Easter 2014: Justice for Michelle O'Connell

Christians believe that Jesus died for our sins, celebrating Easter and the Resurrection this morning.
Jews and Christians celebrated Passover this past week, believing miracles were performed by God to free Jews from Egyptian slavery.
On the occasion of the holiest days in Christianity and Judaism, NBC News took time to air a one-hour segment (38 minutes after commercial breaks), "Two Shots Fired." See below.
We're grateful and blessed that The New York Times, PBS Frontline and now NBC News Dateline have have all reported on the shooting death of Michelle O'Connell.
Why?
It has been some 1325 days since Michelle O'Connell died on September 2, 2010.
As Robert F. Kennedy said, "Justice delayed is democracy denied," (or as Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. said, "Justice delayed is justice denied).
Why are we so grateful to three national news organizations for covering what would ordinarily have been a local news story?
Because MORRIS COMMUNICATIONS' St. Augustine Record refused to do its job.
Because MORRIS COMMUNICATIONS' St. Augustine Record still refuses to do its job.
Because MORRIS COMMUNICATIONS' St. Augustine Record fired a reporter (Peter Guinta) for doing his job too well.
Because MORRIS COMMUNICATIONS' St. Augustine Record backs a corrupt political machine. Why? The deal is this: hick hacks have long been guilty of subsidizing a compliant, incurious "viewspaper" by pouring millions of dollars in optional ads -- not legally required -- to the St. Augustine Record since it was acquired by MORRIS COMMUNICATIONS in 1982. In exchange, the "viewspaper" does not ask tough questions. It does not attend enough meetings. It does not file Open Records and Sunshine lawsuits. It respects the hick hacks and the developers who own them. The same daily deal exists in many counties and many countries. It stinks.
Journalism suffers.
Dateline aired its story (see below) two days ago, on Friday night.
Not a peep from Sheriff DAVID BERNARD SHOAR, or his supporters, or the St. Augustine Record since the NBC News Dateline story aired.
Not one word.
Not one story.
Not one comment.
Wonder why?
Are they waiting for instructions from lawyer JON KANEY?
From the DAVIS FAMILY?
From the crooked developers who own and control SHOAR?
From the corrupt Republican Governor, RICHARD SCOTT?
The simple palpitating truth of the matter is that seven year old Alexis O'Connell is spending her fourth Easter Sunday without her mother, Michelle O'Connell, and without answers from any independent law enforcement agency with integrity or courage.
Why?
Because political corruption has been allowed to fester in St. Johns County for longer than anyone can remember.
Because our Sheriff's office, State's Attorney's offices and Medical Examiner are politicized, unprofessional and appear utterly corrupt.
Because one-party rule -- first by segregationist Democrats and now by tree-killing, wetland-filling developer-directed Republicans -- has made St. Johns County a stench in the nostrils of the entire Nation.
Christians ask, "What would Jesus do?" (WWJD?).
I seem to recall Jesus chasing the money-changers out of the Temple.
We must chase the Temple Destroyers (in John Muir's words about those who destroy nature and beauty).
We must chase the Temple Destroyers and win a National Park and Seashore to protect what we love about this place -- current state parks, forests, water management district lands and beaches threatened by foreign-funded "developers."
(Even Sheriff SHOAR supports the Park and Seashore and says it is a "no-brainer."
We must chase the wicked money-changers out of the Temple of Democracy, for as William Jennings Bryan said, "You shall not crucify mankind on a Cross of Gold."
The whole world is watching.
The whole world is watching the developers' henchmen, DAVID BERNARD SHOAR.
Those of us who did not speak out -- and who have not yet spoken out -- would do well to remember the immortal words of Pastor Martin Niemoller, about the Nazis: "First they came after the Jews. I was not a Jew, so I did not object. Then they came after the Catholics. I was not a Catholic, so I did not object. Then they came after the trade unionists. I was not a trade unionist, so I did not object. And then they came after me. And there was no one left to object."
Too many people of faith in St. Johns County -- including too many clergypeople --say nothing about corruption.
I reckon they think it's bad for business, bad for tithing.
For 8000 years, religious leaders have demanded 10%.
If religious leaders offend the powerful, they don't contribute money.
That is why South African clergymen re-wrote the Bible ("I am suntanned but I am comely") to appease successive Apartheid governments.
That is why antebellum Southern ministers (and even a few Catholic bishops, like one here in St. Augustine) preached that God approved of slavery.
That is why Coal Company Town ministers preached against unions.
Too many putative clergymen and clergywomen here in St. Johns County are lacking in integrity.
Too many don't support civil rights.
Too many won't speak out against injustice.
Too many endorse bigoted, right-wing candidates from pulpits.
Too many airily act as if Jesus would have voted Republican.
The theological term for that self-delusional belief is heresy, or "idolatry that practices human sacrifice," in Abraham Lincoln's words.
Too many preach anti-Gay bigotry from pulpits.
Too many clergypeople shamelessly, promiscuously participate with Sheriff DAVID BERNARD SHOAR in "The Marketplace," which actually promotes illegal violations of the First Amendment Establishment Clause -- proslytizing in government workplaces.
