Posted on 04/14/2005 11:00:40 PM PDT by RWR8189
usuke Joshua Banno is a college student from Arizona marooned in Manhattan. In his old life, he would be feeding his two chickens, riding his bike and working in the maintenance department of the student union. He would also be graduating next month.
Instead, Mr. Banno is answering phones at a Midtown restaurant, Blockhead's Burritos, to help pay legal expenses. He has fallen a semester behind at Prescott College in Tucson, and is learning more about criminal law than he ever cared to know.
The change in Mr. Banno's life dates from August, when he traveled by bus to New York City to join crowds of protesters at the Republican National Convention.
He was arrested on Aug. 29 and was charged with assault and reckless endangerment, accused of igniting a papier-mâché dragon. For months he has proclaimed his innocence, saying that in the chaos of the crowd, the police just picked the wrong person. Last week, prosecutors seemed to agree, after concluding that a police officer had misidentified Mr. Banno.
Yesterday, a spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney's office said the case would probably be dismissed.
Behind the story of Mr. Banno's legal travails, there is a personal one. It is a tale of the obstacles and financial hardships faced by an ordinary family in a case that appears likely to be dismissed, like so many others from convention week. As of last month, about 80 percent of the convention arrests had been dismissed, adjourned in contemplation of dismissal, or ended in acquittals, according to statistics from the district attorney's office.
Beyond the immediate problem of the charges, which could have brought Mr. Banno a prison term of up to seven years, money was a serious concern. His lawyer, Sabrina Shroff, took the case for a very low fee, but it would still cost thousands of dollars to take to trial.
For Mr. Banno's mother, Betty Jo Banno, who learned of his arrest while watching television at home in Prescott, Ariz., the amount of her son's bail, $200,000, came as an early shock.
"I just couldn't believe it; I thought it couldn't be real," she said, sitting on a couch in a Midtown apartment that she sublet for herself, her son and out-of-towners involved in the case. "The first thing I thought was, 'I don't have $200,000.' "
"They said, 'What do you have?' and I said, 'I can use my house as collateral.' "
Mr. Banno's friends mobilized for his defense. They held a potluck party in Tucson. One friend started a Web site. Another sold T-shirts. His college put out a jar for donations. A friend, Toby Fraser, watched dozens of hours of videotape at the National Lawyers Guild, an advocacy group for change in political and economic matters.
Mr. Banno spent six days in jail, avoiding the meat dishes and eating canned string beans, mashed potatoes and grits. He was not allowed to make long-distance phone calls, so Ms. Shroff arranged a conference call so he and his mother could talk.
Eventually, Mr. Banno's bail was reduced to $10,000. Mrs. Banno wiped out nearly half her savings to send the bail money. As the case wound its way through the legal system, Mr. Banno's trial was delayed five times, Ms. Shroff said. Mrs. Banno bought plane tickets for herself, Ms. Shroff, Mr. Fraser and four witnesses.
In January, Mrs. Banno took a leave from her job to help with the trial preparations. She took out a $55,000 home equity loan to cover her family's living expenses. In all, she said, she has spent about $30,000 on the case.
"I used to feel pretty free going out to eat and taking a trip to visit my mom in Hawaii," Mrs. Banno said. "All of that has pretty much stopped."
The ordeal has created plenty of tension for Mr. Banno's extended family in Japan. His father, who is Japanese and works in Fukuoka as a yoga teacher, was told by his relatives that his son's arrest had shamed them. Mrs. Banno has not heard from her in-laws since then.
After months of pressing the case for Mr. Banno's innocence, a big break came late last month, when Ms. Shroff and Mr. Fraser tracked down time-sequence photographs taken by a Daily News photographer that showed Mr. Banno was far from where the fire began. A week later, prosecutors stated in court that the officer had misidentified Mr. Banno, and yesterday a spokeswoman said that the case would probably be dropped.
For Mrs. Banno, it was not a moment too soon.
