Justice, Honey,' and Shame on  Lockyer 


By TOM G. PALMER


?????Here's what California  Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer said at a press 
conference about Enron Corp. Chairman  Kenneth Lay: "I would love to 
personally escort Lay to an 8-by-10 cell that he  could share with a tattooed 
dude who says, 'Hi, my name is Spike, honey."'  
?????Here's why Lockyer should be removed from his  office of public trust: 
First, because as the chief law enforcement officer of  the largest state in 
the nation, he not only has admitted that rape is a regular  feature of the 
state's prison system, but also that he considers rape a part of  the 
punishment he can inflict on others.  
?????Second, because he has publicly stated that he  would like to personally 
arrange the rape of a Texas businessman who has not  even been charged with 
any illegal behavior.  
?????Lockyer's remarks reveal him to be an  authoritarian thug, someone 
wholly unsuited to holding an office of public  trust. 
?????But his remarks do have one positive  merit: They tell us what criminal 
penalties really entail.  
?????Contrary to some depictions of prisons as  country clubs, they are 
violent and terrible places. More and more politicians  propose criminal 
sanctions for more and more alleged misdeeds, and as a result  ever more 
kinds of behavior are sanctioned by criminal penalties, perhaps now  even 
selling electricity. Those found guilty of such crimes are put into cages,  
where they are deprived of their liberty and dignity and, as Lockyer so 
clearly  acknowledged, raped and brutalized. What's worse, Lockyer has 
indicated that he  believes that rape is an appropriate part of the system of 
punishments he  administers. 
?????Should it matter that Lay is a  businessman? Imagine the outcry if the 
head of Enron were female. What would  Lockyer's fellow Democrats have said 
to that?  
?????Should it matter that Lay is chairman of an  electricity generator? Does 
the nature of his business justify threats to escort  him to his own rape? 
Lockyer told the Los Angeles Times that he had singled out  Enron's chairman 
because the Houston-based company is the world's largest energy  trader. 
?????So apparently singling out a man for a  heinous threat is OK because 
he's the chairman of the world's largest energy  trading company. That's 
according to the man who, as a state senator, sponsored  California's 1984 
hate-crimes law. Evidently the crusader against intimidation  on the basis of 
race, religion and sexual orientation feels no hesitation at all  about 
intimidating someone and threatening him with the brutal use of physical  
force simply because he heads the world's largest energy trading company.  
?????Lockyer and Gov. Gray Davis seem to think that  the best way to keep the 
lights on is to threaten electricity producers with  brute force, rather than 
to offer to pay competitive rates in competitive  markets. Are energy 
producers to blame for California's energy problems? No. Bad  policies, 
including rigid controls on retail prices of electricity, are the  cause of 
the problem, not the people who generate energy. Scapegoating producers  and 
threatening them with violence is an old ploy of authoritarians.  
Californians should not stand for it. 
?????An Enron  spokesman said that Lockyer's chilling stated desire to 
arrange the rape of Lay  does not merit a response. The spokesman is wrong. 
Lockyer's remarks merit  public disgrace and removal from office. After all, 
rape is not a form of legal  justice in America--is it?  
- - -

Tom G. Palmer Is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute  in Washington. 
E-mail: Palmert@cato.org
How was that for a well-written editorial?
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Dan Douglass
5959 Topanga Canyon Blvd.? Suite 244
Woodland  Hills, CA 91367
(818) 596-2201
douglass@energyattorney.com

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