The concept of boot camps as a substitute for long
prison stints for non-violent or pre-adult felonies is an early ‘90’s
phenomena. It came as a replacement for convicts who opted for
the military as opposed to doing their time in a federal penitentiary.
Some of these facilities have been started by either liberal
or conservative benefactors and initiatives but invariably wind
up being run by overzealous right-leaning grunts overdosing on too
much Rush Limbaugh/Michael Savage misinformation and emotionalism
and anxious to dish out their windy “Captain America” speeches
and fascist tactics.
On Friday
(10/12) 7 former prison guards; Henry Dickens, Patrick Garrett,
Raymond Hauck, Charles Efinger, Charles Helms Jr., Henry McFadden
Jr., Joseph Walsh, and nurse Kristin Schmidt all faced 30 years for Aggravated Manslaughter
relating to the death of a young African American; 14-year-old
Martin Lee Anderson at the Panama City Boot Camp in
Florida. All were declared not guilty by an all-white jury after
90 minutes of deliberation. Many in the black community feel
the jury had it easy, the incident was taped.
Then again, so was Rodney King.
That these jurors can make these rulings with
a straight face continues to amaze me, especially since this
particular boot camp had warning signs from its
beginning. It was started by Guy Tunnell, a former Bay County
Sheriff who became Commissioner of the Florida Dept. of Law Enforcement
(FDLE) and it immediately became its own self-fulfilling prophecy,
before the Anderson incident the Panama City Camp reportedly
received 180 complaints. Tunnell resigned from his FDLE post
under pressure on 4/06
due to comments he made comparing Jesse Jackson to Jesse James
and Barack Obama to Osama bin Laden. Talk about Tunnel Vision,
I love how quickly these red-necks give themselves away. Florida
has long considered itself a democratic constitutional republic,
but has proved it is nothing of the sort.
Anderson was attacked by the 7 guards on his first
day of camp (1/5/06)
during PT session in which he stopped exercising and stated “this
is b--l-s--t,” Not unusual behavior for a kid on his first day. There is a natural adjustment period
that I assume is usually recognized, but in his case he was
immediately pounced on.
As stated before, the guards (they call themselves drill instructors
or DIs) made it easy on the jurors, they actually taped it. Eight
minutes of footage is available on the
web, the final minutes show Anderson being taken to a large
fence surrounded by the DIs and instantly he is ganged up on with the nurse just standing there with her hands on her hips just looking on. No sign of alarm from her at all. You’ll have too watch the rest, you wouldn’t
believe me if I told you. Bullies cannot correct children.
This wasn’t a fair trial, it was a fixed trial.
Chris Stevenson is a columnist
for the Buffalo Criterion, Click
here to contact Mr. Stevenson.