OpenCDA

November 22, 2014

Finally!!

Filed under: Probable Cause — Tags: — Bill @ 9:31 am

PoliticalCorruption

OpenCdA hopes that every single one of our half-dozen or so readers has read Idaho State Representative Judy Boyle‘s guest opinion piece entitled Is Idaho as corrupt as Washington, D.C.?  It was in the November 19, 2014, Coeur d’Alene Press.

Finally!!  Finally a state-level elected official in Idaho has the courage to publicly speak out about what many of us have observed for years.  There is public corruption at the state, county, and city levels of Idaho government.  If only it stopped there, but unfortunately it doesn’t.  It is also among some in the administration and elected officials in some Idaho school systems including universities, colleges, community colleges, and primary and secondary schools.

The question is, will the public be willing to stand alongside and behind those honest public officials at all levels who genuinely want to expose corruption and demand that offenders not only be removed from positions of public trust but prosecuted as well?   That’s where it gets a little dicier. 

OpenCdA particularly commends Representative Boyle for her astute observation introducing the last paragraph of her op-ed piece:  “This is an issue of right and wrong — not Democrat or Republican.”

Our experiences and observation before coming to Idaho support Representative Boyle’s observation.

Before coming to Coeur d’Alene in 2000, we had lived and worked in Washington State, Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia, and southern California.  We saw firsthand the lingering effects of corrupt public officials such as Baltimore Mayor Tom D’Alessandro and Governor Spiro Agnew in Maryland, President Richard Nixon and his Attorney General John Mitchell and the other Watergate cronies, and by Carson (CA) Mayors Sweeney and Fajardo and Deputy City Manager Robles.

It is our opinion that racketeers and organized criminals use political party affiliation as a tool much as affinity fraudsters like Bernard Madoff use religious affiliation or civic organization membership to get closer to their intended victims.

Racketeers and organized criminals are experts at manipulation, and if successful manipulation is enhanced by apparent affiliation with any particular political party, they will adopt whatever costume or animal figure it takes.

Racketeers and criminals seek profit and control. They will use whatever tool is available to give them control over the officials who make decisions affecting their profit. If assuming the role of a staunch and loyal Democrat or Republican furthers their enterprise, they will do it easily and convincingly.

Most racketeers would prefer to remain out of the light that is increasingly cast upon public officials.   If they are able to remain in the darkest shadows while furthering their criminal enterprise by ensuring “trusted” cronies are installed in key public offices, they are happy,  enriched, and possibly even protected from investigation and prosecution themselves.

But we observe two significant differences between the practically nonexistent responses to corruption we see in Idaho and the responses we saw in other states.

First, in those other states, most federal and state (county) prosecutors and law enforcement at least make the effort to attack corruption rather than participate in it or ignore it.  Second, outside Idaho most of the news media are at least willing if not always eager to uncover and report corruption.

When racketeers and organized crime want to control a community, a county, or a state, they must first gain control over those with the duty and responsibility to stop them.  In Idaho, that means electing “accommodating” sheriffs, prosecutors, and judges.   Then they must keep the public in the dark by manipulating and controlling the news media in those areas.   Once the criminal justice systems components and the news media have been compromised, the racketeers can come out of the shadows and get themselves elected or appointed to public offices.

And to that end, here we have Idaho — or at least some regions of Idaho.

Based on Representative Boyle’s article, we are optimistic that others in Idaho are getting behind their honest and courageous elected state officials and insisting that the corruption in Idaho government be attacked rather than ignored.  We hope northern Idaho’s elected state officials like Senator Bob Nonini, Representative Kathy Sims,  and Senator-elect Mary Souza will get the support from the public they need to continue to be equally courageous.

We have seen first-hand the damage that public corruption inflicts on the residents and businesses in other states.  We are seeing that damage inflicted in Idaho as well.   It is being inflicted not so much by outsiders but by longtime and in some cases lifelong Idahoans, many of whom have bought and sold political influence with impunity for years.  Unless that changes, unless Idaho’s citizens hear and step up to act on the messages of honest and courageous officials like Representative Judy Boyle, Idaho will continue its educational, economic, and political decline.

2 Comments

  1. “will the public be willing to stand alongside and behind those honest public officials at all levels who genuinely want to expose corruption and demand that offenders not only be removed from positions of public trust but prosecuted as well?”

    Just as soon as one or more public officials “who genuinely want to expose corruption and demand that offenders be removed from office and prosecuted” appear and are not immediately cut down by the monied interests whose lackeys they seek to expose.

    Comment by up river — November 25, 2014 @ 8:43 am

  2. up river,

    Good point.

    Reading online comments left on the skewspapers, it’s pretty clear that the astroturfers target the honest officials in hopes of demeaning and discouraging them in the eyes of readers.

    Comment by Bill — November 25, 2014 @ 11:38 am

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.

Powered by WordPress
Copyright © 2024 by OpenCDA LLC, All Rights Reserved