"I want our calm life back," she said. "I can't wait to go home."
Yet, without seeing these tapes, you believe the Defense Attorney? DO you even remember the Rodney King incident? The media played the 20-30 seconds that were benefitial to their cause. Watch the whole tape, and learn a lot more. But since none of us has actually seen the tapes of this incident, I find it hard to believe that you would defend this man's "right" to disturb the peace.
Did those people include the "truth" of who was behind these demonstrations? As I recall, International ANSWER and the World Workers Party were behind a majority of the protests in Seattle (and coincidentally, against the Republican Convention). I guess we should allow avowed Communists to do what they please. Because of course, in a Communist state, you would be able to protest all you want, as long as you were willing to be shot or jailed for life. Yes...communists in Seattle are a great example of free speech. Keep trying...
Actually I've said almost nothing. If he had an argument I cared for, then I'd engage in debate. As his every word seems void and self-indicting, no reason is needed on my part.
Childish mocking, however, is royally called-for.
So charge him with disorderly conduct and try him before a jury of his peers.
None of us can yell "FIRE" in a movie theater without being arrested
Sure you can, so long as there is a fire.
They were not sharing their views or merely opposing a party, they wanted to disrupt a part of our political process.
I'm sure the Klinton folks viewed conservative protestors the same way. Criminalizing political protests is one of the hallmarks of a totalitarian government. With so many other indicators of the police state at hand, no one should really be surprised that this is occuring.
I guess in your little dreamland it would be okay for these same people to stand outside polling places not allowing their opponents' supporters to vote?
Gee, I must have missed where these protestors did that. Can you cite where this occured? Or is now okay to arrest Americans and try them for "things they might do"?
Again....what are the political motives behind dropping the charges?? How many of the DA's do you think voted Demoncrat in the last election?
I don't doubt that was the motivation in SOME cases.
You should go to the link I posted in #49 for the reason many charges were dropped.
BIG BUMP for excellence in posting!
I've actually said plenty, but Mulder chooses not to respond to logic. I've posted 4 or 5 replies to him, and, since he is still responding to others, I can only assume he is online now. Yet, I have received no responses to any of my posts to him. He must be racking his brain to come up with something clever...I mean, all he had on you was a misspelled word.
Well, the district attorney apparently belived them.
you even remember the Rodney King incident? The media played the 20-30 seconds that were benefitial to their cause.
Uh... actually that's what happened in this case, except it was reversed. It was the state that selectively edited the evidence for their benefit.
I find it hard to believe that you would defend this man's "right" to disturb the peace.
Please cite his conviction in a court of law for said offense. Thanks in advance!
There are several things to consider.
The first is that the moron put himself into a situation in which it was already a publicized fact that arrests were probably going to be made. Even though he has been cleared, he is responsible for putting himself in that position to be mistakenly arrested.
Now does his lack of good judgment merit the cost of the error on the part of the police?
I would have to say no, it does not. If he is innocent, then the prosecution should pay for his legal fees, but only for his legal fees.
Now, as for the other expenses, such as the loss in income due to the mother's time and effort, none of that should be recoverable. If the defendant had lost income during the ordeal, he should be granted standing to sue for damages up to the amount of loss income, no more, no less. But since the defendant was a student, and graduation is not guaranteed until he has passed all his courses, the city can't give him a diploma... There is no other remuneration that would be reasonable.
It is unfortunate but nobody held a gun to the mother's head and told her she had to take time off from work to be with her sun. He could've stayed in jail, he didn't have to be bailed out.
So, he's the victim of being an unemployed person who happened to be mistakenly arrested.
The fact that he is being released shows to me that our system works. Costs incurred outside of legal fees are unfortunate, but they weren't directly caused to him due to the charges brought against him. So, it is sad, but not tragic.
