At the edge of chaos

I spent a lovely time with my wife this past Memorial Day holiday weekend, despite with things around the world at the edge of chaos. There were garage sales, backyard gatherings, bbq’ing and wonderful weather. We laid idle for a spell under the sun, accomplished some “honey dos” and then laid out under the stars to watch a meteor shower. All of that seems idyllic and it was indeed.

But, there was always an air of somberness that permeated things.

Not only a week ago was, yet, another school shooting that the nation talked about. There were many more that went under the radar across the country. Until recently, motor vehicle accidents were the number one cause of accidental death in these age groups. But in recent years, gun-related injuries have surpassed motor vehicle accidents as the most common cause of death for American children. I find this statistic very concerning. Politicians are positing to task the teachers to be armed with a pistol so they can shoot a shooter. The national discussion is out there with this as details emerge of the lack of police action to the bloodshed.

In this most recent Texas massacre it seems that the police attempted to enter the building as the shooter was on his rampage and they were fired upon. They exited the building and waited over an hour for the Strike Team to arrive. During this time they were able to arrest a few parents who were wanting to go into the building in order to save their child allthewhile the police were waiting outside. In fact, the officer who did end up shooting the assailant was an off duty officer acting as a father going to protect his child that was in the school mayhem as well as a husband to a teacher that was also in the school.

I’ve heard one story where a mother was going to rush in to the school to save her child and the police stopped her, took her down, and handcuffed her. They sat her down and eventually she was able to get a Marshall to remove the cuffs. She jumped the fence, ran inside and grabbed her son and daughter. Then all three ran out of the school building to safety. This was while the police sat out and waited for the advance strike team to show.

I found so much of this story as odd when I hear more of the actions and inactions of the local police during this massacre timeline. It got me curious so I began to look a few things up.

I found that on June 25, 2005, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the police have no specific obligation to protect the lives of the citizens of their jurisdiction.

You heard this correctly. I was dumbfounded when I learned this. It makes everything much more clearer though knowing this fact and looking in retrospect of events over the past fifteen years and the escalation of assaults.

That search led me to a few other stories that took me down a few other rabbit holes, so to speak. I came across another most recent ruling of the Unite States Supreme Court decision on May, 23, 2022. On Monday morning’s 6-3 decision defendant Barry Jones’ innocence is not enough to keep him off of death row. Did you catch that? There is an actual preponderance of truth and evidence that exonerates Mr. Barry Jones from the murder he was convicted of, but had terrible counsel given to him by the state. So, it seems that the United States Supreme Court says that evidence no longer matters. The state of Arizona can still kill Jones, even if there exists a preponderance of evidence that he committed no crime.

The words written in the decision by Justice Clarence Thomas were that a federal court, “…may not conduct an evidentiary hearing or otherwise consider evidence beyond the state-court record based on the ineffective assistance of state post conviction counsel.” In short, a convicted defendant, like Jones, can be held responsible and kept in prison if his state-appointed lawyer provided ineffective counsel for his appeal.

I find this fact appalling. This is Hollywood dystopianism right in front of our eyes.

My wife and I binged watched “The Hunger Games” films this past week. It seemed quite apropos given the times were in. Another, given the times, might be “The Handmaiden’s Tale”. I’m sure there are others for you that might come to mind and I encourage you to write a comment and letting us know others to watch.

At any rate, the idea that any innocent person whom has DNA evidence to exonerate themselves is not allowed to present this evidence and the state will follow through with putting them to death means that there is absolutely no more justice. Anyone can be taken by the state. Anytime. The corrupt judicial system will do the rest. But, then, I guess this follows logically since we live in a system where the prison system is primarily conducted under a profit based system now. The main financial institution behind most of the funding for this industry in well known to be Wells Fargo Bank.

The African-American community knows full well of the idea that evidence is unnecessary in our judicial system. They have been dealing with that every day of their lives. In many cases their only court is a police officer at the scene making independent and immediate decisions of innonce or guilt and held to the immediate verdict of the death penalty while shot in the back for no cause.

It is easy to find the parallels to The Hunger Games and today. We are not that far off really. I am going to be taking the next few posts to delve deeper into this and shed light onto the realities that most people shrug off as if it would never pertain or happen to them so who cares. That is not how a society thrives. We are as strong only as our weakest links.

We have reached a point of which caring is a necessity. This cannot get kicked down the road for the next generation. We are at the tipping point for us to make some radical insights and decisions that will directly affect you, no matter who you are. If we don’t see this as a society it will become just like the playbook in the late 1930’s Germany.

It will be The Hunger Games.

It will be Star Wars.

It will be The Handmaid’s Tale.

It will be 1984.

Let’s remember that the movie Soylent Green was based in the year 2022.