THINKING HAS BECOME EXTINCT

Dennis comments ♦ March 1, 2016 ♦ Leave a comment

HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN?

WHEN OFFICIALS ARE APPOINTED-NOT ELECTED

Dennis L. Blewitt, Esq, J. D.  ,March, 2017

We left our addict on probation after being held in jail for one month in lieu of hundred-dollar bond.  She had been kidnapped by sex traffickers and rescued by the FBI, who turned her over to Larimer County because of a probation violation of failing to report for probation.  She was sober and wanted to go into treatment, but our profit based system demanded money for treatment which, in her case didn’t exist.  She existed, not lived 60 miles away and was homeless.  She didn’t want to be an addict, but her disease needed treating and treatment is not for the likes of her.  So, after being traumatized by kidnappers, assaulted, gang raped and other indignities, the Judge in Larimer County finally placed her back on probation, leaving a municipal violation to be dealt with.

In light of her circumstances, the judge only levied one thousand dollars in fines and costs, and ordered her to enroll in a methadone program, without giving it a second thought, not thinking about how this may be done by a homeless female.  That was her problem.  And, if she didn’t obey, she could go back to jail.  The judged administered, not judges or dispensed justice.  If I treated clients like that when I practiced law, I would be sued for malpractice for not fact checking and exercising due diligence and a modicum of intellect.  Not so the appointed judge.  The judge’s job was to administer justice, not dispense it.  And because of the assembly line nature of the Courts, the bureaucratic equivalent of built in obsolescence, the woman is destined to return to be subjected to more incarceration for her disease and more court costs to add to her situation.

A simple check would have revealed homelessness, various mental and medical conditions including Hepatitis, delayed stress syndrome and grand mal seizures in addition to her addiction, none of which were addressed by Larimer County.  Additionally, a person has to have ID with a picture on it to enroll in the methadone program.  Like most homeless persons, hers was lost after one of the several robberies that she suffered in the last few years.  To obtain a photo ID or driver’s license, she must produce a birth certificate, which costs.  And, because of the anti-terrorist legislation, she must show identification to obtain a birth certificate or social security card.  This is impossible because of parental and foster care in her lifetime left gaping holes in her history.  So, like poor Charley on the MTA, made famous by the Kingston Trio, she may never return.  She is doomed to perpetual cycle of being punished for having no assets, being poor, and being homeless.  So, why am I writing about this? I write because I am angry, frustrated, powerless to do anything about the situation. And, I’m old enough to remember a time and that the case and that the judicial system and probation officers actually tried to help people rather than look for an excuse to violate them in charge and more money.  Decades ago, several universities offered a master’s degree in “corrections.”   This course of study was dropped in favor of a new area of crime called criminal justice. Criminal justice is to Justice the same way in which Marshall music is to music. Additionally, they both have the same amount of dissonance.  I think it is cruel and sadistic to set any human up for this kind of failure, particularly one who is sick and needs treatment.

I am tired of the dumb asses who pass judgment and enter orders without taking any responsibility for the consequences of their actions.  These are the same supercilious and arrogant intellectual midgets inflated by power who told me to take up matters with the legislature, knowing that doing that would be almost as stupid as their judgments.  As far as criminal legislation is concerned, it is all directed by the police state.  The DA’s associations, AG’s associations, Police Unions, and other right wing lobby groups.  The whole system is set up for efficiency, Efficiency and Justice are mutually exclusive terms.  In the case of the addict, she will be processed several times with the same result.  Prosecutors will see a crime committed.  Police will see a criminal.  Public defenders will see that rights are protected, and some sort of probation official will set up conditions which can’t cause anything but failure.  And, nobody is accountable for the loss of this life.  No one is accountable for the systematic destruction of this individual.

A kidnap victim, is forced into sex slavery by foreign kidnappers.  The FBI rescues the victim and persuades her, at great risk to her life, to testify against the ring of kidnappers.  The case even made the front page of a Denver newspaper.  Upon rescue, she is jailed in Fort Collins for four weeks while the case is processed.  Apparently, the sentencing judge doesn’t read the newspaper.  Of course, I can’t blame them after the criticism they received in Larimer County after the McMasters, a poor schmuck who was framed by the Ft Collins police in collusion with two District Attorneys, who were rewarded with judgeships, at the modest cost of four-million-dollar judgement entered against Ft. Collins and Larimer County.  Like good puppets, the officials paid the money and made no changes in the system, except to start sending more victims to privatized parasites who lobby against change or Justice because it interferes with profit.  The public defender visits the party right before a hearing on her probation violation to see that her rights are protected.  So the illiterate public demands vengeance, politicians whore to the public for votes, Judges ignore reality to move cases through the system.  Lawyers now worry about billable hours instead of Justice since the Courts and legislatures tell us that is how we have to bill, whether or not any value is received.  And, the poor people struggling to survive get screwed.

What about the public defender?  He was young, able and followed instructions.  The office is charged with “protecting the rights” of a defendant.  People don’t know the difference between protecting the rights of a person and representing them.  It is like the difference between case processing and justice.  The addict’s rights were protected.  However, she needed representation.  She wanted to be placed in an addiction program.  Programs won’t accept collect calls from jails.  (a product of privatization.)  Lawyers generally make calls for clients, rights protectors don’t.  She could get no job from the jail.  Medical treatment for her stress was non-existent.  After finally appearing in front of a judge and admitting the probation violation, she was placed back on probation and told to enter a methadone program.  No effort was made to address the problem of funding a program, obtaining transportation to Ft. Collins probation office, payment of $1000 in fines levied on drug cases by the idiot legislators, shelter, safety or food.  The judge did her job, the public defender did his job, the FBI did their job, and the defendant was doomed for failure.  When released, she had to find a way back to the city.  She had to obtain housing.  Any idiot could generally figure out how this would be accomplished.  She would have to break a law.  Then she had to get food.  Each of the parties involved in this mass negligence makes a really good salary.  Ironically, the governmental parties preach to the peasantry in front of them that they have to take responsibility for things, when the state does just the opposite.  A conscientious party would have made inquiry and attempted to effectuate some remedy like calling a clinic and suggestion that they might receive a court order to treat the defendant if they continued to be so chicken-shit.

Things evolved into this mess because the officials don’t trust the people or their judgement.  They don’t want people questioning their judgments or decrees like bombing the shit out of foreigners whom are named “terrorists,” or torturing prisoners illegally confined as prisoners of war when congress has declared no war, killing civilian populations for being black, brown, or red.  (Occasionally a white person if he is poor), and allow the police state to circumvent the will of the people by taking property without due process using forfeiture and seizure laws used in the 16^th century by privateers.  They aren’t reliant on legislatures or town councils for funding.  They can set up a racketeering enterprise and become absolute dictators, engaging in symbolic anal sex with the citizenry.  We have got to the point that we, the citizens and taxpayers are treated with utter contempt and viewed as the enemy the same as terrorists.  Later, I will give an example of idiotic bureaucracy and lazy idiots in their employ.  Even computers have a feedback loop.  Courts don’t.  Do they even care, or is it someone else’s problem?

Our rulers make rules.  They implement zero tolerance so that they don’t have to address differences of opinion or dissent.  They limit the functions of the officials.  They set priorities that favor them and ignore the people.  Their priorities are to subjugate the people and make them compliant.  They are cowards.  They are afraid of us.  They fear we will learn how we are being exploited and robbed.  They are afraid for their lifestyles and maybe even their lives.