Making America Great Again–Just Not Escambia County

The country has spoken. They are tired of the Clinton-Bush America and need something better. While I will readily admit Rand Paul would have been my choice, the fact of the matter was that was not an option. Albert Einstein said, ““Laws alone can not secure freedom of expression; in order that every man present his views without penalty there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population.”

The protests and demonstrations on the left seems nonsensical. A segment of society that wants to be heard as equal & be able to express their legitimacy as individuals and as segments within society, have the the inability or unwillingness to accept that some people might choose, for morally legitimate reasons, to have the freedom to do just that–choose–to opt out of that line of thought. That is not prejudice that is agreeing to disagree. I don’t have to share your political ideology or your religious dogma to appreciate you as a person. Please afford me that same respect. By trying to control the American voice, is like trying to herd cats.

America has many voices and yours is just one of many. These voices elected Carter. These voices elected Reagan. These voices elected Bush…Clinton….W. and Obama. America ebbs and flows. The one thing that should be said is that as Americans we are unique. The uniqueness is what keeps us exceptional. We are all Americans and the factions and groups we split ourselves into only weaken us as a whole. Friggin’ be American and that will make America great.

Now to address the elephant in the room: the election of David Morgan for a third term.

Mr. Morgan,

As hard as it is to say, I am glad you got re-elected. I know you must be as surprised as most people are by this statement. Please allow me to explain. For the last 4 years, I have learned so much about Escambia County. I have learned about your constiuents, your employees, your former friends, colleagues and more importantly the people you have immolated. Those are the people who will be the most influential in seeing you get your due.

By indiscriminantly marring so many people, you have made my allies diverse and their experiences form a distinctive pattern of how you “conduct” yourself and your self-interests. You are consistent and live up to even the worst of the statements about your character. You excel at hubris. In fact, you are literature worthy. Some of the best written novels could not develop antagonists as impetuous and so resolutely undisciplined. That is your legacy. Your continuing to be sheriff gives me an opportunity to be the end of your story in Escambia County.

Our destinies are inextricably intertwined. Your legacy will be part of my story. My story is bigger than yours in the long run. Trust me on this. As surely as the sun comes up, this is so. Your re-election was fortuituous for me as it gives me more time to show what is so evident to so many already. It also gives you time for the hubris you cultivated to expand exponentially. The voters did not vote you in as much as they voted for the Republican ticket or even the alliance you made with Chip Simmons, whose public persona is largely less tarnished than yours. Hold on to those coattails. We are going on a hell of a ride. Your legacy awaits. The ivory tower can get as tall as the heavens, making an enormous fall from that tower. That is the consolation that these next 4 years will provide for me, as with so many other people.

Defeated? No. Secondwind? Damn Straight!

Truly,

Why Not Having a Law Enforcement Officer as Sheriff Hurts Escambia County

Speaking to the skills Morgan brought to the ECSO, this is an example of a case from an actual court deposition of Chris Baggett. I have cut and pasted the relevant portions and as to not disclose any true case information:

The problems in this case are huge in terms of conviction. The fact that no one person was acting as a lead investigator by delegating exactly the job he is asking for help with and by FOLLOWING UP to make sure nothing but his directions are followed leaves room for the defendant’s counsel to attack the provenance and evidence, the accuracy of said evidence and even the intentions of the
investigators to try to circumvent the law.

Working for Judge Mapother a lifetime ago, there was one rule that anyone could get fired for and that was lack of documenting a case. If there is no documentation, it did not happen. Or at least, you cannot prove it happened. In criminal cases, if statements are not taken on the record or recorded in some form, they cannot be proven in court. That is what we have here.

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Why is any of this important? Well this is important because in looking at the statistics of cases of the Circuit Criminal Court in Escambia County, the number of cases that are sent to the State Attorney that end up being dismissed for one reason or another—like improper evidence or insufficiency,–both of these are typically problems that initiated prior to the State Attorney receiving the case–shows that the State Attorney is more likely to dismiss and plea bargain a case than to fully prosecute it. Here are the statistics:

Nearly 20% of defendants had their cases dismissed or acquitted. 72% took a plea. Both are results of the state being unwilling to take their evidence in front of a judge and jury. 92% of cases are not being fully prosecuted since 2009. One has to wonder how many of these cases were screwed up by either poor police work or malicious arrests that Sir David seems to love. Just a note for the people awaiting a trial in the deputy sexual assault case, there is historically slim to no chance of this ever getting before the jury…ie no real chance for justice to any responsible level.

Body Language Speaks Volumes

This post is merely to get you to see what is plainly in front of you. The science of body language has been researched and perfected to the degree that people get paid to give lawyers, criminologists and law enforcement a glimpse into the unspoken energy within a situation. By unspoken energy, I mean the things that are not seen but are more honest than words. Personal feelings can be censored but unconsciously, the body cannot hide all the “tells”.

For instance, I look at this picture of Sir David, Gov. Scott & Mayor Hayward. Right away, I notice that Scott is leaning toward Hayward and away for Morgan. Morgan’s biggest “tell” is his teeth clinching like we all saw in the town forum/debate where he lost his cool defending himself in the face of evidence of his incompetence. He is expressing it to some degree here, as he leans away from Scott. The other things is the hands in the pockets. You will notice the people on the right in the photo have their hands relaxed and in their pants’ pockets. Morgan has his hands in his jacket pocket, up and in front of him. This is equivalent to crossed arms. It is a posture of protection or defense.

In this picture, the same tilting of heads away from each other and the grimacing Morgan sourly watching Scott speak.

This meeting is clearly not going in Morgan’s favor. How do I know? The evidence is in Morgan leaning forward, attempting to engage with hands in full motion and Scott reclining back away from the conversation with a “Bless his heart” kind of look that says, “I don’t think so, Buckaroo”.

This last one is interesting because in trying to conform by wearing the ball cap, Morgan still fails because in a Navy town where he loves NAS programs enough to give them multiple double digit donations out of the LET Fund designated for law enforcement and crime prevention, he can’t seem to manage to take that into consideration, looking conspicuously out of step with the rest of the crowd. He is also leaning away from Scott with his sourpuss face.

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