So the story is that a US Attorney has withdrawn from a case, citing "security concerns".
Friend Staghounds is... how to put this delicately? ...not at all impressed. Neither am I.
You knew the job when you volunteered for it, Mr. Government Man; at the foot of the trench ladder is a hell of a place to decide to take the white feather.
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This gutless puke will make an excellent congress critter.
I am sort of surprised the little Aryan cluster down there hasn't had a rash of lighting strikes burning down their houses.
But Texas is much more civilized now then it was when I was a youngster.
Gerry
When you look around at the base of the ladder and notice they are sending you over the top alone, it gives you pause.
It's almost like he didn't know that being a US Attorney could be a dangerous job...
In actuality, I feel for the poor guy. Another US Attorney (and wife) were recently killed, possibly in connection with this case. It is times like that where a person can either stand up and show there metal, or can slink away with their tail between their legs. Poor guy showed his yellow stripe to the world. That has GOT to be embarrassing. At least I hope he has the self awareness to be embarrassed, you never know.
Next, he'll probably blame his wife (if he has one) and show that he's p-whipped too.
s
Don't U.S. Marshals provide security in these circumstances? Is the Administration so stupid as to let this go unanswered?
I've been following this case as much as I can from where I am.
I think Staghounds is right: he knew the job was dangerous when he took it, and if everyone pulled out, then what?
But there's another aspect to this case as well: there's been a constant drumbeat in the press over the past few days that "the Aryan Brotherhood" may be somehow involved. Left unasked are questions like: why would the AB be targeting local prosecutors in a relatively small county in Texas, rather than Federal prosecutors or even local ones in a big city like Houston or Dallas? Did these local prosecutors have any role in prosecuting AB members?
The other thing that has gotten some press coverage, but nowhere near the AB angle, is that the investigation is also looking at several locals who have been convicted on charges related to "political corruption". As I recall, there was one guy in particular they'd focused on who was convicted of stealing county property; so far, they don't have any evidence that would justify charging him, but they haven't ruled him out, either.
What makes more sense: convicted locals looking for payback, or the AB targeting obscure local prosecutors?
He's not going over alone. That is our point- everyone else has already gone over and is getting hung up in the wire. Time to lead.
I too am waiting and seeing. I well rember that the D. C. sniper and the slug who shot those people in Phoenix were angry white men.
P. S. fwiw I emailed an offer to volunteer on the case and am following up with a letter to holder.
Rudolph Giuliana, Esq., for one, received threats and never did this.
I think every other DA in America should send him a white feather.
(Cf. "The Four Feathers", NOT Carlos Hathcock.)
Lois Bujold reminds us "everyone has their folding-point. Their mortal vulnerability. Some just keep it in a nonstandard location." So although my first reaction is disgust and shame at Mr Hileman's apparent pusillanimity, I just don't know his circumstances: does he have family who are more-than-usually fixed targets (like a parent or two in a Alzheimer's care or rehab facility who can't be moved easily) or perhaps even some distant familial or other connection to a defendant that he doesn't want made public but might become so were he to remain involved. (Obviously all this is pure speculation.)
That said, it's hard to see an upside in all this. At least he seems to have got out relatively early rather than getting deeper into the prosecution when it'd presumably be much harder to extricate himself without damaging the case(s).
Finally (whew, you say) I was initially confused by the "feather" and "going over the wall" remarks. I conflated the feather with Cyrano's panache, the white plume that marked him as an officer, which he refused, out of pride, honor and duty, to conceal despite the fact that it was drawing enemy fire. The current case seems quite the opposite.
So why doesn't he go all the way and quit getting a Federal Paycheck and Perks? Why not hang his Shingle out with the rest of the Harvard Law crowd and take his chances on the Free Market?
Oh, wait, he works for the Obama Regime. Never mind.
The DC sniper(s) were not white.
John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo.
Ft Hood: not white
VA Tech: not white
Tuscon: white
Sandy Hook: white
Umm, that was my point, until the snipers were caught or research was done on the Phoenix trash, the media's profilers" pegged them as AWM Tea Partiers.
Same thing with the Knoxville Unitarian Church garbage.
They can say "Aryan Nations" all they want but I'll wait.
As to "we all have our folding point", true. But some of us don't get to fold so early, and if we do, we hide why. "AUSA announces that criminals scared him away" is the WRONG way to deal with it. Of course that is his boss' fault.
And yes, he ought to quit. Can't fire him, it's civil service.
But if he were my assistant, he'd get awfully tired of sitting alone in a silent empty office for eight hours a day.
> "AUSA announces that criminals scared him away" is the WRONG way to deal with it.
Agreed. It's a terrible message to send to the bad guys whoever "they" is and lousy for the morale of the rest of us. It was just such a bizzare and poorly executed climb-down that I had to put on my tinfoil hat and wonder if there was something more going on that was not made public.
>he'd get awfully tired of sitting alone in a silent empty office for eight hours a day.
Drifting further off-topic (and off your point), I am reminded of a story told to me years ago when I worked in a secure computer facility and was idly bitching about boredom while waiting for the ancient IBM mainframe (I forget the model, but we were using a VAX PDP11 at the same time, so way ancient) to compile. A colleague, Don, told me of his experience working in a clean room for making integrated circuits (masks, tyvek suits, the whole nine yards). Soon after Don started work there he noticed a silent guy who would show up every morning, put on his mask and suit, and sit unmoving in the corner for eight hours (minus lunch break). After a week of this Don's curiosity could no longer be suppressed and he asked the silent guy what his job was, thinking he was security of some sort, this place being under DOD contract. Turned out he was a janitor, whose presence was a contractual obligation according to local union rules. This in a clean room with sub-micron air filtration and all. The janitor had nothing to do, and because of security rules, was not allowed to bring in even a book or magazine to read. So he sat for eight hours a day with nothing to do. Don, being an energetic, motivated guy, emphasized with the janitor, in a "how awful!" kind of way. The formerly silent janitor was shocked. "This is the best job I've ever had! Geez, there's guys who'd kill for this slot!"
Expect things to get harder for us, and easier for the truly evil.
It's a lot safer to prosecute Grampa for putting 11 rounds in his 15-round magazine (a la NY and CO), to prosecute Mrs. Smith for not doing her taxes quite right, or to prosecute a guitar manufacturer for having the wrong kind of wood.
Going toe-to-toe with men willing to kill anyone, including you? "Well, no, that's not what I signed up for, no sir. I thought it was going to be a cushy gig where I'd get to lord it over cowardly peons. Nobody said nothin' about dyin' and stuff."
There's an important lesson here, for all of us.
From what I've read elsewhere on the 'net, it seems that Mexican gangs sometimes hire the AB guys to do their killin' for them. Mayhap this is a case of that? The Mafia always used to hire hit men from out of town, yaknow.
Yup, Anonymous@ 12:28. The Federal prostituting attorney who railroaded Edgar Steele was not afraid of violence, knowing that Edgar and his friends had a (wrongheaded and idealistic) belief in the rule of law.
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