what if spanky turned out to be innocent? And some further questions about the 5' 1" alleged sex offender furor

okay. first time rory saw this pick, he immediately thought ronald had done something "bad." why else would the cops be takin' him away like this:



from that day on, perhaps unconsciously, rory thought of ronald mcdonald as a criminal. but rory never learned the full story. were the officers merely helping a drunken clown out of the park? was ronald falsely accused of something? was he ultimately cleared? i dunno. but this picture lives on. it's still on the 'net. a reminder among other things of why allowing photos of the "perp walk" can prejudice a person's ability to get a semblance of a fair shake in the amerikan justice system. no follwup out there. the arrest and carting off of ronald was the story. the moment. the visual byte. the seller. minds moved on for the next stim. and ronald's rep was forever in the shitcan at least with those who saw this image.

so today rory wonderz about spanky the clown as well.


spanky was a bigtime bigtop clown. worked for ringling. spanky got busted for kiddie porn. shocking, huh? spanky was pretty much presumed guilty. you can surf the web and find many accounts of his arrest. but it ain't so easy to find out what happened later. in fact, rory searched for awhile, but roryz attention span became an issue and he dropped the investigation of "whatever happened to spanky?" maybe someday. not motivated enough today. fuckit. clowning is enough of a crime. no tears for the clown. so, the idea is implanted in roryz head that spanky lives up to his name when he sees naked kids. fuckit, unless there's a major spanky exoneration story, many of us will always define spanky by the moment of his arrest and his lasting internet fame. spanky's moment. spanky's frickin' "immortality."

do people get locked up for sex crimes they didn't commit. they sure as shit do. easy to forget that fact. for all of us. good fact to remember, even if it's unpleasant and makes things complicated. screws up the urge for black and white. good versus evil. good is frickin' evil when it punishes the innocent. and the story in the link is a frickin' happy ending story. release after 6.5 years in the joint. 6.5 years in the reviled status of rapist. always the chance of a shank. a beating. being locked down in a small ill ventilated metal and stone box in the heat of the summer knowing it's for life 'cause nobody will listen to the con who says "I'm innocent." but the dude discussed in the link had some dna evidence to save him. but for that he'd still be in the joint. doomed to die in the joint. simple as frickin' that.

can happen to anybody.

in a former life rory spent many hours behind bars with all sorts of merely accused and all kinds of guilty naked apes of the indigent sort. when you represent the indigent you don't pick 'n' choose your cases. met plenty of innocent people whose lives were fucked over by the system. more than most would want to believe. met plenty of guilty ones. came to really hate dealing with guilty child molesters. a little epiphany came one day when a tiny man, probably about 5' tall, with a turkey-neck, was bitching to me about being convicted of "aggravated" sodomy with a little girl. he had one of those names could be either gender, like Lynn. he didn't understand that the term "aggravated" was due to her tender age. he spoke of how she was seductive and a willing participant. i wanted to puke. i could literally feel puke rising in my throat. i pretty much wanted to puke on him. then i stopped hearing what he was saying. he was totally demented with thoughts fractured in a brain turned to crystals reflecting damaged thoughts around like funhouse mirrors distorting reality. talking about how he taught the child about "man's milk." i stopped hearing him. i wanted to jump across the table and break his neck and beat him. rip his jugular out with my teeth. obviously i didn't. i would've been put in jail for that. and would've sickened myself. but i felt like it. but i knew that was wrong. that guy was clearly guilty by his own admission and other overwhelming evidence ('cause I gotta point out in passing that there are plenty who "confess" even when it ain't true). but it still would've been wrong. would've solved nothing. who would i have been? just because i knew he was guilty would that have been justification? rory the one man lynch mob. nope. that wasn't gonna happen. but we all have a lynch mob hiding somewhere in our heads with the potential to pick up the torches and ropes and surround our reason, 'specially when it comes to child molesters, rapists, killers of children. but we must never go there. once we go there. then there is no hope of justice. the innocent will hang along with the guilty and we will perpetuate brutality. don't get me wrong. one dead human don't mean shit in the grand cosmic scheme of things. death ain't much, really. but we gotta try to live as well as possible in the meantime. vengeance avoids the real issues. the underlying issues. the story and the emphasis is always on punishment. much more so than on helping those hurt. and when we become all about anger and vengeance we help perpetuate forgetfulness about the real issues. and that's bullshit. now I'm frickin' ramblin' and that means it's almost time to stop. but I got just a coupla questions.

why is there a clamor to put this guy in conditions worse than guantanamo even as we condemn guantanamo?
granted he looks like a kiddie diddler. [rory doesn't know the actual conditions of the joint the judge had to consider or know whether the judge's concerns were legit, but rory refers to commentary and outrage all over seeming to say the little guy should be thrown in the joint, butt fucked, beaten, tortured and killed]. For those who have missed it, this is the guy who got probation and is 5' 1" tall. All over the 'net it's being put out that the judge put him on probation for some sexual contact with 12 year old instead of locking him up because he is short and would be unsafe. Here's one of them "fair and balanced" accounts. rory wasn't there. not sure if that was the full rationale. maybe it was. maybe it is wrong. maybe there's a right to appeal a sentence in Nebraska. I dunno. but I don't think we should beat the shit out of the little guy. or castrate him. or such like ideas that are sweeping the 'net as the electronic lynch mob lights up its torches. coupla examples: bad things happening in prison or vigilante justice and shooting in the back of the head chinese style

oh yes. rory knowz. he's a child molester, he don't deserve no better. but all the people in abu ghraib and guantanomo are terrorists, right? wake the frick up amerika and look in the frickin' mirror. you think the brutal prison conditions that've gotten so much publicity are an aberration? an accident? plenty of amerikans seem to want prisons like that. some of 'em even got to act out their desires in the military. yep plenty want such prisons until there's a chance they might wind up there themselves. like the short dude in question. should the dog handlers of abu gharib have dogs biting their naked shit- smeared balls in the brig? or should we try to stop the cycle, even if it is ultimately an exercise in futility in this land of the most violent naked apes walking the planet.

what if the short dude were innocent? I for one sure as shit will never trust the press to accurately determine guilt or innocence? if we can't keep the truly guilty safe in prison, how will we keep the innocent safe? how will we keep the 5'1" 17 year old who was convicted of theft safe? who in the system of justice do you trust enough to have the power of life and death and always get it right? maybe alberto gonzales? fuck no. lock 'em up if they're guilty of dangerous crime as best as can be told. but there's an obligation to have a safe and humane place to keep them. and by the way, "them," could be any one of us on a given day, falsely identified, or falsely accused for some other reason. there are plenty of joes out there and will be more (see they sure as shit do link above for an example if you haven't already).

nekked apes sure are a troubled species.

meanwhile, rory wonderz what the fuck happened to spanky.