[Marxism] Re: prison health

[Brian Shannon <Brian_Shannon@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

LAW & ORDER and THE PATRIOT ACT
Season 4 Episode E5416
STRESS POSITION 9/8pm 02/13/05

The in-prison health worker came out only slightly better (portrayed
sympathetically although an accomplice) in a recent story on Law and
Order: Criminal Intent.

Here are some elements of the, as usual, complicated plot:

The U.S. government took Arab-Americans and Arab immigrants into secret
custody and imprisoned them with no notice to the public or to their
families. None were charged with any crime.

A strong-willed and sadistic guard leader used his position to
intimidate other guards into starving and torturing these Arab
prisoners.

When one of the guards got another job, fearing that what was going on
would be revealed, the guard leader had him killed by a "wise-guy"
(Mafia) friend.

When they discovered this criminality going on at the prison, the
detectives and their District Attorney coworker criticized the Patriot
Act, one of them comparing it to Orwell's 1984.

In the comeuppance at the end, the lead actor (Vincent D'Onofrio) used
his intellectual/moral skills to save himself and his fellow lawmen
from threatened death by weaning the guard followers from the guard
leader. Based on the records of the guards, he used the fact that one
had studied law enforcement, another was a leader in his church, and
the last had been a soldier protecting his country.

At the end, the prisoners were let out, all of them frail and some in
stretchers. There was another verbal attack by the lawmen against the
Patriot Act.

Oh, and there was a disclaimer that said that the story was fictional
and not based on actual events.

Here's a Right-Wing blog on the episode. This show got under its
participants' skin, although there are some "nuanced" replies.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1342819/posts

Another blog on the show, not so right wing.
<http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/ShowForumPage/showid-1381/
threadid-180766/>

from Brian Shannon





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