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THE WORLD HAS GONE MAD
(2/12/2007)
When the Alleged Good Side Does Bad
It's amazing how many people think judges, prosecutors, sheriff's and all other law enforcement officers are above wrong-doing. Then we have a story that reports, "BATON ROUGE, La. - A sheriff accused of having state prisoners work at a stolen car "chop shop" and using them as his race-car pit crew resigned and pleaded guilty, becoming the third St. Helena Parish sheriff in a row convicted of federal charges." (Sheriff Pleads Guilty in Chop Shop Case, Associated Press, February 06, 2007 11:02 AM EST ). Did it rock the boat and remove the blinders or was Ficklin getting caught for nought? There are a great many excellent public servants out there, but they do have their counter-parts to tarnish up things. There are those who are out for self and put on a good show. Amazing how the tarnished ones can fool so many for so long. How their spell is so powerful and difficult to get past, when looking for the truth and attempting to hold them accountable. That word again... "accountable". It's true that there are people that will lie on officers and other officials for revenge and/or an attempt to get out of their own wrongful deed. That fact should never be lost in the mess of this mad word, but neither should the fact that sometimes it is the other way around. Sometimes it is the officer or official that is doing the lying and deceiving. The officer or official that is destroying the lives of others to protect self and his wrongful ways. And all this mess festers until there are some members of the public that trust no official or law enforcement officer due to some, and some of the official and law enforcement officers can't see the bad among themselves and, not trusting the mere public, dismiss those who try to secure their help. It becomes a vicious circle that often keeps the bad guy safe and good people helpless and muted. The information I found amazing in the article, "Sheriff Pleads Guilty in Chop Shop Case" is a three strike issue... "Ficklin, former mayor of Greensburg, had been sheriff since 1998, when he was appointed to replace Chaney Phillips, who was sentenced to the maximum of eight years and a month for fraud and money laundering in his previous job as assessor in the largely rural parish just northeast of Baton Rouge. Phillips had been elected sheriff in 1997 to succeed Eugene Holland, who got 16 months and was ordered to repay $27,000 after pleading guilty to having his office buy building materials for him, pay his utility bills and provide inmate labor for his personal use." What is transpiring in that community that three sheriffs in a row are reported to have been involved in illegal activity? Have the people been left voiceless and hopeless or oblivious? What is it that needs to be changed? What checks and balances need to be put into place? Likewise, what checks and balances do we need to define and to put into place for the entire judicial system that has been letting us down all to frequently for all to many years? St. Helena Parish, according to the AP news report, has certainly been let down as a community. I wonder just how many individuals have taken the hardest hits and may never be able to recover from the wrongfulness done directly to them or caused to be done to them either directly or indirectly? Would be interesting to find out. It would also be interesting to find out how the self-proclaimed progressive state of Florida can allow a legally blind judge (without medical training) to make decisions (or assumptions) based upon videos of Terri Schiavo he couldn't have even seen well, if at all, yet call down a doctor (with medical training) for giving an opinion based upon the ones he could actually see? But then... Apparently former Sheriff Ficklin was using state prisoners as his race-car pit crew and that took how long for someone to notice... "see"... and define as not allowable? Our reasoning and deductive powers seem to have a short in the circuit board. Not sure when the parts are going to come in or if we will have a pit crew to snap them in just when they do -- but it has become obvious that we need to take note of the world around us and just how the system, including the judicial system, isn't firing on even all fours. It's merely there with the hope it will work and work right enough. Obviously, it doesn't always. Obviously, in some opinions, it often doesn't or ever. One point becomes... It's amazing how some people won't listen and become hard-headed, when others try to say things aren't right. What about when it is proven they were right after all? What about when the alleged good side does bad? Then what? "Sheriff Pleads Guilty in Chop Shop Case"?
Carrie Hutchens is a former law enforcement officer and a freelance writer who is active in fighting against the death culture movement and the injustices within the judicial and law enforcement systems.
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