Nice job by the Department of Justice in withholding evidence from the Bundy family defense and letting them get off scot-free.
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BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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So much for any resemblance of JUSTICE in America. RW terrorists allowed to run rampant.
I wonder when average citizens of nonRW persuasion decide that we are back to the old law of the gun and use such to defend their property, family or self if they will receive that same Trump DOJ form of justice?
I just shake my head at the utter incompetence that allowed this case to be lost.
This whole thing was a massive clusterfuck from the beginning. This was bungled on so many levels. I’m acquainted with a few people in the Patriot and Oathkeepers movement, and I can tell you they are ecstatic about this. Have had a number of conversations about this Federal effort, including the one at Malheur Wildlife Refuge, which was also a total bungle by the government in its prosecution of the occupiers. This has vindicated everything about their world view and in their minds has validated everything about their anti-government views. This is going to seriously encourage these people to press things to another level. They are on cloud nine.
That is what disturbs me most about the Bundy blundering. People are going to die because of it.
I followed the Mahleur occupation trail pretty closely and now this one.
In both cases, the government seemed to put the JV Team in charge with predictable results. But maybe there is no varsity team at DOJ. It was particularly grating given the Mahleur trail defense was such a mess though they did manage to get through to one juror who took it upon himself to turn the case in the defense’s favor.
Needless to say, it all just re-enforces the Bundy’s (and like minded people’s) belief in the righteousness of their actions.
The best part was while they celebrated the Not Guilty verdict in front of the federal courthouse in Portland, a Black Lives Matter Rally across town was getting met with tear gas and bean bags.
You rite:
Uhhhh…yup!!!
No “maybes” about it.
There is now no “varsity team” in the whole federal government.
AG
The Story of Bundy and his ilk is the great key to understanding just how long we’ve been totally screwed, and probably tells a good deal about how we got here. Someone should do a good in-depth piece on it…
Bungled on purpose?
Objectively, the feds didn’t want to go after them in the first place. They never have. It’s creation and existence was never intended to be used against right-wing malcontents.
I don’t think the people involved intentionally took a “dive.” But previous Republican administrations have taken a hatchet to parts of the DOJ budget that would investigate and prosecute things like white collar crime probably affect’s the long range talent pool.
Until the mid- to late 1970’s, federal agencies like the Bureau of Land Management worked in service to guys like Bundy by guys like Bundy.
The break between environmentalists and ranching that resulted in lawsuits forcing agencies like BLM do what the law said started the so called Sagebrush Rebellion, which only succeeded because most western Senators sided with the ranchers and Reagan’s DOI followed suit.
When it’s not (and never has been) part of the institutional, intention isn’t needed. The breaks from that, in the few instances where it happens, come long after what is supposed to be the original assignment.
Recy Taylor — This was in 1944:
Should have crushed them at the refuge.
I would love to know what actually happened here. I have not seen any decent analysis, so I don’t know whether the DOJ screwed this up, or if the judge was out of control.
So I ain’t sayin’ shit until I know more.
This doesn’t surprise me. When it comes to “justice” the government goes hard after the vulnerable to rack up wins and pad its “crime fighting” statistics.
For example:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/nov/16/fbi-entrapment-fake-terror-plots
There were several cases like this. The government would actually target people it knew would not have the resources to fight back, just so that it could show it was “fighting Islamic terror.” I can’t imagine this man, even being black, would have gotten 25 years had he had a more experienced legal team representing him. Go down to your local IRS office, and take a look at who’s sitting there waiting to be raked over the coals and frightened out of their wits be foaming at the mouth revenue agents. They go after the vulnerable hard for relative pittances, but then a win is a win.
The Bundys were able to afford fairly decent legal representation that was experienced enough to know how to exploit the flaws in the governments case and mishandling of evidence. But I believe if the government took these cases seriously, they would have made sure to put its best people on them. But the bottom line is a white anti-government terrorist is not (seen as) the threat that any black/brown just minding their own damned business is.
Uhhhhh…Booman.
Isn’t this the same “Depertment of Justice” that so many people…apparently including you..are counting upon to get rid of Trump?
Good luck with that idea as well.
The U.S. is now failed bureaucracy, up and down the line.
Ah cain’t hardly wait to see the President Oprah Show!!!
AG
Yep. The Beauregard effect.