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Gangsters in politicians' clothing
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by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News
October 6, 2007
This is a follow-up to the ghastly but amusing story I wrote
about a year or so ago that concerned the little matter of the
Chairman of the Mendocino County Republican Party's hiring someone to
kill a "political rival" (I have to put that in quotes because the so
called rivalry was over the a position on the Water Board of
Westport, CA, population 298 -- just silly).
Final sentencing has been put off once again for Kenny Rogers, the
mastermind of the plot, who was offered a sweetheart plea bargain (full details are in the story from the local paper, below). His hireling, Mr.
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Peacock (life imitates the board game Clue) was
given a stiff
sentence of 71 years to life in prison for attempted murder (fifteen
shots through the front door as the victim answered the door bell), but Mr
Rogers was "offered a three-year state prison sentence (suspended),
a 90-day jail sentence, supervised or formal felony probation, a
lifetime firearm ban, and a lifetime ban on holding state office."
While there may be a few Republicans of integrity left, they are the
political equivalent of lawn gnomes -- left there just for show.
The
Republican Party, and to a large extent the Democratic Party, have
become wholly-owned subsidiaries of organized crime.
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Well, gosh, that ought to keep him from continuing to hire people to
kill his neighbors, don't you think?
Residents of this small commu-
nity, several of whom I know personally,
were understandably upset that an attempted murder for hire criminal
will be continuing to live in their community, free to push around
and murder who ever he likes.
I think this story is important because it shows how complete-
ly out
and out gangsters like Mr. Rogers are taking over com-
munities and
counties across the nation. The minute scale of
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this conspiracy in
Westport gives it a comical lilt, but it also gives us a schematic
overview of how gangster corruption works in larger communities and
on state and national levels.
If you look at the statistics about Westport there are some stark
anomalies. For instance, the median home worth is $760,200 and the
average income is $39,930. What you are looking at here are the
demographics of a small ocean front town with a handful of filthy
rich gangsters who have taken it over as a rest and retirement home.
Numerous multimillion dollar homes are springing up along this
section of the California coast, and the people building them did not
just luck out and get rich overnight.
When I assert, as I often do, that our nation has become a free range
reservation for gangsters, I am not speaking figuratively or
exaggerating. The essence of gangster rule is impunity. At this
point in the US, if you are connected, as Mr. Rogers certainly is,
you can expect to get away with virtually any crime.
It is rare, however, for the details of how this impunity works to be
so out in the open as in the case of this crime drama in Westport,
CA. Usually there are back room deals and threats that never, ever
are allowed to enter the consciousness of the public, who are
encouraged to continue to believe that crime does not pay.
Crime doesn't pay for the ordinary person, but at the highest
levels, crime is paying off astronomically for the very well
connected.
While there may be a few Republicans of integrity left, they are the
political equivalent of lawn gnomes -- left there just for show. The
Republican Party, and to a large extent the Democratic Party, have
become wholly-owned subsidiaries of organized
crime.
It is not
really a choice for these people. Subservience to organized crime
comes with the territory. Standing in the way of the looting of the
country at this point is, functionally speaking, a capital crime.
Gangsters, as is often said, make offers people dare not refuse.
These gangsters in politicians' clothing are in the process of
cleaning out the US. Already we have a
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There is no meaningful way in which the US can be considered a nation of laws.
We are, to a first approximation, a nation of gangsters armed to the teeth and out to loot the rest of the world at the tip of a nuclear bayonet.
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negative net worth as a
nation, with nothing to show for over two hundred years of hard work
and exploitation of darker skinned people but an astronomical, and
unpayable under any conceivable scenario, national and personal
indebtedness.
There is no meaningful way in which the US can be
considered a nation of laws. We are, to a first approximation, a
nation of gangsters armed to the teeth and out to loot the rest of
the world at the tip of a nuclear bayonet.
Well, the serenity prayer says for us to accept what we cannot
change. It is irrefutable that this process of wholesale looting
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Westport citizens meet with DA,
seek answers in Rogers' sentencing
by Don Claybrook,
Fort Bragg Advocate-News
Last Friday, Sept. 28, a group of citizens from Westport met in Fort Bragg with District Attorney Meredith Lintott and Deputy District Attorney Tim Stoen to discuss their collective anger about the disparity between the sentencing of Richard Peacock and the sentence offered to Kenneth A. Rogers, the man who allegedly hired Peacock to kill his (Rogers') political opponent, Alan Simon in June 2005.
In September 2006, Peacock was sentenced to 71 years to life in prison while Rogers, as the result of a plea bargain with Tim Stoen, was recently offered a three-year state prison sentence (suspended), a 90-day jail sentence, supervised or formal felony probation, a lifetime firearm ban, and a lifetime ban on holding state office. The plea bargain would have to be approved or rejected by Judge Ron Brown following sentencing recommendations and a report from Probation. Sentencing was scheduled for last Friday afternoon in Ukiah.
The session at the Ten Mile Justice Center gave the small group from Westport an opportunity to vent their frustrations about what they felt was a "sweetheart" deal offered Rogers. The Westport group was led by Russ Barnes and Ginny Smith-Wright. Simon, the victim in the attempted murder, was also there.
Stoen was able to diffuse the anger in the room with his careful and meticulous recounting of the facts of the case that led his office to offer the plea bargain to Rogers. He told the group that the detectives who investigated the case had been unable to get much support from a group of Westport citizens who feared for their lives. Those detectives suggested to Stoen that the plea bargain might be a prudent choice. Ultimately, Stoen said he just wanted Rogers to plead to a felony and that the plea bargain deal was his best bet in attaining that goal.
Jan Cole-Wilson, the public defender who represented Peacock at his attempted first-degree murder trial, recently published a report, including a letter to the editor of this paper, stating her outrage at the disparity between the sentence given her client and that offered to Rogers, the alleged mastermind of the attempt to kill Simon.
Cole-Wilson alleged that Rogers' felony could later be reduced to a misdemeanor if he kept a clear record during the time of his probation. However, Stoen assured the Westport group that Cole-Wilson's reading of the case and the law pertaining to it was wrong and because of the terms of Rogers' plea, the felony could never be reduced to a misdemeanor.
Roger's deal called for a plea to felony being an accessory after the fact because he harbored Peacock on his property following the attempted murder of Simon.
The group told Stoen (DA Lintott excused her presence shortly after the meeting began) that they lived in constant fear of Rogers and what he might do or what he might order done to them.
Following the meeting in Fort Bragg, the Westport group headed to Ukiah for sentencing. The group's calm came undone when they learned that Rogers' sentencing had been put off to Friday, Oct. 26 at 1:30 p.m. because Judge Ron Brown was in trial.
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will continue until there is nothing left to loot. Might as well
look on the bright side. Pretty soon virtually all Americans who aren't rich will be too poor to bother
robbing, and then perhaps we can begin to relax a little as we try to
scratch out a living from what is left.
I am planning, and advising others, to plant as many potatoes as
possible. There are easy to follow directions for how to do this
easily, on almost any half way level place with a little sun, Mother Earth News.
Maybe it is my warped sense of humor, but I think it's funny that I
am being backed into pretty much the same spot that my Irish
ancestors were maneuvered into, by pretty much the direct descendants
of the people who maneuvered -- planting potatoes to survive.
© by the author.
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Dr. Herb Ruhs & grandson
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