Under Color Of Law ¦ Georgia Style

By Author: JD Durham
Total Articles: 42
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It would be nice to think that perhaps this behavior is limited to a single city, county, state or nation but that would be a lie. It is common everywhere in every government. It does not matter if it is a republic such as the United States, a communist government like China, a dictatorship, a monarchy or, any other form of rule so long as people are involved there will be corruption.

It really isn’t the government that is corrupt it is the individuals we entrust with power within that government; whether they are hired, elected or appointed the end result is corruption. The more individuals involved in the corruption the worse it gets.

Those individuals we entrust with powers we hope that they are above this but unfortunately as the old axiom states “Power corrupts and absolute Power corrupts absolutely” holds lots of truths that the people should recognize for what it is and do their best to eliminate.

In this Op Ed, we will use the state of Georgia and specifically Dekalb County to point out some strong examples of this and offer suggestions on how to slow it down. Notice that it is not stated ...
... to eliminate as that is simply not possible given the current structure.

Let us understand that for any government agency or department to file charges against one of their own, the person in question has to have done something extremely bad, but more importantly it has to be known outside that agency and embarrass them.As an example, let’s return to the recent Georgia governor’s race and the winner of that race. It was reported by the Office of Congressional Ethics ( http://oce.house.gov/2010/03/march-29-2010---oce-referral-regarding-former-rep-deal.html ) that current Georgia Governor Nathan Deal was being investigated by the U.S. House of Representatives for possible expulsion, but before specific charges were brought he resigned as a representative of the people of the state of Georgia. Thus no formal charges needed to be brought against him and the whole thing disappeared. It does not mean that he was either guilty or not. It simply means that he walked away without ever being confronted which is a pretty sweet deal (no pun intended).

It could be stated that he was never formally charged and that would be true. However when you go by your neighbors house and smoke is escaping from under the roof, it is a pretty safe bet that the house is on fire. It is really bad when a situation like this occurs as it speaks more about avoiding responsibility and the lack of choice presented to the voters by the major political parties which allows corruption to continue. Perhaps the voters are hoping that a charging hungry Lion will not want to eat them, but will instead invite them to a sit down meal of Antelope or Zebra.

In Dekalb County, the corruption extends its reach into every agency from the superior court judges like those that while drinking their lunch on April 15, 2001 were treated to the exclamation by one of them that he had taken a bribe. He loudly explained in excruciating detail for everyone to hear how it was accomplished and what service he rendered.

To elected superior court judges like Barbara Jean Mobley, that after 3 years of investigation by the Judicial Qualifications Commission was brought up on charges, which resulted in her quitting the job and not being allowed to ever sit in judgment in any court again. The case was dropped and she never admitted guilt, but did resign her job and agreed to the JQC terms. The charges against her were made public in a very rare occurrence by the JQC. However, the State of Georgia Bar has allowed her to remain licensed to practice law and Dekalb County has not attempted to make restitution or compensate her victims for damages, nor has Dekalb County brought charges against her. To part time judges like Chris Miller that as a ruling in his courtroom stated “Attorneys are allowed to lie in court (documents)” and he refuses to report or punish them when evidence is presented. This is a very interesting take on law, officers of the court and being an unbiased judge. Hopefully he will never seek a permanent position of judge, but if he does he will fit in nicely in the current Dekalb judicial system.

To the Superior Court administrator that has a rule set ( http://web.co.dekalb.ga.us/superior/pdf/IOP.pdf ) that everyone is supposed to follow, including judges but ignores and refuses to comply with the laws of Georgia especially the “Sunshine Law” as it relates to Part 5. Other departments such as Probate Court judges half hearted comply with the “Sunshine Law”, and rubber stamp requests by fellow government employees, to hearing evidence without defendants being present or represented by counsel.

To the probation department that collects money from “victims of Dekalb justice”, and supposedly shares the “profits” with the state, has a series of paperwork scams that skim money off each transaction first.

To the prosecutors office and lawyers that refuse to provide full discovery as required under law which according to the State Bar of Georgia is a breach of ethics. Or to Michelle V. Terrell that when contacted in reference to Deputy Sheriff Sergeant Leonard Bailey, stated “[his conduct]does meet the test of a felony crime taking place”, but when pressed on the issue of prosecution refused to do anything about it.

The police and sheriff departments are so corrupt the only thing that could straighten it out is a complete replacement of everyone. Some examples of this are when a complaint with photos was filed by two witnesses about Dekalb County Police employee both the investigator and the employee were both promoted and moved to different precincts. Of course the employee was found to not have done these things through a very sloppy and incompetent investigation by the now promoted investigator. Dekalb County is a racial organization and has been sued for racial bias
against White employees and settled outside of court, and ranks in the police department clearly demonstrate this racial bias as a new rank is "Master Officer" instead of Corporal. The new Department of Public Safety (DPS) is supposed to be a non biased investigative section, but unfortunately is just smoke and mirrors and an increased tax burden on the people of Dekalb County.

It would be nice to say such behavior is confined to just this one county, but unfortunately that is not true. Take the plight of Marquitta Meade and her ordeal with the law and court systems of Georgia as outlined in documentation on the website, http://www.marquitta.com . She like many
others have moved from Georgia, never to return for fear of losing their lives.

Many people in Georgia now view the police and sheriff as criminals and are openly stating they fear for their lives, and are carrying weapons or are considering carrying weapons for protection…not from the normal thinking of criminals. But from those entrusted with enforcement of laws (the police and sheriff).

Now consider the story of Troy Davis and his subsequent death as meted out by the state of Georgia. Those people that could have saved his life and offered him an honest chance at proving his innocence with so much evidence showing him to be innocent but they refused. Who is the criminal here, Troy Davis or those that killed him? Does another filled casket really solve anything?

The whole point here is the system of corruption and the lack of responsibility of government employees because they have immunity from prosecution is the problem. This immunity allows them to do what they want and pass the buck. This needs to be removed if we as a society can ever move forward with honesty, integrity and honor restored to our governments and courts. It would be nice that this happens, but as long as we turn a blind eye to what is happening in our governments, we will have many many more like Troy Davis.

Copyright © 2011 JD Durham