Guilty until never proven innocent?
I have been reading about the little boy in PA who is accused of shooting his father's pregnant girlfriend as she slept. Note that the keyword here is accused. The whole case seems to pivot on the testimony of the woman's seven year old daughter. The police originally spent some time looking for a mysterious black truck that the boy reported. They couldn't find it, so they went back and sweated the boy under the hot lights for a while. He (the little 11 year old boy) got rattled and his story started to sound confused. So the police in this litttle one horse burg went out and grabbed the woman's seven year old daughter. They worked on the little girl for a while and eventually she told them some vague story about seeing the boy with what "looked like" a gun and hearing a boom.
So now these local yokels are proudly announcing to the world at large that they have solved this heinous crime in record time. Forget the fact that they have not been able to establish a supportable motive for the boy. Forget the fact that they have not shown any evidence of prior violent behavior on the part of the boy. At least they won't have to spend any more time looking for that damn black truck. "Back to the doughnut shop boys!"
Meanwhile, Chandra Levy's killer has been found. Guess what folks? It wasn't Gary Condit after all. The woman was killed in what? 2001? And for the last seven years Condit has been tried and convicted of murder in the press. Now, years later, it finally comes to light that he was guilty of fornication, but nothing more.
Anybody still remember that poor guy that Jay Leno used to mock and call the "Una-Doofus"? The security guard who found the bomb at the Olympics and saved all those people? And then, because it was so much cheaper and easier than actually doing their friggin' jobs, the FBI spent all that time trying to hang the crime on that innocent guard. He died not long ago, his lawyer and family are sure that stress from the public abuse he suffered over the incident led to his very premature demise.
And let us never forget the guy, I forget his name at the moment but I am sure most Americans know who I mean since we had to pay the dude $6,000,000, that the FBI did their level best to frame for the anthrax scares?
The news services are trumpeting the guilt of that little boy in PA far and wide. Meanwhile, well meaning people are clucking their tongues about the breakdown in family values and how shameful it is that children so young are committing such crimes.
Me, I am going to hold off until i find out whether it might be more appropriate to cluck my tongue over crooked and incompetent local yokels who frame innocent people rather than pull their incompetent heads out of their asses and do their jobs. Or maybe we might consider the daddy. Remember him? The BOYFRIEND? In most cases he would automatically be the prime suspect because in the majority of cases, murders like this are committed by the spouse or lover.
I will hold my judgment until the little tyke is actually tried and convicted. He's only eleven. Granted it was a terrible crime. But before we ban shotguns, or decide to initiate government supervision of child rearing for all children over the age of five, let us first see if he actually did it.
So now these local yokels are proudly announcing to the world at large that they have solved this heinous crime in record time. Forget the fact that they have not been able to establish a supportable motive for the boy. Forget the fact that they have not shown any evidence of prior violent behavior on the part of the boy. At least they won't have to spend any more time looking for that damn black truck. "Back to the doughnut shop boys!"
Meanwhile, Chandra Levy's killer has been found. Guess what folks? It wasn't Gary Condit after all. The woman was killed in what? 2001? And for the last seven years Condit has been tried and convicted of murder in the press. Now, years later, it finally comes to light that he was guilty of fornication, but nothing more.
Anybody still remember that poor guy that Jay Leno used to mock and call the "Una-Doofus"? The security guard who found the bomb at the Olympics and saved all those people? And then, because it was so much cheaper and easier than actually doing their friggin' jobs, the FBI spent all that time trying to hang the crime on that innocent guard. He died not long ago, his lawyer and family are sure that stress from the public abuse he suffered over the incident led to his very premature demise.
And let us never forget the guy, I forget his name at the moment but I am sure most Americans know who I mean since we had to pay the dude $6,000,000, that the FBI did their level best to frame for the anthrax scares?
The news services are trumpeting the guilt of that little boy in PA far and wide. Meanwhile, well meaning people are clucking their tongues about the breakdown in family values and how shameful it is that children so young are committing such crimes.
Me, I am going to hold off until i find out whether it might be more appropriate to cluck my tongue over crooked and incompetent local yokels who frame innocent people rather than pull their incompetent heads out of their asses and do their jobs. Or maybe we might consider the daddy. Remember him? The BOYFRIEND? In most cases he would automatically be the prime suspect because in the majority of cases, murders like this are committed by the spouse or lover.
I will hold my judgment until the little tyke is actually tried and convicted. He's only eleven. Granted it was a terrible crime. But before we ban shotguns, or decide to initiate government supervision of child rearing for all children over the age of five, let us first see if he actually did it.
Dick Jewell and the Atlanta bombing was one of the tragedies of the 1990's. The FBI (fumbling, bumbling investigators) wanted it to be him so they made the evidence fit the guy. You forgot to mention the Washington sniper(s) which is another case of deciding who did it and then making the evidence fit. They just KNEW it was a "right-wing, white nutjob". The disappointment was palpable when they found out who it really was.
The police have mutated - into what I do not know - but it becoming scary.
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This is what I was saying. I am not trying to plead the little boy's case. Maybe he really is guilty. I just don't know, and neither does anyone else yet. He hasn't been tried. But to read the media you would swear he has been tried, convicted, and sentenced. And to read the quotes from that local DA you would swear he was Jack the Ripper reincarnated. Even if he is guilty, which hasn't been proven yet, all that would mean is that an emotionally disturbed and mentally unbalanced eleven year old did something horrible because his dysfunctiontional family failed to get him the help he needed. I, personally, do not consider an eleven year old mature enough to be fully capable of making adult decisions or being aware of adult consequences. The Human brain simply is not mature enough at that age to put someone on trial as an adult. IMO.
But I am afraid I can't agree about the police mutating. Sadly, they have always been this way. If anything, it is getting better because modern media and communications have made it harder for them to get away with it. Ever read, "To Kill A Mockingbird"? I can personally testify that this kind of abuse of power used to be routine in KY and WV. It was so routine that nobody ever bothered to call the law if they could avoid it. There was no point, because prior to WWII there was no such thing as justice in Appalachia for anyone who wasn't rich. Actually, there still isn't, unless you are willing to literally make a federal case out of it.
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I really hope that this case will be resolved very soon and that the true guilty party will be the one who will be convicted.
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