Thus, these clergypeople overlook Sheriff SHOAR's and his St. Johns County political machine's torts, sins and crimes against humanity, their human rights violations, their waste, fraud, abuse, misfeasance, malfeasance, nonfeasance, their flummery, dupery and nincompoopery.
Shame on them.
Shame on us for supporting them.
Shame on all of us -- every single one of us -- who remains silent today.
When I moved here in 1999, I had no idea that St. Johns County was corrupt. I quickly learned it was crooked as a dog's hind leg.
I was wrong.
I looked deeper.
I listened to people.
I read documents.
I watched meetings on cable TV.
Finally, I went to meetings.
Upon further research and reflection, I determined that it was as crooked as a barrel full of snakes.
Political corruption is epidemic in America today.
Most of us do nothing about it.
Most of us think we can't do anything.
Most of us think we are powerless.
Therefore, we are powerless, thinking it so.
Most of us are told "You Can't Fight City Hall" as children.
Most of us believe such trashy trite tropes.
Most of us don't take time to attend government meetings, or study issues.
Most of us are disempowered, thinking if we stand up against corruption and oppression, we'll get arrested, killed, fired, evicted, declared insane, run out of town on a rail, eaten by lions (or lose friends, who are afraid of those things happening to them).
Most of us are cowardly lions, rarely using our God-given talents.
Most of us are afraid of change.
Most of us are afraid of being advocates for change.
Most of us are afraid -- very afraid -- of government, any government, particularly since 9/11.
Most of us fear disapproval of our friends, peers, coworkers and bosses.
Most of us today are fearing our shadows, doing nothing to stand up for human rights, doing nothing to speak out against great evil.
Then we die.
As Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said "Our lives begin to end that day when we stop caring" and speaking out "about things that matter."
Senator Robert Francis Kennedy said on Affirmation Day at the University of Cape Town in South Africa on June 6, 1966, "Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation. .... It is from numberless diverse acts of history and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, they send forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples form a current that will wipe out the mightiest walls of oppresion and resistance."
Before September 2, 2010, most, if not all of us here knew that St. Johns County was corrupt.
Until the O'Connell case, we all thought that it was "merely" financial.
No-show jobs.
No-bid contracts.
Bid-rigging.
Cronyism.
Bribery.
"Routine rottenness," as DA James Nelson Ramsey used to call it in East Tennessee.
Then Sheriff DAVID BERNARD SHOAR's mishandling of Michelle O'Connell's case shows that the stakes are far bigger.
Lives are at stake.
Our lives are in danger.
There are deputies carrying guns who should be disarmed and prosecuted.
People are being killed in questionable circumstances.
Coverups are commonplace. Every single day there seems to be another one.
Our out-of-control St. Johns County Sherff's deputies kill far too many people without all of the facts being disclosed.
Our lazy lapdog State's Attorney, RALPH JOSEPH LARIZZA, has incurious, inept, incompetent assistants who take Sheriff's Deputies at their word.
Lazy lapdog LARIZZA was twice elected based on support from Sheriff's and deputies, and re-elected based upon his "conviction rate."
Why should we care? Because LARIZZA keeps the conviction rate high by artificial means: he won't risk his "conviction rate" going down a point or two by bringing any case likely to have a well-funded defense attorney.
Lazy lapdog LARIZZZA refuses to prosecute government wrongdoers or white collar crimes. Color him colorless, an accomplice.
His business plan is to pick on easy cases, not bring tough ones.
He won't challenge authority.
He won't bring Sunshine and Open Records lawsuits.
He took a dive on the shooting of Michelle O'Connell.
What a lugubrious goober.
He refused to talk to The New York Times or PBS Dateline.
He has the right to remain silent, but we wish he wouldn't.
In the truest sense, because we all remained silent for so long, Michelle O'Connell died because of our sins.
Sins of omission.
Sins of commission.
Sins of "let George do it."
Sins of "I can't change anything."
Sins of "I've got to go to my kids' ballgame."
Sins of "I've got to watch TV."
Sins of "let's party, for tomorrow we die!"
Irrational fear.
Avoidance.
Avoidance of thinking.
Avoidance of learning.
Avoidance of working.
Avoidance of speaking out against injustice.
Avoidance of disapproval from one's friends, customers, clients, family or clergypeople.
Simple refusal to do our jobs as good citizens.
Failure to do what our Founding Fathers intended.
Failure to "own" our own governments, to make suggestions, to make contributions to progress, and to hold them accountable when they muck up.
Thinking of government as if it were a "they" instead of as "We, the People."
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing," and to remain silent, a quote that was attributed (by JFK before the Canadian Parliament in 1961) to Edmund Burke, the conservative English Parliamentarian of the 18th century.
Political philosopher John Stuart Mill said in 1867, "Bad people need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good people should loook on and do nothing."
It has now been some 1325 days since Michelle O'Connell was killed.
Ask questions.
Demand answers.
We want the truth!
We want sworn witnesses testifying before a federal grand jury pursuant to Rule 6 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.
Nothing less will do.
Justice for Michelle O'Connell.
Now.
As President Lyndon Baines Johnson told Congress after Selma: "We SHALL overcome!"
Justice for Michelle O'Connell.
Ed Slavin
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
904-377-4998