Justice for Stanley Cohen

Truthdig columnist Chris Hedges speaks out against the possible 18-month prison sentence on tax charges of social justice attorney and activist Stanley Cohen in a short video that features Cohen describing the purpose and meaning of his work. (Read Hedges’ column on Cohen’s trouble here.)

Cohen says:

Criminal defense is all political. there’s not a person prosecuted in this country that’s not political, whether it’s based on class, whether it’s based on gender, whether it’s based on race. There’s a very fundamental common strain among my political clients. They’re people who say no, they resist. They need advocates. That’s what I do. I stand with them. I fight with them. I support them. I view my work as friction on the machine. I view my work as trying to fuck with it because it’s corrupt. There’s systematic problems because the judges, because the prosecutors, because the police are essentially corrupt and indifferent or malignant in the whole situation. And I view myself as throwing myself into the machine.

The video encourages viewers interested in supporting Cohen to sign a petition calling for no jail time, write a letter to the sentencing judge or donate money.

Stanley Cohen:

— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.