At least it can’t happen in America

By motomynd

Can you even begin to imagine the horror of living in a country where you could be falsely accused of trying to kill the president and other political leaders, surrounded by hooded men carrying machine guns, paraded in front of the public, and imprisoned? No trial, no hearing, no chance at rebuttal: Just snatched at gunpoint, and locked up.
    To make matters worse, if such is possible at this point, as you sit there in your cell, knowing you are innocent, you are mocked in the media for not only being incompetent in your failed attacks, but for going about them in an “idiotic” fashion that quickly revealed your identity.
    Paul Kevin Curtis doesn’t have to imagine living in such a place. He lives in Corinth, Mississippi. Which of course means he is an American, if an unfortunate one.
    According to multiple media reports, Curtis was accused of sending letters containing “a suspicious granular substance” to U.S. President Barack Obama, Senator Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi), and Sadie Holland, a Justice Court judge in Lee County, Mississippi. Preliminary tests revealed the granular substance to be ricin, a toxic substance derived from castor beans, and which has no known antidote.
    Despite somehow mailing the letters from Memphis, TN, he was found out quickly because some of the phrases in the letters matched those that Curtis used in his social media posts. This was no deciphering of complex but similar phrases, as in the long-ago “unabomber” case—according to CNN reports, the line that apparently gave him away was “I am KC and I approve this message,” which Curtis had used in social media posts for years.

    In online interviews, law enforcement and commentators frequently raised the question of how someone could be “dumb enough” to use wording that was so self-incriminating. The question the rest of us need to be asking is how on earth can someone qualify to work as a scout troop leader or security guard—much less in federal law enforcement—and be dumb enough to believe anyone would threaten the president and use the very same phrase they have basically been trying to trademark for years? In an NPR radio interview, Curtis—an Elvis impersonator—said he used the line so every time people saw it they would think, “Hey, it’s that Elvis guy.”
    Meanwhile, federal agents were being praised for the brilliant tactics they used to find him. In the 21st century, typing the phrase “I am KC and I approve this message" into a Google search box now apparently qualifies as brilliant detective work.
    After days behind bars and a week in the spotlight, Curtis was released and charges were dropped. Did law enforcement finally come to their senses? Maybe because Curtis seemed to have no clue what ricin was, and reportedly kept saying, “Why would I send rice to people? I don’t even like rice.”
    No, someone else emerged as a possible suspect—not only for mailing the letters, but also for attempting to frame Curtis. Where did law enforcement come up with the name of James Everett Dutschke, the other possible suspect? In a court hearing before the charges were dropped, Curtis said he was being framed and said Dutschke might be the culprit.
    Why would Dutschke do such a thing? One online news report said Dutschke used to work for Curtis’s brother. Not content to let it go at that, a radio news program quoted someone as saying Dutschke and Curtis “had a falling out” and said Dutschke supposedly had hard feelings from a “former relationship” he had with Curtis.
    So how is that for the perfect ending to a really bad week? Curtis finally gets out of jail, and out from under being falsely accused of trying to kill the President of the United States, and now he has to address the possibility of having been in a “relationship” with another man.

If all this seems a harsh indictment of law enforcement—and on that last bit, the media—and if you think “anyone can make a mistake, but at least they got it right by arresting Dutschke,” let’s consider some not-to-long ago history.
    Back in 2001, one week after the 9/11 attacks, letters tainted with anthrax spores were mailed to several media and political offices. The anthrax attacks ultimately killed five people and injured 17 more.
    In that case Dr. Steven Hatfill endured a “trial by media” not unlike what Curtis just went through, before finally being exonerated. He later filed lawsuits against the government and various media outlets. The government settled its case for $5.8 million. The amounts paid in the other cases have not been revealed.
    In 2005 another scientist emerged as a suspect, and he later killed himself with what was reported to be an intentional overdose of acetaminophen. Yes, that is the same chemical commonly used in over-the-country pain medications, in case you are interested. In 2008, despite no direct evidence, the case was closed and the suicide scientist was named as the “sole culprit in the crime.”
    So what about it? Were the Curtis and Hatfill cases rare mistakes by over-exuberant law enforcement and media, or is jumping to a conclusion, and then frantically searching for the “facts” to support it just what happens now?
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Copyright © 2013 by motomynd

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