These past few weeks (as of this column) have been a roller-coaster of drama and crazy.
For starters we have the case of Kyle Rittenhouse... the teenager who decided cross state lines with an assault weapon that he was not legally supposed to possess, showed up in the middle of an active protest area, did a little cleaning, did a little first-aid, and then killed two people and almost killed a third with said assault weapon that supposedly he was not old enough to possess. He doesn’t deny killing two people and almost killing a third, he just claimed it was in “self-defense”.
What should have been a slam-dunk for the prosecution ended up with an acquittal and what the wrestling world would call a “screwjob”. The admitted killer goes free and now he’s the darling of the fascists because he killed protesters and got away with it.
And then we have the case of three good ol’ boys who were charged with chasing down and murdering Ahmaud Arbery here in Georgia. Greg McMichael and son Travis McMichael chased the 25-year old Arbery down the street with neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan following behind and videotaping it. They claimed that Arbery was trying to steal something from houses under construction and were trying to make a supposed “citizen’s arrest”. They also claimed “self-defense” because Arbery ran.
The murder happened in February of 2020, but nobody knew about it until someone leaked the video online two months later, and even then it took the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to step up and actually investigate and arrest the three.
Following the Rittenhouse verdict, people were understandably worried about this trial and how it would turn out. Thankfully it wasn’t a repeat, and all three were found guilty of multiple counts of murder, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, and conspiracy to commit murder. They are each facing life in prison. And that’s before they’re facing a federal trail for civil rights violations.
Two trials. One where the guilty got away, and one where they didn’t.
What the hell happened?
Well, you can thank the system for both.
In the case of Kyle Rittenhouse, you have a baby-faced killer who was basically handed his acquittal. You have a judge that barred the prosecution from referring to the victims *as* victims, but also opened the door to condemn them as criminals, rioters, looters, and the judge was seeming hostile to the prosecution, not to mention take time out to attack the media for covering him. Let’s not forget that this defendant was allowed to pick the members of the jury. Sure it was “random”, but him picking the jury members also made it appear that the trial was rigged. And let’s not forget the drama of him on the stand appearing to bawl his eyes out as he recounted the events of that night. That emotional act contradicted the image of him celebrating his criminal act in the company of the Proud Boys terrorist group, which the judge barred the jury from seeing, along with other evidence of past violent activities or tendencies.
By these actions of the judge, he basically set the stage for Rittenhouse to give his performance and then wait for the jury to let him off.
In the case of the three men who were involved in the murder of Arbery, you have a good ol’ boy system that intentionally did everything in its power to keep it quiet and let the three get away with it. You have a murder where nobody mentioned the words “citizen’s arrest” or “self-defense” to the police and there was no prosecution of the three at all until the state got involved, and that was only after the video was released and public outcry forced state involvement. Hell, the district attorney at the time ended up being indicted and arrested after the convictions!
Yes, it seemed to be a slam-dunk case as well. Video evidence, an admission of criminal activity, a claim of “self-defense” that ended up being false. The only reason why this trial ended up with convictions was because there was an outside investigation, and an outside prosecution, and because the general public demanded a trial.
In other words, the system here was forced to have a trial and for the prosecution to do their job.
This commentator has been living in small towns long enough to know that the good ol’ boy system is as corrupt as they come, in any city or state or nation. As I previously described it, the local line of “the way things are” is the original corrupt state. It’s where all of the other criminal activities began. Small town corruption begets big city corruption begets state corruption begets federal, and so on and so forth. It all starts small, in small towns and in small communities.
Let’s get brutally honest here... if there is ever a call for people to be involved with local elections, this is it.
The judge that presided over the Rittenhouse case, Judge Bruce Schroeder, is a long-time incumbent, elected and re-elected over and over, often unopposed after he was first appointed in 1983. Jackie Johnson, the former district attorney in Georgia that was arrested and charged with interfering in the investigation of the murder of Arbery, was also elected and re-elected by the voters since she was first appointed in 2010. The only reason why she is now a former district attorney was because the publicity of this case cost her another re-election. Would these be the only actions they each took in their careers? Probably not. Johnson’s previous cases are now under investigation to see if anything else was swept under the rug.
Local corruption gets you injustice being allowed. Local corruption lets the bad guys go free and it being excused as “that’s just the way things are”. And often these are people who are elected, not just appointed. And elected over and over again.
I’ll let you in on something... in my community there was a local election for an at-large spot on the city council. The incumbent thought it would be a cake-walk. Just get elected and then re-elected. No need to campaign. No need for signs or ads or mailers.
Funny thing, though... come election day, there were just enough people that voted for the name just below his to force a run-off. It could be because of a jacked-up millage rate for homes. It could be because folks are not happy with what is going on in our little community. It could just be because gas prices are going up and inflation is making things more expensive, and people don’t like it. For whatever the reason, we have a situation where this incumbent, who once thought his re-election would be a cakewalk, now has to campaign heavy for a run-off that happens the day after the posting of this article.
Don’t dismiss local elections, folks. Good ol’ boys can be replaced. It happened to Jackie Johnson last year. That’s why she wasn’t in office when she was indicted. It could very well happen to Judge Schroeder when he is up for re-election, if he doesn’t do the smart thing and resign before then. These local elections are only “inevitable” if the voters don’t pay attention to them and don’t bother to vote.
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