Something’s wrong in America. I hate to say that the day after our nation’s 234th birthday, but there are many things that have gone bad and I’m not seeing much on the horizon to fix it.
All my life I’ve had a great love for our nation. My father was an Air Force B-52 pilot. Red, white and blue is sewn into my mental, emotional and life fabric. In my younger days, all I wanted to be was an Air Force pilot like my dad, to help protect and serve our nation. In 1984, the Air Force wasn’t granting waivers for asthma, and those dreams of military service ended. But my patriotism didn’t.
In front of the house I fled at the end of March, we kept an American flag flying almost 365 days a year. Well, we changed out for a Santa flag in December–334 days…
But I have to say that after enduring in the injustice I suffered in our legal system from June 2009 to June 2010, having been exposed to Veronica Galaviz’s near death in Rowlett on April 21, 2010 because Rowlett Police failed to act when she needed them most, and after being exposed to my friend Marshall Harris’ ordeal over his missing daughter and after repeated requests of the Dallas Police Department and the Dallas Sheriff’s Office, I don’t really feel anymore like our legal system is designed to protect, nor serve.
Add to that, our US Supreme Court struck down the 28-year-old Chicago gun ban only for the Chicago City Council to re-enact it once again last week, but with some changes.
What I’ve seen about law enforcement and the laws of our nation is that the laws are for those who will follow them. For those who won’t, for the time being it seems, they don’t care about them, and upon violation of them and court orders, well, I’ve not seen a whole lot of good come to those who deal honestly with the law, and it’s whatever goes for those who fail to observe them or respect them. Pardon me for my cynicism, it’s just really how I’ve come to feel.
My first ex wife fabricated incredible stories about me and told them in court, on the stand and under oath. When we showed evidence of her lying, she claimed the evidence was a lie, (though created by doctors and trained medical staff) and her lies mattered not. The documentation was two-inches thick. It had no bearing on a fair and impartial decision and wreaked havoc on destroying the rest of my family life.
VERONICA GALAVIZ’S NIGHTMARE
Veronica Galaviz had a protective order issued in late 2009 to protect her from the dangers of her now-late estranged husband. She showed the police video evidence of him being in her drive way, slashing tires on a car in front of her home and Rowlett Police told her it wasn’t conclusive that it was actually her ex-husband. Only after he broke into her home at 1:30 a.m. on April 21, 2010 did they seem to believe her claims that her husband was going to try to kill her.
Of course, the Rowlett Police Department still won’t tell her the obvious, “We, the Rowlett Police Department, effed up big time and you’re damn lucky to be a live.” (NEWS TIP: I got word this past weekend that the City Council may now start an investigation into the department. Hallelujah.)
MARSHALL HARRIS’ NIGHTMARE
Marshall Harris’ ex took off with his four-year-old daughter on May 25, 2010. He now believes his ex has taken his daughter to Mexico, making his daughter’s abduction a federal matter. But in talking to the FBI in Dallas yesterday, they said they can’t classify the ex as a fugitive until after the judge in his case issues an interference with custody. He called DPD again yesterday and they came out and took new information that we have. Still, the paperwork is sitting in la-la-land at DPD somewhere and nothing has been done since 3 p.m. yesterday when the latest report was filed. There are other calls we’ve made or will be making to advocacy groups to get law enforcement off it’s proverbial ass, but who knows how at risk this child is.
I read yesterday on the Parental Abduction Child Recovery Team website that there are between 200 and 300,000 parental abductions and kidnappings in America each year. Law enforcement has become desensitized to it. Even with a decree in their hands, orders from a judge to find a child, and a little damn common sense, they are moving at a snail’s pace at DPD, if they’re moving at all.
A PROTECTIVE ORDER ISN’T A BULLET PROOF VEST, IT’S A PIECE OF PAPER
While at her first speaking engagement Tuesday night at the Limestone County Courthouse in Groesbeck, Texas, the district attorney got up and talked about how yes, you can have a protective order and papers from the court, but you still have to do things to protect yourself. As he said, “A protective order isn’t a bullet-proof vest, it’s a piece of paper.” In Veronica’s case, even though she could and did dial 911, it was from her neighbor’s house. She was able to get past her estranged husband and his shotgun, who then lit her house on fire and then killed himself. She’s lucky to be alive and we will have a website up shortly to talk about her story of survival and the mission she feels God has given her for sparing her life.
