Henry Hill: You know, we always called each other good fellas. Like you said to, uh, somebody, :You’re gonna like this guy. He’s all right. He’s a good fella. He’s one of us.: You understand? We were good fellas. Wiseguys. See, it’s the highest honor they can give you. It means you belong to a family and crew. It means that nobody can f#@% around with you. It also means you could f#@% around with anybody just as long as they aren’t also a member. It’s like a license to steal. It’s a license to do ANYTHING. As far as Jimmy was concerned with Tommy being made, it was like we were all being made.
Many in America have been surprised by the magnitude of the Tea Party uprising, but perhaps none more so than Barack Obama. As people are inclined to do when threatened or under pressure, the President fell back on what he learned cutting his teeth in Chicago politics; brute force.
Recall the summer of 2009. Traditional values-loving Americans, all over the country were so shocked by the bailouts, cap and trade and other big government expansion programs that they took to the streets in numbers never seen before. Liberals were shocked that the political right had figured out the playbook of the political left. As the Congressional Summer recess got underway, leftist politicians found their town hall meetings packed to the rafters with angry people asking tough questions. As the bloggers streamed the footage and America got a nearly daily dose of another Democrat politician getting hammered, it became clear that the left was unprepared.
Protesters were disparaged as “tea baggers” and Astroturf, but name-calling is not what they do in Chicago. It might be over the top to say the President himself ordered the hit, but what about his people? What he said of the conservative protestors is “If they are going to hit us, we will hit them back twice as hard “. Within two days, a black man distributing patriotic flags and buttons, found himself struggling under a tremendous beating from as many as four separate assailants. The Service Employees International Union members got the President’s message. The SEIU members sporting their purple people beater shirts picked their first victim. Perhaps most disturbing, the attack began with a black union member coming unglued on a black man who did not share his leftist political beliefs all the while calling him a “nigger”. Is this a hate crime?
It has been three months now, so what happened to the thugs? Nothing. Local Prosecutors appear to have taken a pass. The St. Louis County Prosecutor is Bob McCullough. The police report details a gang-style assault, resisting arrest, the arrest of a journalist for the major daily, the Post-Dispatch and the Prosecutor is claiming something between ignorance and lack of jurisdiction in the case. So who has jurisdiction for such crimes?
In St. Louis County, an area holding the curious distinction of 92 separate municipalities within the boundaries, municipal prosecutors handle the traffic tickets, ordinance violations, and other minor offenses. If the crime is committed in the County, but outside of any municipal boundaries, then police will usually hand the job to the County Counselor to be sure justice is done rather than hand it off to the County Prosecutor. It appears that Prosecutor McCullough believes County Counselor Patricia Reddington should be handling the case. One can wonder whether the police tried to give it to McCullough or if they took it directly to Reddington. In any case, those who gang assaulted Ken Gladney walk the streets. Why?
When the SEIU members went to the town hall meeting hosted by Democrat Congressman Russ Carnahan, did they have a fight on their minds? Were they spurred on by The President’s words or the HCAN national Field Advisor Margarida Jorge’s talking points? Did the favorite White House guest, Andy Stern promise the POTUS that the situation would be dealt with, as a way to curry favor with the King? We may never know if there was a specific instruction given, but we do know that four adults from the same gang decided simultaneously to mingle with the protestors and then single one out for a beating. We also know that the union has hired for them, Paul D’Agrosa one of the top criminal defense lawyers in St. Louis. Finally, we know that County Counselor Patricia Reddington, who serves at the pleasure of Democrat County Executive Charlie Dooley (previously a union member) is not moving the case.
This is even more interesting because Counselor Reddington distinguished herself in another assault trial. At that trial, a Republican Congressional Candidate was accused of assaulting a “campaign staffer” for Democrat Dick Gephardt, who was actually stalking the opposing candidate in a parade while drawing his paycheck from the U.S. Treasury. As the young patsy James Larrew got too close to his prey, he and the candidate made contact, and the “cameraman” went down. Democrat Counselor Reddington charged the Republican candidate with assault and went after him. After the week long trial the jury acquitted the candidate.
Of course the message was sent and Reddington delivered it. No, the message is not that you don’t mess with Dick Gephardt; it is that Counselor Reddington has no tolerance for street brutality. No tolerance unless the assailant is a made man. And today, that means a member of SEIU.
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