Crime and Justice

19 posts

Make No Mistake Donald Trump Represents the Sustained Trauma of Sexual Assault

old_artSomewhere in the mess that became the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump went from scumbag, real estate mogul to a dinner table tall tale. He edged away from being held accountable for his bigoted, sexist, destructive talk in every way a presidential candidate should be. He managed to transcend the responsibility heaped onto every other candidate that ever ran for the office, and is, as he always has been, flying by the seat of his pants, uncontrollably, manically, and with complete abandon of social mores, God-given intellect, and human decency.

In effect, he is an abomination hurtling through space, knocking the tenets of Americanism asunder by plundering anything positive and laying waste to it with every decision he makes — and that was before the release of the infamous Access Hollywood tapes — or the accusations of sexual assault by several women from Trump’s past. Continue reading

The New World of Cop Blanche

Cop blanche
/käp blänSH/
noun
1. Complete freedom of police officers to do as they wish against the people, even committing crimes or violating their constitutional and legal rights, without repercussion.

The last two weeks have seen a pair of high profile grand juries fail to return indictments on police officers that utilized lethal force on unarmed suspects. In the 1987 novel Bonfire Of The Vanities, author Tom Wolfe quotes New York State chief judge Sol Wachtler, saying “a grand jury would indict a ham sandwich, if that’s what you wanted.” Continue reading

Please Know, World, Black Lives Do Matter

In the last week, this blogger has often been reduced to stunned silence and anguished utterances as she looked on with the entire world at the happenings in Ferguson, Missouri. To say that the images, information and lack thereof, coming out of this town have been enough to make one feel heartsick, rage-filled, and utterly helpless is an understatement. Continue reading

Crass Cold Case: The Missing Trio of Fort Worth

Missing Trio TexasOn December 23, 1974 three girls went to a Fort Worth, Texas mall to do some last minute Christmas shopping. Rachel Arnold Trlica, 17 and her friend Renee Wilson, 14 let their 9 year-old neighbor Julie Ann Moseley tag along as they ran holiday errands. The girls stopped at a local Army Navy store to retrieve some layaway items and then headed to a Sears store in the nearby Seminary South Shopping Center. 39 years later, they still have not returned and no trace of them has ever been found.  Continue reading

US Supreme Court Reasoning Slipping Away

scThe internets, how do they work?

The already ridiculously old and technologically impaired Supreme Court of the United States of America has come down with a bad case of link rot. The NY Times brings us news of a new study by the Harvard Law School that finds almost half of all hyperlinks referenced in Supreme Court decisions are now defunct. Now what the hell does that actually mean? Continue reading