It was literally an unfortunate event precipitated by his poor choices. I feel sympathy for the innocent who stand accused, but that sympathy does not lead me to indict the system that charged him, tried him, and found him innocent. The system apparently works, and I feel proud that it does. Time for this kid to move on with his life and exercise better judgment in the people that he chooses to protest with.
Are you really that stupid?
Do you realize that your buddy, Steve, was telling Benjamin Franklin to "drop dead"?
Here's a site where Banno is looking for a ride to the g-8.
http://g8.activist.ca/view.php?id=0-1508
http://www.panleft.org/directors.php?mem_id=33
Banno is listed as a director of this production company. Sweet list of videos for sale. lol
Yeah....but how many of the conservative protestors lit ANYTHING on fire. I guess you forgot that SOMEONE lit this effigy on fire. It might not have been this knucklehead, but someone lit it on fire. I don't remember any anti-clintonistas causing the destruction of property like the anti-Bush crowd.
I guess in your little dreamland it would be okay for these same people to stand outside polling places not allowing their opponents' supporters to vote?
Gee, I must have missed where these protestors did that. Can you cite where this occured? Or is now okay to arrest Americans and try them for "things they might do"?
What part of "would that be okay" says they did that? Putting words in my mouth and trying to be clever is unimpressive. Did I ever say that these protestors did that? What these protestors did do was, as I remember, give out incorrect directions to Republican delegates. They also tried to prevent them from re-entering their hotels. The political conventions are just as much a part of the political process as voting is.
I don't doubt that was the motivation in SOME cases.
But, you readily throw that statistic out....(90% are dropped).
Frankly, NYC Cops didn't arrest enough of these idiots. They had no business being there. It wasn't their Convention.
I think many cops are bullies are get off on pushing people around. This seems to be more true of the younger guys those working in big cities, than of small-town cops and older cops. But there are good and bad in every group.
They enjoy their "authority", and they enjoy informing us peasants of it.
In this particular case, who knows? What is disturbing is to see many Americans saying he deserved to be falsely arrested.
BTW, while we're on the subject of cops and mistakes, here is a paragraph from the link I posted in #49.
Last week, he discovered that there were two versions of the same police tape: the one that was to be used as evidence in his trial had been edited at two spots, removing images that showed Mr. Dunlop behaving peacefully. When a volunteer film archivist found a more complete version of the tape and gave it to Mr. Dunlop's lawyer, prosecutors immediately dropped the charges and said that a technician had cut the material by mistake.
Do you think the technician's actions were a "mistake" or "deliberate and malicious"?
Ping....
So...the courts are the ultimate decision in any matter?? I could care less if this idiot hired lawyers to escape conviction. Lack of conviction means innocence?? I suppose in your mind O.J. is still innocent also. DNA evidence, blood and testimony mean nothing, if you can convince 12 other morons that you are innocent. This guy did not go to New York City to peaceably protest.....he could have done that at home. He, along with all of the other communists (look into it, Communists supported most of these "protests") came to New York to get some press, and actually tried to prevent electors from voting.
Well, perhaps if leftists didn't flood the court system with frivolous lawsuits and delay the process of law with endless, pointless appeals trials would progress faster.
OTOH, if leftist protestors didn't spend their time thinking up new ways to break the law this miscreant, presuming he really did not break the law, wouldn't have been arrested in the first place.
I remember after the WTO riots; all that destruction, and plenty of violence directed at the police, and no one got more then a slap on the wrist.
Am also a bit concerned about the endangerment of freedom of expression among both conservative and liberal denominations in this country, especially the apparent hatred toward people who dont agree with your views.
But anyway, I dont want to comment on anything in particular or "controversial", as apparently I've been told that unless I've something good to say, I shouldnt even express my opinions in this country, on account of being a worthless foreigner.
And I have a problem with holding person A responsible for the actions of person B. You apparently do not.
And I have a problem with cops lying and editing tapes to remove exculpatory evidence. You apparently do not.
We're just going to have to agree to disagree for the time being.
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