Ferguson, Missouri - Court System Seized and Judge Resigns

In the wake of a scathing report by the United States Justice Department, the State of Missouri has seized control of the Ferguson, Missouri, court system and a presiding municipal court judge targeted in the report has resigned.  As is often the case The Guardian, a British newspaper has coverage on events far superior to U.S. coverage.  Here are excerpts from The Guardian coverage which shows the corruption and wrongdoings which seemingly were the norm in Ferguson:

A judge in Ferguson, Missouri, who is accused of running a modern-day debtors’ prison while fixing traffic tickets for himself and owing $170,000 in unpaid taxes, resigned on Monday as state authorities seized control of the city’s court system.

Ronald J Brockmeyer stepped down as Ferguson’s municipal court judge after Missouri’s supreme court ordered that all the court’s cases be transferred to the St Louis County circuit court, according to a source who was not authorized to speak publicly about the decision.

Under the same ruling, Judge Roy L Richter of the Missouri court of appeals will be assigned to the county’s circuit court, where he will hear all of Ferguson’s municipal court cases “to help restore public trust and confidence” in the system.

A scathing report by the Department of Justice last week concluded that Ferguson’s police and court system was blighted by racial bias. Investigators accused Brockmeyer and his court officials of aggressively using the municipal court to raise revenue for the city. The policy is blamed by many for damaging relations between the city’s overwhelmingly white authorities and residents, two-thirds of whom are African American.

Brockmeyer, 70, was singled out by investigators as a driving force behind Ferguson’s strategy of using its municipal court to generate revenues aggressively. Investigators found that Brockmeyer had boasted of creating a range of new court fines, “many of which are widely considered abusive and may be unlawful”.

A press release accompanying Russell’s order said that all pending and future cases that were to be heard by Ferguson’s municipal court would instead be heard by Richter at the circuit court from 16 March until further notice. A court spokeswoman could not confirm how cases would proceed this week.

The decision was welcomed cautiously by Alec Karakatsanis, the co-founder of Equal Justice Under Law, one of the legal non-profits that is suing the city. “The problems we are dealing with are endemic to our legal system and not isolated to the small municipality of Ferguson,” said Karakatsanis. “I hope this serves as a first small step toward confronting the horrors that we visit everyday on poor people of color in the legal system and not as any kind of attempted solution.

The state’s chief justice signaled in her statement on Monday that regional or even statewide reform may be necessary for a municipal court system that has been sharply criticized as a failed system that has lost the trust of many residents.  

The sad reality is that Ferguson is not the exception to the rule in many states and localities.  These developments are a start, but reform is needed on wholesale basis, especially across the Deep South and other red states.

Don’t Trust the Pentagon to End Rape

Living in an area with a huge military population one gets to see the failings of the military and the arrogance of senior military personnel with some frequency.   Given the deference given to senior officers - and the fear they can instill in low ranking service members - it's actually little surprise that the U.S. military has a huge sexual abuse problem.  The Christofascists, of course, would much prefer to blame the situation on gays in the military even though the data shows that women are disproportionately the victims of assault.  And their lame excuse to blame the gays ignores the very sick macho culture that can be found in too many members of the military who seem to get their kicks out of sexually debasing guys they deem insufficiently "manly."  A column in the Washington Post looks at the systemic problem which will not be cured if left to the Pentagon and senior military brass.  Here are column highlights:

[T]he chiefs of staff of the military branches will likely admit that there is a serious problem and insist that the solution involves changing military culture. But the challenge goes far deeper. 

The military has a problem with embedded, serial sexual predators. According to a 2011 report from the Pentagon’s Sexual Assault and Prevention Office, 90 percent of military rapes are committed by men with previous histories of assault. These predators select and befriend lower-ranking victims; often they ply their victims with alcohol or drugs and assault them when they are unconscious. 

In my film “The Invisible War,” a retired brigadier general, Loree K. Sutton, describes the military as a “target-rich environment” for serial predators. The training and leadership efforts the Pentagon proposes won’t change this environment. It simply isn’t possible to “train” or “lead” serial predators not to rape. 

There is a way to stop these predators: we should prosecute and incarcerate them. But here the military fails entirely. 

Why? There is a deep institutional bias in the military’s justice system; senior officers can — and often do — intervene to prevent cases from being investigated and prosecuted. 

Victims of sexual assault know this well, which is why fewer than 15 percent of sexual assaults in the military are ever reported. I spoke with hundreds of men and women who were sexually assaulted in the military while I was making “The Invisible War”; every one of them was advised by their peers not to report. Gen. James F. Amos, the commandant of the Marine Corps, acknowledged that victims didn’t come forward because “they don’t trust the command.”

Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, and colleagues have recently introduced legislation that would empower military prosecutors and judges to decide whether to investigate and prosecute felony crimes. This would remove the decision-making process from the military chain of command and remove the disincentive to report crimes. The Pentagon is resisting this reform, just as it resisted reforms after the Tailhook episode in 1991, over sexual assaults at a gathering in Las Vegas; sexual assaults on female Army recruits at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland in 1996; and a 2003 investigation of rapes and attempted rapes at the Air Force Academy, near Colorado Springs. 

Now the generals are circling the wagons again, insisting that the legislation’s reasonable reforms would affect commanders’ ability to maintain “good order and discipline.” But, as Ms. Gillibrand noted, a military that suffered 26,000 sexual assaults within its ranks in the last year is already failing to maintain “good order and discipline.” 

This dysfunctional system of military prosecutions affects all of us. With so few predators being convicted, a vast majority are discharged honorably, into an unsuspecting civilian population that unknowingly affords them the opportunity to continue their predation in a new “target-rich environment.” 

The military cannot — and will not — fix this problem on its own. Despite the military’s repeated assurances over several decades that it has “zero tolerance” for sexual assault and will hold commanders accountable, more than 500,000 uniformed men and women have been assaulted since 1991.

I agree 100% with the column's author.

Coming Out in Mid-Life: More Painful Than Many Know

For long time readers you will know that I began this blog at the suggestion of my therapist at the time for two reasons: to gather thoughts and materials or a book and also as a way to vent and as a therapeutic outlet. After a while, it sort of took on a life of its own and I progressed from having cyberspace friends to becoming involved with other LGBT activist bloggers. Along the way I have heard many stories both from older gays still in the closet to others who have undergone a nightmare experience coming out later in life. Coming out is likely never an easy process regardless of one's age. Nonetheless, coming out in mid-life has a whole additional realm of difficulties, especially when one "did what was expected" and married, had children, etc.

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Compounding the problem - as I have talked about at length - is a homophobic judicial system that seems to 9 times out of 10 severely punish the gay spouse for being gay - regardless of the failings of the straight spouse - as if being gay is an elective choice made lightly. The legal system truely needs to change as do attorneys who wll viciously gay bash to gain advantage for their straight spouse client, acting at times as if the gay spouse is not even human. In the meanwhile, I continue to hope that this blog will be of help to others going through the coming out process or contemplating doing so. It is not/will not be an easy process, but the alternative is to live your entire life partly as a lie. That's not an easy process either. I have tried to recount my coming out, divorce and relationship experiences accurately - the good, the bad and the ugly rather than sugar coat what one may well experience. I hope this will help others if only in order that they know that they are not alone in their travails. One reader recently sent me an e-mail that I found noteworthy and made me feel that I was doing something right:

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I have followed you blog for at least two years now and I really do think it's pertinent. Of my other blogger friends (3 maybe) they are not in the same position that we are in and they honestly don't quite "get" the horrible pain that we've been through. They don't have a clue about, at least to my mind, how emotionally and psychologically wrenching coming out at our age really is. That's why when you post something on your blog that is from your anger, your frustration, your despair - your heart -- I really do identify with what your are saying. I've been there and I know from where you speak.

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It's possible that my recounted experiences may scare some to remain in the closet. But anyone about to begin this journey needs to know that it is not for the faint of heart. Would I do it again? Most certainly - despite the days of despair and darkness at times - because just being able to be who you are is so empowering. No more pretense and no more play acting. It may be ugly at times, but at least life is finally authentic and genuine. Better yet, once you find that special someone, your life will be lived on an emotional level that's beyond compare.

End of the Line?

If this post is published, it will mean that I have either checked myself into a mental institution or had a fortuitous "accident." The last three and one half years have been a nightmare financial not to mention the divorce disaster. I have pretty much reached the point where I am to emotionally and mentally exhausted to keep swimming against the current and want to just stop struggling and let it carry me over the falls. In the event I resort to the latter course of action, I know that I will be failing my family, my children, the boyfriend and my readers - and for that, I am very sorry to let people down. I can only hope that someday they will understand what drove me to this point - and it is NOT being gay that was the cause - and hopefully the day will come when all citizens are treated equally and religious based bigotry doesn't cause some lives to be damaged and destroyed. As for the ex-wife, she will receive what she deserves - no money whatsoever.
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I cannot say how much blogging has meant to me since I seriously started this blog in April, 2007, and how much I have valued the friendships I have developed around the world. As for the boyfriend, my children and my family, I have left them all letters expressing my love and regret for things I might have done differently. If I cause them pain, I apologize and hope that one day they will understand. I especially apologize to my daughter Victoria, who has been so loyal and supportive of me, and the boyfriend without whom I would likely taken my life long before now.
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I hope that LGBT activist will keep up the good fight and that future generations will not be burdened with the hate, discrimination and abuse that some of us have known. I will leave the boyfriend the log-in information for this blog if I decide on the "permanent solution" so that he can continue the blog if he is so inclined. He is a sweetheart and I love him so much.