Editorial:
I said there was going to be a followup blog on Jon Beard and his excessive force hi jinks, however, Beard’s personnel records have been delayed and then, well, the nation went into mass chaos with calls for “defunding the police”. I didn’t want to add any fuel to that fire. So I apologize for not posting on this issue, which is a HUGE PROBLEM, for the ECSO, but I wanted no hand in encouraging behavior that compromises the community safety because of improper timing. The harm vs the truth ratio was out of balance for me. Beard’s story will be told, but the timing, to tell it, is not now.
I did want to speak from the heart on the world events. I do this blog because of my personal sense of duty to do the right thing, not for personal gain, but because it is right. I think I have inspired others to step up, even though there is fear and uncertainty. Some cannot due to circumstances and that I understand. That is why I choose to be the voice for those who cannot speak for themselves. There is no personal gain for me, other than peace of being able to live with my own choices.
I have been labeled as “crazy”, “lone nut”. I have been said to misunderstand events and the law. I have been told my efforts are for naught. None of these things prevented me from continuing on a path I consider my own. Some people I haven’t been able to help as much as I wish. While others, I feel, I aided their cause and progressed their fight for some amount of justice. I listen to everyone who comes to me and do the best I can to make sure everyone feels heard. That is what is missing in society today. We let people talk, only to form a rebuttal. We try to discredit people whose stories initially seem implausible because of our own experiences. That is probably the most infuriating feeling in the world. I take great pains in trying to understand the issues. Yes, I know I’m an anomaly. I’m okay with that. Recently, I have lost a colleague I genuinely love because of petty bullshit. We are all batshit crazy in our own way and it’s okay to be passionate to fault in causes that are important to us. However, it cannot be okay to be so passionate that we do not have compassion or that we get tunnel vision. I have spent a great deal of time contemplating my own zealousness. Because of this situation, I took a break to gather my thoughts and analyze my focus.
In doing “The Devil Got Appointed in Georgia”, I wanted to show that the same corruption exists in so many places and it is what is undermining our country now. The problem of sidestepping laws to aid friends, bending the law, for whatever reason, makes the scales unbalanced. Holding people to differing levels of lawfulness erodes public trust and confidence in the law and legal system. Corruption is the unseen theme in EVERY case I have discussed. It is my priority to expose it. Wrongful convictions are an epidemic in Florida, as one of the top states in wrongful conviction exonerations. The system is meant to push people, innocent or not, into a system from which their lives are inextricably linked. My agenda is simple: Fix the underlying corruption that destroys lives. Now on to the next case.
An Introduction
This is the beginning of a new series. I wanted to briefly explain the importance of these stories.
Everything that has hurt the people of Pensacola, Escambia County, can be reduced to corruption. Yet no one calls a spade a spade. The “c” word is played down and rarely spoken there. Everyone seems to think it doesn’t really exist, but it does. Any shortcut, work around, favor done that bypasses the law–no matter how insignificant it may seem—is corruption. These practices are so ingrained in the culture, most do not even recognize exactly what is going on. But each of these shortcuts, work arounds, favors means someone else gets hurt in some way. It may not be immediate, or even something the grantor of such things knows happens, but it is a ripple in the water.
Public trust disintegrates; the law is undermined; an example is set; another line in the sand is crossed; the silent echo magnifies into the universe….By the time the harm is felt it is exponentially worse than the little transgressions that created them. People cannot protect themselves from the silent danger they don’t know exists.
Part 1 of this series will be within the next day or so. It begins with a new case. Stand by.
Conjuring Justice 