Add a pinch of sarcasm,

Stir vigorously

Mine, via Nightcafe again. I’ll get some Cedar images in a bit.

Oh, look. Howling.

“Ian, arresting judges is proof that we live in a banana republic! You have to agree!”

Depends. Is there probable cause to believe that the arrested judge, you know — violated the law?

Cue furious blinking and guppy-mouthing.

Unless someone can point me to a State law, or Federal code, that says judges have immunity from the consequences of unlawful acts; a passage in a legal text that states judges are free to violate the law at will? No?

“Ian, it’s a stupid law!”

Ok … and?

Judges in America oversee average American citizens of all shapes and sizes getting ground-up by the American criminal justice system for violating stupid laws Every. Damned. Day. You want sympathy¹ from me because a judge gets to take a big ol’ bite of the Stupid Law Soup Sandwich she’s watched and referee’d others having to eat?

Every other American citizen gets jammed-up by law enforcement, and we’re told to “Trust the system”. Even when they’re jammed up over “stupid laws”.

If these judges “trust the system” — the system that they reign supreme over — then they should have all sorts of serene and calm trust in said system.

If they don’t — why not? Does the worry and fear of these judges hint that … maybe these judges know something about the very system they are the moral arbiters, and sole controllers, of? And since other judges have decided to kittenishly boycott their duties, they’re obviously worried — because I don’t see any judges boycotting their duties over the ATF lying in a court-room under the nose of a judge to gain a conviction.

ATF lies under oath in front of a judge to gain a conviction? Trust the system!

Judge is arrested for obstructing or impeding a Federal agency; and concealing an individual from arrest? Oh, my God! Banana Republic! End of democracy! SOMETHING MUST BE DONE!

Why?

Trust in the Grand Jury process — overseen by judges — the rest of us have to².

“But, Ian, everyone knows that a prosecutor could get a Grand Jury to indict a ham sandwich!”³ Welcome to the party, Your Judgeship. How many other folks have you watched get hit in the face by that ham sandwich during your career?

If you get indicted by that Grand Jury⁴, well, trust in the ‘Twelve Good Men and True’ of the trial jury — referee’d by judges — like every other American has to⁵.

Oh, the judge got hooked up on BS charges? Aw, poor kitten. Line into the agonizingly slow American criminal justice system — overseen by judges — starts over there.

This is America. Officially we don’t have any animals who are more equal than other animals, but the whining about something that happens to non-judicial Americans every damned day is starting to make me think that folks think some animals are already more equal than other animals — and that truly sets my teeth on edge.

Don’t like it? Well, maybe you and your fellow judges can get about reining in the stupid that all of y’all oversee every day, hmm?

Got your panties in a bunch over stupid laws? Maybe see about doing something about the tens of thousands of stupid laws on the books that get good people jammed up every year?

Jimmies all rustled due to government over-reach? You preside over government over-reach every damned day — and now you’re all in a lather about it? Pfagh.

But worry not! I will bet a dollar to a doughnut that these arrested judges are going to get preferential treatment⁶ at the hands of their peer judges, and at the hands of prosecuting attorneys who lust after a future on the bench of their own — preferential treatment that Joe Citizen has not one hoot in hell of getting.

Ian

1. It’s in the dictionary, between ‘sodomy’ and ‘syphilis’.

2. Grand Jury Reform.

3. Sol Wachtler, Chief Justice of the New York Supreme Court, 1985: “Any good prosecutor can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich.”

4. Yes, we need to reform the Grand Jury.

5. Seriously, we need Grand Jury Reform.

6. Yeah. I’m a little cynical about the judicial system.