UK AG details new FBI-style crime fighting agency News
UK AG details new FBI-style crime fighting agency

[JURIST] British Attorney General Lord Peter Goldsmith [Wikipedia profile] provided new details in a speech Tuesday on the creation of a proposed UK crime-fighting agency similar to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation. The new institution, to be called the Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA), would combine the National Crime Squad, the National Criminal Intelligence Service, and Customs and Immigration Service. It would focus on prosecution of drug and human traffickers, major fraudsters, and pedophile rings, in addition to all types of organized crime including international terrorism. The implementation of SOCA will also include the codification of "Queen's evidence," a law that grants a reduced sentence to defendants who plead guilty and testify against other co-defendants. Review the Serious Organized Crime and Police Bill [PDF text]. In February last year the UK Home Office issued this press release on the initiative. UPI has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

President Johnson signed law against burning draft cards

On August 31, 1965, President Johnson signed a law making the burning of draft cards a federal offense subject to a five-year prison sentence and $1000 fine. In response to the law and in protest of the war in Vietnam, the student-run National Coordinating Committee to End the War in Vietnam staged the first public burning of a draft card in the United States on October 15, 1965. The constitutionality of the federal law was upheld in 1968 by the US Supreme Court in US v. O'Brien.

Gdansk Agreement reached

On August 31, 1980, the communist government of Poland and labor leaders settled the Gdansk Agreement. The accord settled a summer of labor strikes at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, Poland. With the Agreement, Poland became the first communist country to allow the creation of an independent labor union, which was called Solidarity. Solidarity then became the driving force that ended communism in Poland. Learn more about the history of Solidarity.