A little more on this
I had a discussion involving the Ira Edwards situation with a good friend a few days back and, while he didn't necessarily disagree with me, he did differ somewhat on the judgement against the sheriff. His take was that if he had been in Edwards's position, he probably would have done the same thing.
I respect that and, it must be noted, I don't really fault Edwards for doing the same thing. The problem, of course, is that Edwards, as sheriff, has to strip those personal feelings away. His brother-in-law was evading the Houston County authorities and, upon being caught, those same authorities requested that he be extradited. As Jason Winders notes, Edwards deliberately ignored the latter, doing so under the guise of it being to save the taxpayers some money
This offends me ... greatly. While I think the jury is still out on whether or not we actually need this new jail (perhaps a tweaking of our jail policies might bring some benefit or if we started up a 'holding tank' for kids arrested downtown for underage drinking), it's insulting to couch the release of one's brother-in-law behind the sad excuse that it's designed to benefit the common good.
I've given Edwards the benefit of the doubt on a lot, and I mean a lot, the past few years, but this one issue really disturbs me. And it means I might have to give Kenny Brown's challenge a serious look.
I respect that and, it must be noted, I don't really fault Edwards for doing the same thing. The problem, of course, is that Edwards, as sheriff, has to strip those personal feelings away. His brother-in-law was evading the Houston County authorities and, upon being caught, those same authorities requested that he be extradited. As Jason Winders notes, Edwards deliberately ignored the latter, doing so under the guise of it being to save the taxpayers some money
This offends me ... greatly. While I think the jury is still out on whether or not we actually need this new jail (perhaps a tweaking of our jail policies might bring some benefit or if we started up a 'holding tank' for kids arrested downtown for underage drinking), it's insulting to couch the release of one's brother-in-law behind the sad excuse that it's designed to benefit the common good.
I've given Edwards the benefit of the doubt on a lot, and I mean a lot, the past few years, but this one issue really disturbs me. And it means I might have to give Kenny Brown's challenge a serious look.
posted by Jmac at 6:17 PM
1 Comments:
Technically, the request was for the Thomas to be held, not so much to be extradited to the County where the warrant was, so that the SO there could send a deputy to come and pick him up. Edwards released Thomas under the premise that someone, someone whom Edwards would be sure to do the job, will have delivered him to the proper SO. I don't think it is fair to characterize it as just letting him go to get gone and run.
Also, people can have warrants for their arrest and not be aware of it. I have seen it happen a little too often, and given the frequency with which people duck out of traffic court appearances, all too often to a number of people. I'm just saying that we shouldn't consider someone with warrants for their arrest as "running from the law" in the Bonnie & Clyde or Bon Jovi sense. It happens.
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