And yet I was told of a Fort Worth woman who shot her estranged husband a couple of years ago as he attempted to kill her. She spent months in prison before the justice system released her.
Today is another day when Marshall Harris will sit on pins and needles wondering where his daughter is, and when, and if, he ever shall see her again. He’s not even begun to think of the emotional stress and harm this has caused his child. That will no doubt become a reality for him and her later, provided something is done by the very system that’s supposed to protect us and is spending more time letting the alleged violator get further and further away and he is able to get his daughter back.
Fox News this morning is talking about how the Illinois state government at present is $5 Billion in the red for next year’s budget. The governor there is proposing a $1.4 billion plan to cut spending. Yeah, in doing the math, it seems like there’s still a ways to go.
MY SIXTH GRADE TEACHER’S WISDOM FROM HISTORY
When I was in the sixth grade at Leo P. McDonald Elementary School on KI Sawyer AFB in Michigan, my teacher, Mr. John Nesberg, led us through a study of the Greeks and the Romans and the vastness of their empires, how they were the model countries of ancient times, and after about 200 years of prosperity, things began to wither away and eventually, their empires, their goodness, and their glory all faded into what now are history books. Mr. Nesberg predicted to us 12-year-olds then that he felt like America already was on a much-to-similar track.
MY RELATIONSHIP WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT
Through the years, I’ve had many good friends who have been in law enforcement. In college, I spent more time writing things for the school papers, riding with police officers, talking with them in the middle of the night when I could have been home sleeping (notice I didn’t say studying!), and getting a taste for what’s real.
I carried a police scanner in those days and knew all of the Montgomery Police Department’s 10-codes, and the Alabama State Trooper’s 10-Code system. They were two different languages with some overlap, but I knew what was going on, and was able to use that knowledge to have a better understanding of the troubles of society.
When I was in the Governor’s Office of Alabama for 10 years of my career, I was known for riding with Troopers, talking with them, and getting to know more about the dangers they were facing and what they were doing to protect and serve.
When I was the communications director of Dallas ISD for six years and a seventh year when I was done fooling with the incompetency of Michael Hinojosa and predicted the financial catastrophe and problems that have come in his administration, I was known for my closeness with the DISD Police Department. For seven years of my being a part of the district I carried my own police radio–I was number 706. There were times when I got to calls as quickly or even one or two quicker, than the officers of the department.
I say all this to attempt to show I’m not at all down on police officers. I know of their own pains and struggles. They constantly live with the threat of danger. One officer I knew at Auburn University Montgomery was patrolling through a campus building under construction one night and the next thing he knew, his face was crushed by a pipe from a still unknown assailant. Even with a Double-Zero alert sent out to all law enforcement agencies within 100 miles, no one was ever found who did that to him, and the officer almost lost his life and if he’s still alive today, is severely disfigured. I know of the stories of multiple marriages and divorce. I know how little money they make. How they often work two or three other jobs, work over time whenever they can, just trying to scrape by to keep their lights on, to pay child support, to live a half-way decent life when they’re not at work.
AMERICA, WHERE ARE WE GOING?
So, America, I ask again, where are we going? We have a legal system that benefits most those who abuse it or just don’t follow it all together. Chicago, in it’s infinite wisdom, makes it illegal to own and possess certain firearms in its city. But the Bad Guys don’t care about that. And so the break into homes, rob people, and on, and those who believe in the strength and protection under the law, get victimized by the very laws designed to protect them.
I could go on and on with a list about what else is wrong: the economy, national healthcare, illegal immigration, the Gulf Oil disaster … but in her talk Tuesday night, Veronica Galaviz said that we “need to stop victimizing the victim.” She’s so right. The question is, how in the world to do we get America back to where that’s even possible?
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