GOOD OLD BOYS ON THE BAYOU

From CounterPunch, New Orleans based left-wing journalist Jordan Flaherty on some jaw-dropping redneck bullshit:

The charges and counter charges are difficult to untangle. At the center of the case is a state audit of Waterproof that found irregularities in the town's record keeping. The Parish District Attorney says the audit shows mayoral corruption. The mayor says the problems pre-date his term, and he had taken steps to correct the issues. The mayor's opponents claim he stole from the town by illegally increasing his salary. His supporters say he received a raise that was voted on by the town aldermen. The mayor initially faced 44 charges; all but two were dropped before the trial began. Those charges - malfeasance in office and felony theft – were related to the disputed raise and use of the town's credit card. Miles Jenkins, the police chief, faced charges related to his enforcement of traffic tickets.

The mayor was quickly convicted of both charges but lawyers have raised challenges to the convictions, bringing a number of legal complaints. For example: in a town that is 60% African-American, Mayor Higginbotham had only one Black juror. Higginbotham's counsel was disqualified by the DA, and the public defender had a conflict of interest, leaving the mayor with no lawyer. Two days before trial began, the DA gave Higginbotham 10 boxes of files related to his case. Higginbotham's request for an extension to get an attorney and to examine the files was denied.

There's more: during jury selection, when Higginbotham - forced to act as his own lawyer - tried to strike one juror who had relationships with several of the witnesses, he was told he could not, even though he had challenges remaining. There was also a problem with a sound recorder that the court reporter was using, and as a result there is no transcript at all for at least two witness' testimony. Finally, during deliberation, the judge gave the jury polling slips that had "guilty" pre-selected, and then later hid the slips.

And

While both Jenkins and Higginbotham are from Waterproof, both had also spent much of their adult lives working in other places, and brought a professional background to their new positions. Allies of Higginbotham and Jenkins say this threatened Parish Sheriff Ricky Jones and DA James Paxton. Annie Watson, a school board member and former volunteer for the mayor, says officers working for Jones told her, "As soon as you people learn that the sheriff controls Tensas Parish, the better off you'll be."

More here.

It is very important to note that Waterproof's mayor and police chief are black, but the sheriff and DA are white. If Flaherty's account of the events is correct, and I have no reason to think otherwise, what we have here is something that could have been taken right out of a movie about the civil rights era. Bogus trumped up charges, flagrant violations of sacred Constitutional rights, Boss Hogg type characters, crooked judges, stupid evil rednecks, and on and on and on. Except that this isn't a movie. This isn't an obligatory Black History Month lesson. This isn't from the past. This is happening right now, in 2011, in the "post-racial" era presided over by an African-American President.

No, racism isn't over. No, we're not beyond all that. I mean, things are bad enough in more sophisticated urban areas around the country, but, make no mistake, this kind of down-home rural bullshit, the kind of injustice that Jim Crow was all about, continues to exist here and there in pockets throughout the South. And it seems to be getting worse, not better.

I hope that when all is said and done, this crooked sheriff and his corrupt DA pal end up behind bars themselves. I mean, this will all be reversed on appeal, right? In this day and age, it's impossible to know.


Tensas Parish Sheriff Ricky Jones.

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