The Justice Community Wonders Why It's Not Getting Justice

In light of the recent shooting of a district attorney and spouse in Texas, this article was published on ABC News concerning the recent expressions of disrespect and violence toward law enforcement and prosecutors in the last year or so. Before I say any more, let me state that I do not condone violence, murder, or threats, and that I do not think that violence is an appropriate answer to the misunderstandings that have been mounting, for awhile, between the judicial community and the people they should serve. I think awareness and information are much better tools. That said, I also hope that the families of Mike and Cynthia McClelland will find peace.

Since the Declaration of Independance was drafted, the judicial process has been used, not only for seeking actual justice, but for more subtle means of "sending messages" to certain segments of the American population. The American public has seen, tolerated, and wholeheartedly accepted racist laws and policies, laws that have targeted the poor, sexist practices within the justice system, selective uses of prohibition laws to hound otherwise innocent people, and many, many more abuses of authority and justice. The reluctance of many courts to set aside or throw out guilty verdicts that are contradicted by forensic evidence that becomes available after trial dates is also disturbing. When the population at large begins to take note of criminals with more money and better lawyers experiencing favor in the courtroom, while poorer criminals, and sometimes innocent people, do not get proper legal counsel and are often found guilty of felonies, what do judges and cops expect everyone to think? Not that we haven't always had a certain amount of corruption within government agencies, we have; but since the dubious "election" of Bush Jr. in 2000, the judicial "war on the poor" seems to have become more fervent. Along with that, the economy has gotton less stable, and the number of citizens who have found themselves targeted by law enforcement for no reason and shafted by the courts with no recourse to competent legal counsel has increased. Also, has anyone noticed the number of misdemeanors that have turned into felony crimes lately? Not only does this put certain minorities in prison to serve longer sentences, it strips the targeted minorities of voting rights. Hence, the Fair Sentencing Act. When an entire population becomes legally disenfranchised, and everyday exchanges become criminal acts, the judicial and law enforcement communties should not be surprised at a certain amount of hostility.

Recently, I witnessed an exchange between two people, which; unfortunately, resulted in an arrest. While I witnessed most of the incident, I did not see a crime committed by either party. One of the "officers" involved insisted that I had seen a criminal act, and when I continued to tell him what actually happened, he became agitated and told me what my statement should be, informing me that I was about to "find out how powerful police in Marshall County, Kansas are" if I did not "cooperate". Verbatim quote, folks. He also threatened to go inside my house, wake up all my children, and take them away from me if I did not begin to make statements that coincided with the report he so much desired to write. Because I am stubborn and truthful, I stuck to my guns (no pun intended) and stuck to the truth. He got off his high horse when he ran out of threats, went back to the police station in his shiny police car, and wrote a statement that basically and unbasically isn't true. He even referred to yours truly as a "liar' several times. Lots of impartiality he expects from the court, I guess.

Later on, the district attorney, still lacking a written statement of events from yours truly, contacted me to tell me what I needed to say. I interrupted to her to remind her that the truth is more meaningful than her expectations of a guilty plea and the fines she was hoping to collect from the defendant. She became quite disturbed, and told me that she would contact social services and have them remove my children from my home if I did not "cooperate" with her..........! So; not only would I discover how "powerful" the police are when someone confuses them with the facts, I might also discover the consequences of refusing to read a "script" written by a crooked district attorney, rather than offering true testimony!

As it happens, I have been threatened by smarter, more powerful, and sexier individuals than this district attorney, so I promised her that I would be honest and never back away from what I know to be moral and honest. And social services has apparently been too busy with things that are real to come and visit me. But suppose I had taken the bait and drunk the koolaide? "We're gonna have your children taken away from you if you do not testify according to our script that we write for you in advance." "We're gonna take your children away if you don't say the right things to get your neighbor/friend/family members put in jail." That's a loaded threat. If this kind of crooked game is becoming commonplace across the country, it's no big surprise that prosecutors and law enforcement are having problems maintaining their own safety in their communities. Here's another example of the Marshall County Kansas district attorney's tactics, this time with a defendant. The woman was coerced into a guilty plea via threats to her children by the district attorney. According to the Marysville Advocate: "During court proceedings, Baynton’s motion claims, Kraushaar assured her she could file for a departure from the prescribed sentence for the crime she was pleading to, but after she entered her plea she said the attorney told her no departure would be allowed and that she must agree to consecutive maximum sentences. She also states that the state "repeatedly used the issue of the custody of the defendant's children to coerce her plea of guilty." The motion says her attorney "should have blocked this coercion and did not."


The defendant in the above case has already been granted a new public defender. If the court grants her motion to change her plea, that will indicate a lot of judicial and personal waste and aggravation just because the prosecuter is ungifted enough in courtroom strategy to threaten the children of witnesses and defendants whenever possible so as to avoid any real show of litigation skills, or as in this prosecutor's case, lack thereof. If law enforcement and prosecuting attorneys have actually turned a corner in legal strategies and decided that using the children of defendants, witnesses, and others involved in cases is the new forte in courtroom finesse, we can probably expect more anger turned toward the judicial and law enforcement communities.

Chance Hartner

May 28, 2010

"hey adkins how about i kill you if you get on my computer again"

......Excerpt from Facebook page of the youthful police officer who enjoys telling older women that they are going to "find out how powerful" he and police force are. In a lot of places, law enforcement is expected to be more mature and set a better example than this. It's also the kind of response law enforcement wants the rest of us to believe they don't want in their everyday lives. Why, then, do they exhibit it and force everyone else to live with it?