08-26-2017, 02:25 PM
(08-26-2017, 02:12 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: Honestly, I couldn't have told you who Obama used the power for. I will say that I'm not a fan of the power being used at all unless there is something that comes up after conviction that points to innocence or there are some extreme circumstances. I see it as something that is ripe for abuse, and it has been shown that people are willing to abuse it.
You did know about Manning.
I tend to agree with you regarding the pardon/clemency. It is absolutely ripe for abuse and has been abused extensively in the past
Quote:I can think of quite a few people that have long histories of public service but were shitty public servants. I don't give credit to people for public service that do things like Arpaio because he wasn't serving the public. If you swear an oath to uphold the law of the land, and then violate the civil liberties of those under your jurisdiction, you're a shitty public servant.
I couldn't agree with you more. My issue is that the outrage of many is highly selective. I'll preface by saying I don't include you in this group. If you use the criteria you lay out above then almost the entire Democratic state legislature in CA is guilty of this by blatantly saying they will ignore federal immigration law. The pro tem of the state Senate, DeLeon, bragged about how has several undocumented family members in the US and is completely opposed to enforcing immigration law in CA. To me, this is just as bad as Arapaio ignoring a court order he doesn't like and they all swore the same oath to the Constitution.
Quote:I know that law enforcement is very often a thankless task. Before he moved from being an officer to being an elected official, maybe he wasn't so bad; I don't know his employment history. But his record as a political figure (because that is primarily what a Sheriff is, and I know you know, but I just like to make things clear) has been less than stellar in that regard and he has not served the public's best interests.
Oh, he's an extreme right wing blow hard. We in CA are very familiar with him, Arizona being next door and all. His tent city jail was (in)famous. He made the inmates wear pink underwear and boasted that it cost more to feed the dogs that guarded the facility than it cost to feed the inmates. He's an ideal poster child for people looking for the antidote to today's feel good style of criminal justice (what we gallows humor refer to as "hug a thug").
My whole point in engaging in this thread is to point out the selective outrage of some. You're very consistent, many others are not.
