The government stages theatrical prosecution rituals to conceal weak evidence

Evidence

The drama often begins when the FBI sends dozens of agents to arrest the defendants, search the mosque, and interview hundreds of frightened friends and neighbors in a manner designed to intimidate the community… . At the trial, the government often makes an absurd display of security in order to intimidate the jury and media into believing the defendants are really dangerous. A massive police presence surrounds the court, with snipers posted on rooftops. (Whom are they supposed to shoot?) The government often requests anonymous juries and witnesses, and it calls phony experts, who are essentially government mouthpieces, to testify about a fantasy “terrorist network” that might involve the defendant. The government feeds “secret” evidence, obtained from illegal electronic surveillance, to the judge in order to affect the court’s rulings and to prevent the defense from seeing or objecting to the material, and uses material obtained from these secret sources to assault the defendant’s character, even when the material is irrelevant to the charges. In this way, the government creates an atmosphere of hysteria and confusion to cover the lack of any substantive evidence that a real crime was committed. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 480

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘cynical grand opera’ mechanism parallels Cohen’s manufactured moral panic and the theatrical media spectacle framework already in the reader’s knowledge base. — connects to: Contradictory explanations reveal prosecution’s lack of transparency. — Lynley Hood, A City Possessed, 2377; Colonial officials ritualistically framed rumor-derived reports as verified facts; Penal law design requires theatrical stagecraft — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 684

Broader Connections

• Contradictory explanations reveal prosecution’s lack of transparency. #exemplifies (0.55) — Lynley Hood, A City Possessed, 2377
• Colonial officials ritualistically framed rumor-derived reports as verified facts #exemplifies (0.45)