U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)-– In early reporting about the tragic murders of school children in Michigan, all the advantages to create a media and anti-freedom narrative were on the side of the Prosecutor, Karen McDonald.
The parents of the accused murderer, James, and Jennifer Crumbley, were in shock, in fear, and restrained in what they could say with fear of legal consequences. Competent counsel in the case would tell them not to make any statements. Anything you say can be used against you in a court of law, as most of us have heard, from time to time.
This script has been played over and over as the Media and those who manipulate it have striven to create narratives to drive their political, cultural, and legislative agendas.
Consider the George Zimmerman/Trevon Martin case, the Ferguson Missouri “Hands up don’t shoot” myth, the Kyle Rittenhouse persecution.
Now, some of the other side of the story is being heard. The attorneys for the Crumbley’s have stated the prosecution would not answer any phone calls from them, thus making the ability to turn themselves in, difficult and problematic. Attorney Mariell Lehman is quoted from Foxnews.com:
“Unlike the prosecution, we weren’t attempting to make this a media … spectacle. This case is absolutely the saddest, most tragic, worst case imaginable,” Lehman said Saturday. “There is absolutely no doubt. But our clients were absolutely going to turn themselves in. It was just a matter of logistics, and all the prosecution had to do was communicate with me about it.”
This makes perfect sense. There was no place for the Crumbleys to run to. Enormous numbers of people, both on the left and on the right, were calling for their punishment without due process. They had received death threats.
Their attorneys say they were in near constant contact with them. There was no flight risk.
There is no advantage to the Crumbleys to create a media extravaganza. There is an enormous advantage for a politically ambitious prosecutor and no downside.
The prosecutor, in this case, Karen McDonald, appears to be an especially ambitious and dangerous politician. She is openly a far-left Progressive.
From wikipedia:
In April 2019, McDonald took the unusual step of stepping down from her judgeship,[8] announcing her intention to run for the Democratic nomination for Oakland County Prosecuting Attorney in the 2020 election, thus forcing the third-term incumbent prosecutor Jessica Cooper into a highly-contested primary election.[8] McDonald campaigned on a progressive, reformist platform focused on limiting incarceration for non-violent crimes, and ensuring prosecutorial decisions are informed by racial justice considerations.[9] McDonald’s campaign was endorsed by 87 individuals and organizations, including the Detroit Free Press, Detroit News, Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist, Attorney General Dana Nessel, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, and numerous local Democratic Party elected officials, party leaders, organizations and associations.[10] On August 4, 2020, McDonald defeated incumbent prosecutor Jessica Cooper with two-thirds of all ballots cast, claiming the Democratic nomination for Oakland County Prosecuting Attorney and advancing to the general election.[11] On November 3, 2020, McDonald was elected Oakland County Prosecutor, defeating her Republican opponent and ranking as the top vote-getter among all county-wide candidates.[12]
The defense counsel has said the pistol used was locked up before the crime took place. I have not seen any evidence to the contrary, except the pronouncement of the prosecution.
There are few locking mechanisms a determined 15-year-old, who lives in the same household, cannot defeat. Those who wish the population disarmed would love to follow the example of Australia, where guns and ammunition must be locked up in separate locations, severely limiting the possibility of self-defense.
In Australia, a separate license to handle a firearm must be issued by the state before a child can be taught firearms safety.
The entire spectacle reminds one of the Salem witch trials or the pronouncements from the red queen in Alice in Wonderland, where the sentence is pronounced first, with the verdict afterward.
The judicial system is under attack in the United States. Prosecutors are deliberately refusing to prosecute actual crimes on the basis of bizarre political theories. The concept of innocent until proven guilty is under assault as the media allies itself with the prosecution on a selective basis. The legitimacy of evidence and objective reasoning is questioned based on racial animus.
There is a desire on the part of political operatives the tear or burn down the entire system so as to “build back better”.
Once a critical point in the narrative building has been reached, where a majority of people have formed an opinion about a case, based on a one-sided media narrative, it becomes near impossible to reverse. Lies become facts. Scapegoats have been identified. The crowd demands blood.
We are in a very dangerous place when the crowd demands years in prison for bad parenting, for events which would have seemed commonplace before the fact.
Unlike the Rittenhouse case, we do not have gigabytes of video of the Crumbleys going about their daily lives.
It appears there are many perfect people on the Internet who are willing to cast the first stone, knowing they will never be identified. They believe they will never be held to account for their own transgression. They believe they never do wrong, or they are on the “correct” side of history. Perhaps they believe the system is perfect, and not run by imperfect men and women.
People are often caught in the traps they set for others. Many who created the reign of terror in the French Revolution lost their own heads to the crowd.
I would rather follow the example of founding father John Adams. Adams defended the British soldiers who shot colonists in what later became known as the Boston Massacre.
The rule of law and of due process is too precious to subvert for the passions of the moment.
We all may need those protections one day.
About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
