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Post by dgriffin on Jan 12, 2009 18:11:30 GMT -5
The job of D.A. has gotten too political, methinks. It must have always been somewhat, but the divide between the crooks and businessmen, between the crooks and politicians, between the crooks and your neighbors has in recent years become narrow enough for some to jump over. This results in more political influence in some cases.
We have a new DA here in my county. I voted for him. He's a good guy. But right after taking office, he announced a new "streamlining" of the prosecution process in order to save money.
That sounds good on the surface, but what he actually did was to drop the "no plea bargain" policy of the two previous administrations in order save work and personnel. When you screwed up in this county, you paid. I guess now you'll get "a deal," the details of which could depend upon how full the D.A.'s plate is this month. And I suppose it might be pretty full around the time some worthy's son or daughter gets hauled before the court for a misdemeanor. The savings will consist of not hiring another ADA, by the way, needed because of the tremendous increase in DWI second offense felonies. Evidently, something is not working.
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Post by corner on Jan 12, 2009 18:50:15 GMT -5
How old is this MacNamarra dude, by the way? Did I go to school with him or a brother? Probably his grandfather.  He's quite young -- and he continues to make what I think are serious blunders. he does what his handlers tell him to do. |
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Post by frankcor on Jan 13, 2009 1:02:26 GMT -5
We had two cases in 2008:
o Chief of NY Mills Police pointed his taser at a female town employee
o Utica patrol officer followed and pulled over young women and harassed them
In both cases, the perp resigned his job and the DA ceased investigating the crimes, satisfied with the resignation.
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Post by Clipper on Jan 13, 2009 13:40:04 GMT -5
Interesting Frank! I never figured out exactly what the NYM chief was alleged to have done. I kinda figured he had pointed SOMETHING at a female employee, but I figured it was below his belt, not on it, and that it was probably "a concealed dead weapon", LOL.
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Post by frankcor on Jan 13, 2009 14:16:00 GMT -5
LOL, Clipper.
Yeah, he pointed his taser at her while they were both standing at the copy machine. He defended himself by saying it wasn't armed at the time.
What a lame excuse. I know precisely how he would have reacted if I ever pointed a handgun or taser at him, regardless of its load or armed status.
Regardless, when he resigned his position, MacNamarra ended his investigation.
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Post by Clipper on Jan 13, 2009 15:37:45 GMT -5
Just another disadvantage of being out of the area and having to depend on the OD homepage and the forum for my news, haha. If it isn't posted on here or on the OD homepage, I often miss it, LOL. Thank God THIS forum is normally better informed than the OD,  |
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Post by frankcor on Jan 13, 2009 21:10:08 GMT -5
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Post by Swimmy on Jan 14, 2009 6:34:53 GMT -5
Over the past few years, my faith in the system has dwindled. I no longer believe that many of our politicians and law enforcement officials care about the people they swore to look after. I used to believe that government existed to help its people, not the other way around. I used to think that people were inherently good and just made poor decisions, not anymore. I used to think people were honest more oft than not, I was wrong.
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Post by dgriffin on Jan 14, 2009 8:54:00 GMT -5
I'm in love with an ideal. The people executing it will always fail us. My heros are the founding fathers, and I realize I view them in an idealized way. But that's ok. They did an excellent job of saving us from tyranny, even if they often had their own selfish reasons. And if I hold public officials' feet to the fire, they might do a good job of protecting the people. It's our responsibility to force our officials to behave.
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Post by dgriffin on Jan 18, 2009 8:32:01 GMT -5
How old is this MacNamarra dude, by the way? Did I go to school with him or a brother? Probably his grandfather. He's quite young -- and he continues to make what I think are serious blunders. That's true, Frank. I keep forgetting I'm an old fart.  |
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Post by Swimmy on Jan 22, 2009 20:48:15 GMT -5
One of those serious blunders wouldn't happen to be his refusal to indict the New York Mills Police Officer who retired, or failure to prosecute Risucci with ODDS, or failure to investigate the crap going on in Butler Hall, would they?
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Post by frankcor on Jan 24, 2009 22:54:34 GMT -5
You're right on the first one Swimmy! Another was failure to prosecute the Utica cop who was following and harassing young ladies. In both, the LEO resigned and the DA stopped his investigations.
Perhaps the blunder that bothers me the most was letting a manslaughter charge in a beating death in Westmoreland go to the jury and then, when the jury came back with an innocent verdict, the DA said he didn't think the kid was guilty of manslaughter anyways.
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